Not good, are the two words that repeat in Caj's head as the five of them sprint down the hallway. Not good.

He doesn't know where the Paragon or Lei have gotten to, but now is not the time to worry about that. They've got five of those masked clowns on their backs and, last he looked, the metal-head woman was catching up.

Feeling a familiar prickle, his eyes flit over to see Fae glancing back, sweat shining on the delicate ridge of her brow. She's got her bow in hand, wooden arrow clutched in the other, and her gaze slides back to the madness behind them.

We've got to put something between them and us, he thinks, flinging a hand behind to tear the metal wall out. It's no use though: they Skill it back without a second of hesitation. This base is designed for their and Caj's ease, so that none of the surroundings can be used against them.

Not good.

Thick, heavy boots pound the ground behind them, and Caj suspects its Lei's sister. He sends a spurt of fire back and someone else—Hiran—throws back a spray of rock, his rock, broken up into sharp points, but the woman only puts her armored forearms up across her face, pushing through the blast.

They burst into a cafeteria and immediately race toward the wide doors on the other side. While Caj, Finn, and Fae weave around tables Tara and Hiran jump onto and over them, feet pounding into their groaning frames.

"Where are you going?" the woman calls, sounding not even remotely worn by the chase. "You haven't introduced yourselves."

She takes after Hiran and Tara, leaping from table to table with ease. Hiran has to duck as her fist swipes across the air where his head had been.

"What about you, gorgeous?" she leers, a smile twitching on her lips as her foot swings out at the Nature-caller. "Are you the Paragon?"

Hiran jumps back, pulling out a stream of water from his canteen, twisting it into ice as he flings it at her. Tara's stopped too, pulling out her staff as she shifts on the table next to them.

Caj's head turns and he sees Fae notch her bow. She's pointing at the woman, but the other five creatures are bearing down on them and only Caj seems to notice.

Not good.

He shouts, meaning to tell Fae to turn her attention this way, but he hears her bow loose and he flings an arm out, shooting the tables up into the air. Stumbling back, he reaches around to shove her behind him and he feels her slim fingers, skin-tinglingly cool, clutch the bare skin between his glove and jacket and goosebumps crawl up his spine.

But there's no time for that, not now as those creatures break through the jumble of tables, their masks shaking side-to-side as they tear toward the two of them, all twitching limbs and jerky movements. Caj pulls up a sheet of metal—a shield—and shoves Fae further behind him as he fashions a ball of fire between his hands. He hears her notch another arrow, feels the shift of air as she sets it next to his face, aiming out at the hidden figures who will, at any point now, break through the makeshift barrier.

If we take down two, that leaves three, he thinks, his brain a jittery mess of rapid thoughts. Another round of fire, that will be less easy to deflect—

The shield shatters.

Caj shoves the fireball out as the arrow whistles past them. He uses one hand to fling away the sharp fragments of the shield, pulling up a stream of fire with the other, but with one hand it's small—

Another arrow whizzes past, cracking through a pale mask, but three are still barreling down on them, clothes bright with burning flame, the wax melting across their masks—

They stop as if hitting an invisible barrier, heads snapping forward onto their chests. Fae has another arrow notched and sends it through the closest one's mask, but none of them react.

Unnerved, Caj twists around and sees Finn, unnoticed until now, with his small hand outstretched, face pinched in concentration.

"What—?" Fae breathes behind him, unaware, until she follows Caj's gaze.

"Help the others," Finn spits out, sweat trickling down his temple, face contorting. "Hurry."

Deciding now is not the time for questions, Caj wheels around, running between the rows of tables toward the other fight.

Hiran's just fallen down between tables, feet caught by a sweep of the woman's metal boot, and the Jarles woman has one hand on Tara's staff.

"Pretty thing," she's saying to Tara, "but pretty useless." The staff snaps in half.

Caj sends a bolt of metal at her, but her head twitches, turning to the side almost as if she can sense the projectile before she can hear it, and she swipes it out of the air, pulling down into a long sword at her side as she turns toward him.

He only has just enough time to Skill one of his own and bring it up to parry her blow, which cracks, shuddering along his arms, above his head.

That calculating gaze is fixed on him now, but something other than a smile curls around her lips—something closer to a sneer. She brings her sword down again—suns and moons it's like the weight of a boulder—and he ducks out of its path, skidding to the side as the metal thunders against the floor.

"Who the hell are you?" she snarls, swinging at him again as he hears the others clambering over toward them. "What slimy little hole did you crawl out of, mud rat?"

Suddenly Fae rushes in—she's trying to break the woman's swing by crashing into her. It kind of works: the woman stumbles but pivots, hand attaching to Fae's arm and tossing her into a jutting tangle of tables.

"Out of my way, cupcake," she jeers. "We're trying to have a conversation."

Caj uses the moment of distraction to shoot a trail of fire at her but the woman swipes it aside with her hand.

"What," she pants, her breath ragged now as she brings her sword down on him with every word, "are you doing with these little mouth-breathers? Are you the Paragon?"

His sword shatters and she clocks him in the head, a pound of metal crashing into his temple.

"No," she gasps. "Too stupid."

The world shakes and rings as his body hits the floor with a crunch, the plane of his vision tilting woozily, and he rolls over onto his back as a spike of metal suddenly cracks into the ground where his head had just been.

Not good, he thinks dizzily, and he tries rolling farther but it's hard to move effectively when the world swims like this—

Feet scuffle beside him and suddenly a douse of water splatters across his face. Coughing, he shakes his head, adrenaline filtering back into his system, reigniting his nerves, as everything sharpens into focus.

"Don't think I forgot about you, sweetheart," the woman is saying, her voice low and quick, and Caj sees her ducking under another blast of water, sinking low onto her haunches and slinking back up, like the arch of a cat. "Trying to ruin my hairstyle isn't the way to woo me. I prefer traditional things, like flowers."

Her hand suddenly latches onto the outstretched vines, yanking them and Hiran along with them forward.

"What about a little fire?" she queries, throwing him to the side. "No? Pity."

Caj feels hands grab his upper arms and yank—Tara, face glistening with sweat, a crude stone ax at her feet.

"Distract her," she gasps, slinging the axe up onto her shoulder.

He lurches forward, grabbing a mangled table for support, stripping off a leg of said table and forming it into another sword.

"I'm just trying to ask a question," the woman is saying, words biting between white teeth, "and no one is giving me an answer."

Electing for the ever-distracting light of fire, Caj flings a spray of flames at her, swinging his sword up in a defensive gesture as her head turns.

She advances and then shifts, like the untouchable slide of a shadow, as Tara swings the stone ax out across the space her head had been. Just then Fae looses an arrow and the woman has to fling an arm out to deflect it, earning a blooming cut along the back of her hand versus a notch in her skull.

"Actually more useful than I had anticipated," she says, her leer warping briefly into a grimace as she points at Fae. "But definitely not the Paragon. Where's the short one?"

She parries another swing from Tara as well as a throw from Caj, and her breath comes out in a snort of vexation.

"You're making me do this the easy way," she complains, kicking Tara in the stomach as a hand slips beneath her breast plate, pulling out that strange, humming thing she had held up in the laboratory. She shakes it, but it remains soundless.

Her mouth puckers in an exaggerated "oh," her brows raising as her eyes flash.

"You lied to me," she says as the doors crash to their right and a slew of soldiers—normal soldiers, without those crazy masks—rush into the room.

The woman glances at Caj and the others, tawny eyes flickering over their bruises and sweat.

"Take them," she orders the soldiers, and she turns, heading back in the direction of the lab—back toward the Paragon.

Hiran grabs the fabric on Caj's shoulder, pushing him back.

"We've got to get to Finn," he gasps, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. "H-he's collapsed on the floor. No idea what they did to him—"

"Grab him, I'll stall," Caj shoots back and he catches Fae notching her bow beside him as the other two run to the other side of the room.

He would ask her how many arrows she has left, but he's decided he'd rather not know. He does know for certain though that there are more men running at them than there are arrows in her quiver. And with that, he has a mad idea.

"Grab my shoulders," he shouts at her, as they have little time left, and he feels her slender fingers clamp onto him as he slams his hands down. He reaches deep, for the support system of iron columns beneath his feet, and he crunches and crinkles them with every fiber of thought and feeling.

Then the ground gives way as the room begins to collapse.

A/N: Even newer artwork tonight! Meet Caj (or at least, get to know him better). He is also having a terrible day.