"Say hello to Kitty for me." No. Just no. There were too many things I needed to say to him. He wasn't getting off that easy! I camped his mouth shut. I could feel him slipping away, his eyes closing. I knew I couldn't do anything more from this body. I pulled myself out away from his conciseness to which I had been previously bonded with, and transformed into a curl of smoke. I rushed out of his mouth (disgusting, I know, but he was going to be in debt to me for the rest of his life after this, and I intended to make that last for more than a few measly minuets.)

Once outside his body I took my usual form of Ptolemy. Nat promptly collapsed into my arms.

"Your such a little princes." I muttered. That was when it dawned on me that now was not the time to be looking after Nathaniel, there was still the matter of a certain hybrid running amuck. Dropping Nathaniel, I picked up the staff, all I had to do was snap it. I knew I wouldn't survive, but hey, I had a good run. I looked down at Nat. He may survive. It wasn't likely, but it was a chance. Nouda was still lurking somewhere. It was now or never. I brought the staff down hard on my knee. In a blinding flash it splintered into billions of pieces. I collapsed onto the ground beside my master. I threw shields up around us (not that it would do much good of corse. It was merely survival instincts kicking in at the last minuet. What can I say? I'm not too keen on the idea of dyeing.)

I watched as the heavy iron building collapsed around us. I must say, I never thought it would end like this. Sacrificing myself? And for what? Nat wasn't likely to survive either way. What the sense in going down with him? Whatever the reason, there was no doubt in my mind that I was sacrificing myself for something. The only question left was for what. (As well as why, how, and is there a god, and if so, which one? Why dieing doesn't come with a manual, I'll never know.)

"Goodbye Natty boy. We had a good run. See ya on the other side, I guess." I wasn't one for sappy moments, and this was turning into one of them, so, finding myself glad no one (at least no one conscious) had been around to hear that, I simply laid back, closed my eyes, and waited for deaths cold embrace.

It was only after five minuets of waiting that I began to realize something was up. (trust me on this, it does not take five minuets for a building to collapse, a specially one built by magicians.) hesitantly I opened my eyes and looked up. I was shocked to see that somehow, my feeble shields had held! Iron beams pressed against the shimmering iridescent bubble, and yet by some miracle, the tiny dome of protection hadn't collapsed. I knew that it wouldn't hold forever, but it might buy me enough time to find a way out of this mess.

After wracking my brains for a good three minuets of so, I had come up with a rather pathetic, kinda obvious, semi barbaric, poor excuse for a plan.

Lets just blast a big hole in the hundred tons of rubble pining us down like butterflies in a collectors tray! Like I said, not my most clever plan, but hey, I'm not going for an award here. I'm trying to save our, (specifically my) necks! if it fails, we would die either way. What's the harm

I put all my remaining power into a detonation. Here goes nothing, I thought. I sent the blast upwards, creating a large hole in the rubble above us. Grabbing Nat and slinging him over my shoulder I flew out via the newly made gap in the remains of what was once the glass palace. I could feel the cold sting of iron all around me. It pressed against me until I thought I would collapse into a puddle of slime.

Finally, we made it out. I fell to to my knees, weary to the bone. Nathaniel slid of my shoulder and landed with a thud atop the mounds of glass and iron. That was when two things occurred to me.

1. I needed to get much farther away from this place to escape all the iron. I could feel it sapping at my already diminished strength.

2. Nat was in bad shape. He needed help, fast.

I decided that before I went through all the trouble of finding him a hospital, I should make sure he wasn't already gone. Humans were weak, their lives as easy to snuff out as a candle flame. I shifted his head into my lap and took stock of his numerous injures. Aside from the gash in his side, he wasn't to bad off. If he died, it would be from that wound. After checking for a pulse, (which he had, just in case your particularly thick, even for a human) I lifted him up again and set out to remedy both predicaments.

By the time I finally found a hospital, Nathaniel was in bad shape. His breathing was shallow and raspy, and blood trailed from the corner of his mouth.

"Common Nat. Hold in just a little longer. Like I said before, it's not that bad. Your gunna be okay." I muttered as we went along.

By the time we reached the hospital I had run out of empty reassurance and whatever patience I had once possessed was long gone. I marched in and straight up to the preppy, blond, receptionist and demanded immediate care. The last thing I saw after that was her heavily made up eyes widen, her face surrounded by the black blotches that had begun to forum in the edges of my vision.