This chapter is dedicated to Badly-knitted and PCJanto for their wonderful reviews and support. Thank you to everyone who is reading this.

Warning: Death of a character.

Oh, I hope you won't be disappointed… *wrings hands nervously*

Chapter 17 When dragons do battle

They both flinched violently at the sound of the laughter and turned to see the man causing it. Warwyn gasped loudly.

"Lartorc!" it shivered with fear and clung to Orion for protection. Orion growled deep in his throat, feeling a feral instinct rise up in him, that he had only felt once; when he had rescued Warwyn. This was the first time he could remember being face to face with the man and knew him only by his reputation and mental images from Warwyn. This was the man that had hurt his mate; who had sold his own family to a slow painful death; who had murdered Orion's mother and siblings; who had infected a whole city's worth of children with a disease and had stolen 161 million people from Earth - just to get to him.

Lartorc laughed loudly again. The obnoxious cackle made the nerves in Warwyn's teeth stand on end. The man himself was rather unremarkable to look at. Medium height, medium built, dark hair and dark eyes. What made him hideous were the menace and the madness emanating from him. There was a wild, unpredictable look in those dark eyes, which was unsettling to behold.

"Well isn't this precious! Little Warwyn back from the dead." He said tauntingly. Warwyn drew even closer to Orion. "How's your parents, pet?" he asked, his voice dripping with scorn. Orion growled furiously, sounding almost like his lion form, though he was human right now. Only Warwyn's clinging kept him from charging. Lartorc glared at Orion.

"Ah, the cheater's spawn. Don't you threaten me, filth. You're not big enough to take me on." Orion growled deeply again, threatening the man. "Let's get rid of the trash, shall we?" With a subtle move of his hand he made the ground tremble and open. Jack's temporarily dead body slid into a fresh hole and the soil covered him up. Orion and Warwyn had to leap out of the way, so as not to be caught in the earth movement. Jack was gone before they knew it.

"No!" Warwyn shouted, but remained attached to Orion's arm, cowering. Orion focused on Lartorc, trying to spot weaknesses and finding a way to kill him. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind, that he wanted this sorry excuse for a person dead. Lartorc smiled menacingly.

"Yes." He said gleefully. "Now I must say that I am quite pleased with finally catching up with you, scum. I've been trying to kill you for so long now; it's almost become a lifestyle." He laughed.

"Proves you're incompetent as well as crazy." Orion said calmly. Lartorc glared at him.

"You need to learn how to speak to your betters. You are nothing but a piece of garbage feeding dragon filth." With that he pointed his hand toward Warwyn and a stream of golden energy burst out and flew straight at Warwyn. It hid the young Micurii'an and sent it to the ground screaming in pain. Orion's feral instinct flared and – ignoring the pain in the bond – he said threateningly:

"Oh you have no idea." He transformed into his dragon form and stood looming over the man. Lartorc's eyes widened upon seeing a truly massive dragon in front of him. The only dragons he had seen until then had been tiny, rodent sized ones. Then he smiled slowly and changed. He assumed the form of a dragon, similar to Orion's but of a different species. His was fiery red and purple with bluish dorsal spikes all along the spine. Orion's dragon form was bronze-brown with purple highlights and was sleek and streamlined without spikes. It was muscular body and made for flying. Orion drew in a deep breath and blew flames at the other. A small part of him cheered inside when the flames came out, remembering his failure earlier when they had just arrived on this world.

Lartorc just laughed and didn't even move out of the way. The flames hadn't been powerful enough to cause any harm to him. Orion charged him angrily, but the moment his claws impacted with the other dragon, he was flung away by its powerful tail. He landed heavily on the burnt ground. Then Lartorc blew his flames at him. They where white hot and Orion could feel his scales melting under the fierce heat. He screamed in pain.

Then there was a loud yell from Warwyn and a rain of stones were telekinetically pelted at their adversary. Lartorc broke off his attack when a particularly large stone hit him in the eye. He roared and sent a flame in Warwyn's direction. The adolescent dove for cover, unscathed. Orion used the distraction to attack again. His teeth pierced the soft scales of Lartorc's neck and he grabbled with the dragon to get a good hold with his clawed front paws. The man struggled and managed to claw Orion. Lartorc then used his strong tail to wrap around Orion's hind legs, bringing him down on the ground. Orion growled and bit down harder, but the man managed to get free of the teeth. Lartorc roared angrily and bit Orion in a series of bites. His jaws were not as strong as Orion's; designed for quick bites, rather than a strong hold.

Orion struggled, yelled a battle cry and finally managed to free himself from the tail holding him trapped. With renewed fury he kicked at the other in a cat-like fashion, relishing in the fact that each kick sliced through the scales of the dragon's soft belly. They rolled around on the ground, literally kicking and screaming. At one point they almost rolled over Warwyn, who narrowly avoided them. Warwyn had been busy trying to unearth the buried body of the Captain.

Orion used his flames again and blew it straight into the face of the other dragon. Lartorc snarled angrily, but didn't stop his attack. Orion then tried using his tail as a whip; leaving an angry mark on the upper hind leg of his opponent. He did it again and again. Lartorc screamed in fury and used his own tail to pound Orion into the ground. Orion gasped for breath. His tail was by no means weak, but Lartorc's was more powerful. It had felt as if he had been hit by a sledgehammer. Lartorc tried again, but this time Orion was ready and rolled closer to Lartorc. The tail thumped heavily into the ground, leaving a deep impression in the ground.

Orion saw his chance then. Lartorc's front paw was right in front of him. Without a moments hesitation he chomped down on the wrist, severing the paw from the arm. Lartorc roared in pain, but Orion was merciless. He bit down on the other wrist as well, tearing that limb off as well. He kicked with his hind legs, mauling the now weakened dragon in front of him. The man still struggled, but was growing feebler by the minute. The blood was gushing all over the place, covering them both and the surrounding area.

Soon Orion had the other dragon in a neck hold in proper dragons fashion; Orion was biting the back of the others neck forcing him to submit. After a bit more struggling Lartorc surrendered. Orion bit down a bit more, just to prove his victory and then let go. He backed away a few paces, panting to catch his breath. He was bleeding badly himself, he had second and third degree burns and he was sure some of the claw marks would need stitches. He took his eyes off Lartorc for a second, to see how Warwyn was doing. Next thing he knew he was being attacked by Lartorc again, who had transformed himself to get new temporary front paws. The attack bore the signs of being an act of desperation; a last ditch all out attempt to kill him. The impact knocked the air out of his already starving lungs and they rolled over a few times, biting and clawing at each other furiously.

Orion hadn't been aware of how close they had been to the edge of the Ravine, but suddenly they were tumbling over the edge and falling. Lartorc was still clawing and biting at him as they were falling and he had no choice to do the same. Lartorc had wrapped his tail around Orion's body, preventing him from disengaging and Jumping.

Orion's eyes widened as he saw the bottom of the Ravine rapidly approaching. It was a 300 meter drop, which wasn't really much at all, when you were unable to stop plummeting. They rolled around in the air, still falling. He had to do something. Now! In a last desperate move Orion changed from dragon to human, thus becoming small enough to slip free of Lartorc's grip. He Jumped away just moments before Lartorc's dragon body hit the bottom of the Ravine with a sickening thump. Orion appeared some ten meters away and instantly changed into dragon form again; ready for another attack.

Lartorc changed back into his Micurii'an body, which was bleeding profusely from the two arms Orion had dismembered. His breathing was shallow and rapid. It was clear he was badly injured. Orion carefully stepped closer; wary of another attack. When one didn't seem forthcoming, he changed back into his human form and stepped up to the wrecked body on the ground. He knelt down and grabbed the man by the hair.

"Why?" he said, his voice full of venom. Lartorc smiled a cruel but tired smile.

"Because." He whispered and coughed up a bit of blood. Orion picked up a stone and held it threateningly over the man's head.

"Tell me!" he growled. Lartorc chuckled soundlessly. The mad look in his eyes was still very much there.

"No." he answered with menacing smile and a taunting glare. Orion roared in angry frustration and moved to pound the man's face in with the stone, but a hand on his arm stopped him. Warwyn.

"Don't." it whispered in his ear. "It's what he wants'." It looked down at the man, scowling as if it saw something distasteful. Louder than before it said: "He doesn't deserve such mercy."

Slowly Orion relented. He dropped the man's head – with an angry move that made the man's head bounce once of the stone covered ground - and flung the rock away from his hand. With a tired sigh he rose to his feet and put an arm around his mate. Together they began walking away.

"Don't… don't you walk away from me." Lartorc cried feebly. "Come back here, filthy half-breed, you traitorous son of a cheating whore. Your mother squealed like a Tyroon when I killed her." Lartorc was weakly trying to sit up, supporting himself on his elbows. When he saw them still walking away, as if he no longer mattered, the final vestige of sanity snapped and fled from his broken mind. He laughed maniacally.

"That's right. Run! I'll only follow you. Where ever you go. Where ever you hide. I'll always find you." Then he sent a telekinetic push after them, knocking them off their feet. Orion let out a cry of pain as a rock struck his already injured side. Warwyn gasped, before quickly turning around, sitting up and firing Jack's gun straight at Lartorc.

The sound of the shot reverberated among the walls of the Ravine and the bullet soon hit him in the chest. A moment later another shot sounded and Lartorc's head practically exploded as the beam from the blaster impacted. The corpse fell in a heap on the ground. Warwyn looked up and saw a rather bedraggled Ianto, still pointing the blaster at Lartorc.

xxXxx

Ianto was soaking wet, his clothes were torn in places and his hands were dripping blood. He would later tell them how he had climbed down the sheer cliff face of the Ravine and forded the river only to have a pair of battling dragons fall down into the Ravine near him. He had raced to the scene as soon as he saw Orion in human form and arrived just in time to make absolutely sure the madman would be dead.

"Are you two alright?" he yelled frantically as he approached.

"I'm fine." Warwyn said as Orion was shaking his head no.

Warwyn looked from father to son. Both were rather worse for wear, with injuries that needed to be treated. They also had to get up to the blast site again and unbury the other father and see if they could find out what had happened to Rea and Xarion. The cockpit part of the transport seemed structurally intact and there was a chance they might have been there when the explosion occurred.

"Can you fly?" Ianto asked Orion. "We need to get up stairs." Orion changed into his dragon form again and tried out his wings. His awful cringe of pain gave an obvious answer. He changed back into human and looked very apologetic. Ianto put his hand on his son's shoulder, regretting it when the youth flinched away in pain.

"That's okay, Love. You've done enough. Jump back to the cave and get some rest. We'll handle it from here."

"No! I want to help. I need to h..help." He started swaying a little unsteadily. Warwyn put out a hand to steady him. Ianto was about to protest, when Warwyn spoke.

"Ziwa, please go to the cave." It looked at him imploringly. Orion looked into its eyes, wanting to protest. "Please… I don't want you to pass out again like you did before." Ianto looked from one to the other, marvelling at the easy rapport they seemed to have.

"But…"

"Please." Orion looked at his pleading mate and felt a moment's annoyance at being manipulated, but he knew he couldn't say no to his Zuuva like this.

"Okay." He said quietly. Warwyn smiled warmly and stood on tip toes and kissed him. The kiss lasted only a few moments but was long enough to be more then a peck, but not too long for it to become awkward. They broke away and Orion cupped Warwyn's cheek briefly while they smiled softly at each other. Then he took a step back and Jumped. Warwyn became aware of Orion's father looking at it with a peculiar look in his eyes. It blushed.

"Let's get to it." it said.

I hate it when my characters refuse to do as I want them to. Lartorc was supposed to have a longer 'I'm an evil madman'-moment, but Orion decided to ignore me and attack him early. And it was always going to be Ianto who'd kill Lartorc, but Warwyn just had to take a shot at it too. Oh well, maybe it works better this way.

So, not too disappointed, I hope?