unspoken war-t.scamander ✔️

02 x 14

NEWT AND MADELEINE APPROACH A CLOSED U-BAHN ENTRANCE. The blonde unlocks it.

A few moments later, the two enter Erkstag Prison. A warder is stationed before a wall of pigeon holes and a candle luminates the 'room'.

"We've come to see my brother. His name is Theseus Scamander." Newt says, putting the papers Dumbledore had provided onto the desk in front of the warden. A lightly worn photograph of Tina spins onto the desk  and the charmed stamp moves its way over the papers and to the picture but Newt snatches it just in time. 

"Sorry that's just..."

Madeleine tilts her head, noticing the maroon tie around the warden's neck. 

"Wand." The man drills. The two reluctantly pull out their wands and hand them to the warden. He gets up, lazily, and begins to pass his own wand over Newt. As it hovers over a pocket, a squeak is heard. 

"Oh, that's - I'm a magizoologist." Newt says. The warden fishes Pickett from Newt's pocket. "He's perfectly harmless. He's just a... pet.. really." The bowtruckle looks at Newt with a frown. The magizooligist apologises quietly. Teddy pokes his head out of another pocket.

"That's Teddy. He's a total nightmare, truth be told- "

"They stay here."

The warden uses his wand to float Pickett and Newt's wand into one cubbyhole and Teddy into another before moving to Madeleine. He passes his wand across her body but pauses at her shoulder. She sighs as Stan pokes his head out and glares at the man.

"Him too." the warden says. Madeleine picks up the dragon, patting his head and mumbling an apology before handing him over.

"Be careful with him. He doesn't like strangers." she says as the warden takes the dragon from her gingerly before quickly floating Stan and her wand into the cubbyhole next to Teddy and lock them in. 

With a sickening sound, the warden plunges his hand into a bucket of wiggling Grubs, plucks one out and shakes it. It quivers briefly before transforming into a firefly, to Madeleine's curiosity. The warden puts into lantern and the firefly flutters about, the lantern glowing feebly but giving off light. Newt takes the lantern and eyes the passage before them.

"How will we know where to find him?"

"He is your brother?"

"Yes."

"He will be the one who looks like your brother."

Madeleine rolls her eyes, taking the lantern from Newt. She looks back at Stan and sends him a smile.

"I'll be back, Pick." Newt says, moving to follow after the blonde, "On my word." The two walk into the passage and the darkness swallows them, leaving the lantern in Madeleine's hands being the only source of guidance.

The two walk through the darkness, calling Theseus' name. After a while, tiny movements can be heard in the shadows. Newt crouches and Madeleine hands him the lantern. A baby manticore steps into view. Upon seeing Newt, his wiggles its antennae. As the two watch, more Manticores appear and one bares its teeth at them. The two back away into a central atrium, their feet at the edge of a great pit. They looks down into the dark hole and something stirs in the shadows below.

"Shit." Madeleine mutters, turning back to the Manticores.

Suddenly, Newt crouches into a strange, crab-like pose and a second later, the baby Manticores copy him.

"Sorry, what?" Madeleine asks.

"Just copy me, Maddy, and they'll copy you. It's called-"

"-limbic mimicry. Yeah, I've heard of it." She sighs loudly and copies her old friend. The two sidestep weirdly, the Manticores following obediently, just like them.

The two continue the same scissor walk around the outside of the seemingly, bottomless pit and eventually an upside down Theseus, comes into view. He peers at his brother and best friend/ex-girlfriend,

"Rescuing me, are you?"

"That's the general idea, T." Madeleine replies.

"I presume this, whatever it is that you two are doing, is strategic?"

Madeleine snorts but quickly covers it up as Newt begins to explain it;

"It's a technique called limbic mimicry. It discourages violent engagement. Theoretically. I've only actually attempted it once before."

"fantastic." Madeleine mutters.

"And the results?" Theseus asks.

"Inconclusive. Also, that was a laboratory setting and the conditions were strictly controlled and the current conditions are more volatile, making it less predictive of ultimate outcome."

"Ultimate outcome presumably being our survival."

"Yeah. Presumably. I understand the concept and I greatly regret handing over my wand." Madeleine says and Theseus laughs. The two now stood on either side of Theseus's "cell". They both still as a huge antenna emerges from the darkness below. Theseus and Madeleine stare at Newt, who stares back, as the magizooligist turns slightly away from it when it comes near his face. It stays them for a moment, then the lamplight in the cell adjacent to Theseus's splutter out. The antenna retreats back down and a giant, scorpion-like tail emerges and plunges into the now-dark cell. It retreats the body that's in there and pulls it into the pit below. Several seconds pass, then what's left of the body is catapulted back up, landing with a sloppy thud, a few feet away. Newt raises the lantern to reveal the slob and the horde of Manticores that tumble over to their feast. Madeleine quickly sidles into the cell and manages to remove the yarn encasing Theseus's ankles. She finishes and he falls to the ground.

"Thanks." he groans and the two step out of the cell, joining Newt, and facing a further sea of Manticores, blocking their exit.

----------------- NOTE FROM POPS!!
Welcome to the Erkstag...