A discordant, crashing ring filled the air. Big Ben proclaimed midnight even as it burned. The chimes halted partway through the tune, and the sweet sounds were replaced by crashes and sparks. A siren cut through the air as aid rushed to the monument.

Angus watched the grim picture from the tiled rooftop of what had previously been the Lab. Azara stood at his side, their wings pressed together against the chill of the night. "All of those dragons..." he murmured.

"It's not your fault," Azara assured.

"But—"

"They'll be fine."

He took a deep breath. Even from here, he could smell the bitter tang of smoke on the wind. He took comfort in the steady pulse that he felt in Azara's wing. If something had happened to her... If she had been injured because of his idea...

"Angus," Azara said. "I'm fine. The others are fine. Stop worrying about it." She gave a slight grin. 

"All of your thinking is going to give me a headache."

Her smile made him want to believe it was true, that he wasn't responsible for the destruction of the Dragon Court. Yet the knowledge felt like a heavy rock inside him, refusing to go away. He had been so involved with the idea of adventure that he had put them all at risk. He had put his friends at risk. And when Big Ben blew up, he had forgotten to make sure they were all out before fleeing himself.

Azara obviously sensed his thoughts, because she wrapped her wings around him in a hug.

A moment later, golden and frosty forms cut through the dark sky and landed beside them on the rooftop. "Are you ready to enter?" Isis questioned. "We tried looking for other survivors, but they must have fled."

Frida looked weighted as well, but offered a sympathetic look. "The Queen and her court probably retreated to a hiding place. They'll be okay," she said, though it sounded as if she was saying it for herself as much as for Angus.

Angus nibbled on his lip. "I'm really sorry that I dragged you all into this."

Azara pulled away and gave him a nudge with her wing. "What did I say? Stop worrying about it."

The golden dragon peered down at the building beneath them. "So you said that there was someone hiding here who could help us? Did the queen happen to mention who?"

Frida shook her head. "She didn't have time. She went back in to... To make sure there wasn't anyone still trapped inside."

The glowing light of the distant burning clock tower drew Angus's gaze again. "I should have done that."

His answer was a fierce thwap on his shoulder. Angry silver eyes stared him down. "Stop it. You're supposed to be the one comforting us right now. Or maybe coming up with philosophical comparisons about our situation and sheep. We all decided for ourselves to do this. We are all in on this quest. And now the best way to make up for burning down Big Ben is going to involve two things: One, we see this through until Will is saved, and that starts with us entering that building. Two, you have to think something about sheep. Your mental patterns just don't sound right unless you think about sheep at least once a day."

Angus found a hint of a curve forming on his lips. "After ewe, then," he said, forcing his smile to widen.

He knew she could see right through the act. It's not like he could lie to a telempath. But Azara didn't press the topic. And she was right about at least one thing. They had to finish what they had begun.

And he had to remember that this first task wasn't nearly as hard on him as it was for Isis and Frida. As they swooped down to the pet shop entrance, where the broken glass of the storefront had been temporarily replaced with a billowing sheet of black plastic, Angus recalled that the two dragonesses had spent weeks trapped in the Lab. The stoic dragons had insisted that they had recovered from the experience, but Angus was certain that there was more to the horrific tale than they were willing to admit.

They slipped in through a hole in the plastic, and found themselves in the dark, empty pet shop. Just about everything had been removed from the building— the stray dragon-sized cage laying around gave the only evidence that the place had ever existed. He remembered being trapped in one of those very cages as the store keeper had sold Azara and himself to to Lawrence, all those weeks ago.

It seemed strange that now Lawrence was on their side, waiting for them in a hotel room nearby to return with his son. I suppose I'll have to contact Mr. Alby and ask if he can keep paying for that room...

The gray, concrete walls seemed to still emit the somber vibe of the pet store; almost like a cage of its own. "I don't like this place," Frida murmured. "We should keep going."

The rest of the party eagerly agreed, and they found their way through the shadowy dark to the door that led to the lab. In their rush to flee, the Lab people must have not bothered with hiding their tracks anymore. The wallpaper they must have used to stage the pictures of the nonexistent lab entrance during the court case lay crumpled on the stained floor.

There, dusty and gray, lay the metal door to the Lab.

"Let's go," Isis said as they all hovered, staring at it. The golden dragon swept towards the silvery handle, wrapped her talons around it, and let her wings drop. The full weight of her body made the handle slowly sag downwards, but not enough. "Help would be much appreciated," she added.

Frida dived to help, though her light weight did little to persuade the handle. Azara swiftly followed, and then Angus. The handle fell and clicked, and the door swung open.

"I suppose all those months of ice cream paid off!" Angus chuckled, detaching from the handle and catching the air with his wings.

Azara grinned. "That's the Angus we know."

It was then that they all slowly came to terms with where they were.

The dark metal hallway yawned around them in both directions. Each path seemed to lead to swirling clouds of shadow, and the multitude of unlabeled doors lining the walls provided no indication that anyone might be dwelling within.

"Is it just me, or does this place remind you of a hospital? Like, one of those really creepy hospitals where people are murdered in horror movies?" Angus said.

Azara set her jaw. "We have to find that obsidian door, remember? Let's try not to get carried away with making this place more horrifying than it already is."

"Where do we start, then? We have no light, so how are we supposed to find a black door in the dark?"

Just after he spoke, the hallway flooded with light. Frida let go of the light switch on the wall and rejoined them. "I thought some light would be good. And less exhausting than using fire," she murmured.

Isis nodded to the frosty dragon. "Thank you, Frida." She nodded towards the hall. "Now, shall we?"

Picking a random direction, they glided down the hall. Door upon unmarked door flashed past them, and as they reached more turns in the corridors, they all silently chose one way or the other. They didn't even discuss splitting up. Not here. Even with the place deserted, it was all too easy to imagine a black-suited agent jumping out from behind a door.

"This place is almost creepier when it's silent," Azara muttered. "Has anyone here even seen this obsidian door before? I mean, how do we know if it even exists?"

An image flickered in his mind— of the frantic race when he and Azara had tried to escape the place. "I— I think I've seen it before," he said. "When we were last here."

Isis nodded. "I feel like I have too. A brief glance in that storm that was our escape."

Frida seemed to shrink. "I should have asked the queen for more information. Like directions."

Before anyone could assure Frida that it wasn't her fault, a sound of clicking echoed down the hall.

Angus tensed, and he could tell that the others had as well.

Click click jingle click click jingle click click jingle.

The sound steadily grew louder, presumably growing nearer. "What do we do?" Angus whispered. "Run?"

"Fight?" Azara suggested.

"Hide?" Frida offered.

"Wait," Isis declared.

Angus furrowed his brows in confusion, but slowly Azara's eyes widened. Frida's ears twitched as she listened to the sound, and then understanding dawned on her as well.

Angus frantically beat his wings. "What is it? Why aren't we running?" He twisted his ears around, trying to figure out what it was that the dragonesses had realized.

A shadow crept across the ground from around the bend. Followed by...

A paw?

A fluffy feline padded down the hallway, tail held high. Something silvery dangled from its mouth, and its long black-and-white tuxedo fur seemed to make up most of the cat.

Like a sheep. It's a sheep cat, Angus couldn't help but think.

The cat trotted beneath them without giving them so much as an interested glance with its bright green eyes. Then it simply turned the corner and disappeared.

They all glanced at one another and simultaneously burst, "FOLLOW THAT CAT!"

Angus beat his wings, forcing them to carry him as fast as they possibly could. His muscles complained and his wings steadily grew tired, but he pushed on, darting around one corner after another, racing to keep up with the cat.

They were doing fairly well, until the cat walked through a wall.

"It didn't walk through a wall," Azara muttered, pointing an onyx talon to a silvery flap that nearly blended in with the wall. "It used a cat door."

"Yes, well, I was distracted by the whole imposing obsidian door thing," he insisted. His argument was fair— the tall, black door arched like a medieval gate, and loomed over them like portal to oblivion ready to swallow them whole.

Frida rubbed an arm with a talon. "It looks like it was built to contain some sort of... Monster."

Isis slowly nodded. "Any why so big? Why make it stand out? All of the other doors are small and identical to make sure only the lab agents can find their way around. This door is practically asking to be noticed as important."

"Maybe whoever it belonged to wasn't worried about people knowing what it was. Maybe it was meant to warn them not to enter," Azara suggested.

Angus tentatively scraped a talon across the dark material. It didn't leave a dent. "Or maybe it just didn't matter. Whatever was hiding inside, this door was meant to keep it safe. It certainly doesn't seem easy to take down. Which raises the question of, how do we get in?"

The tuxedo cat jumped back through the cat flap, empty-mouthed, and proceeded to trot back down the hall.

"Cat door," Azara answered.

"Cat door," they all agreed.

One by one they swooped down and dove through that silvery cat flap. Angus had to silence the voice in his head that told him he was about to crash into a wall of solid metal, and he couldn't help his heart from pounding in his throat. Relief surged through him as the metallic plastic bended on the impact of his horns and let him push through.

The flap catching on his wings and making him tumble to the ground once inside was far less graceful.

Isis had also fallen, and Azara and Frida proceeded to follow suite upon entering. "Okay," Angus panted, "now we need to be really really quiet, because we have no idea who it is the dragon queen sent us to see. For all we know—"

"Well hello again, dragons."

The familiarity of the voice made his blood run cold.

Angus slowly turned around and raised his head. They had landed next to a large, half-circle desk loaded with dusty machinery— and only one small television screen was on, monotony reciting the news on a low volume. A single desk lamp illuminated the room, as well as the person who reclined in the office chair with her feet crossed on the desk.

"I was wondering if you would come by and visit sometime. It does get rather lonely down here," Clara said, staring at her television screen and messily shoving a chopstick's load of chow mien into her mouth from a to-go box, not caring as stray noodles fell onto her black shirt and pants.

Angus's first instinct was to flee right back through the cat door. Yet Clara made no move to snatch them. She didn't even bother to look at them. "Well, are you going to say hello? Trust me, as much as I love them, it's a little hard to have an intelligent conversation with the cats."

"Clara," Angus growled, eyes narrowed in confusion, wings itching the fly. "What are you doing here?"

Clara pushed few stray black hairs behind an ear. It hardly made a difference. Angus didn't know if it was possible, but her hair seemed even more unkept than usual. The ponytail it was tied in hardly contained it.

Azara flashed him a glance. Yes, she seemed to say. It is definitely worse.

Which can only mean one thing, Angus thought.

"Same as you," said the agent. "I'm on a quest for the lab."

Azara tilted her head thoughtfully. "You got fired. I guess we shouldn't be surprised."

"But why are you looking for the lab?" Isis questioned.

"And why are you still... Here?" Frida added boldly.

Clara twirled a chopstick. "The questions are closely related. I'm looking for the lab because I want to get some good old-fashioned revenge on my old teammate. I'm holed up down here because it's the best place to run my operation." She pointed a chopstick at Azara. "And I wasn't fired, I resigned." She angrily shoved more food into her mouth, spilling onions all over her shirt. "They couldn't handle the genius of my methods."

"There is only madness to your methods," Azara snorted.

"What operations?" Frida put in, concern evident in her voice.

"Operation shiny things!" Clara said grandly, motioning with an arm and her chopsticks to the large room around her. All the dark walls encased was yet more broken and stripped machinery, though the multitude of plastic cat food bowls and the boxes of glinting things next to Clara's chair was not to be missed. "I've spent the last few weeks training cats to bring me expensive shiny things. As soon as I've accumulated enough, I'll be able to buy myself a ticket to the new DRACO HQ."

Azara fluttered up to one of the boxes, making Angus's stomach clench with unease. Yet still, Clara remained focused on her food and news. Azara surveyed the box. "Ninety percent of this is fake pearls and plastic spoons," she pointed out.

"Well, those things can still be useful in my plan," Clara argued.

Azara narrowed her eyes. "How so?"

Another cat trotted in through the flap. The tabby deposited a silvery plastic fork onto the pile, received a treat from Clara, and turned and hopped back through the cat door.

Clara snatched up the plastic fork and threw her chopsticks in the trash behind her. "See! Useful." She pointedly stabbed more noodles with her fork to prove her point.

Isis stepped forward. "The Dragon Queen said that you can help us."

Angus sent her a glare. "Isis, you can't seriously be considering working with this lunatic?"

The goddess inquisitively raised an eye ridge. "Do we have any other options?"

His jaw dropped. "Okay— even if she agreed to help us, you don't know her like Azara and I do. You haven't been in a mad car chase with her lobbing ice cream at you like some demented saleswoman!"

Clara twirled her fork, a grin sprouting on her lips. "Oh yes. You should all fear my ice cream-lobbing skills, little dragons. I've won three medals."

Angus slapped a talon to his forehead.

Isis, meanwhile, spread her wings and fluttered up to perch on top of the ancient television monitor. "We are looking for a child. A human child, who was kidnapped by the lab. And you are going to help us find him."

Before Angus could further protest, Clara raised an inquisitive brow and asked, "A boy? Do you mean that squirrelly kid who made me drive my car into a river? And made my life a lot harder in general?" She rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, I am oh so very inclined to help you find him out of the goodness in my heart."

Isis wasn't having it. "You are going to help us because we will help you. It's called a compromise, and here are the terms. You tell us where the lab is. You help us get there, get in, and get out with William. We get what we want, and you get your free ticket to wherever this place is hidden."

Clara frowned, chucked her Chinese box into a nearby trash can, then crossed her arms. "That sounds more like a contract than a compromise."

"How much do you want your revenge?"

The former agent tilted her head in thought. "Even so. I could agree to your terms, take my free ticket and run. You can't trust me, so how can I know that I can trust you?" Isis was ready. "I'm sure that my dear friend Azara will happily tell us if you are lying through your teeth."

Azara grinned knowingly.

Clara eyed them. "Alright. I see how it is. But I'm adding a few of my own terms." She swung her legs down from the table and switched off the monitor. "When the lab left, they took some of my... Toys with them. I want them back. Some of them are here, locked up. Some of them are at the new lab. And also while we're there, I want at least one of you to help me on my mission to leave some traps for my dear old partner. Just so that I know you won't go escaping without me." She crossed her legs as she continued. "And I'd like a little change in my quality of living. I'm expecting hotels. Room service. Chocolate. Lots of chocolate."

Angus exchanged a weary glance with the others. Isis had charged ahead, but they still had a choice to turn back. Siding with Clara could be a deadly mistake. Yet at the same time, she was their fastest option. And with William in the Lab's clutches, they couldn't afford to waste any time tracking down another source of information. For William, the risk might just be necessary. Even if it meant working with the woman that had nearly killed Azara and him on numerous occasions.

And so Angus nodded to Azara.

Azara nodded to Frida.

Frida nodded to Isis.

Isis turned to Clara. "We accept your terms."

~~~~~

Clara returns! What do you make of this? Should the dragons trust her? Please remember to comment your thoughts and vote if you liked!