Drake returned from his trip with a new 'fan' in tow. Whenever he went hunting in Daguerreo, he always ended up having people follow him. Which...was apparently good for this thing called 'social interaction' with beings his own age, and it was always fun to show off, but grew old fast.
Right now, he had five people following him. Three girls who he'd known for a while, the one boy who was around the palace a lot and the newest stalker who was someone's cousin...

 

Eclipse noticed the group of children walking through the courtyard, and approached them head on. Despite his better judgment.

“My dear prince, do you have a moment?” Eclipse asked. His voice official, as it always was when he addressed Drake in public.

 

Instantly the girls started up in hushed whispers about demons, they retreated quickly, followed by the two boys.
Drake hid his amusement at that. “Of course, what is it?”

 

Eclipse was pleased that Drake's resistance to his air of authority and fear was not shared by all children; most would not even go near him willingly. If they did, a slight glare was usually enough to make them go away. He was considering asking Drake why they spoke of demons, what he had been telling them, but decided against it. Compared to what he wanted to talk about, it was unimportant. Plus, it would probably put Drake in an irritable mood, and make him even harder to persuade.

“How did the hunt go?” Eclipse asked civilly, as he began to lead the way toward the tower. Walking in no particular hurry.

 

Drake shrugged, knowing Eclipse didn't really care how the hunt went. “Well, there were no good monsters about so I decided to slaughter a few villagers in a farmhouse.”

 

“That's nice.” Eclipse said, not really paying attention anyway. Though he did half expect the boy to give out some sarcastic remark.

“How would you like to go on a trip to the Mist Continent?” Eclipse asked, giving Drake no time to elaborate or continue.

 

Nope. Drake smirked, he wasn't listening. “Mist Continent? Why?”

 

“Your mother and father are attending a meeting in Alexandria. There will be a big party, and you will be able to meet Princess Garnet.” Eclipse started, though he somewhat doubted that this would really interest the boy much. In fact, he suspected Drake would probably hate the idea.

 

“Grand. I do so adore those regal meetings and the chance to meet the preppy princess would be a wonderful opportunity, it's such a pity that I'm so very busy. Tragic, truly.” Drake replied, already having lost interest in this conversation.

 

“You don't want to go? Shame, I hear that boy with the tail was eager to meet you...” Eclipse stated, giving the impression he was faking sincerity, poorly.

 

Drake considered that. “... He fixed the lift...” Drake recalled.
Though... this morning Drake had 'fixed' the lift again. Therefore, the fact that the boy had helped Drake's main adversary did not bother him as much. The boy was stupid, he wanted weapons, he... stole things.

However, the sincerity, or lack thereof, in Eclipse's voice was a hint that there was a reason Eclipse wanted him to go. For that, Drake was going to be a pest. “That is interesting... I'll think about it.”

 

Eclipse had hoped that Drake would have been more enthusiastic about getting to see the boy that had annoyed him so much only months before. Now he had to think of another way. If convincing him wouldn’t work, he would have to coerce him.

“Good. I’ll let your father know you will be happy to go.” Eclipse said, making an obvious contradiction to Drake’s statement.

 

“Oh I have to answer this now? Alright... I choose 'no'. But I appreciate the offer. Now if you'll excuse me I have to find something to keep me busy.” Drake gave his parting remark and swiftly turned away, walking back to his awaiting followers who feared Eclipse.

It amused him in that he hadn't told them anything odd about Eclipse... They feared him from the start... he just helped that fear every now and then.

 

Eclipse closed his eyes for a moment, blocking off the outside and choice sections of the palace with the barrier. He wanted Drake to know he took this seriously. There was no reason for him to stay there, so Eclipse returned to his room in the tower. His point would be made clear in due course.

 

 

Drake snarled as he ran back to the tower. That had not been a fun experience. He had been walking with his fan club and suddenly... agony. He'd managed to play it off, pretended he had just remembered something he needed to do. Then he found himself in a sort of glass maze where it was nearly impossible to figure out where he could safely go.

 

Now he was rather angry, “ECLIPSE!!”

 

Eclipse walked to the door and answered it, in no real hurry, despite the boy's anger.

“You called?” He asked innocently, ignoring the glaringly obvious upset in Drake’s voice.

 

Drake nearly hit him. He would have, had it not been for his love of breathing. “Take the barrier down,” he demanded instead.

 

“Will you agree to go to the World Leaders meeting? I have an important task for you…” Eclipse counter-proposed fearlessly. He still had no intention of taking down the barrier outside the palace, but if Drake agreed, he might lower the barriers inside.

 

Drake glared for a moment and then gave in, “Fine. I'll go,” and it very well might have been true.
He would at least pretend he was going to go, and then perhaps forget to board the ship.

 

“Good,” Eclipse said almost immediately. He was content with the boy's answer, even though he had learned to trust him about half as far as he could throw him (which did not change as the boy got older since he got stubborn as he got bigger). Eclipse closed his eyes and lowered the barriers inside the palace. “I'm sure you will love all those interesting new weapons...”

 

Drake took mild interest in that. Weapons. The last new weapons he'd gotten were pistols... and those were fun.
“... Weapons?”

 

Eclipse went on to give Drake a quick explanation about the recent threat to the world, and that there was still a source of the secrets that had made all the destruction possible.

“Imagine the alien weapons that we could make. Centuries ahead of our own...” Eclipse suggested. He didn’t feel the need to give possible examples. Drake’s imagination would surely do that for him.

 

Drake's imagination did indeed do that for him. He could finally be rid of the lift... and kill Pricilla.
“...Hmm. I'll think about it.” He breezed, turning and walking up to his room.



Drake did think about it... the weapons would be fun, but... it still meant he had to spend time acting worthless and regal, as his parents did daily, and be around Pricilla..., which alone was worth death. He'd also have to leave the raptors here, and be forced to put up with the preppy princess.

“Or... leave for a hunting trip now and not return for a week or so.” He mused to Vanda, who was perched on his headboard.
She didn't seem to care what he picked, but she did watch him like a hawk.
“Hm. Let's go out.” Drake decided, holding his arm out for her to take the signal and come to him. Vanda flew over and Drake headed downstairs.

He got to the doors leading outside, but when he walked past them...
“GAH!!” He nearly caused Vanda to fall as the pain rushed over him.
Drake staggered back, startled. He wasn't grounded... right? He couldn't remember. He was grounded quite often... but he didn't recall any warning this time and that was just not fair.
“ECLIPSE!”

 

Eclipse looked up, unsure if he had just heard something. In the end, he decided to ignore it. It was probably just the wind or the little Dragon realizing he was trapped..

 

Drake snarled and growled and then stormed off to the palace.

So he just wants to keep me inside, Drake noted.

He also noted the Apothecary in the corner. “... Hm,” Drake grinned and strolled over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midnight.

Drake snuck from his room as quietly as he could. He'd learned many things in his sixteen years, and one of them was the art of sneaking out. The barrier made that a grand challenge; an impossible one.
Tonight would be different... he hoped.
With Celestina on his arm, Drake silently snuck past Eclipse's, and then Ellipsis's doors and out the double doors leading away from the tower, and the palace.

Once noticing that his plan worked, Drake re-adjusted his travel bag and took off running.

 

He ran for a few hours straight and then set up camp. A purple tent, Celestina's perch, and a small fire.

 

 

He spent an hour hunting and caught himself dinner, having been busy during dinner at the castle.

 

“This is how life should be,” Drake yawned with a grin.

 

 

 

 

It took Eclipse a while before he realized that Drake was gone. He had grown somewhat lax, but at one point in the evening, he had stood up, and noticed Celestina several miles away… and it had surprised him.

 

That made him angry.

As Eclipse approached where Drake was camping, the sky darkened quickly, black clouds forming out of nowhere. There was a sudden flash of lightening and a crash of thunder like a demonic roar seconds before it began to pour heavily with rain. The wind picked up and threatened to blow the tent away. It all started happening so fast, and was getting worse. The rain beating down harder and harder, as if it was trying to knock Drake to the ground.

 

Drake noticed it getting dark suddenly... and there was just one explanation for that, which was confirmed as the rain hit hard, like needles falling from the sky.

Yup... I pissed him off.

Drake fell back, into the tent. Had it not been for that, he would have ran. The tent prevented him from fleeing, and the wind would have made it hard...

“Celestina!” Drake called.
The falcon obediently came to him, and he was glad she wasn't injured.

 

The large raindrops turned to hailstones, as if the weather was trying even harder to break into the tent. As if in frustration, a bolt of lightning slammed hard into the ground right beside the tent. Scorching the wet grass. The thunder that followed almost instantly shook the earth all around the tent, almost powerfully enough to hurt. Another obvious threat. As if to back this up, a gust of wind slapped at the side of the tent like a giant paw.

 

Drake put Celestina in her cage, knowing she was safest there, and headed back out into the storm.
Hail... oh how he hated hail. It was freezing, he was already wet, and hail hurt far worse than rain ever could when it hit you. The campfire was long gone, murdered as if it had never existed to begin with.
He tried to light a flame, but the storm prevented it and to use any of his other abilities would have undoubtedly been taken as a challenge, and he was sure Eclipse would win...

“Alright!” He shouted. “Stop it!”

 

There was a flash of lightening in the sky that was accompanied by another bone-shaking crash of thunder. This time there was no strong gust of wind. In fact, the wind died down as the hail suddenly faltered, and stopped nearly instantly. Just one or two drops of rain came down as the clouds began to clear a little, and Eclipse seemed to step out of nowhere in front of Drake.

Some of the storm clouds still hung overhead like an ominous smog of fear, the shadow of a killer as it prowls eerily behind it’s prey, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

 

Haha, made you stop. Drake decided to definitely, definitely, not say aloud. He was already being bold by just being out here. He'd broken the unspoken command to stay inside— not only that, but he was making Eclipse look bad by getting through the barrier. What he was bold, or stupid, daring, etc. enough to say was, “...Can I help you with something?”

 

“How did you get out here?” Eclipse demanded, his voice spookily devoid of emotion, though his body was tense. Not even his robes moved in the wind. He looked more like an apparition or hallucination than a man.

He was too still, his gaze too unwavering, the air suddenly too cold. There was no single reason that Eclipse no longer seemed human, even though he hadn't shifted to his true form.

 

Drake... decided to go for bold. He smirked a smug little grin and pulled a bottle out of a pocket inside vest and shook it just enough so the pills inside the Aspirin bottle rattled.

 

 

Eclipse growled. The sound echoed around his throat in a way that shouldn't have been possible for a human. He had let his guard down too much. He had been too lenient with the barrier. Not made it painful enough. He would not make that mistake again.

“Get back to the castle,” he ordered and closed his eyes. Slowly he started to increase the power of the barrier.

 

Drake was only mildly afraid... until he felt his head start to ache and that threw the fear forward to a whole new degree... he was hours from the castle... If the pain cut through the pills... that would be extremely bad.

Drake took a few steps back, suddenly realizing just how cold it was-- how foolish he'd been to think he could ever challenge Eclipse like he had, even if he thought he had every right to be where Eclipse didn’t want him to be. He was a prince, right? Prince Drake, that's what almost everyone called him. Prince Dracula... yet all he ever seemed to do was whatever Eclipse ordered.

He hid the bottle back in his vest before turning and storming back to his tent... he didn’t think he had any chance of escaping punishment this time, but he wasn't going to leave Celestina out here in the middle of nowhere.
“I haven’t done anything wrong! You have no right to force me to stay inside!” He snarled.

 

Eclipse said nothing, but he gave a mental sigh. The boy still didn't understand. It wasn't about rights. It was about power, and who had it. He had the power to do it, and he was going to. The boy didn't have the power or experience to stop him. That's what gave him the right.

“I'd start heading back, if I were you...” Eclipse recommended without opening his eyes. He was strengthening the barrier slowly enough that Drake might just be able to escape serious pain if he ran back to the palace as fast as he could. For as he should know, the barrier caused worse pain the further you went past it.

 

Drake let Celestina out of her cage and then stalked out of the tent. He was furious, but knew attacking Eclipse outright would be fatal... so he just ran, already feeling the pain increasing... He wasn't going to be able to stand hours of this.

Fine. If that's how it has to be, I'll speed up. Decision made, his wings erupted.

He was much better with them now. He’d grown, they hadn't, and they no longer forced him to keep them spread just to walk. With a single flap, he shot into the air.

 

He wasn't supposed to do this. Not this close to people and especially not in broad daylight, but he did it anyway. To spite the rules or simply to get back in time would be hard to tell... but it was something he had the power to do. Drake's abilities magnified when in his TF, but he still wasn't bold enough to attack Eclipse... though for a moment, he wished he was.

 

Eclipse opened his eyes to watch Drake disappear into the distance. The boy had of course, broken another rule. Still, this would save Eclipse having to power down the barrier. He knew on foot the boy had no chance. Drake would collapse from the pain long before he reached the palace.

There was no need to really punish the boy with lots of pain if he somehow made it in time, the fear of that pain was enough to motivate him, and make the point. The robed man was only now starting to let his anger fade. The black clouds finally dispersed.

 

 

 

 

 

Drake landed on his balcony. It was surprisingly hard to fly when your head was exploding, but he had made it, and that was good enough as far as Drake was concerned. He crawled inside and waited for the pain to disappear completely.
From this new mind-crushing vantage point, Drake decided he really wouldn't mind going to the regal meeting...

 

 

 

 

 

Eclipse didn't exactly avoid Drake for the next few days, but he didn't make a point to go and see him, either. He kept the barrier up strong, and he was again sure the prince couldn't escape. So now, he was mostly concentrating on his role in the plan.

Writing to contacts, sending messages to world leaders. All the ways he could think of to spread doubt about the genomes loyalties. They were his pawns and servants and didn’t even know it. Yet.

Still, the time came when the meeting would be the next day, and Eclipse decided he had to talk to the Prince about the plan. He was stupid sometimes. He could be reckless, unreliable and even sometimes made mistakes just to annoy Eclipse. He couldn’t let that happen this time. He knocked on Drake’s door, prepared for a long argument that he half expected.

 

Drake highly debated killing whoever came through the door; but it was Eclipse... he knew it was, and he couldn't attack Eclipse.

With a sigh, Drake called out. “Come in!”

 

Eclipse took the invitation, and came in. “Good evening, young prince.” He greeted. He knew Drake would know he had a purpose there.

 

Drake leaned against the doors to his balcony, arms crossed, and waited for Eclipse to start talking.

 

“Do you understand your task for tomorrow?” Eclipse asked him, quietly. He didn't want to sound patronizing. Not yet, anyway.

 

“Yes.” Drake answered simply, sounding bored.

 

“It's very important you don't let them know your real reason for being there. It is important they do not know your true abilities, either. It is vital they not see you as any different from anyone else at the meeting; any other regal figure. No hunting, no climbing, no jumping off of things, don’t you dare shift to your TF and resist the urge to show off or show-up someone. If the princess has difficulty with something, so should you. Keep up the act the entire time. Are you sure you can handle it?” Eclipse asked. He wished there was some way to motivate the boy to want to be successful on this mission. Drake was always so much more reliable when he wanted to do something.

 

“Yes,” Drake repeated in the same tone as before.
He just wanted to get this over with and get back to his own life— the sooner the better.

 

If Eclipse couldn't find some reason Drake would want to do this for himself, he would have to settle for a threat. “Be sure that you remember that. If you fail, you could be grounded for a long time, and maybe no longer allowed to hunt on the Mist Continent at all...” Eclipse pointed out in a way that was not quite a threat.

 

“Wow. Much like now.” Drake droned, not at all showing anything but boredom toward that.
In his head, he was angry; but he was still a fire element and sarcasm was yet another outlet for his burning rage.

 

Eclipse would probably have been angry at the boy's sarcasm and disrespect, if he hadn't grown used to it. He blamed Ellipsis for it. The boy had obviously learned it from him.

“So, no questions?” Eclipse asked, not really sure if the boy really understood or not.

 

“If I say yes you'll stay... if I say no you'll leave... so. No. No questions,” Drake replied dismissively.

He would go, he'd play nice, he'd make friends with the Terran and the preppy princess, as were his orders, but until he went, he didn't see why he couldn't play his oh-so-favorite game that involved seeing how bad he could piss Eclipse off.

 

“Very well then,” Eclipse responded.

 

Drake abruptly walked out of the room. There weren't many places he could go... really, but he was dedicated at finding hidden locations.

 

Eclipse left the room a moment later. He had no desire to go chasing after the boy; he just had to make sure he was on the airship the following afternoon.

He wouldn't be going with him, he had 'things' to attend to elsewhere. Though he was considering going anyway, he had his doubts about Drake.

 

Drake stayed away from everyone until it was time to go. Then he waited by the door till the barrier was dropped, and then he left... with his parents.
He wasn't happy about any of this. He hated these regal meetings, he hated spending hours on a ship with his parents, he hated the fact that he was being used, and he was just plain mad!

 

However, when Drake returned... he was in a much different mood.

 

Eclipse was waiting for Drake to return. He had become quite good at guessing Drake's mood from the boy's facial expressions, but the one he wore now baffled him. He had expected to be able to tell how the mission had gone the moment he saw him, the fact that he couldn't disturbed him somewhat. He couldn't ask him right away, his parents were with him.

Eclipse gave them all a slight bow as way of greeting.

 

Drake even stayed with his parents for a while... an extremely unusual event. When they walked past Eclipse, he went with them without even giving Eclipse a second glance.

He couldn't remember willingly spending over an hour with either of them since he was eight. At the moment, though, he didn't mind— even preferred their company more so than going elsewhere alone.

However, after an hour or so, he became bored and they all seemed to realize they didn’t get along this well. Drake retreated to the hawk keep and then to his room.

 

 

Eclipse didn't wait long before he was knocking at the Prince's door. He wasn't an impatient person, but it was a little irritating being left in the dark about the mission like Drake had done to him. Something must be wrong for him to want to spend time with his parents.

 

“You may enter,” Drake chimed.
He flipped the page of the book he was reading and hummed some song he couldn't remember the words too.

 

Eclipse was a little lost for words as he entered, and stared at the boy that seemed considerably different from the one that he had spent nearly every day with since before he was born.

“How was the World Leaders meeting?” Was the question he finally asked. He continued to try and analyze the look on Drake's face.

 

Drake shrugged, “It was fine.”

 

“Oh?” Eclipse asked, wanting a far more comprehensive answer than 'fine'. He would be rather annoyed if Drake was happy because he had screwed up the plan.

 

“Mm hm.” Drake replied with a smile, “It was a surprisingly pleasant trip.”

 

“And why was that?” Eclipse asked, his patience unfaltering, so far. Even when he was happy, Drake was sarcastic… so he wasn’t sure what his words meant right now.

 

Drake grinned to himself, still reading. “I guess I found something that caught my interest...”

 

“And what would that be?” Eclipse asked, his irritation becoming considerable now.

 

Drake looked at Eclipse, a bit curious as to his actions.
His voice seemed normal... but there was something off. Drake's eyes widened as he realized what it was, and he laughed! Eclipse was annoyed! All those times when Drake has purposely tried to bother him, to make him mad, and he always managed to avoid giving a reaction! Now, when Drake wasn't even trying, this is what annoyed him!

The laughter stopped short, though, after Drake realized who he was laughing at.
“... sorry.”

 

“That wasn't an answer.” Eclipse informed the boy calmly, but there was a slight hint of warning in his voice now.

 

He had not been as amused as Drake had been, but at least Drake had the sense to stop quickly. Now he wouldn't have to send him to Pricilla for a year, and ruin the plan.

 

Drake made a face and then stopped himself, realizing his happy mood was going to get him in trouble with Eclipse, “Garnet.”