There’s been a strange vibe abound since we entered the gates of Cobblestone, I’d thought it my imagination at first, my mind trying to latch onto something-anything to busy itself and forget recent failures but Flynn sensed it too.

Cobblestone is known for its vibrant parties and passionately open locals.

Although the passion and festivity are definitely here, this odd sense of imminent danger or panic radiates from some of the people who saw me and dawning the mark of the blue phoenix on my robes.

Talking to the locals has also been fruitless, oh sure they all seemed open, welcoming even if you’d not been trained to read faces in the ways of manipulators. They were all lying; they either reflected or avoided my questions by giving a different answer.

The worst part was it did not seem to come from ill intent. There was fear in their eyes, something had happened here recently. A power struggle perhaps. And the diverted and half-answers all exposed one unified truth of their words. ‘Do not enter the passion district dressed in those markings,’

So come later tonight that’s exactly what I’ll do.

​Sophie - July 16th, 2764

Natalie

 

It had all taken its toll. The lack of sleep, the long and relentless traveling, her super-fast healing, and the power to see the life of all living things around her. Though they prove useful they consumed great amounts of her stamina.

 

To keep such feats up for long periods of time was already asking too much, summoning her wings to boost her combat prowess and speed to boot was the final nail in the coffin.

 

Without her special sight, Natalie blinked in the almost invisible silhouette of Andrew in front of him, her hand blindly reaching out to his shoulder for support.

 

Andrew seemed to stiffen to her clumsy gesture as he likely saw them through his thermal goggles. He knew enough to understand what that meant.

 

"You've burned yourself out!" He said, his tone low in shock.

 

Natalie winced at the pain at the back of her eyes as she tried to activate her angelic sight again. The small migraine now growing at the back of her head made her neck stiff.

 

"I'm fine," Natalie said in-between panting and bushing his hand aside to stand up. "We need to keep moving."

 

I need to keep moving! Her mind demanded.

 

She tried to get back onto her feet, however, as she did so it felt as if the world itself was about to slip away into a deeper void than the darkness that now befell her.

 

Having barely taken two drunken steps Natalie stumbled back onto the floor fighting for breath. She felt Andrew’s hand on her shoulder as she slid back down.

 

I can’t stop here!

 

As Natalie lethargically waited for her dizziness to subside she could feel Andrew's gaze upon her, desperately trying to weigh what had happened to her. Whilst the children all gathered around, their silent panic and uncertainty practically screamed vibes of worry and panic through the hallways’ walls.

 

I’m failing them…

 

She needed to get up-she needed to keep going. If she failed them as they failed her then what was the point of suffering from these powers? What was the point of risking it all if she failed to prevent others from the same fate she went through?

 

She heard the foreign girl cry out something, her little hand still latched onto her vest, Andrew was trying to calm her down but even their voices were growing faint as she tried again to get onto her feet. They needed her eyes and insight to navigate these halls and avoid being seen. It was super important that they can avoid any more armed men now otherwise-

 

With her desire to move overriding her body's rights she lifted her head up again. This time however the dizziness crashed over her like a tidal wave and much like being thrown under its fold Natalie found herself toppling to her back, the pure void of darkness beckoning.

 

~#~

 

She’d passed out, Natalie somehow knew this as she stood there in the void of darkness. It was strange… despite being out cold her mind still ticked on. As if detached from the blacked-out mind. Is this what passing out feels like? She’d experienced passing out before and never had she had a recollection of sitting in a void knowing that she was out of it.

 

Does this mean I'm dead? Her thoughts echoed, they seemed more pronounced here, like they truly had sound that echoed them back to her ear.

 

The oddity of it fell aside when she contemplated her own thoughts once again.

 

‘Dead’

 

She doubted that her fainting did the trick. Could it be that the armed men ambushed them again? It was hard to say. The last memory of scanning the place showed little sign of anyone else coming towards their floor but a lot can change in a few moments.

 

Then it’s over, I’ve failed.

 

She finally got what she’d wanted. An end to the suffering. An end to the memories. A suicide mission failed successfully. Having pushed things further and further, something had to snap. Whether that be the bastards that did this to her or herself It did not matter. It was an ending-a-finale run before the finish line. It was what she’d wanted ever since she’d escaped. Ever since finding out that her loved ones had long been gone when she made it back.

 

They’d likely take the children back if they did not kill them in the crossfire. A part of her wondered what fate was worst. Dying at gunpoint or dieing as a lab rat. It was what she was going for, wasn't it? Her gut twisted in a knot to that thought, however. Her last thought before arriving here and thereafter had been that she’d ‘failed them’, Andrew, the kids, herself.

 

Maybe once upon a time, she’d hoped for an end to all of it as she lost herself in the throws of revenge. Nothing about that had changed… at least she thought nothing had. And yet something tore at her as she contemplated that she was out of the struggle. A great hollow void opened up in her gut-one even more boundless than the darkness that surrounded her.

 

Andrew...

 

Tears welled up in her eyes, in shock she ran her arms across her face in an attempt to dry them. Thoughts of her companion dead because of her actions pained her more than she could have ever imagined. More than the thought of the children dying, even more than her own life. In her eyes, people like her and the children were already a lost cause. Most would come back to broken lives and missing loved ones, back to a world stripped of its innocence forever. If her experience was anything to go by it was not that different from death itself. They were people whose lives were already on the brink of collapse.

 

But Andrew, Andrew had a whole future laid ahead of him, he still had his father back in Null. even his mother still lived in the river ladened lands of Aqua Falls. He’d had a solid skill as a hunter thanks to his father training him even before they met. He’d been by her side supporting her long before her life was turned upside down.

 

And all she’d repaid him with was a cold shoulder and distant words. Their travel up here had to be among the coldest she’d been with him for a while. And now thanks to her he’s likely dead. Another good person. Another person who dared to stand by and help her thrown to the void. As she sank to her knees she gave one final wipe off her face, it was then that she noticed something. Her bear arms could be seen clearly seen in this room of pure blackness, despite there being no apparent light, her pale cream complexion was as clear as day before her. Blinking in confusion she looked about for the light source. Nothing, not above or below, to the sides or at her back.

 

As bafflement wrapped her a faint breeze could be heard whistling in the distance. Uncertain if that was where it was coming from Natalie froze. It whistled gently but steadily from an unspecified distance to her left.

 

Sounds from outside? Does this mean I'm alive?

 

Unsure if she was even dead anymore Natalie straightened up and peered towards the unyielding darkness she felt the sound coming from. Nothing, frustrated tried calling out to the void only to receive nothing. Clenching her eyes shut Natalie, cursed her situation, her helplessness. How she dragged Andrew into all of this. If she could just have one wish it would be not let Andrew perish here along with her stupid mistakes. To let him set off and find his own reasons for traveling. To become a great hunter much like his father.

 

‘If only you were awake when you thought it.’ a voice echoed out through the void. A voice that was young and oh so familiar.

 

Unsure what direction it came from Natalie begins glancing around in all places frantically.

 

“Who’s there?!” Natalie shouted.

 

A surprised murmur reported back to Natalie's ear soon after making her stand on guard. In this darkness she was on full alert, however, something about that familiar voice disarmed her better senses. She felt eyes wearing on her from all sides but saw nothing in the blanket of blackness.

 

‘Wait... You can hear me?’ the void said.

 

It was then that Natalie’s eyes widened as she recognized this voice. Before she could act on this however the void came crashing down around her.

 

~#~

 

Eyes fighting to open Natalie woke up to the low mumbles of voices chattering beside her. With recollections of her last waking memory as fule Natalie shot up only for her head to smack onto something flat and wooden up above. Jolted back from the impact she rolled to one side as she clenches her head, her knees curling up towards her chest from the sharp pain. On top of which in reflex to opening her eyes to the darkness she activated her angel sight and instantly regretted it as a burning sensation rushed through her eyes.

 

“Natalie!” Andrew’s voice called out to her front.

 

“Andrew?” she asked in a dazed surprise, her pain momentary forgotten.

 

Opening her eyes she let go of her angel sight but not before confirming that there was nobody else on the floor, it seemed like most of the people in the base had moved to the floors below. Eyes now normal she could barely make out the silhouette of Andrew and a few others stationed beside him.

 

“How are you feeling?” Andrew said carefully.

 

Reminded of the pain in her forehead she placed her hand back on it. It was hard to see the room well as she was but wherever she was resting was elevated to where Andrew and others sat. She first thought she was in a place with a low ceiling but given that she’s able to sit up straight that was not possible.

 

“I knew she’d bump it,” a kid said, it sounded like he sniffled up a hanging booger making Natalie think of Tien.

 

“You didn't say anything,” another kid chided, a girl. Natalie recognized the voice as the eldest girl Walta.

 

Andrew shussed them right after which seemed to work. The atmosphere was calm if not tipping on a knife's edge, much like mice sneaking in the kitchens to get something to eat. Though she was relieved to hear them Natalie could not help but take a mental track of Walta’s tone for comparison.

 

It was not her voice.

 

“You're not using those purple eyes,” Andrew mumbled to himself.

 

Natalie glanced away to take another look around.

 

“Where are we?” Natalie pushed out.

 

“In the kitchens,” Andrew said, seeming to relax as he did. “I remembered them moldy pricks mentioning it,”

 

“‘Moldy pricks’?” Natalie asked, her eyes frowning.

 

“You shouldn't say that,” a young girl said. Natalie did not know her name.

 

Andrew seemed at a loss for words when he looked back at the kids for a moment. Natalie was just lost in thought yet again.

 

Not her voice.

 

“A-anyways, my point is those guys mentioned they had a chief who fed the kids better portions than them. So when you passed out as you did I thought I'd better go find it. Luckily it was on the same floor we were already on.”

 

“You left me on the worktop,” Natalie mumbled blankly. Although she could not see it properly she was certain now that she’d knocked her head into the worktop cupboards just above.

 

She heard Andrew bite back a curse before clearing his throat.

 

“Seemed like the best place to put you at the time,” he said slowly. “They wouldn't be able to eat at the table otherwise so...”

 

“So you put me on the worktop,” she repeated, Natalie could see Andrew visibly wince to her comment.

 

“I was going to tell him not to,” Tien mumbled timidly. This earned him a stern hush from Walta.

 

With her head still spinning and yet to fully gauge the state of herself Natalie just stared blankly at the barely visible people in front of her. She felt her fingers moist from the tears that were on her face. The tears from her 'dream'. Her heart was still heavy from the thoughts conjured up in that strange void. The sound of chewing could be heard beyond her. That void in her gut became a long and loud grumble as hunger announced itself.

 

It was so loud that most of the munching sounds in the room came to an abrupt halt thanks to it. Mouth parting Natalie’s face heated up as she felt all eyes on her. Taking a moment to compose herself she found solus in the fact that it was too dark to see her likely reddened face, that comfort however was taken away when she saw Andrew looking right at her face as if peering into her very soul. The single scope of the goggle made that peer intense like a focused laser that only made her more self-aware. After what felt like forever Andrew gave a knowing nod.

 

“Yeah, can’t hide much from these goggles,” he said to himself as he turned around to reach out for something on the other worktop.

 

Natalie was about to protest until Andrew's barely visible arm came veering right back in front of her, his hand holding bread and laid in a bowl of some type of liquid, with something that looked like a fish lying in the middle of it. The smell tells her that it’s bread in fish soup, it brings up the memory of the fish she’d hardly eaten before casting to the fire the night before, and her mouth waters to the look of it.

 

"Eat up," he said, shaking the bowl in front of her face and snapping her out of her rapture.

 

She reached out for it gingerly, remembering the lie she told him that morning however she could not help but feel a pang of guilt at accepting the dish from his hand. As she tried to pull the bowl towards her Andrew grip on it tightened making her do a double-take at his barely visible features.

 

"And next time; don’t hide things from me," he said, there was a low intensity to his words. A touch of anger but mostly concern. And just like that, she knew her rig was up.

 

Unable to maintain eye contact Natalie looked away from Andrew in shame as she pulled the bowl out of his hand, with Andrew letting his grip go the gesture was simple. The flush on her face was so intense however that it made her ears burn.

 

"It’s not as if I lied, you never asked." She mumbled defensively. The protest came out far meeker than she envisioned making her cringe inward. Hiding her face behind her bread she began to eat.

 

"Even when cornered you're stubborn," Andrew whispered plainly.

 

Knowing that Andrew could see her very own blood betray her though the thermal goggles only made her blush worse. Had it been anyone else she’d been more composed but with him.

 

Damn him.

 

Making a blatant effort to glance anywhere else but at him, Natalie instead looked to the dark kitchen around her trying to make out the size of the room itself. It was fairly large with a workstation laid in the dead center. Under it hung a large stirring spoon, spatula, and other cooking utensils. A knife holder stood at the edge of her own workstation but the knives themselves were not there. She clenched onto her bowl in frustration once she realized what she was doing. She was running away again. After all that Andrew has done for her-after all that’s happened and she’s giving him the cold shoulder.

 

She’d been stupid, so hell-bent on getting here that she’d neglected herself of basic necessities. So concerned about trying to not make him worry that she’d ended up doing worse.

 

"Sorry," She whispered.

 

Eventually, Andrew sighed to himself drawing her attention back to him.

 

"Forget about me,“ he said. “Just focus on getting your strength back. For their sake." He gestured to the nine kids behind him.

 

Natalie nodded, seeing that this is neither the time nor place to be pity she heaves a sigh in defeat and begins eating her fill.

 

She could feel Andrew’s eyes on her as he nodded in approval. Natalie looked back once again to the children. It was very hard to see now that she was not making use of her angel sight but she could make out the silhouettes of each of them, all now sitting silently as she finished eating. Silent they patiently wait on her. Waiting for their ray of hope to gather her strength and pull them out of this in one piece. If anything else happened she’d vowed that it would not be letting them down. And she’d not let him down either.

 

"So then! What happens from here?" he said in a chipper tone, he was looking straight at her and it froze her spoon from her mouth.

 

Her mind gone blank, she just sat there dumbfounded. Was Andrew flirting with her? It was so unexpected she did not know how to react.

 

"This is not the time or place," One of the kids said suddenly.

 

Andrew looks back at the young boy of eight baffled

 

"Quite Ryan!” Walta chided. “Though he’s right. You should help us out of here first before you start... flirting,"

 

"Wait-what?!" Andrew exclaimed.

 

"When a guy says that to a girl it means that they are going to do what they shouldn't be," Tien said between sniffing the snot running from his nose.

 

Andrew's jaw hung loosely at this revelation.

 

"And where did you hear this from?" he said carefully.

 

"From a movie," said matter of factly.

 

Andrew was lost for words.

 

"A move?" Andrew mocked in a mumbled, he sounded stunned.

 

Tien nodded emphatically.

 

"Wen it happens on squween daddy covers my eyes. He tells me that mum likes the cheesy parts. But I don get it because, I like cheese as well." a boy, perhaps the youngest among them said.

 

The thud that came from Andrew stropping his head on the workstation broke Natalie from her brain freeze.

 

"I was not pulling some cheesy pickup lines from a movie so I could do… something! And who in their right mind thinks that stuff works anyways?!" he snapped.

 

He looked around at them but got nothing back but silence. Taking the silence as a form of denial Andrew simply held his face in his palm, he looked tired.

 

"So it’s not true?" another young girl spoke up.

 

"That’s why they are called actors," Andrew said drearily as he pulled his face out of his palm to look at them.

 

"What's an 'actor'?" The youngest boy replied.

 

Andrew just looked lost for a few moments, with an exasperated sigh he shook his head off the issue and looked back to them.

 

"You know-never mind, it's not important." He mumbled as he passed his fingers through his dreadlock hair. "What matters right is that Natalie understood what I meant... Natalie?"

 

Sinking back into thoughts from the last time Natalie blinked abruptly and cleared her throat before going back to eating her meal.

 

"It was the pause in-between the sentence that fooled me," She said dismissively, trying to play it off as casually as possible. But in truth, her stomach felt all kinds of knotted up and not just from stated hunger.

 

Andrew cupped his face in both his hands in disbelief. With a long and dreary sigh, he deflated before he slowly shook his head to himself.

 

"The 'plan' what happens next in the 'plan'." He said, putting emphasis on the word.

 

"I see," Natalie said as she took another bite of her bread and brushes the crumbs she felt fall on her tracksuit.

 

"You've been quick with ideas since we’ve got here. If your mind is still in top gear witch... well.” Andrew cleared his throat clearly addressing the misunderstanding just a moment ago.

 

Natalie stopped eating mid-chew. For that brief second, Natalie felt like kicking him. Seeing this Andrew scratched his head and pushed himself back on topic.

 

“It would be nice to get an in-depth idea of what you're currently thinking since we now have the time to talk," Andrew said. "You said that you'll try and power the lift earlier. Think it’s still possible."

 

Natalie who'd just got done with her bread drank the last of the soup in the bowl wiped her mouth before looking back at him.

 

"My power, it’s the same kind that they use to move this pre-fall tech. If I’m careful with how much I use it should be possible.”

 

“Do you think You’ll have enough in you? I mean you’d just passed out not long ago.” Andrew asked.

 

Hearing the concern laced in his questions Natalie put her bowl gently down to her side as she seriously thought of an answer.

 

“Give me another ten minutes, now that I’ve eaten I just need a little time to recover my strength,” she said.

 

“You sure you don't need more time?” Andrew said. He was looking directly at her now.

 

Cleaning the last bit of bread in her teeth Natalie closed her eyes and with them shut activated her angel sight. There was a bit of sting in the initial act making her brows narrow but then the pain leveled out into something more bearable. She was rewarded with the sight of Andrew and the nine children all sitting or standing, their body’s taking up a soothing kind of white light. All normal. Beyond that, she could see the faint outlines of the room they are in, and the rooms beyond them each faint layer of wall made it harder to see than the last eventually voiding out into a black. Even with her eyes closed Natalie still could see just fine except there was the faintest tinge of purple from the back of her eyelids. It was a slight impairment but hardly a problem, hardly not for what she was about to do next.

 

“Fingers,” She ordered as she put an arm across her already closed eyes for good measure. This made the painted almost black and white world a deep shade of purple but still, she could see the white areas that were Andrew and the kids well enough.

 

Andrew seemed perplexed until at her request at first understanding hit him. Putting his bowl aside (he’d been apparently holding it this whole time,) he leaned in and lifted up one hand in front of her with fingers outstretched all save for the thumb.

 

“How many fingers am I-”

 

“-Four,” Natalie answered.

 

Andrew turned his four digits towards himself as if double-checking, gave an indifferent surge, and changed it.

 

“One,”

 

He was about to open his mouth to ask again, but seeing it close to the sound of her answer pulled a slight grin on her face. Mouth shut tight Andrew continued.

 

“Four again, three, two, five… seven, six, and twenty-four.” Natalie’s smile was hard to hide now which she did all she could to not be self-aware as soon as she noticed.

 

“Twenty-fou-” perplexed Andrew looked at both his open hands of his fingers and thumbs. “Where did you get that from?”

 

Composing herself she removed her arm and opened her eyes before nodding up at the kids behind him. At the back, Edith, Walta, and one other girl each had a hand up displaying the fingers four, five, and five respectively. An audible ‘wow’ stumbled out of the older kids' mouths as they looked at each other and witnessed the outstretched fingers of their peers.

 

Looking back from the kids Andrew gave Natalie one last appraising look, as she shrugged her shoulders.

 

“I never said who’s fingers,” she mumbled.

 

Soon after, Andrew’s skeptic stare changed to a slow nod of approval.

 

“Fine, you’ve convinced me,” he said with a sigh. “But how are you going to do this?”

 

Good question, bowing her head Natalie mulled on this for a moment.

 

Seeing her light purple aura drew a knot in her gut. Her angel eyes were a product of the experimentation that was done to her. And the way her aura shows up the different color to anyone else was just a reminder of how alien she was. How little she belonged. Pushing that aside she looks past herself and to the layers of walls beyond her and the others.

 

She could make out every floor like seeing the place through a skeleton wire work on its true makeup. That was handy but what she was looking for was running along the building, the weirs much like the barely visible walls and floor come into sight too as ghostly representations of themselves.

 

“Back at the elevator, I’ll need you to help me cut the cables. I’ll supply the needed power for the lift. but I’ll need to stay there to keep it running. Meanwhile, you take them with you on the lift and make it to the ground floor where you can get them out of here." left alone in a place like this, her fingers trembled at the thought but if it was to save the kids then.

 

Andrew looked concerned but said nothing, instead, he looked upwards as if already seeing the open sky.

 

"Then we're home free," Andrew said with a sigh. "Think the locals will be back in Lucas by then?"

 

"You know where our home is!?" One of the kids said in alarm.

 

“What about my father-did you see him?!” Edith exclaimed.

 

The kitchen became a din of children excitedly asking questions and fighting for attention. They all varied but still hit on the same topic over and over. ‘My mother,’ ‘My sister,’ ‘They were with me until...’ flashes of the two men walking over the passed-out bodies before shooting the adults they did not need came unbidden to her mind. The cold sharp pain to the vision only doubled when she for the slightest of moments imagined those victims on the floor to be her mother and father lifeless and bleeding. As a fit of nausea hit her Natalie slipped off the worktop with a hand over her mouth as the threat of vomiting caused her to gag.

 

She'd barely taken note of Andrew moving over to comfort her. The kids' voices although still questioning had died down to a degree. Thankfully Andrew was still talking to them which allowed her the needed time to clear her mind. As she swallowed back the bile in her throat along with her thoughts, Natalie straightened up and managed to hear the last part of what Andrew was telling the kids.

 

"That many from Lucas huh? Well, that’s good news,” he said as he looked at the kids in approval. ”Looks like we won't have to do too much traveling to get you all home,"

 

The kids all had their hands up except for the one that spoke another language. Instead, she timidly walks on over and without saying a word latched onto Natalie's trousers. The gesture almost made her forget that she was about to have a panic attack. With a calming wave washing over her she just looked at her, it was like her eyes were telling her a thousand things, countless words despite the language barrier, if she’d only listened close enough. Just then Andrew’s proximity beside her becomes mear inches breaking her attention.

 

“Back with us?” he whispered, he was still looking at the other kids as he spoke by her ear. Natalie nodded.

 

He must have asked them where they’d come from. Natalie thought.

 

Curious, she then turned her attention to the kids soon. A question twinkling in her eye.

 

"Any of you know where she comes from?" She pointed to the young girl who was silent standing beside her.

 

Most of them shook their heads.

 

"Dad told me that they come from beyond the mountains. Beyond it, there is a long trail covered by mist. He’d sometimes travel there to trade with them." Edith said.

 

"Well, we are currently beyond those mountains now. And I think I’ve seen enough fog getting here to guess that we are in the thick of it," Andrew said.

 

“So it’s possible that we are closer to her home than with the rest of you,” Natalie pulled over.

 

“That makes us all of the foreigners,” Andrew mumbled to himself before chuckling at the irony.

 

Painful silence washed over the kids to that revelation. Some looked to be on the verge of crying. Although she was more composed, the sheer thought of witnessing these men kill these kids' parents and loved ones made her heart grow cold. Some of them could have been their older brother or sister. Their aunt, guardian, friend, or even their mother and father. She knew for certain that some of them would return home without a single loved one remaining to greet them. Holding onto her chest she suppressed her feelings on the matter for fear of giving false hope before there was even proof. Even so, the thought clouded her eyes.

 

Would they hate me for pulling them back into a world without family?

 

It was not a new question; from the first time she set off to rescue the children from these monsters, it had plagued her mind. And just like then she was unable to find a definitive answer.

 

"Natalie?" Andrew's concerned voice reached out to her snapping her back to the now. Looking up to him she swallows before looking over to the kids.

 

She did not have to be a mind reader to know that most of them would be thinking the worst. Kneeling down to their level she fixed each of them a steely stare.

 

"They’ll be at home, waiting for you, and I’ll get you there to meet them as soon as possible." She said. "But if they happen to not be there when we arrive then know it's because they are out there now looking for you. No matter the outcome, know that every second they are gone is a testament to their love of you and how much they won't give up on you... So just be strong, ok?" With her voice hoarse she had to swallow by the last sentence.

 

The sound of sniffles, nodes, and 'ok's came from the children momentarily. The girl beside Natalie who spoke a different tongue simply rested her cheek on Natalie's thigh as she stood back up, ‘understood’ Natalie liked to think the jester ment.

 

Rubbing her back, Natalie nodded to Andrew who watched on from the sidelines. Nodding back in understanding Andrew began gathering the children to get ready. Natalie was about to follow suit until she noticed the young girl still latching onto her leg. Looking back at her with her sight that can see the life force of the living she could make out the girl's eyes just peering at her as if trying to unearth secrets from within her.

 

“Natalie?” Andrew called breaking her gaze from the girl.

 

The scuffling of footfalls had died out from beyond the kitchen and Natalie could see Andrew in the lead of the eight children holding hands in a chain of two. Kneeling in front of the girl Natalie narrowed her eyes curiously at her.

 

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

 

“Muktashif?” she said, it sounded like a question.

 

Hearing her speak for the first time since passing out Natalie blinked at her words, her deductive mind already gathering her tone for comparison.

 

Not her either. None of their voices are the same. Natalie thought in a daze.

 

“Natalie!” Andrew hissed. He sounded a little tense and she could understand why.

 

Unsure of the meaning of the girl's words. Natalie (after giving a quick scan around for nearby danger.) picked her up and carried her on her hips before she turned to follow Andrew and the others.

 

As their footfalls filled the long hallways Natalie's thoughts wandered back to the dream she woke up from. None of them, not one of the children's voices matched the one she had recollected in that vivid dream and that chilled her. Not because she did not recognize the voice, but it was because she recognized it. She knew the voice as well as she knew herself. Excepted that was from another self-a younger self. That was the voice she had almost eight years ago before she was kidnapped. But that was impossible. Not even she remembered her own voice from back then, and yet hearing it within that dream pulled all the memories back to her.

 

It could have just been the product of her subconscious finding things that she was not aware she had a hold of… but something about the voice, and how it spoke was unlike any memory or experience she ever had.

 

~#~

 

With the children in tow, Andrew and Natalie made it to the lift. As luck would have it the lift itself was already on their floor. Natalie guessed it was because the kidnappers unload the children onto this floor moments before the power was taken out. Grabbing the diamond metal mesh of the life doors by each side Natalie and Andrew opened the way for the children to enter.

 

With the kids in, (after some hesitation from a few) Natalie began to back away from the lift, her angel sight peering through the confounds of the lift shaft itself and picking out the eyes thick cables that travel off it. Finding the ones that she believed to be what powers the lift however she frowned.

 

“It’s on a higher floor,” she said.

 

“What is?” Andrew asked.

 

“The cables. I can’t reach it, unless...” eye-widening she ran into the lift herself.

 

Having made her way through the kids in the lift she prodded the square metal spot on its ceiling. Thanks to her angel sight she spotted it’s thinner and separated from the rest. Guessing that it’s meant to get one on top of the lift she rewarded it with pushing out of the way from her prod and falling down until she caught it and dropped it to the side. With the way up to open she prepared herself to jump through.

 

“Natalie wait-what are you doing?!!” Andrew protested.

 

“Follow me!” she said with a slight grunt as she jumped on though.

 

Andrew cussing to himself made his way over to follow suit. Waiting on Andrew, Natalie takes off her angel sight for just a brief moment. Looking up she was met with the cable that held this metal box suspended in the shaft. It was a seemingly endless cord that stretched on upwards into the ominous darkness up above. Even though she could see the shaft with her angel sightseeing it without the ability to peer beyond them and cut through the darkness brought weight to it, its brown friendly cut stone and gray cement bricks gaining her full attention thus pulling her into the weight of things all the more so.

 

The sound of Andrew landing through the shaft behind her pulled Natalie out of her revelry. Reactivating her angel sight once again she turns to him. There was practically nobody present on the higher floors she noticed and although that would have been the good news something about it all was beginning to trouble her. Pushing that aside however she pointed to a cable up top running along the shaft.

 

“Over there, that black one up top, can you cut it for me?” Natalie asked Andrew, her voice echoed through the shaft.

 

It was a few it was two floors up from their current location. With a nod, Andrew looked up at her finger. When he spotted how far it was however he frowned.

 

“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked.

 

Andrew not saying a word peered over the edge of the lift to the endless pit below him.

 

“It’s nothing, it’s just… it’s a long way down,” he said.

 

Resting a hand on her hip Natalie just glared at him blankly. This slight peeve however turned into one of understanding as she recalled that she is the one with wings and electromagnetism that made navigating such a place a fairly simple task for her.

 

“Hand me your sword,” Natalie demanded, her hand open to receive it.

 

And just then Natalie felt an odd wash of nostalgia run through her. It was a memory that found its way into her mind just the other night, her asking Andrew for his sword, Andrew refusing to abide.

 

“What?! No!” Andrew said as he looked away from the pit below. His exclamation pulled Natalie out from her recollection.

 

“Why not?” she asked in a part daze.

 

A small part of her wanted to relive that memory over and over. That longing made her remember what he’d said back to her then eight years ago.

 

“I don't want anything happening to you," he'd once said.

 

“No offense, but I'm worried you’ll drop it.” the Andrew of now said, shaking his head as he took one last look down below. “You stay put while I do this.”

 

Andrew then walked right over to her, moving his face right by her ear.

 

“They may not say it because we told them to keep quiet, but they are freaking out down there,”

 

Seeing all the tense faces looking up to her Natalie nodded. He was right, she’d been so worried about getting them out that she’s hardly noticed the tense atmosphere. Her face heated up as she looked down at them Natalie nodded, making an effort not to look Andrew in the face. Andrew just sighed to himself before turning towards the edge of the elevator shaft.

 

“Just watch over them until I'm done,” he said.

 

Studying the beam a moment Andrew jumped and latched onto it. Thanks to its shape he was easily able to get a firm grip behind it which he used to begin climbing up. With his feet pushing against the beam Andrew simply had to crawl upwards to make any progress. The climb itself seemed relatively simple as Andrew ascended at a consistent clip, one foot and arm surpassing the other. As he cracked the cables Natalie pointed out two floors up he stopped, pulled out his sword, and cut the thick cable clean with one stroke, he must have put a bit too much energy behind that strike Natalie noticed. Although he swiped his sword at a controlled pace, part of the stone behind it was slathered through the simple gesture.

 

With that done, Andrew looked down, out his sword away, and gave Natalie the thumbs up. Natalie groaned inwardly.

 

You managed it now so can you hurry up and get back down here!

 

She could tell by Andrew's body language that he too was ready to get down without delay but he seemed to be having trouble working out how he would do it. He took an awkward step down, and then another on the same leg and shook his head to himself. A pang of worry forming in her gut Natalie took a step forward. Hanging a few two feet up (and god knows how many feet to the bottom of the shaft.) he looks down from his right and left side as if something will enlighten him down there if he looks long enough. Soon however he lets one hand go of the beam and pulls out his fathers’ sword once more. With it, in hand, a round of energy layered over him like a second layer of skin. Natalie knew it to be his dark knight’s armor but with her angel sight on it looked like white mist coming off a bright body of arua.

 

With sword in hand, Andrew turned to look down as he began sliding towards her fast but controlled pace. As he leveled with her on top of the lift Andrew stopped abruptly and kicked off the beam with a backflip, landing on one knee beside her. He’d used his knight's armor to protect his hands and perhaps shoes as he slid down the beam. It was the only reason she could find to explain why his hand was not damaged from the stunt. As he casually stands to his full height and puts his sword away he looked at Natalie with his thermal goggle eyes, his face an amused grin.

 

“I thought I said to watch over them.” he pointed his chin to the kids below, his cheeks trying to suppress a wind grin.

 

Natalie not giving Andrew the time of day just cut her eye to him as she folds her arms tightly in annoyance.

 

“Just take over for me,” she grumbled.

 

Showoff.

 

Natalie heard Andrew tell the kids to make way as he dropped back into the lift with them as she turned away from them. Natalie began to charge herself with a steady flow of electricity just enough for it to occasionally spark purple to spark off her fingers. By concentrating and rotating the current along her arms and legs like each limb was in part of the sinkhole Natalie felt a pulling sensation towards the metal in the shaft. Touching the beam with her hand it latched on with a pressing force as if a magnet. Confirming that this could work Natalie then climbed up with her arms and legs.

 

With that in place, she began her ascent up the beam, making sure to lessen the vortex-like current on each hand or leg that she let go of. After a few test steps, Natalie found that with a bit of a slanted posture she barely needed to hold onto the beam with her hands at all. She’d practiced walking up metal walls before but walking up this high a beam was still fairly new.

 

Walking up the beam she made it to the cable that Andrew cut, standing to its side she had to move her long side hanging hair out of her face. It was looking possible, with not many people in sight to her eyes on the floors above the rest seeming to be gathering in the far lower floors they just have to get them all on the ground floor and escape. With no sign of imminent danger or the presence that shaken her before things were going smoothly.

 

So why do I feel so uneasy?

 

Kneeling to it she grabbed one end of the cut cable and looking down to Andrew nodded to him indicating that she will begin. With a nod back he places a hand on the elevator’s console whilst keeping his eyes on her… and that’s when she saw it.

 

Men, a lot of men all glowing in indistinguishable white make all look alike to her. There had been so many gathered and scurrying around in the lower floors that Natalie could not make out individual shapes beyond that they were people. Now, however, with the shattered groups all splitting themselves out into some kind of orderly group Natalie saw each of them as they were in comparison to another. Among the groups of men holding arms and others in long lab coats sat a clump of smaller people. All dragged and forced into vans as they drove off in the vehicles that faded off into a seemingly endless underground tunnel.

 

With Natalie’s eyes widened her breath became sharp as anger began to fill her. A hollow rumble of thunder rolled on overhead and echoed through the lift shaft. And just like that the strange good fortune they found themselves in with most of the men moving away from the floors above them to go for the ones below started to make a sick kind of sense. They’d been had. After discovering that they had an intruder they’d cut their tails and ran off with what they could keep a hold of. After all, they did get here. After all, brewing, traveling, and sleepless nights she was here, and yet...

 

She’d been fueled by her torrent of emotions she hardly heard Andrew calling up to her in concern. Electrical power coursed through her arms and through her hand over the naked end of the wire springing the lift to life and light and the hum of mechanical contraptions and gears in motion. The lift rose up to the shock of some of the children but Natalie’s eyes were glaring downward at the men below shoving children into vans and driving them away. Her mind already swimming with the things she will do to them, her body already in a state of fight or flight, she barely gave Andrew and the kids a passing glance as they rose on by her.

 

“Natalie?!” Andrew called again, by her voice she could tell that Andrew saw the thunderstorm in her pupils as she looked at her pray.

 

“Keep an eye on them,” was all she said as the life continued its accent.

 

With eyes watching the last van take off with children at back Natalie saw red as she stood there standing against the length of the beam. A thunderbolt cried its presence outside making the children in the lift scream due to how close it sounded. Trying to get some kind of control over her rage Natalie held onto the naked wire with a white-knuckled grip. Now that the children were out of the way for better or worst it was time that she ripped this place from its roots. She will descend upon them like an angel of death and break all who stood in her way. She’ll slip through the rooms like a raging storm and like its immense heavy rain rinse clean the filth that was these sorry excuses for humans.

 

As her eyes narrowed in on one target far below, however, a change was happening. Upon the same floor or one floor below the other men appeared a large strange object in a glowing white hue of living life. Except… it resembled no living thing Natalie has ever seen, nor has she seen a living thing mask its life energy at will before. Both these revelations unnerved her. That sense of being watched ran over her body again and just like when she is up against the wall she felt alone and vulnerable. Are washing out of her like a punctured sandbag replaced with the vast hollowness of stabbing fear. To wrap up in this growing emptiness that she hardly took note of the counterweight fell towards her. The shock of it falling towards the back of her head made her heart thump with shock and duck as the great slab of steel slid down its support rails to the abyss below. In her attempt to avoid it Natalie lost her concentration on keeping an electromagnetic current pulsing through her legs and started to fall off the beam of the lift shaft.

 

Her hand slipped off the cable as she barely held on with her fingertips. The Power that she was running through it had stopped grinding the lift to a halt. Luckily that also stopped the counterweight from its descent allowing Natalie to kick one leg out onto its face whilst trusting her other leg back to push herself between the metal beam thus breaking her fall. Calming her breath Natalie looked down at the now moving large object with wide panic. The cries of the kids above along with Andrew’s call from the distant lift broke her bewilderment back to the task at hand.

 

Got to get them out, no matter what happens I’ve got to get them out!

 

Spurred on by her will to give the children the help she lacked in her escape Natalie gritted her teeth and kicked off the counterweight and took hold of the cable again. The hum of the life returned as the counterweight descended further into the darkness below. Soon, Natalie could hear nothing else but the scrape of the counterweight on its metal rails, the consistent thumping of her heart and-

 

Something rattled the foundations of the shaft from far below. Looking down at the strange life form below she saw that it stood by a great pile of rubble. Behind it was the tunnel that led down the tunnel she saw the vans drive through. The thing (whatever it was) now looked at her. It stood like a huge dinosaur that only had its torso. Its inverted legs made like an ostrich… and though it’s glowing as she could just make out another figure in the center of its torso, a man. Her hands grew sweaty, it took all of her will to simply stand firm, holding the cables as she felt the cold intent oozing off whatever was down there.

 

Watching with wide eyes Natalie witnessed the thing crash through the lift shaft doors with ease and look back up at her. Feeling its immense impact through her feet, Natalie's hand began to tremble as the thing with its odd legs began to stab them into each side of the lift sharts wall and proceed to climb closer...

 

Closer...

 

Closer...