"Let. Me. Go." 

Some days, Chibi really did wonder where people got the idea that Gao had a brain cell. In Buddyfight, sure, he can get behind that. He knew that Gao was one of the top Buddyfighters. He was the best in the world; his trophy for the WBC proved it. 

But when it came to people he cared for? All reason went out the window. Stories from Drum and Bal were enough to tell him that Mikado Gao did NOT use the brain he had outside of martial arts and Buddyfighting. 

Right now proved to be the prime example as he and the others struggled to keep Gao from going over to hug Ashes. They couldn't risk blowing their cover! Man, was this kid strong! He was only 13 for crying out loud! 

"No can do, brat! You're gonna kill someone at the rate you're going!" Batzz snapped. 

"But Ashes-" 

"Ashes needs some time alone with her father, Gao! You can't rush this! He's her only remaining birth family!" Drum added. 

THAT seemed to make him pause, and the struggling ceased as he took in a quiet breath. They were right. He couldn't rush this. He had to think for Ashes. Sure he knew it was okay to be selfish nowadays, but it didn't mean that he could force his opinion onto others. 

(He had already done that as Umbra Gao. He had caused enough damage. If he had just been more attentive during Ayumi and Tasuku-senpai's fight...!)

"Gao, don't even think about it!" Drum glared at him, startling him as he realised he had spaced out, but his expression must have given away his thought process. 

Batzz huffed. "Brat, you are so insufferable some days, but it doesn't mean that you should keep beating yourself up for what happened with Fujin and Fukushima. No one blames them, and no one blames you. If anything, Yamazaki made it worse and Kaballa was just some sort of puppet to the one who killed Yamazaki. It's not your fault stuff like this happens." 

Gao couldn't help but sheepishly smile at that. Batzz did bring up good points, didn't he? "You... have a point there, I suppose." 

"Good! Now stop moping so we can keep an eye on A-" 

"SHE'S GONE BAL!!" Bal suddenly yelped, having turned around for a while to realise that the throne room was now empty sans them. 

And of course, THAT snapped everyone back to attention. 

"SHE'S WHAT?!" Drum looked like he was about to have an aneurysm (if Buddy Monsters could even have those!) on the spot. Not his daughter! 

"We have to find her!" Gao yelled. None of them disagreed as they rushed out of the throne room, worry spiking in their minds. Oh, Ashes...! How could the youngest of them worry them so much!? 

But just as they were about to rush out, they were stopped by Granitan. 

"For the love of- We can talk about punishments later! We need to check on Ashes!" Gao snapped. 

"That's not it. Ashes' Father is getting her a new crest," he answered. 

"A new crest? What's that, bal?" 

Granitan actually paused. Had they come here not knowing ANYTHING? "Did Guru Bunbuku not tell you anything about this?" 

The five shared a glance. They HAD kinda made him send them but he didn't give them any extra information...

They shook their heads in unison, and Granitan actually let out a groan. Dear DRAGOD this man was insane.

Still, he supposed it was up to him to explain this to them. "The crests are made by the parents of the dragon as they mature to help them handle the sudden power they gain due to puberty. That's... the normal case, at least." 

"Why the normal case?" Gao blinked. 

Batzz immediately facepalmed. Some days he wondered why he put up with the brat. "It's because Ashes' mother is a Mystic Sun Dragon. Remember her circumstances?" 

"... Right," he mumbled. He had forgotten about that since he had come to see Ashes as a family member. "What does that mean for the crest, though?"

Granitan made sure to choose his words carefully here. "It means that... the chances of it failing are higher."

And there it was. The sinking feeling in all of their stomachs as they realised what this meant. 

Ashes, she could... She could... 

"WE HAVE TO FIND HER!" Chibi Panda looked downright fearful. 

"Let's go then!" Gao didn't hesitate to rush past Granitan, and the rest followed, their speed suddenly quickening as they passed him. 

Granitan couldn't help but smile a bit. At least she had people to support her. 

If only that could... 

His mind floated back to the words his leader had told him beforehand, and he frowned. Oh, Ashes... he could only hope the daughter of his leader would turn out fine... 

"Where could she be?!" Batzz growled, lightning crackling dangerously around him. He was THIS close to going full size just to quicken the search, and Gao was tempted to let him. 

Chibi Panda was grasping Bal's hand tightly as the two ran behind Batzz, very concerned for Ashes who they had come to see as his baby sister. Why, oh why did she seem so prone to danger? Just as much as Gao and Tasuku even! Just where had her father taken her!? 

Drum's steps would have become fervent pacing had they been waiting somewhere, but at least he was using the adrenaline somewhere outside of burning a hole in the ground. His grip on his Drill Ram Bunker had never been tighter. 

Gao himself? His mind was a mess, as if he had gone through reality-distorting portals and then some. He couldn't think straight. His focus was zigzagging like a zooming car at high speed, like lightning-quick punches and kicks that never seemed to cease. 

Why her? Why did the child have to suffer so so much? Wasn't it enough that she had to lose so much? Why Ashes, of all peopl-

A loud cry made all of them freeze. 

It was a familiar one. 

No no no...! 

"ASHES!!!" Gao was off. He couldn't run fast enough, it was like lead was weighing his legs down. Time couldn't slow down now! 

HE COULDN'T LOSE ASHES!!!!! 

The cave temple that came into sight was dark, dreary, and terrifying. One could even view it as something Count Dawn would live in. It was old, for sure. The walls were weathered, some old writings long gone and illegible for those who seek their wisdom. Similar to the Xi'an Terracotta army, once so regal. Now its true beauty was lost to the times. Chelle once told Gao about it, and though he wasn't a history lover, he wanted to go to China just to see them. (People put them back together to restore them, and he personally wanted to hope that something similar could be said about his heart, even if he knows the heart is a fickle thing...)

Their footsteps echoed as they entered the ancient building, but stopped the moment they turned a corner and saw her. 

Ashes was crying. She was holding her tail

"ASHES!!!!" Gao all but destroyed their cover as he ran over and scooped her up into a hug. "You okay!?" 

"H-Hurts," she mumbled, and Batzz called out, "Kid, she's missing a red scale. One of the softer ones too." 

"But why?" Drum frowned, but Bal then gestured for them to quiet down as he saw Ashes' Father doing... something. 

(He felt something... familiar about him. Always had. He didn't know what about him was familiar yet. It frustrated him. Mitsuko had told him to stay calm cause years of being who knows where could mess with the brain, and her sister had confirmed it, but he still had that itch. As if he should KNOW this dragon. 

But where? Just where had they met before? He wasn't Azi Dahaka so who was he?)

The crest were being imbued with warm and cold. The freezing power of the Lunar Darkness Dragons, and the fiery warmth of the Mystic Sun Dragons. 

(The power of two Dragods, uniting, all while waiting for their daughter to unlock that power.)

Ashes' Father had a smirk of pride on his face as his black claws finished up the symbol engraved into it. He knew how much Gao and the rest meant to Ashes, so he decided to add a touch of them into this. The Mighty Sun Fighter's symbol, with a crescent moon inside the sun's circle. 

"It is complete," he quietly spoke. 

(Oh, Solararis, if only she could see this now. If only she could see her daughter grow up, and reach the foot of puberty as she prepared to eventually take on her mother's mantle.

If only [REDACTED] hadn't killed her slowly but surely...)

He shook his head. Not the time. He could continue mourning his wife later on, after all of this. He had to deal with a lot of other things first. 

He turned around, mentally trying not to scream at the five trespassers for his daughter's sake. Later. Right now, he had to give her the new crest. 

"Here. I trust you will take care of it," he said, managing a smile while he handed it over to her. 

The way Ashes' eyes lit up like a child being given a present only warmed his heart up more as she took it and displayed it proudly to her brothers. 

"It looks amazing, Ashes!" Gao smiled, hugging her only for Ashes to push him off. "No, Ashes big girl now!" 

"R-Right," He said with a sheepish smile as he chose to pat her on the head instead. 

"Nice look, bal!" Bal happily bounced over while Chibi grinned. Batzz just looked away despite the smile on his face, and Drum literally shoved Gao aside to hug her. His daughter was alright! Of course, he ended up just patting her on the head as well due to her insistence, yet did it truly matter? She was gonna be okay now! 

"Thank you!" She smiled, but then she blinked as she realised something. "But why brothers here in Darkness Dragon World?" 

And Ashes' Father actually looked away (He did NOT snicker. Lunar Darkness Dragon Tribe leaders did NOT snicker OR express emotions.) as the five froze. 

Oh. 

Right. 

They had been undercover hadn't they?

Of course, the one blurting out an excuse was Gao. "W-We were training!"

"Y-Yeah, brat's right," Batzz agreed, giving him a pointed look as if asking, 'Is THAT all you can think of, kid?'

He got a look of 'You have any OTHER ideas?', and conceded to the point. 

"Totally!" Drum was much more suave about his. He had lied to his actual kids back home a few times to get them to listen, so what was one more lie even if it was Ashes?

Bal and Chibi Panda just nodded in unison, both sweating bullets as if they were twins. 

(Gao.... did not want to think of THAT implication more than he already had.)

Thankfully, Ashes' face just scrunched up a bit. "Why Darkness Dragon World?" 

"G-Gaito recommended it!" Gao answered with a shaky smile, and this time everyone else just nodded along. Let the kid take this one. (If she found out they were lying, it was all on Gao this time!)

(Gao would give them an unimpressed look later on after the entire mess, as if he knew that they would throw him under the bus for this. He only got Batzz's grin in response.)

"Oh, okie!" Ashes was still a kid in the end, so her falling for it made SENSE. 

They all let out sighs of relief internally. THAT crisis was done, so now it was time for the main issue. 

"We should probably head home now," Batzz said, and Gao nodded. "Yeah, I'm beat. The adrenaline rush was no joke." 

(Ashes would never find out the rush came from anger and fear. No, not even in the future. Gao and the Buddies would take that secret to the grave for now.)

Ashes froze at that. Home...

"But... Ashes hurt Jacky..." She looked down. Growing up or not, she had... She had hurt him. 

She remembered he had been trying to say something before she disappeared, but... She could see the fear in his eyes. The raw terror in those yellow serpentine orbs. "Jacky, scared of Ashes..." 

She had... she had hurt him.

The group shared a glance, and Gao ran a hand through his hair again, unsure how to word this. "About that, Ashes... Jack was gonna tell you to come back." 

Her eyes shot up to look at him in surprise. "C-Come back?" 

"We already asked him when we visited him in the hospital," Gao explained. "He got scared of losing you like during the GGG Cup. None of us wanted to lose you again, but Jack..." 

"Ashes is a child, Gao... I didn't want her to lose that innocence again..." The green Star Dragon world monster said while grasping the blanket Tasuku had gotten him as the monster sat on his Buddy's lap. "She lost it already because of the entire thing with her Lunar Darkness Dragon side. Because of that and then..." 

He paused, hesitant to say anything while Tasuku rubbed his back, so Gao prompted, trying to swallow the bile that had built up in his throat, "Umbra Gao?" 

"Y-Yeah." He looked apologetic. "I didn't want to... bring up bad memories for you."

"It's okay. What matters is getting Ashes back. You should rest up for now. We'll go find her. I'll call Tasuku-senpai once we get back with her, okay?"

"I... Alright then. Please, be careful Gao. Something... Something unsettles me deeply about the way we were introduced to Ashes' Darkness Dragon side. About Broken World as well. It will be returning and we need to be prepared for that. We HAVE to ensure Ashes doesn't get influenced again." 

"Of course, Jack. I'll make sure we find her and bring her back. That's a promise." 

"He really wanted you to come back home, Ashes. And plus, you can always apologise to him. That's the right thing to do, right?" Gao asked while squatting to meet her eyes. 

Ashes gulped. He... had a point. But at the same time... 

"S-Scary," she mumbled. "What if Jacky... angry...?"

"He won't. I swear on Yota-nii's name, he isn't mad at you. He wanted to go out and search for you as much as we did," he said. 

Ashes' eyes widened. Using his brother's name was the equivalent of a solemn vow, so to hear Gao using it... He must be THAT sure... 

She was shaking, so she took a deep breath. Okay, okay, Ashes can do it. She can face this. She can do this. She is ASHES!!! 

"O-Okie, let's go home," she finally said.

Gao shared a grin with the others, relief flooding his veins. They had done it. They had convinced Ashes to go home with them. It was... an awesome feeling. 

Time to go home, back to their home. 

(Soon it would be stained red. The same red as a blood eclipse.)

I have no clue if this is good enough, so critiques are open, but here's the third part. I actually forgot you requested for 4 parts so haha XD Here we go, tho!