Hybrid: Chapter 31: Bait

Wing dropped his sword and jumped into the puddle of blood, lifting the dead Hunter's wrist. On the small three inch screen, Wing saw Evelyn chained to a metal chair, in a concrete room. She was badly bruised, one eye was swollen, and she had a number of minor lacerations on her face, arms, and legs. Sometimes she wouldn't bother doing her hair because she didn't think it was important, but it was even messier than that. It was pretty apparent she put up a struggle.

"Evelyn!" Wing shouted into the screen.

"Oh thank god you're alright!" She exclaimed, her head tilting back in relief.

"For the moment yeah. Are you alright? Where are you? How are you contacting me?"

Evelyn smirked, flicking hair out of her face.

"I don't think two out of four was bad," her expression went stern again. "I'll survive, I'm in a concrete walled room, there's, uh, a metal door, a wooden table, not much."

The testing rooms. The good news was she was on this floor, the bad news was that it'd be grueling to get to her.

She continued.

"The guards chained me down here, and a women told me tha-" her face went pale.

"Times up!" Wing heard Monton's voice through the small speaker. Not a moment after did her face fill the screen. "Come get her."

Right before the screen went black, Wing saw Evelyn struggle against her restraints and scream one last desperate plea.

"Wing don't, its a-!"

And with that the transmission ended. Wing let out a roar.

"RRRAAAUGHHH!"

He threw down the arm he had been holding, and stamped on the screen, smashing it to bits in a fit of rage.

"They're using her! They're using her to get to me!" He shouted.

He took a breath, before slumping down against the wall behind him. Wing held his head in his hands, covering his eyes with his palms.

He was beyond worried for her, he was terrified. Terrified of what they would do to her, and what would happen to her if he couldn't save her. He wanted to block out the world, go back, never have to make these decisions.

But he knew he couldn't. This was the reality, and he had to do something about it. Sitting there brooding would only make the problem worse. He had to carry on.

"And its fucking working."

Rhaegos gave Wing a minute alone before kneeling down in front of him.

"Hey, I've lost family and loved ones to these people to. It was harsh, it was brutal, but guess what? You have the opportunity to save them. And God knows I'm gonna help you do just that."

Wing looked up at him, taking another deep breath, trying to repress his emotions again, focus on the task. He nodded. Rhaegos held out his hand.

"Ready?"

Wing took his hand, and Rhaegos helped him up.

"Let's do it."

•••

Many of the remaining dragons stood in the hallway before him. They awaited his instructions. Wing formulated what he wanted to say in his head, then took a deep breath.

"This is what we've been waiting for, our chance for freedom is within reach, you can almost smell it. We'd set up teams of drivers, shooters, and passengers, and send you off in multiple small convoys. However, I will not be joining you, not everyone is free from the Hunters." Wing took another deep breath, stopping himself from pacing back and forth. "You've all done more than enough to get us this far, should you opt to leave now, Rade will organize the convoys. But I humbly ask for your help one more time, this time as a request. Come with me, we'll rescue everyone that's left, and kill the one responsible for this massacre."

A mumur went through the crowd, people talking with each other trying to decide what to do. Wing hoped that they would choose to leave, he didn't want to be responsible for their lives. That being said, he knew he would need their help to succeed.

Not long after he heard a deep, instantly recognizable voice, accompanied by the sound of heavy footfalls. His father pushed his way through the crowd to the front.

"I'll go with you." He said with determination.

Wing knew he would. His father was selfless to a fault. When Wing was younger, and there wasn't enough food, Jargon would go hungry that day, just to make sure Wing was well fed. If a hunt got out of hand, Jargon would more or less literally swoop in to help Wing. He'd even pull scraps from the city if they couldn't get by. He'd shelter Wing using his body heat in the Winters, and finally, sacrificed himself to get Wing away from the Hunters. This was him following up on the last one.

Wing nodded solemnly, and his father did his best to hide a limp as he lined up behind Wing. He must have pulled some weight in this community because a moment after, several major dragons joined them.

An older male hybrid let out a sigh. "They killed my family, destroyed my home, and killed me here. I've got nothing to lose."

He joined Wing, and was soon followed by five more hybrids, each stating similar stories.

"I only survived before, then stayed alive after I was captured. Thanks to you, I've lived for once. This is my only way to repay you."

The six hybrids plus five major dragons left the room at a little under a fifty-fifty split. Wing couldn't blame them, he wanted to leave as much as they all did. He just knew he had a responsibility first.

There was a short silence in the room as the two groups looked across the divide and upon the other for quite possibly the last time.

Rade took a deep breath, "well, you lot, come with me, we're getting you out of here. Good luck Wing, good luck Rhaegos. It was an honor knowing you, and fighting alongside you," he nodded formally.

"As it was you," Rhaegos replied. "Godspeed."

"All of you," Wing added, "thank you for getting us this far, we couldn't have done it without you."

Wing heard many different versions of appreciation from the group that was now following Rade through the double door and into the garage. As soon as the door shut behind them, Wing turned to his smaller group.

In total, Wing had thirteen dragons on his side, not counting himself. Those odds weren't great, but they had made it this far. Introductions were brief, just enough for Wing to find out names and areas of expertise. He had them organize based on skills, tech over here, combat over there, medical here, and other.

Two hybrids went over to tech, including Rhaegos who straddled tech and combat. One hybrid, Jargon, and another major dragon went to combat. One major dragon and one hybrid both went to medical, and the last three  major dragons and single hybrid went to other. When asked, the dragons in "other" said they either were just farmers or had been trapped for so long they had forgotten their trade. They just wanted revenge, the primary motivator of those who enlisted with Wing, because their lives had been taken away and ruined by DRaC.

Wing drew out a plan with help from Rhaegos. It wasn't super complicated, and relied too heavily on himself, but he was mostly sure it should work.

"This'll be the first step," Wing briefed his team of dragons. "If we can pull this off, we can rescue a highly trained and dangerous hybrid, who knows this building inside and out. He can give us a fighting chance to take out the head of this facility. Are you with me?"