Series: On Dragon's Wings||Title: Proper Behavior||Chapter: Rescue
Characters: Mizael, Alit, & Leonius
Chapters: 7-8||Words: 1,767||Total: 11,460
Genre: Friendship||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Diversity Writing, YGO Zexal Aus, section I10, multichap with exactly 8 chapters
Notes: This takes place in the same world as Ring The Dinner Bell, Face of Death, and Diamond of the North, and occurs after Mizael left Vector's kingdom.
Summary: Mizael's evening rest is interrupted by two strangers who think they've seen a dragon. Really. A dragon. How silly.

Alit examined the building, more to look as if he knew what he was doing than anything else. He was a gladiator, not a builder or a designer of buildings. But Leo wanted his opinion, so he would do his best to give it.

"I think it should just be torn down and something new put up there," Alit said finally. "I don't think it can just be fixed up."

The Emperor took a look at it himself. Alit knew very well that he wasn't any more of a building architect than Alit himself was, but he tried anyway. He felt it was his responsibility.

"You may be right," he said at last, taking a few quiet steps forward. The building itself had seen better days, but those had to have been the days of Leo's great-grandfather. The people of Spartan City were very good builders and what they made tended to last for quite a while.

But whoever had built this building hadn't done his best work. The walls sagged toward one another, grass poked up between the stones of the floor, and there were holes in the roof with space enough for a large bird to fly through. Places built around the same time didn't have that problem. But this one had remained untenanted for at least thirty or forty years. That did not make matters any better.

"What do you think we should put here, then?"

The last owner of the ruin had died recently and left no heirs behind. By the laws of Spartan City, that meant the property now belonged to the crown, which meant that Leo, or someone he delegated, now had to decide what to do with it. The main reason he'd come out here personally instead of assigning someone to do it was one that Alit knew he wasn't going to admit to anyone else: he was bored. Their sparring sessions remained incredibly fun, but there were only so many times in the day that they could punch and strike at one another.

Well, that was what Leo said. Alit didn't entirely believe that. Still, getting out into the city was a good way to spend some time.

Thinking of Leo's question, Alit's eyes glimmered with hints of mischief. "Why not a bathhouse? There aren't any around here, are there?" If there was one thing Alit loved aside from fighting against Leo, it was a good hot bath. There could always be more public bathhouses, in his opinion.

Leo made a noncommittal noise and moved closer to the ruin, looking it up and down. A few pieces of stone, not quite rubble but on their way to being it, dropped down from the roof, dislodged by strong gusts of wind. Alit glanced upward and frowned.

"Storm's coming in," he said, recognizing the dark swirls of clouds. "We should get back inside." They'd taken advantage of a rare bright afternoon for the season, an afternoon that was no longer quite so bright. The sooner they got out of the reach of the weather, the better.

None of them had taken more than half a dozen steps before it was all but impossible to see the sky, let alone more than a half dozen paces in front of them. Alit flailed around, a shock of cold racing through him at a sudden realization.

Leo? Where's Leo? He couldn't see his lover anywhere. Winds blew, sending trash and leaves swirling through the streets. Some of the guards stumbled by, but none of them looked as if they had any more idea of where the Emperor was than Alit did.

"Leo! Leo!" Alit tried to yell, but the wind snatched his voice from his throat. Worse than that, it brought another sound to his ears: stone grinding against stone, some falling and crashing against the ground.

And then one more, a voice that should've eased his worry and didn't: "Alit! Alit!" Leo's voice, but not close enough for Alit to see him.

The wind blew even harder and brought with it now a cold blast of rain. Winter storms could and did cause massive amounts of damage, and frequently blew up just like this. Every other time, Alit and Leo and everyone else had been safely indoors somewhere, out of reach of any kind of danger.

Now Alit couldn't find Leo and only had a thin voice to follow. He stumbled a few times, trying to figure out where the other was, then froze at a loud crash, one that shook the ground underneath him as if it had been hit by a giant's fist.

"Leo! Leo!" Fear like none he'd experienced in the arena cemented itself inside of Alit. He tried to tell himself that it was nothing; whatever had happened, it hadn't hurt Leo. It couldn't hurt Leo. Alit wasn't going to let it hurt Leo.

He pushed his way forward through the pouring rain, his feet slipping on the soaked cobblestones. Alit's hair plastered against the back of his neck and against his forehead, rain running down into his eyes. None of that helped him figure out where Leo was.

"Leo! Leo! Leo!"

Mizael soared above the clouds, wings spread wide, thoroughly enjoying himself. He'd recently acquired a very nice addition to his hoard and all he'd had to do to claim it was get rid of a ship full of pirates. Doing so had brought him into contact with V again, still under his curse sadly, but it had been an interesting encounter. He'd also met V's brother, going by the name of III – which was no more his true name than V's was his – and that had been an interesting encounter all by itself. It seemed there was little the younger boy didn't know about treasure and artifacts and they'd had many a splendid discussion about some of the items that now rested in Mizael's hoard.

He poked his head down through the cloudcover to judge how far he'd traveled. Is that Spartan City? He slid down a little farther, the winds buffeting him here and there, but he easily mastered them. There were few winds born that could knock a dragon out of the sky on their own. It is. I didn't know I was this close.

It had been over a year since he'd been 'exiled' from there and he hadn't ended up giving the place that much thought since then. He would like to know Alit better, but aside from that, and from wanting that vase that was part of his hoard, it meant little too him.

The winds were already dying as he sailed onwards. One last gasp brought a familiar voice, thin and almost unhearable at this height, if he weren't a dragon.

"Leo! Leo!" Harsh and broken, tear-choked and from a throat too dry to speak but unable not to. Alit's voice.

Banishments and exiles meant something only to humans. Mizael tilted himself downward and in the space of heartbeats, hovered over the city. By now the rain and wind faded away, the clouds slowly beginning to disperse. There were people scattered throughout the city, some of them screaming in fear at the sight of a stooping dragon. Mizael ignored them, coursing back and forth until he located Alit.

"Alit!" He changed in a moment, landing next to the gladiator. "What happened?" He had heard the pain in Alit's voice. If it was something he could fix, he would.

Landing next to Alit perhaps wasn't the best idea, since he had to dodge a thrown piece of masonry moments later. Mizael took in what was going on quickly. They stood next to what must have once been a building, but now was little more than a pile of rocks and rubble. Guards surrounded it, trying to get more of the ruins moved out of the way.

When Mizael spoke, Alit whirled around, another piece in his hands, and stared. His eyes widened as he took a step forward. "Leo's underneath there. He's alive; we heard him, but he can't get out."

Mizael turned his attention toward the ruin, taking it all in. Then he nodded. "Get back. Get everyone back."

The closest guard stared at him, frowning. "The sorcerers are coming to clear this. We don't need your help, dragon." He rested a hand on his swordhilt. "Dragon who should be in exile."

"We can argue about that another day," Alit snapped, shoving the guard out of the way and stepping back himself, waving for the others to do the same. As soon as there was enough room, Mizael shifted back to his proper form and leaned in, getting a good whiff of the area so he could pin down where the Emperor was.

"Leo!" Alit cupped his hands around his mouth and called out carefully. "Leo, Mizael is here and he's going to get you out of there! Be careful!"

Whether he meant that for Mizael or Leo, the dragon didn't know. But now he knew just where the Emperor was. He couldn't see all of the details, but the way the scent hung told him where he was, and he could see how the collapsed building kept him pinned in there. He set one claw on the nearest slab of rock, heavy enough that two or three humans probably could've moved it only with difficulty, and yanked it off. More rubble fell down, but that only helped to clear the way. He pushed a second slab, a little smaller but thicker, off in another direction. Every move he made he did with the purpose of clearing a very specific area of the rubble.

And then he shoved another piece off, and a glancing sunbeam struck a dusty head of hair. Emperor Leonius coughed and hacked, lifting his head up and looking around. There were a dozen wounds visible on his head, neck, and shoulders, though none of them appeared life-threatening, not even the ones that oozed out blood.

Alit stood by him in seconds, carefully helping to get the rest of the ruins off of him. "Leo! Don't move; we should wait for the sorcerers to make sure you're not too hurt."

"I'm all right," the Emperor murmured, shifting up a little, even when Alit tried to get him to stay still.

"Thank the kind fates you are," Alit said, leaning in closer. He turned toward Mizael and started to open his mouth, when the guard who'd protested Mizael's involvement stepped forward.

"Dragon Mizael," he declared in the most pompous voice possible, "you are under arrest for violating your exile."

To Be Continued

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