Dominio fixed Austin with a curious glance, as if lost in thought. Austin held his gaze, undeterred.
Austin dared not to glance away from Dominio's gaze. He didn't see Reya's questioning gaze, not Cesar's enraged expression or even Alyssa's arched eyebrow. He didn't see Horri, Feari and Pannica's cackling mouths - He did see Scarleteye's intrigued expression from the corner of his eye briefly, but he held Dominique's gaze nonetheless, as he walked towards the boy.
"I'd kill you first. I would. Really, I would, trully, but that honor belongs to Horri, sadly; not me." Dominique spoke as if he felt bad, or guilty, that he wasn't able to kill Austin. It made Austin nauseous.
"'And Imma enjoy it very, very much," Horri commented. Horri just grinned so profoundly hideously, honestly Austin felt like the injured, bloody, casted leg was the least ugly thing about the boy at this point. "But you won't one bit tho." His cackle as freaky as his appearance, Horri gave Austin the chills even before he messed his leg up. "Sadly, Dominio has plans for ya before I can."
"Plans? What plans?" Austin wondered what those plans could be, as he returned his gaze back to the swole guy in charge, Dominique. His eyes glowed a fiery gold, as a change in temperature suddenly undercame the space up in the attic. Austin somehow knew he was the cause of this. It suddenly became hard to breath and Austin thought the lacking ability to breath would cause him to suffocate to death. And then the guys eyes returned to their normal dark brown, the temperature simultaneously cooking down to normal as Austin could breathe again.
"Disrespect my siblings again, and I promise you you won't like how I burn your friends alive before your very eyes," Dominique threatened, but Austin felt as though it was more of a promise because he had a feeling that he'd be able to do it somehow.
As he looked at his friends, he had an idea. If Reya's ability could work the way he needed, he had a feeling he'd be able to succeed. To test it, he thought 'I don't know if you can hear me, but, Reya, if you can, follow my lead.'
In case she heard it, Austin didn't look; he couldn't risk any of their captors to catch on and a purple glow in the eyes was hard to hide. He had to do this blindly and hope Reya heard his thoughts.
Returning his gaze back to Dominique, Austin began the first part of his plan: Stalling. "So here I thought Scarleteye was the leader of the you guys. What's up with that?"
"Oh, her? Yeah, no, she's just our muscle." Dominique stated smugly, waving a dismissive hand in the girl's direction, his face so smug it was hard not to punch him in the jaw. "And it is interesting that she possesses the same crest you do - It was less worrisome using her to predict how you'd respond, but the results…Well, you and your friends are about to die by our hands, so it's safe to say the results speak for themselves, huh?"
As Dominique cackled, the others did, too. Well, some of the others, anyways. Scarleteye stayed quiet and more observant towards Austin and his friends, either too interested in keeping her eyes on the target, or just uninterested in the whole situation, period, and just wanted to get things over and done with already. Austin couldn't decide, but, given the situation at hand, it was a series of thoughts he'd think about later, if he survived now.
Austin caught Reya's eye and she nodded her vote to continue procrastinating. Austin took the words of encouragement and continued down his plan. "If you think that I'll join your band of psychos because one psycho shares the same crest I wear, then you're even crazier then I had imagined you to be."
"Oh, Austin, what makes you two similar isn't the crests you both share," Dominique nodded to Scarleteye, who took a step forward.
"No, it's our experiences we suffer because of it," Scarleye spoke to Austin. "They probably forced you to wear a raven's crest when you first arrived, huh?" she said, startling Austin. Before he could defend himself, Scarleteye continued. "Why do you have to bear a crest you don't belong to? Why do you have to play by their rules; The Taboos? Why hide your abilities when others around you freely use theirs?"
"Last I was told, you're the reason why I can't wear my crest," Austin rebuked, but the determination in Scareleteye's face never wavered. It was unsettling.
"I was banished because of my abilities - My crest!" Scarleteye nearly shouted that last part. "You and your band of Overseers failed to be able to train me for my abilities-."
"There wasn't anyone who had the same crests to train you, girl!" shouted Caesar.
Scarleteye drew her bow and aimed it directly at Caesar. "Careful. One more little slip of the finger and you won't have to wait until Pannica kills you; I'll do it now. One. More. Word."
Though clearly still pissed, Caesar silenced himself. Scarleye then continued where she left off: "When you guys wouldn't train me, I decided I'd do it myself. And you banished me for it."
Austin caught movement from the corner of his eye: A shadow, he guessed. Cleo? Zether? With a slight gulp, he briefly thought it might be a Scavenger that could've gotten past his friends outside with Aaron. That'd suck, he thought. Austin wasn't sure who the shadow belonged to, but he felt as if he wanted it to be someone who could help them, not some cannibal hungry monster.
"We banished you because your abilities got people hurt!" shouted Reya, impulsively.
"Liar!" Scarlet shouted back. "You and your brother and the Overseers banished me because you were jealous, jealous of my gifts - That is the only reason you banished me to live in the Labyrinths. And you know it."
"You are forgetting what you did, Scarlet. So many Meadowers died because of your 'gifts'," Alyssa said.
"Don't be condescending to me!" Scarleteye shouted back.
"It doesn't matter, anyways," Caesar said. "You attacked us then; you're back to finish us of now. You are a traitor. You will never be a Meadower, not again; not ever again."
Scarleteye seemed momentarily hurt by this, her bow dipping down ever so slightly before firming her grip and aiming her bow at Reya. And it was then that he realized the time to execute the plan was right here, right now, or someone was going to die. Locking gazes with Reya, who nodded once, then eyeing Caesar who motioned silently he was on ready through his signature scowl, Austin smirked.