"Help Miss Clarence!" Kaylee gasped, still clinging to the loosening rainpipe.

Ben's heartbeat stumbled for a moment as he stared at Kaylee in disbelief.
"If I let go of you, you'll fall!"

"Do as I say, Archer!" the magician demanded in an iron voice.

However, Ben could see the fear in her features.
"I won't let you fall, Crowford!" Benjamin refused, and his grip seemed to tighten even more to emphasise his words. The danger behind them, caused by the two vampires, seemed to have receded into the distance and almost forgotten.

"Archer!" Kaylee hissed again, looking for the gaze of her partner and friend. "Damn it, trust me! Help the damn girl!"

Benjamin had to force himself to remove his fingers from Kaylee's arm and grabbed the young woman's hand as quickly as he could. It was wet and slippery, especially her fingers. She almost slipped right out of his hands as soon as he grabbed her. He caught her sleeve, then grabbed her shoulder and collar before heaving her body up onto the roof.

Meanwhile, Kaylee grabbed the gutter again with both hands and let out a long moan. Her fingers were red from the cold and the strain - her knuckles were pale under her skin.

Benjamin had just pulled the girl onto the roof and his hand shot forward to help Kaylee - when the last bracket of the metal pipe popped out of the wall with a crash.

The gutter trembled. Then, it detached from the wall and bent as if it were made of paper. Ben watched helplessly as the nightmare became a reality:
Kaylee lost her footing and plunged into the depths.

Her long coat flapped like a flag as gravity took hold of her and sent her tumbling downwards. The wind blew in her face and around her ears.

STUPID WOMAN! YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE THIS! LET ME...!

'NEVER!' she thought wordlessly, drowning the cool voice inside her.
The ground was approaching at breakneck speed. Kaylee's stomach twisted, and her breath hitched.

Ben's roar receded into the distance, and even the wind quietened as Kaylee used the last of her strength to bring her right hand forward and make a complex hand signal.
Only a few meters to go. The rain accompanied her in the free fall.

Then, the world around her began to shake. Reality trembled under her mystical command as she reached into the web of reality more roughly than usual and violently pulled at its strands. Her heart stopped beating.

An icy chill mingled with the sharp, burning pain that coiled through her body like a writhing snake as her body finally surrendered to the spell. Bones cracked, broke and reformed. Kaylee felt her skin tense to the breaking point.

Her body was suddenly too big for the shape the spell was forcing on her. Suddenly, countless sharp, black feathers pierced her skin, and for a split second, her whole form looked like a distorted, blurred and shapeless figure.

The mage spread her arms and felt the wind slow her fall. Where her fingers had once been, long feathers now danced through the air. The gusts hit the wings of her new form, pulling them sideways as Kaylee tried to find lift and stop herself from falling further, like a stone - but she was already too close to the ground. Even with the wings of her bird form, she couldn't slow her plunge enough.

She crashed hard onto the grass to the side of the paved courtyard. The force squeezed the air out of her little raven lungs.

The hard impact shattered the spell like a hammer blow.

Lights and colours mingled before Kaylee's eyes. As she rolled over several times, she lost control of the magic and the form she had just assumed. The shape slipped from her mind. Finally, Kaylee staggered across the rain-soaked lawn as a human again and remained motionless between the grass and the earth.

"Crowford!"

Ben's mind spun like the poor bird that had just been his companion. Finally, they lay as motionless as Kaylee's body deep beneath them.

All danger, all etiquette was forgotten. Ben's world trembled at the sight before him, and he felt as if a bullet had pierced his chest. Then there was the dull sound of bending steel, and as the doctor turned, he could see through the rain and storm the two beasts tearing at the steel bars of the sanatorium window.

He had to go down.

No, THEY had to go down. Now!

Ben's gaze slid along the roof's edge and finally caught sight of the rest of the gutter. "There, the downpipe!" Even though the gutter had long since been torn down, the long, tinny pipe that carried the collected rainwater downwards was still nestled against the walls of the side building and reached down to the ground of the courtyard. "We can climb it down."

"He... this gentleman has just... was a... he has... is he...?"

Beside him, the girl trembled and stared at the man lying on the ground below. Her whole body shook, and her mouth was wide open in apparent shock. She didn't seem to have been listening, and Ben just lacked the nerve to be indulgent.

"Miss Clarence!" Ben grabbed the young woman's shoulders, then her chin with one hand, drawing her gaze to himself. "I know this is all very much for you. But we're not safe here, do you understand that? These creatures will hunt us down! And up here, we're literally sitting on a plate!"

The young woman's eyes widened again, and panic rose inside her once more. Her cheeks seemed to turn even paler than before, and Ben could see her pulse beating like a fluttering bird beneath her pale skin.

He felt the same way - even if he didn't show it so obviously. In his imagination, he kept seeing images of desert dust clouds and could hear gunshots that seemed to pop in the distance. It took him iron self-control not to flinch in alarm again and again. Even after he had turned away, he could still see poor Kaylee lying in the dirt in front of him. On the ground. Motionless.

Helplessness. He had tried often enough to forget what it felt like. He had felt the powerlessness of sheer panic to make the right move, let alone do anything at all, far too often during the war. He hated the feeling of not knowing what to do next, what could help them out of this hell, and he damned himself for still being under such decision paralysis and risking lives.

God damn it, he was a military doctor; he could shoot, sprint, fight, heal. He had all the knowledge he needed to master this situation. But whenever he had to make a choice that would decide the fate of others... his throat went dry, and he found himself back in the desert sand, dead companions around him, alone and close to death. Kaylee lay on the ground down there because he had been unable to help her.

Bitter nausea pressed into his throat.

He had to get to his partner. Immediately.

"I promise you, we'll explain everything when we're safe. But right now, Miss Clarence, you must be brave. We'll protect you. But you'll have to trust me to do it."

A choked sound, perhaps a sob, forced its way out of the young girl's throat. Her brown hair was sticking to her face and neck from the rain, and her clothes were completely soaked.

A picture of absolute misery that awoke the protective instinct in Ben. But above all, concern for Kaylee's well-being and his companion's condition floated like old driftwood on the surface. Ben's fingers twitched under the instinct to run away immediately. Then Millicent finally nodded.

"I-all right," she stammered shakily.

This, however, satisfied Ben. There was no time for doubt or discussion.

"Let's go then. I'll climb down first to see if the pipe will hold my weight. Then you can follow me."

"Oh God, climbing down again... But what if I... what if I fall too?" Miss Clarence gasped, her eyes darting once more to the supposed young man who had fallen before her eyes and was now lying on the ground.

Ben's stomach felt as if a fist had smashed into it. The young thing struggled, and he now had to decide whether his partner's life took priority over a civilian's. Time was running out, and he had to decide whether to motivate Millicent or ignore her.

His mouth was dry, and his voice rougher as he replied, "Then I'll catch you, Miss Clarence. I promise."

And Ben swore to himself to keep that promise. Then he carefully, but as quickly as he could, balanced the first steps on the roof towards the gutter that led down along the building like an iron rope.