Chp.6: Emergency plan

"So you finally decided to actually go down there? Would you believe that guy?" Rhaegal murmured.

Haku nodded. After the meeting with the Council was over he had left Arethar under a tree again and returned to the cave to speak with his family; he didn't fear that the arachne would go off on his own and do any harm, since anything he ordered he respected with extreme devotion. His siblings had welcomed his decision to visit the city of the arachnes rather well, because even if it was dangerous they still wanted answers and the only way was to get to the bottom of that mystery. Dragons (at least the young ones) were curious by nature and after receiving such news they couldn't simply forget everything and go back to their daily lives: they had to investigate further and discover the truth.

"We'll take all possible precautions. Here's what we'll do" Haku said. "Those of you who will accompany me will use avatars in your likeness; in this way we will deceive Arethar and you won't take any risks. We will equip these avatars with many defenses and weapons, so that in case it turns out to be a trap, you can help me and..."

"Wait! Why are you only speaking for us?" Keita interrupted him. "You… you don't want to go there with your real body, do you?"

Haku let out a snort. "Someone of us have to go down there with his real body" he said. "I've been thinking and… well, if we assume that everything Arethar said is real, then there must be a reason why he wants us to go down there and see the ancient scriptures for ourselves instead of reciting them ourselves here. In short, you have seen how fanatical he is: if I ordered him to, he would thrust a knife into his own throat. So why does he obey everything we tell him, except the order to reveal this prophecy to us? I doubt he wants us to go and meet his people only for some kind of personal gratification. I rather believe… that it is necessary for a real dragon to go down there in person"

His siblings clearly had a million objections to him going in his real body deep into the earth to meet an unknown people, but they couldn't say his reasoning wasn't logical. Arethar clearly put their will above all else: there must be a reason why he so adamantly refused to talk about the prophecy. "You mean…these ancient scriptures might have some sort of spell that prevents the arachnes from telling anyone about them, even other dragons?" Tikka asked.

Haku nodded. "Either that, or there's something else that can only happen in the presence of a dragon. If they want us to go down there, then unless it's a trap it's pretty sure they need us... the real us ...to undo this blocking spell or to activate something else, or even just because the only way to know the prophecy is to read it from the ancient scriptures because it can't be told verbally. I don't know exactly, but either way I think at least one of us should take that risk I've talked to Arethar and told him only a few of us are going with him, and he seemed fine with it, so at least that means it doesn't need how many of us or who of us is present, so I should be enough"

"But why does it have to be you?" Maleficial opined. "If it turns out to be a trap it would be better if you weren't the one being caught. We would need you to rescue the victim..."

"What you say is logical and right, sister. But unfortunately, I can't follow logic this time. I can't endanger either of you. This is the only answer I can give for my choice" Haku replied. "Besides… I'm not taking any risks either. I told you, we'll equip your avatars to be war machines. If a trap turns out to be a trap, you'll cover for me, and I'll pull our secret weapon from my dimensional bag in the meantime and with it I'll make my way until I'm back on the surface"

"We should rename it. 'Secret weapon' doesn't sound right now that everyone knows about it" Darbi said. Everyone turned to him and he let out an embarrassed sound. "Sorry. I was trying to play down..."

Her siblings rubbed her temples wearily, turning her focus back to Haku. They knew they wouldn't be able to shake him from his decision: Haku could be particularly stubborn when it came to family. And in a way, his plan made a lot of sense: if it was a trap, the arachnes would set it for young dragons, not avatars capable of holding their own to a legendary level. Escape from such a situation would have been quite simple… assuming of course that their opponents had no plans in store. "Why don't we all go then?" Jatara asked. "There are seventeen of us, so we sixteen can offer you an excellent cover..."

"You can't all come for strategic reasons" Haku answered. "Sisna, Kotaru, Malchia and Maldor are... well, indisposed, so they can't help us. Keita must stay here to continue impersonating Tzegorn. Rhaegal and Darbi, you must also stay here and remain ready to connect to the basilisk avatars. I will have the communication device with me at all times, so you will have to be ready to connect as soon as I warn you..."

"Wait, brother" Rhaegal stopped him. "I want to go with you"

"No" was Haku's prompt reply. "You would have to come with your real body to be able to connect to the avatar at any time, and then you would expose yourself to risks"

"You too will put yourself at risk" Rhaegal pointed out. "That's not fair. You are the one who has to activate the secret weapon; I can understand others why they will have to protect you, but those who operate the secret weapon should be there with you and ready to intervene at any moment. If he risks one, we all have to risk"

Haku looked at Rhaegal with a look that seemed neutral, but was actually deeply suspicious. Such insistence was not normal from his point of view: his brother was definitely too tense since Arethar had popped up and started boasting things about prophecies and ancient scriptures. It almost seemed that he considered going underground and seeing this prophecy with his own eyes as a sort of personal mission. It was decidedly strange behavior and the even stranger thing was that it seemed to completely exclude that this story was a deception: even if he said he wanted to go down in person to protect his brother, in reality Haku could easily see too many details in that plan that could be more harmful than good, and Rhaegal certainly saw that too. Haku could expect similar mistakes from Darbi, but not from Rhaegal. So it was obvious that he didn't think Arethar's lying was a possibility.

This made Haku nervous. He still hadn't had time to talk to him about what Tzegorn had told him before he butchered him to death... or rather, Haku had never felt confident enough to address such a conversation. During those three months he had always put it off, inventing any kind of excuse and convincing himself that when his brother was ready he would tell him about it of his own free will. But his recent behavior was making him seriously uncomfortable. What had really happened to Rhaegal during his captivity? Was it possible that he had discovered something that he didn't know? And why was he keeping it from him?

"Okay" Haku finally said. That situation was really stressing him out and he was tired of mysteries. He wanted to find out what Rhaegal had in mind, so if he wanted to go with him, go ahead. "But on one condition: you'll always stay by my side and you'll be ready for any eventuality, and as soon as I tell you, you'll connect to the avatar. You won't go your own way"

Rhaegal wanted to answer his brother that he could take care of himself, but given his past he decided that wasn't exactly true. "Okay, I'll do as you told me. It's enough for me to come with you"

"In that case, I'll come too!" Darbi exclaimed. "I'm also one of those who has to connect to the avatar, so..."

"No" Haku answered absolutely categorically. He had no intention of accepting any other exceptions: if he did, surely his sisters too would have wanted to come with their real bodies. "Three is a crowd. I'm willing to accept one, no one else. You stay here and, as I told you, you will prepare to connect to the avatar as soon as I communicate with you"

Darbi felt a little disappointed to have been excluded like that, but he was smart enough to understand that Haku had only agreed to bring Rhaegal because he suspected something of him, and therefore would not agree to endanger anyone else. So he let out a half sigh and nodded. He hoped Rhaegal would hurry to talk to Haku before it was too late.

"Well, even if we exclude Keita, Kotaru, Malchia, Sisna, Maldor, Darbi and Rhaegal there are still nine of us who can offer you support!" Serengal exclaimed. "So why can't the nine of us all come using an avatar?"

"Because that would be silly!" Haku answered. "Listen, we have two possibilities in front of us: either what Arethar says is true, or it is false. Unlikely as it seems, we must act as if the second possibility were the sure one. Therefore, we must assume that it is a trap , but not only towards us. It could also be a trap towards Iluvatan City. Think about it: without us, how many defenses does this place have? From what we understand the arachnes are many more than the inhabitants of this oasis and have quite a few warriors. They may want to lure us elsewhere with the aim of launching an attack as soon as we're gone. We have to take precautions for us, but we also have to take precautions for Iluvatan City, or everything we've done so far will have been in vain"

In fact that made sense. His sisters realized that they had viewed the situation from too centralized a perspective on them, without seeing the full picture. "So… someone has to stay here and keep an eye on Iluvatan City?" Corgorin asked.

"Exactly" Haku replied. "Since the eight of us will be indisposed, the nine of you will have to control the situation up here… less than nine, since some of you will come with us to watch our backs. We just have to decide who. Glausar and Jatara, you are from rule out immediately: you are among the most physically fit we have, and in combat without an avatar you are definitely the best, so you must stay here and be ready to use all your abilities to protect this place. Kialandi, you too: you are the best with the flying avatars and you can offer air cover here, while underground you would only be disadvantaged. Then..."

"Wait, Haku! Bring Teramon and Tikka with you!" Darbi intervened. "Well... they're good at using avatars and they're among the least physically fit here, so they would be more useful to you than to us up here..."

Darbi had tried to look as kind as possible, knowing how sensitive his two sisters were about their physical weakness, but that still didn't stop him from two loud punches on the head that landed one each from Tikka and Teramon. What he had said was not wrong however, so the two sisters after 'kindly' explaining their opinion to their brother and swallowing their pride, they said: "We agree with this. We would gladly come"

Haku nodded, albeit a little reluctantly for fear that his two sisters would pick on him too. "Okay, it's decided then. We will make your avatars very difficult to defeat so you can give us cover. And you too will have a communication device and you will carry the avatars of our siblings in your dimensional bags: in this way you will be able to warn them at the slightest sign of danger and they will be able to come and give us support"

"Are you sure the two of them will be enough?" Maleficial asked.

"That's enough for what we have in mind. More people would just be a hindrance" Haku answered. "Let's get busy, then. There's a lot to think about..."