Corvo woke in a room, a whaler sat at a desk, reading a book from one of the two shelves on each side. It was a small room, with no windows and the only light emitting from an oil lamp on the desk.

"This was your son's room." The Whaler states as she turned towards him. She closed her book and set it on the shelf to the desk's left. "That was a journal from a baker. Poor man, your son put him out of his misery."

"Where am I?" Corvo asked. "Where is Daud?"

"I said you are in Axton's old room." She replied, crossing her arms and sitting on the desk. "And Daud is in his office."

"Where is my equipment?"

"By your bed. Daud wished to see you when you where awake. I'll take you if you promise to behave yourself."

"Axton?"

"Pierce is checking up on him. They should be here soon."

"Emily?"

The assassin stared down at her feet. "I don't know where the young Empress is. Perhaps Axton will know." She then stared down at the Lord Protector. "Ready to see Daud?"

"Sure."

~☆~

"Welcome Lord Protector." Daud said from his desk, glancing up at Corvo and the assassin as they entered the room.

"Ex." Corvo replied bitterly. "You took the tittle away from me the day you killed the Empress."

"Leave us Galia." Daud said, waving her off. She hesitated, glancing at Corvo's skeletal mask, that he had placed over his face before leaving the room, to Daud's blank face. She could feel a tension brewing between them, but then simply bowed to him and vanished. 

"Your bitterness towards me is understandable." Daud said, rising from his desk. "What I have done to you and your Empress is unforgivable. I had made two children motherless, and one of them is a child I care for like my own."

Corvo tried to keep a straight face, but Daud had noticed how his eyebrows went slightly higher.

"Yes." He continued as he made his way towards Corvo. "I was the first one to have been told by Axton who his parents where. I even assigned him as Emily's primary caretaker, after realizing that they where siblings. He left me a note stating..."

Daud trailed as he saw Corvo's face morphing into perplexed, and began to smile coldly. "Ah, I see that Axton had not told you of our relationship, did he?" He folded his arms and waited for Corvo's response.

"He's periodically speak of you fondly, but I had just assume that he was just another Whaler to you." Corvo replied dryly. 

"That's what I thought he'd be to me as well. He was young, four years old, youngest I've ever recruited. Thought I'd turn him into the finest Assassin the Empire had ever seen... and I was right that he had... but he became something more to me, Corvo." He straightened with such confidence and stared straight into the lenses of Corvo's mask. "He became my son. And one day, he is going to take my place as the leader of the Whalers."

Under his mask, Corvo's eyes flashed dangerously. Daud had just challenged him, practically adding salt in his wound. He already didn't like the man because of what he had done to Jessamine, now he dares to call himself Axton's father? 

"No, I am right. He was just another Whaler to you." Corvo spat, venom in his voice as his hand twitching towards his blade. "You didn't raise him, you wanted him to be a murderous monster like you. You thought you could manipulate his young mind, make him feel no pain, no remorse. But you want to know something? He did have remorse, he did feel pain. HE CRIED ON MY SHOULDER AND CALLED HIMSELF A MONSTER FOR VOID'S SAKE!!!! You just trained him to be a killer!"

"And how different would that be from you? Huh?" Daud shot back, his own eyes storming with untapped rage. "You would have taught him to kill men? How to wield a sword? Stealth or combat? SO why is my training any different?"

"At least I have honor."

"So did I, Corvo. So did I. We aren't so different, you and I. Trained killers, great swordsmen, blessed, or cursed, by the Outsider, born in Serkonos. Our end destinations, however, are what define us as different. And you had gotten the better end of the deal, with parties and nobility. I got the job of a lowly blade for hire." He then turned, Corvo's face remained hidden behind his mask but he could tell he was pushing buttons. he could practically feel the hatred radiating off of him, like a bonfire lit in the forest and left unattended, rising closer and closer to a pile of dead leaves. One small ember could spark the wildfire and make it spread uncontrollably. Daud was actually surprised he lasted this long without pulling out his blade, his willpower was indeed legendary. 

Most normal people would shut shut their mouths now, but Daud couldn't help it. He turned to his desk and ran a hand over the wood. "It's a shame that I had to kill his mother to finally unite you two. I guess you should be thanking me."

FWOOSH! The wild fire had erupted.

~☆~

Axton was assuming the worst as he navigated through the sewers. Visions of Daud throwing Corvo in a cell filled with rats. Corvo fighting and killing Daud. Every bad scenario he thought. 

"Axton, you are shaking." Pierce pointed out with concern. Yes, he felt hot, yet he also felt like he was freezing cold. He knew he was gaining a fever due to his infection, but he couldn't afford to rest now. He turned a corner and his mind started to blur, he stumbled slightly, but Pierce caught him.

"We should rest! You should rest! This is ridiculous Axton, you damned fool your going to get yourself killed!"

"We're almost... there..." He gasped, pushing himself off Pierce and trying to continue forward. Pierce sighed, he didn't know what to do, Axton was stubborn. Just like Daud.

He blinked to Axton's side and grabbed his arm, swinging it over his shoulder and giving the young assassin some support. "I might be old, but I can still carry you. Come on you stubborn oaf."

They staggered the rest of the way through the sewers, using alternate, back ways to avoid plague victims and survivors. Then they finally found the way that lead into the compound. By this time, Axton was sweating like a dog and Pierce had to set him down. 

"I have to get you something that can banish the wound in seconds. We have some of Sokolov's elixir up there, I'll get some and bring it back here. I swear to the Outsider Axton, if you move from this spot, I will kill you!"

"Well, I feel if I do move I'll be dead before you will kill me." Axton mumbled softly. Then started giggling which turned into hysterical, almost maniacal laughter. Pierce frowned and took off his mask, sweat poured down Axton's face. He touched his forehead gently and immediatly retracted his hands. The fever was getting worse.

"Bleeding from the eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Axton exclaimed. "I GOT THE PLAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He then started laughing again, Pierce shook his head and stood. He knew that he had to get some elixir and place it on the wound and somehow inject the rest into Axton's blood stream. The stuff might have been created to combat the rat plague, true, but it was absolute magic when it came to minor illnesses, wounds and infections.

"I'll be back. Okay?"

"Fribble!" Axton replied then laughed again. "Wha tha VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVOIOOOOOOOIIID am I shadduing!"

Pierce really didn't want to leave him, but he knew he had to get the elixir or Axton will die. He didn't trust Axton in his lethargic, slightly loopy current self. So he grabbed a sleep dart and stuck it into his neck, injected half, then took it out. Axton fell forwards, into Pierce's arms.

"Sorry boy, but I had to." He set him down gently then vanished, praying that there where no rats in the sewers.

~☆~

Pierce was lucky to have found some so soon and immediately blinked back to Axton. He was still sleeping, he thanked the Outsider, and then proceeded to take off his brown leather belts and open his shirt. He unwrapped the cloth strips and took off the herbs that dressed it.

The wound looked worse, as he had thought it would. Slowed by the herbs and ointments, but still awful. Pierce opened the vial and poured the contents into the wound. It hissed as it made contact with the infection. Burning away the pus and cleaning it out. He then grabbed his blade, made a fire, place the metal over it until it was glowing, and placed the weapon onto Axton's wound. His body stiffened and his veins in his throat tensed, but he didn't even scream. Then he lifted it off and Axton's body went limp once more. Pierce shifted around his bag until he found an empty seep dart. He poured the remaining contents of the elixir inside then injected it into the boy's arm. He then sat next to him, waiting.

He then saw as Axton's face relaxed, the color returning to his skin. He touched his head and the fever had gone down. Again, the elixir worked like magic.

"You idiot." Pierce said with an affectionate tone. Stoking Axton's cheek like he had with his own children when they where sick... and alive. "Why don't you ever have any elixirs on you?"

"Because others need them more than me." Axton replied with lethargy as he slowly opened his eyes. 

"Welcome back to the land of the living Axton. Do you remember anything withing the past two hours?"

He shook his head, then widened his eyes. "TWO HOURS!!!??? Please tell me that that includes walking from the Pits all the way here?"

"No, an hour and forty minutes was you sleeping. the other twenty minutes you where loopy from the infection and fever. You then passed out. I spent the thirty of the forty minutes looking for the elixir and the rest was me waiting for it to work and you to wake up. How do you feel?"

Axton sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Better."

"Good, then let us keep moving. The base is just above." He then turned his back, staring up at the chain that lead up to the mostly intact floor above while buttoned up his shirt and placed his belts back on his person.

"Hey Pierce?"

He turned to Axton. "Yes?"

"Thank you." He said, his eyes showing sincerity grabbed his mask from the floor and strapped it to his belt.

Pierce smiled. "Any time."

And with that said, the two blinked above.

~☆~

Axton heard them before he saw them. The sounds of shouts and clangs resonated throughout the Whaler's Base of Operations, or, more commonly known as the Chamber of Commerce building of the once grand Rudshore Financial District. Now known as just another building falling apart in the Flooded District.

Whalers stood about, listening. Not moving. They turned to Axton, surprise radiated off them all as they saw him in red, instead of black.

"What-"

"Daud told us not to enter. That this is between the two of them." A novice Whaler said to his right. Axton turned to her. He remembered her, Galia Fleet. She always seemed to try and get close to Axton, which was creepy to him. He could sense the ambition radiating off of her like a pungent odor radiating off a month dead corpse. He knew she only cared about one thing, getting to the top, and she didn't care how she would do so.

"Well, I'm going in." Axton said.

Galia was about to protest but he didn't care what she was going to say. He barged into the room and saw his fathers lock blades. Corvo's mask was discarded, as if he either threw it off in the heat of the moment or was knocked off by Daud. Both had cuts on their faces, both had murder in his eyes. Pierce, Thomas, and Galia came in after him and watched as he stalked up to the fighting pair.

Corvo pushed Daud off and made to swipe. Without breaking a stride, Axton threw his left hand out. Using his pull, he lifted Corvo off his feet and threw him across the room, slamming him into the bookshelf. Daud began to recover and made to blink towards Corvo. But didn't even finish the spell when Axton flicked his hand towards Daud, sending him flying to the other side. He then held out his hands between the two. 

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"  He exclaimed. 

Corvo and Daud recovered and launched at each other with blink, but Axton joined in, he was a blur, running into them then sliding, kicking Daud off his feet and whipping his blade out. Next thing they both knew, Daud was pinned under Axton, a dark in his wristbow and aimed at his neck while his blade was at Corvo's neck. He glared at both of them with fury and disappointment.

"I said," He growled, "that's enough." He then lowered his blade from Corvo's throat and pushed himself off of Daud. They both stared at him with shock. He came between a battle between the two most feared men in the Empire and barely flinched. And even crazier, Axton brought them both down quicker than anyone could process what had happened.

He was breathing heavily, still glaring at both his father like a scolding parent. There was silence, the spectating Whalers around them most surprised. They all saw Axton as the child, he was gentle, obedient, and loyal. They never would have expected Axton to raise a finger against Daud, let alone stare at him like an underling. He had no idea, but that had gained every Whalers' respect, he was turning into a leader. And Daud couldn't help but feel pride.

"I have to say, I am disappointed in you both." Axton said, staring from Daud, to his father.

"Corvo, you where the one who taught me that violence solves nothing. You never actually verbally told me so, but your actions had."

He then turned his attention to Daud.

"Daud, you raised me since I was four. You knew how long I've been searching for my parents. You knew how helping kill my own mother made me feel. So why the VOID are you here, fighting my father?"

He crossed his arms, chin high as he stared at them with a blank stare. They both shuddered because at this moment, he didn't look like either of their sons, he resembled an Emperor, no, perhaps something even higher. Yes, at this very moment, Axton seemed to resemble the Outsider himself.

"You two owe each other more than you realize. Daud, if it wasn't for Corvo, I'd have never existed. Corvo, if it wasn't for Daud, I'd be dead right now. Yes, the Empress might still be alive if he'd have never killed her, but if it wasn't Daud, Hiram Burrows would have found another way to murder the Empress. So perhaps she'd still be dead, and your anger would be directed towards another. Yes, The Knife killed the Empress, but Burrows was his wielder. And we took him down together. Now, all that's left is making those bastards sorry they ever tried to kill us, rescue Emily, and return her on the throne. And Daud." He looked him straight into his grey-blue eyes. "You are going to help us."

"Axton-"

"No. This is both of your punishments for acting like children."

He was not kidding, Axton's eyes showed a seriousness that was completely foreign from on face. He seemed to radiate an authority, and Corvo and Daud found themselves bowing their heads to him in defeat.

"So, what is our next move then?" Daud asked. He couldn't help the grin spreading on his face as he felt the pride. Now there's that strong leader I saw in you.

"Now?" Axton asked, turning to Daud with the same face he gave when he commanded his Whalers. "We return to the Hound Pits Pub. We find survivors, and see where those Assholes took Emily."

He then turned to Corvo. "Then we show them what happens when they piss off the son of the two most dangerous men in the Empire."