Dokusei had just finished tormenting Snow and was now just taking a stroll through the lair on her own.

She enjoyed moments like this.

No annoying followers.

No scheming.

Just her, all alone with her thoughts.

...sure, sometimes her thoughts drifted to things she didn't want to think about, but it was still nice to get some alone time.

She was once again lost in her thoughts, but was snapped back to reality as alarms blared.

"What the..what's going on?"

She raced off to find what had triggered the alarms, annoyed about her quiet time being disturbed like this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kasai had accidentally tripped the alarm near the end of the maze and froze, but ran to the golden cage that finally lay in front of her.

She got out the lock pick from Hitze and started picking the lock, which was also golden.  She flinched as the gold contacted her skin, but worked quickly and finally got the lock — and cage — open.

She struggled to free Fuego from the chains, but the gold was burning her hands and slowly draining her energy.  She finally managed to get them off and scooped her brother up in her arms.  She turned to leave, but was trapped.

"What do you think you're doing?" the dragon in front of her growled.  She bared her razor-sharp fangs, filling Kasai with fear once again.

"I-I..."  She tried backing away, but the cage was in the way.  She was trapped.

The dragon stepped closer, her fangs still bared.  Kasai was pressed against the golden cage.  Her breathing grew slow and heavy.  Pain was filling her body.  Her energy was fading.

She immediately hesitated as she felt something scoop her up onto its back.  She heard a loud screech.  She clung to whatever she was on and held Fuego close to her.  She looked to see a masked griffon underneath her.

The dragon immediately hesitated and glared, but the griffon ran past. Two other dragons went in front of the first and attacked, trying to keep her distracted.

Dokusei jumped as the griffon raced past her. She growled loudly and howled to get her followers in. Red, Xander, Alex, and Lucy raced in, later followed by KitKat.  Dokusei immediately hesitated.

"Where is..."

She jumped when she heard loud roaring from the room Fuego was in before and raced in to see Teresa fighting two other dragons.

"TERESA, THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!  LEAVE THE OTHERS ALONE AND COME HELP!"

Teresa's attention snapped over.  "But what if they steal my gold?"

"NEVER MIND THE GOLD!  GET OVER HERE!"

Teresa rolled her eyes and went to join the battle.

"As for you..." Dokusei growled at the two strangers, but they just ignored her and raced past to join Kasai and the griffon, who were still escaping.

Kasai glared back at her pursuers.  She took a deep breath.

"Fire magic training, don't fail me now." she whispered to herself, sending firey blasts at them to slow them down.

The dragons caught up.  Kasai was about to attack, but the griffon spoke.

"Don't hurt them.  They're on our side."

She immediately hesitated.  "...okay."

Her heart pounded in her chest as they neared the exit.

The griffon leaped.

The pursuers pounced.

Time seemed to slow down.

Kasai's vision began to gray out...

...then went black.