Chapter 18: Hostage.

Nox awoke in the same white room he had been stuck in for the past few days, the large room had only a bed and a toilet, the one large wall opposite him was glass that he couldn’t shatter. The walls had burns and scars from where he had tried to use magic to help him escape but unfortunately it hadn’t worked.

Looking out past the glass Nox could see a long corridor with an elevator at the end. But from his cell Nox could see that the corridor widened as it reached his cell and as the colt pressed his face against the glass he saw the lights of a neighbouring cell.

The lights in the corridor flickered into life as the elevator doors opened and four people stepped out. The one leading the group was a human that had repeatedly visited Nox, wearing a long white coat, a pair of thin glasses and holding a clipboard, obviously a scientist of some sort.

The other three were people Nox hadn’t seen before; one was a tired looking girl with scruffy blond hair and dark bags under her eyes. The one beside her was wearing sunglasses, his dark hair was swept back and he held something wrapped in cloth under his arm.

The person at the back was the tallest of the group, his brown coat and white hair made him easily noticeable. But the thing that unnerved Nox the most was the way the strange man smiled at him, a single fang poking out of his mouth.

“Hello Nox, did we sleep well last night?” The scientist smiled as he walked over to a small screen beside Nox’s cell and began to write on his clipboard. “Still not that talkative eh?”

“LET ME GO!” Nox yelled at the humans, his eyes full of rage as he growled.

The scientist looked over at the tallest man, “I’m sorry Mr Discord but it appears as if the uh… alicorn hasn’t been that helpful.”

“Oh it is no problem,” The tall man smiled as Nox stared at him. “After all he is only bait for the main course.”

Nox remembered his mother telling him stories of a chaotic being called Discord. The stories had always made him curious but now he was face to face with the myth he only felt fear as the magical being tapped the glass.

“Y-you’re Discord?” Nox shuddered as he stepped back from the glass. The human followers smiled as they looked at Discord and the scientist looked between the alicorn and humans before making more notes.

“Hello Noxporta Shield,” Discord snickered as he scratched the small goatee on his chin. “I see your sweet sweet mother has told you all about me. Good things I hope?”

Nox stared at Discord in silence as the human wearing sunglasses looked up at the ceiling. “The sun is beginning to set, should we start leaving?”

“Don’t be rude Jack,” Discord smirked when he saw Nox’s confused face. “Oh I haven’t explained that I have given some small portions of my power to a few… dedicated followers.”

“So that’s why Sarah could fly?” Nox shuddered as he stepped back again. “My dad is going to stop you and save me!”

A silence fell before Discord burst into laughter; his hands gripped his knees as he struggled to breathe. “HAHAHAHA Oh wow you are certainly full of hope little pony.”

“Laura, let’s go make sure all the preparations are made,” Jack ordered before handing the package under his arms to Discord and leaving with the exhausted looking girl. Discord held the wrapped up cloth up before smiling at Nox.

“You know it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to get things,” Discord smiled. “I mean you always leave the Elements of Harmony in the same spot so it isn’t hard to get to them.”

“Mum said that the Elements of Harmony are in an impenetrable vault,” Nox glared angrily. “Dummies like you can’t break in!”

“True the magical defences have been stepped up so breaking in is virtually impossible,” Discord kept a straight face for a few seconds before laughing again. “HAHAHA you ponies are so much fun when you are clueless.”

Discord began to slowly unwrap the cloth in his hands as he spoke, “Well when I gave Sasha my arms she was naturally going to lose them and they would be confiscated, so all I had to do was wait until they were put somewhere safe… like the impenetrable vault you were on about.”

“T-that’s not real,” Nox froze as the cloth fell to the floor and Discord pressed the Element of Generosity against the glass.

“Breaking out wasn’t as hard,” Discord smiled as he watched Nox’s legs shake. “Now… I want you to tell me about all of Celestia and Luna’s friends or I’ll tell you all the nasty ideas I have for these elements and you.”

An hour later…

Dave looked out the window as the dark sky; his hands slowly tied his shoelaces as he prepared to leave. “How does it feel watching a sunset that you aren’t in control of?”

“Strangely relaxing,” Celestia sighed as she placed a hoof on Dave’s shoulder. “Now be careful, don’t do anything unnecessary.”

“Don’t worry this is a very simple plan,” Dave smiled as he reassuringly hugged the concerned alicorn. “Save Nox and get out.”

Celestia rolled her eyes as Dave kissed her cheek and picked up his coat. “Well would you like me to hold onto your ring so it won’t get damaged?” The princess took Dave’s hand in her hoof as her horn glowed; the golden ring was surrounded in the same yellow light.

“Woah hold up,” Dave pulled his hand away before gently grabbing Celestia’s hoof. “I said I will protect it didn’t I? You seem awfully protective of it recently.”

“I know, I know… I just worry about you losing it,” Celestia smiled as she wrapped her hooves around Dave’s neck. “I like thinking that these rings connect us in some strange way.”

“You know I am always thinking of you,” Dave ran his fingers through Celestia’s mane as he looked at his ring again. “If I ever take it off I know you would teleport me into the sun or something like that.”

Celestia giggled as Dave began to kiss her neck, “No Dave, stop messing around.”

“Promise me that when I get Nox back and we are all safe in Equestria that you will try that spell out again?” Dave teased as Celestia pushed him away and gave him a frown. “Alright I’ll make sure I am quick about this.”

Strong Shield appeared by the front door, his watchful eye stared at Dave, “Make sure you stay quiet, the darkness will help Nox hide due to the colour of his fur.”

“I know you have mentioned this all day,” Dave rolled his eyes as he picked up his sword from the hallway. “Listen I’ll be back soon, just make sure Odio is ready to teleport us all out and make sure the mums don’t kill each other while I’m gone.”

Dave stepped out the front door and threw his sword across the road and over the fence before closing the door behind him. He adjusted his coat as he looked around at the dark field. He rolled his neck before running towards the fence and leapt over, the barbed wire only a few inches below his feet.

As he landed Dave pulled the sword out of the ground and began to run towards the base in the distance as the lights turned on. The dark field hid Dave’s approach as he ran, his sword trailing in the ground behind him.

As the base neared, Dave stopped and narrowed his eyes at the open space in front of the large hanger. A similar rock poked out of the ground, tire marks had left marks in the mud around the large stone.

“Huh… back where it all started,” Dave looked at the rock that he tripped over all those years ago. After taking a moment Dave began to run towards the nearest building, heading for a window with the lights off before peeking inside.

The room was empty except for a few large steel cylinders; the door had a large lock and a camera in the corner. Dave ducked down as the camera began to turn towards him, he sighed as he crawled towards the edge of the building.

Dave peeked around the corner and saw a few guards with guns standing beside the large hanger, the doors open enough for Dave to see that vehicles were parked on the other side. A man in a white coat left one of the neighbouring buildings holding a food tray and began walking towards the hanger.

“I’m guessing you are important,” Dave muttered before glaring at the two guards. “Do I kill two innocent guards that just happen to work for the bad guys? I guess I shouldn’t”

One of the guards yawned before looking around and nudging his friend, “Hey have you heard about that thing they have caged up downstairs?” He smiled when he saw his friend shrug. “Well apparently it has horns, wings and a really nasty attitude.”

Dave groaned as he overheard the conversation, he looked over at the side of the hanger and crept over when the guards had engrossed themselves in their discussion about the ‘magic-alien’. The guards remained unaware as Dave pointed his sword at the first guards back and dashed forwards.

The guards were quickly silenced as Dave stabbed through the pair and hoisted them off the ground. He poked his head into the hanger before carrying the soldiers on the sword over to one of the trucks and dumped the bodies into the back seats.

The hanger had a few of the black trucks, a few large storage containers were stacked at one side and at the end of the hanger were a large elevator with all the gears and cables open beside the steel shaft that housed the elevator. With nowhere else for the scientist from earlier to go Dave headed over to the elevator.

As Dave neared the elevator he could hear the gears moving and the sound of the elevator rising to his floor. Not wanting to be seen Dave ran to hide behind one of the storage containers and peeked out as the doors slid open and the scientist from earlier stepped out.

Once the scientist had walked past Dave’s hiding spot he hurried into the elevator before the doors slid shut. Dave placed his sword into his sheath before looking at the available floors, “Hanger, Research and Development, Containment Level, Command Level…”

Dave hummed before selecting Containment Level and the elevator slowly began to drop, he needed to get Nox out before finding out who was behind all this. As the elevator continued in its decent, Dave wondered how deep this complex went as he waited.

After a couple of minutes the elevator came to a gentle stop, the doors slid open and Dave was left staring down a large corridor, two white rooms waited at the end, sealed behind glass that Dave assumed must be designed to be unbreakable.

Dave stepped out of the elevator and hurried to the end of the corridor, glancing into the cell on the left he saw what looked like chains hanging from the ceiling and walls. In the other it was a white padded cell that looked much cleaner.

But what caught Dave’s eye was something wrapped in a white blanket, a grey tail poking out from the bottom. Dave gave a sigh of relief as he pulled his sword out and slowly stabbed it into the glass, moving it gently as the magical blade sliced a hole.

As the glass Dave had cut out began to fall out of its place he caught it in his hand and dropped it to the side, the loud bang made Nox jump out of his blanket and turn to face the sudden noise. He froze when he saw Dave leaning through the gap he had made.

“Hey Nox,” Dave waved casually. “You didn’t doubt me did you?”

Nox sat staring in silence before throwing the blanket off and leapt at Dave, diving through the hole in the glass and into his father’s arms. “DAD YOU CAME FOR ME!”

“Well duh,” Dave laughed as he held Nox tight. “I would never let the bad guys get away with my brave boy.”

“T-there were some freaky humans and one said he was called Discord,” Nox hugged his father tight before Dave finally managed to pull him off. “We have to go!”

Dave rolled his arms, “Hey stay calm, I knew I could find you and I know I can get you out so be good for daddy and stay quiet.”

“But dad,” Nox sighed before kicking the floor with his hoof. “Is mum here too?”

“She is safe, when we get outside I want you to fly up high and look for a house with a magic symbol in the garden, look at houses nearest the base,” Dave knelt down as he rubbed Nox’s fluffy mane. “Can you do that for dad?”

Nox nodded as he followed Dave back to the elevator, as Dave pressed the button to take them to the surface Nox could briefly see the cell that neighboured his before the elevator doors closed. “Was anypony in the other cell?”

“No just chains,” Dave rubbed his neck as he leaned against the wall. “I’m guessing it was in case they caught anything big.”

As the elevator reached the top floor Dave readied his sword and stepped in front of Nox so his coat hid the young colt. “Alright run straight ahead and the moment we get outside I want you to fly away.”

Nox nodded and prepared to charge, his eyes burning with anger at being kidnapped. The steel doors slid opened, the father and son emerged from the elevator running, Dave spotted a pair of guards investigating the bodies in the truck that he had killed and changed direction to deal with the threat.

Nox flapped his wings and flew out of the hanger doors; his face was hit with cold air as he reached the open skies and began to fly in search of the house Dave described.

Dave watched as Nox faded into the black sky before turning his attention to the guards that noticed his approach. As they aimed their guns at Dave he raised his sword to protect from the bullets, the impacts didn’t slow Dave as he reached the pair.

The first guard ran out of ammo as Dave reached out and grabbed his neck. The second guard watched as Dave sliced the first guard in half and at the end of his swinging arc, released the sword and it impaled him to the truck he was just investigating.

Dave dropped the guard’s torso before retrieving his sword from the chest of the other. Dave wiped the blood off the blade before hurrying outside. He took a few steps before bright lights were suddenly directed at him and he could see the silhouettes of dozens of soldiers.

“Well Mr Discord did say that you would show eventually,” A voice chuckled over a loudspeaker. “And you didn’t even stop to think that it was all a bit too easy.”

“My son is gone and you won’t be able to go after him again,” Dave growled as he gripped his sword tighter.

“We no longer need the bait, what do we need with magic when we have a perfectly good regenerating, super strong human?” The voice laughed as Dave tried to look for a way to escape the large amount of guns pointed at him. “Well we also heard you good at reacting to attacks.”

The moment Dave opened his mouth to retort his breath was taken as a bullet hit his chest and knocked him off his feet and into the mud. A moment later the sound of the gunshot echoed across the field.

Dave curled into a ball as he clutched his broken body; the sounds of his bones beginning repair made some of the guards exchanged disgusted expressions. “What the… hell?” He wheezed as his lungs pulled themselves back together.

“We have a very good sniper called Jack that can see through walls… Mr Discord provided him for us,” The voice hummed as Dave pushed himself to his feet. “When he has one of the world’s most powerful sniper rifles he gets quite deadly.”

Another bullet hit Dave’s back, the dragon scales held and were undamaged but the force was directed to Dave’s spine and the crack was drowned out by the noise of the gunshot. As Dave fell face first into the mud he felt hands hold his weakened body down before the scientist he saw earlier hurried over and stuck a needle into his neck.

Dave tried to struggle but his fight was futile as the drugs took effect and he passed out.

A few hours later…

“Alright Dave, rise and shine,” The scientist slapped Dave awake with a smile. “Good morning, we have a busy day of testing ahead.”

Dave coughed as he opened his eyes and saw all his limbs were restrained by large metal braces and were chained to the wall. “This is the cell that was empty.”

“We have already performed various scans of your brain, body and taken samples,” The scientist hummed as he wrote a few notes onto a clipboard. “But we did have one anomaly that you could help us with.”

The scientist reached out with his pen and tapped the black mark on Dave’s left arm. “Don’t touch that!” Dave snapped at the scientist who didn’t even flinch at the angry yell.

“This doesn’t show on any scans and we can’t even take a sample without the scalpels and syringes turning to ash.” The scientist stared at Dave with curiosity before sneering and turning away. “Anyway if you don’t cooperate we can torture you for information, you clearly aren’t human anymore so normal rules and rights are void.”

“Don’t do anything you would regret,” Dave growled as he tried to pull on his restraints, his strained groans grew louder before the chained human gave up. “Let me go!”

The scientist gave a sigh of relief, “I am so glad we double checked the maths on those restraints otherwise you might have stretched them a little.”

“I swear if you don’t let me go right now I will rip off your head!” Dave yelled as he tried to break free again. His struggles were futile as the scientist pulled out a small device from his pocket.

“Administering shock to… calm subject,” The scientist said before pressing a button and caused electricity from the base to be diverted through Dave’s body. The lights flickered before going out completely, after a few seconds emergency red lights clicked on and the scientist sighed. “Damn I knew it wouldn’t hold on but I still had to try.”

Dave’s eyes flickered open as the pain stopped, his eyes stared at the floor before he felt his body slowly repair the damage. He heard the scientist talking with an engineer over a radio about how to fix the power to the complex.

“Such weak minded individuals,” A voice muttered in disgust behind Dave. The familiar voice made Dave freeze, suddenly his concerns about his capture was far from his main concern. “Did you think by coming to a different world you would escape me?”

“No I had to save my son,” Dave said quickly, his loud voice caught the attention of the scientist.

The scientist looked at Dave with a curious glare, “Who are you talking to Dave?”

“Doesn’t it make you mad when scum like these roam free while you had to suffer in my prison?” The warden of Tartarus grumbled as he looked down at Dave. “You want to get truly angry don’t you?”

“No I don’t need this right now!” Dave yelled angrily back at Warden. “GO AWAY!”

The scientist couldn’t see Warden as a long grey hand reached over and wrapped itself around Dave’s mark. “Well Prisoner 1EC, I am not giving you a choice.”