The Emperor's Dragon II

Do What Has To Be Done

Iken... was his name Iken?

If it was, he didn't want it anymore. It belonged to a Tartarus guard, and he didn't want to be a guard...

He'd already thrown down his weapon and had found a spot to cower. It was all he could do.

He wasn't brave like Danui. Not that it had done Danui any good. He'd tried to fight the dragon and... Iken didn't want to die like that. The dragon had ignored Danui and before he could do anything, one of those creatures had-

Iken shook his head. He didn't want to remember.

Someone was going to have to tell Kei that he was dead. How would she handle that? Who was going to tell her?

He didn't want to. Iken convulsed and retched. He didn't want to remember but the image was burned into his mind.

Just like-

No! He didn't want to remember. If he didn't remember, if he wasn't Iken then he wasn't a Tartarus Guard and then he didn't have to remember.

He wedged himself into the crevasse between two blocks of concrete. It was the only shelter available. But it was enough. And the ground he could see was clear. There were no bodies there... He didn't have to look at them. He couldn't see them. If he did... He retched again, and put one hand to his chest, as if he could clutch his heart. He couldn't see them... He couldn't.

That's why he wasn't Iken. He wasn't a Tartarus Guard. And since he'd been thinking that the things had left him alone.

There was a noise from above.

Iken... no, he wasn't Iken. He didn't know who he was. He looked up and felt his eyes widen.

There were two eyes looking at him below a pink brain, that was caged by metal... And there were teeth... Lots and lots of teeth.

Iken didn't scream for long.

-ted-

Shouto averted his eyes as the Nomu screamed and there was a disturbingly soft, almost slippery sound, followed by a thud.

That was the Number Two Hero Hawks cutting apart the Nomu's head as he held it in place with his ice. Shouto was sort of glad the Hero had done it because it was becoming harder to maintain his ice. The temperature in the square was noticeably rising, all thanks to the villain. His blue fire was everywhere.

Edge Shot and Wash had teamed up to take out one of the other Nomu, after it revealed it had some sort of laser and crystal quirks. The laser had been enough to injure Wash but the two heroes had been able to trap the Nomu and attack its brain.

Shouto could see several of Edge Shot's throwing stars embedded there.

That left the last Nomu to Baptise, Convector and Legerdemain. They were struggling but at least were alive.

"You can't think of them as human," Hawks murmured.

Shouto gave him a wary look.

"The Nomu," the Number Two Hero clarified. "You can't think of them as human," he repeated, flicking his feather blade to shake off the muck.

It was odd seeing Hawks like this. He had only a few feathers, long primaries that defined his signature wings but only as an outline. Shouto could see the bones that formed the wings. And he had a bandage wrapped around his thigh which was slowly staining to a dark red.

"It's a mercy," Shouto managed to say.

"Yes," Hawks agreed. "It is a mercy. They can't be turned back and all they are going to do is sit there, doing nothing if we capture them. Or, they could be providing the villain with information," the hero added.