Title: The Wheel
Genre/s: Drama?
Rating: PG (references to blood and possible death)
Concrit: Encouraged
Mary Sue: No
Warnings: None
Pairings: None

Word Paynn drummed his fingers against the cold stone bench he sat on. The cell inside the Dragon Temple was damp and smelled of mold, but he frankly didn’t care. It was over, and he had lost. The waiting was simply the denouement.

It wasn’t long before the heavy door opened, grinding against the floor with a deep rumble, and Connor Penn entered. The two stared at each other for a long moment before Word finally spoke in his slow, cultured drawl, “Still wearing your armor? Are you expecting me to put up a fight? My, my, you haven’t even the courtesy to clean off the blood.”

“You’ve lost, Paynn. Your war is over,” the bearded man growled. Dark circles made his eyes seem sunken, but he held himself tall despite evidence of exhaustion.

Word chose to show his distain by inspecting his finger nails for dirt rather than look the other man in the eye, “You came to tell me something I already know? How dull.” He waited a moment while Penn forced himself to stay composed before continuing, “Do you really believe it’s finished?”

“What?” Connor’s mind was forced to switch tracks. He’d expected threats and maybe ranting, not a simple question. But then, Word always had some surprise tucked up his well tailored sleeves.

Smiling a long, thin smile, Paynn turned his eyes back to the man at the doorway, “Consider this, Penn: Why was I doing all this? Do you really believe that I am so narrow of focus that all I wanted was power?”

Connor hesitated. Truthfully, that didn’t sound much like the white-haired man at all. He always had layers to his plans, to his goals, “Fine, then. What was it that you really wanted?”

Word leaned forward, hands braced on his knees, “Haven’t you considered what will happen next? Oh, I don’t mean immediately,” he waved his hand dismissively, “I’m sure there will be peace and celebrations… for a time.” He paused, watching for a reaction, but saw only cautious attention, “It’s a cycle, Penn! This has all happened before, and no one learned from it then. They certainly won’t now. That’s what the prophesy was about. Who will they sacrifice next time?”

Connor tensed as he cut Word’s building tirade off, “He’s not dead.”

His resolute response elicited a bark of laughter, “So you’re still convinced he will survive, are you? As what? A shell?” Gray eyes gleamed as he mercilessly pushed on, “Did you even tell him what activating the Gold Draconium structures would do to him? Did you tell him the truth of the legend? Just as what happened to the first Dragon Booster…”

“Shut up!” the Dragon Priest snarled, but Word’s derisive laughter filled the room, “I… I thought there was another way… I thought…” he choked on the words, knowing they weren’t entirely true as much as he wished they were.

“My point still stands. What happens when humans forget once again?” He waited, but received no reply, “This is what my part was to be, to prepare for the future. Someone must set the stones for a new foundation or they will simply build up from the remains of the old one. That is why there needed to be a war. The refuse needed to be removed so it couldn’t contaminate what was to come.”

Connor spoke slowly as he considered what the other man had revealed, “Is that what you wanted? To rebuild in the image that you have chosen?”

Snorting in disgust as he crossed his long arms, Word responded, “Humanity has already proven that it can’t make the decisions for itself. Someone has to take the lead.”

With conviction he didn’t really have the strength left to feel, Connor spoke, “You wrong. They can learn. They won’t forget this time. We can rebuild our world, dragons and humans together.”

“Our memory is short,” Word warned, “You’d be wise to remember that. The Dragon Priest’s of old thought they could preserve the knowledge, but they failed. If you give people the chance, they will always disappoint you. It’s better to not give them that option.”

Penn shook his head sadly, “If you give them the chance, they can also exceed every expectation you dreamed of.” He turned away, hand on the door, “I’m truly sorry that things have come to this. You should tell the council what you told me. Perhaps they’ll be more sympathetic when they judge you.”

“I’d prefer to let history judge me. Vision is so rarely rewarded by those in the present. When the war comes again, I’ll be remembered,” Word replied with confidence.

He saw the armored priest hesitate before he pulled the door shut behind him. Deafening silence threatened to suffocate him so Word filled the space with the sound of his drumming finger tips, “It’s a shame neither of us will live to see who is right. I would so love to gloat…”



A/N: This drabble is actually the combination of several ideas that cropped up and I wanted to explore. First and foremost is a closer look at Word Paynn’s motivations. I’ve always felt the “Mwah hah hah!” taking over the world for its own sake villain shtick was trite. This made more sense to me.

I also spent some time thinking about Connor/Mortis’s reliance on the ancient prophesy. What if there was more to the legend? What happened to the original Dragon Booster? If he died saving everyone, would Connor still be okay with Artha filling that role? My thoughts were that the prophesy is so ingrained in the way he operates, that he’d have a hard time disbelieving it or trying to move away from that path. Not that he’d happily send his son off to his doom, mind you. Just that he might, deep down, believe that there really was no other way.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Feel free to poke as many holes as you like. I’m good with criticism.

abufhwasjkgdst *smacks head* Oh wow. A fic. A GOOD fic. Succinct and and well typed, IC characters. I'm incredibly impressed (and happy that I still get first comment because when I read it the first time I wanted to reply but didn't trust my half asleep brain).

I know it's hard to write a fic with characters in highly situations where their personality would be at utter odds with. trying to keep them IC when a part of your brain insists, loudly, that they should not be there.

But you pulled it off exceptionally well. Word's poise and haughtiness is all there. I would have expected him to be a touch more sullen or sulky, but yet you eschew that and leave him superbly IC.

I'm also pleasantly surprised by a convergence of our thought processes, I've never mentioned it to anyone I don't believe but I too had an idea about the sacrifice it may have taken for the dragon booster to reactivate the golden network.

WOW!!!! THAT WAS SOO DRAC! please write more! :faint: :flare:

I like it. :) Reminds me a bit of Treize Khushrenada from Gundam Wing, who fought a war for similar reasons that you nominated.

Word's motivations don't really make sense in canon--if he wants dragons to win a second war, surely he doesn't think controlling them is going to endear him to the new dragon overlords? So perhaps he's just trying to get them to come to be his army, but really his wraith control gear would more likely grant him human supporters into controlling their mounts. Or he could just sell gear to both sides, I guess. Anyway. Very nicely written, bringing some nice character depth and extrapolation in there. I can easily believe Connor dooming Artha for the sake of the prophecy, and I like the elaboration on Word. And I agree with Nemi that powering up the original network as likely as not did cost something.

:dance:

Thanks for the praise! I really appreciate it. For some reason this show has a tendancy to make me think... alot!

I found Word to be inexplicably easy to write. I thought about him being fairly put out about losing, but it made just as much sense to me that he'd find the whole thing to be somewhat ironic. With the motivations I laid on him, he'd essentially have to believe that everyone had doomed themselves by not following him.

As for Connor... well, he was really just there as a foil for Word and to pick at a few ideas I had about him. I could definitely see, after the ordeal he's likely just been through, him almost needing to, well, gloat about the fact that Word lost. I honestly don't see him as a malicious character, but if his son was dead/dying, it doesn't seem far fetched to think that he'd want to take it out on someone.

One of the other things that intrigued me was the idea of a sort of Dragon Booster cycle. You know the old saying about history repeating itself? What if what this isn't even the second time its happened? Maybe the "first" war is only the one that humans have remembered. Then you end up with a situation where instead of following through with the prophesy, the gang really should to be trying to break the cycle.

Something else that occurred to me is that it'd be really easy (and you kind of see a teensy bit of this in the show) for everyone to treat the Dragon Booster and Dragon of Legend like objects. Everyone wants them to be on their side, follow their causes since they'd be a big boon. And what exactly happens to the person who becomes the Dragon Booster? Artha comments in "Opposites Attract" they his and Beau's energies (or however he puts it) are becoming more connected. Are there other changes down the line? It's also been mentioned that people aren't supposed to be putting that much mag energy through their bodies. Does doing it on a regular basis have any affect damaging or otherwise? :plot:

Anyway, my brain has a tendency to get away from me on those occasions.

I don't know if I'll get the chance to write more any time soon. My schedule, unfortunately, is pretty busy. Ah well, when the mood strikes. ;)

It rocks. I really want to read more on this. :cookie:

yes, pleassseeee right more!!! :flare:

I'm positive that if I wasn't listening to redone classic Disney songs, this would've given me chills.

It's probably because I can picture it; hear it. Word all eerie calm and Connor struggling on his words. That's... scarily awesome. And then that whole thing about the Dragon Booster... I didn't really get that, so maybe if you could reply to this and clue me in a little bit better, if it's something you can explain better, anyways. But either way, it was... eek. It does make you think, "What will happen to Artha in the end?"

The characters are so incredibly themselves, and this is just... so well-written. I'm so glad I read this after I posted my own story!

xD Simply wonderful. Sort of daring. Applause!

Thanks, Ethe! Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

I'm not sure I can elaborate on the "What happened to Artha?" question since it was really just a nugget of an idea in the back of my head. You should feel free to use your imagination to fill that in however you like.

I so nominate this for archival. Right now. *pokes madartiste*

Oh! Okay. Guess I can put this in the archive then. :)