Takes place at the very beginning of DragonHeart.

Her feet clicked on the stone as she walked. Three clawed feet. She wore heavy chainmail, feeling like all her problems were the chainmail, dragging her down, cold, hard, impenetrable.

Once upon a time her kind had been somewhat peaceful. They had lived all over Eisildor, being the only race there. They used to call Eisildor Coshtil as that meant home in their language. The name was soon changed to Eisildor, meaning star, or light in the Elven language. With the coming of the other races, the Zorg had been forced to retreat to the volcano when the others started arriving. At first the land around the volcano had been the most prosperous spot on Eisildor, but no one dared go there because of the smoking looming threat above. But the Zorg were forced. The others were taking up too much of the personal space the Zorg used to love. For a while, life under the volcano was good. Until the day the volcano wreaked It's vengence on the land and spewed ash and lava for miles, killing everything. Ghirhar, the Zorg called that day. The day of death. Only handfuls of the Zorg were able to survive, and afterwards, they struggled to continue their life. They were wrecked, and someone had to pay. They wanted their land back, so the only way was to topple the empire of other races who had stolen their land in the first place, starting at the very top. The Dragons.

She turned a corner in the hallway, grumbling. It was sweltering even then, at the butt-crack of dawn, and full armor didn't help. She had to wear it though, she needed it for work.

She came up to a solid steel door. She opened a small circular door at eye level in the wall next to it and waited as the sensor inside scanned her face, recognized that she was, indeed, a Zorg and not a pink unicorn with wings trying to steal all their secrets, and opened the door with a screech.

She stepped inside and made her way down the hallway of cells. She averted her eyes from the bars on the cells, she didn't like looking at the prisoners, didn't like feeling pity.

The Zorg prisons were arranged in a large X in the middle of their compound. Four hallways lined with cells met at the center, the center being the control room. In the control room, they had eyes on every single cell, every single prisoner. They could also open and close the doors of each cell from there. The Gulgogoth's chamber rested above the prisons, concealing them from outside view.

She reached the control room and knocked on the giant steel door. A panel immediately slid open and a single black eye looked her up and down.

"Geiried," the Zorg behind the door said.

Geiried nodded, "Sssmoak."

The door opened with a screech and she stepped inside to briefly hug Smoak. This was the only time she got to see him during the day, as he left the control room and she came. They had been together for nearly a year now, hanging on to the relationship even through loss, both of them moving jobs, and schedule changes. There were only three other Zorg in the room, but they were focused on other things.

"I'll sssee you tonight, right?" Smoak asked her, speaking in the Zorg language like every Zorg did when only Zorg were around.

She nodded, looking into his eye. "Assssuming my ssshift getsss out in time. I will try."

Smoak nodded and broke away from their hug. He left, the steel door crashing shut behind him. She had a horrible feeling that she'd never see him again.

She turned to the other three Zorg in the room. She put on a tougher face and strode up to one of them looking at the large screens on one side of the room. The Zorg there was rather small but was known to be one of the most ferocious Zorg out there and was one of the Gulgogoth's most trusted generals.

"General Hel," Geiried said, going to stand next to her, "I didn't know you were placed on thisss ssshift."

"Lassst minute order from Roan," Hel answered, not looking up. The audacity she had to use just the Gulgogoth's name on it's own. She'd never do it in front of the Gulgogoth himself. "I am to oversssee our prisssoner."

"Our prisoner," meaning the one Dragon they had been running testing on lately. His human form was rather small and shrimpy, with some of the fluffiest dark blonde hair she'd ever seen. His brown eyes and an angular face, and if she had to guess his age she'd say late teens, although dragon and human years were different than Zorg years. He was a child, by Zorg standards. For the first few days in prison he had yelled and screamed at the Zorg, but now as she looked at the screen which showed inside his room, he sat against a wall, his knees drawn to his chest, unmoving.

"Sssend the guardsss to give him the ssserum and bring him to me," Hel ordered to one of the other Zorg in the room. The guard in question gave a curt nod and disappeared out a different door.

They waited in silence that seemed to cut like a knife.

The guards appeared in the camera. Hel pressed a button and the door to the Dragon's cell opened, letting the guards in. They stabbed a needle into his limp arm, giving him the serum and then dragged him away, back toward them.

Geiried shuddered. She hated the serum, it had been in the works for months and was horrible stuff but they had to figure out how to control the dragons somehow, even if it meant doing....this.

The steel door opened again with a shriek and the guards stomped in, dragging the Dragon along with them.

Geiried and Hel followed the guards as they dragged the Dragon back further into the control room, leaving the other few Zorg behind. They took him into the testing room, a grey stone room, dimly lit, closed off by a steel door. They stood at a large glass wall, looking into the room.

The guards left the stone room after leaving the prisoner in a heap on the ground. He was groggier than usual that day, as his shifting day had been the day before. He was a Fiware, and couldn't control when he shifted

They stood there in cold silence again, watching as the prisoner slowly became more alert, the effects of the serum working.

"Do you think they've got the ssserum perfected yet?" Geiried asked to break the silence.

Hel's face stayed completely expressionless. "We ssshall sssee."

Slowly the Dragon stood. His eyes were wide and he shook his head several times as if to clear it.

"Where am I," the Dragon asked. Hel's eyes widened, he had never asked that before, he had only passed out or mumbled some gibberish before he fell over.

"You are in the Zorg prissson," Hel said, barely keeping the glee out of her voice, "and you are going to help usss."

"Why?" the Dragon mumbled, swaying. This was the longest he'd stayed awake yet.

"Becaussse," Hel hissed, "we need you to take control of the Dragons for us, so we can end them for good."

"What's in it... for me?" He asked.

Hel laughed. "Richesss, peace, freedom from the Dragonsss, and a family if you want it."

Geried winced. She and Hel both knew perfectly well that they'd use the Dragon, then discard him with the rest of his race.

The Dragon thought for a second. "Aren't I... a Dragon?"

Hel shook her head even though the Dragon wasn't looking. "Not anymore," she said sweetly, "you're with usss now."

The Dragon swayed again and fell to his knees. Hel cursed. "No, the ssserum has to keep working, we can't afford to keep refining it."

The Dragon slumped forward, unconscious. Hel cursed again, banging on the glass.

"It'sss alright," Geiried tried to reassure her, "we'll improve it again and then it'll work."

Hel turned her back on the room as the guards entered it to take the Dragon out. She crossed her arms over her chest. "It had better work next time or sssomeone will have to pay."

Geiried nodded, her chest tight.

The guards exited the side room carrying the Dragon between them.

"General," the one on the left said, addressing Hel, "I don't think we can continue testing on this Dragon, he is too weak and will sssurely die if we try again."

Hel growled. "We will continue tesssting on thisss one until he is of no ussse to usss," she said, "in the meantime, get a sssquadron out to sssearch for another Dragon. We can't ussse any of our current prisonersss as we need sssomeone on the inside, a Dragon the other Dragonsss care about and will follow."

The guard nodded. "Which squadron shall we send out?"

"Hmm," Hel said, thinking. She glanced at Geiried and then back at the guard. "sssend out Maum'sss sssquadron. He'sss on duty right?"

Geiried had to stop herself from squeaking aloud. Smoak is in that squadron.

The guard nodded again and left with his companion and the unconscious Dragon. Hel gave Geiried a single nod and followed them out.

Geiried stood there for a long time, staring at the empty room.

The serum still isn't working, will it ever work? Will we ever be free of this volcano?

And Smoak... I was supposed to meet him tonight. I guess that won't be happening.

Will he ever come back?

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