A pillar started to crash down and Balthazar quickly constructed a shield. Using his other hand he threw the pillar away from them and sent a plasma bolt in the direction of the attack and heard a muffled scream. He smirked. A sorcerer could always count on plasma bolts for any and all jobs.

"Behind you!" screamed a voice.

Balthazar looked over at the Morganian sorcerer behind them. He seemed confused by their sudden arrival, but not too confused to cast a spell at someone whom he knew as the leader of the opposition. Balthazar started to summon up another plasma bolt but someone else blasted him to the opposite wall. He turned and saw Bianca, who spit on the ground in disgust. She ran over to them, panting heavily.

"Bianca-" started Lacy.

"You've got gold on your face honey," she interrupted, taking out a handkerchief and starting to wipe it off.

After a few seconds she gave up. No handkerchief could stem all that. It was only then that she turned her attention to the other two.

"Good job Mr. Blake, you got 'er," she said, nodding her head towards Lacy, "Glad to see you're in one piece too Rob."

"What's happening?" asked Balthazar.

"Oh, nothing much. Just a little old invasion," she said sarcastically, pulling a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of a pocket before lighting one with trembling hands, "Horvath broke through most of the wards like they were tissue paper. They were supposed to be the strongest we could get-"

"Horvath has a lot of tricks up his sleeve," Balthazar said, "Where's he now?"

"John and some others were trying to battle him last I saw, but he thinks Lacy's here and he wasn't even looking at them," she said, simultaneously inhaling and sniffing at him, "Now he's right."

Her tone smarted a little but Balthazar drew himself up.

"You should leave him to me," he said, "I've fought him before."

"Oh no you don't," she said, blowing smoke before flicking the cigarette away angrily, "You make sure Lacy here's okay. She's the number one priority right now, not some petty squabble that's been going on for centuries."

Balthazar looked at her, repulsed by her summation of his battle with Horvath. Not caring she continued;

"John told me what she's supposed to predict and if Horvath finds her and someone as weak as me is the only one standing between him and her then-"

"What am I supposed to predict exactly?" Lacy piped up.

There was a tense silence. It was only then that he realized, with one thing and another, no one had really told her what it was all about. Robin, in his similar state of ignorance, looked somewhat confused as well. Just as Balthazar started to figure out a gentle way to break her new importance to her Bianca said bluntly;

"We're not sure exactly; something important pertaining to the birth of the Prime Merlinians. There are Arcanum about your Arcana."

"Way to say it," Balthazar said, looking over at the girl who now looked profusely frightened.

"Normally I'd give her a glass of warm milk and tuck her into bed too but there's no time to mince words," Bianca snapped, "I have to get back down there; it was all going to hell when I last checked. We're trying to start up a storm to cover this up and they definitely need my help. I only went after these bastards because they ran off, if you'll excuse my French. Take care of yourself Rob."

Without another word she turned and headed downstairs. Shaking his head Balthazar turned back to the two shocked teens.

"Is there any part of this building you know well?" he asked.

"Um…Papa's office," stammered Lacy, "Two floors up. It's undergoing renovations, some art-deco mural, but I think it should…yeah."

"Take the elevator," he said, "You can trust me when I say that no one's going to get past this floor."

Robin nodded his head and started to head towards the elevator. Lacy resisted his pull though and said;

"But they will!"

The girl's lack of faith in him made him frown. He had just pulled off her rescue after all. Then he remembered who she was and realized that this probably wasn't a lack of faith at all. To emphasize this she took a drawing out of her pocket and thrust it into his hands. He looked at it and felt his heart sink. At least there weren't any black lines around it, but that was cold comfort considering that there weren't any lines around it at all.

Tearing his eyes away from the paper he looked down at Lacy. She seemed to be pleading with him to listen to her. Still, being the kind of man that he was, he couldn't help but notice the gold rings that were forming around her irises.

"This will happen," she said, "It's what happens afterwards that counts though."

"Then get upstairs," he said quietly.

She pulled away from Robin completely and hugged Balthazar around his waist. He looked at the girl like she'd sprouted wings, which she might have for the strangeness of her action. Tentatively, and feeling extremely awkward, he patted her on the back.

"Birds are still your friends, even if they're not real," she murmured.

"What?" he asked.

Lacy looked up and blinked.

"Did I say something?" she asked nervously.

He shook his head.

"Nothing important. Now go on upstairs."

Nodding to him she allowed Robin to usher her into the elevator. As soon as he saw that the elevator carriage had reached his destination he placed his hand against the door. The metal clouded for a moment before the door welded themselves shut. The stairs were still available, but there was no real way to close those off.

Pulling his hand away from the elevator he looked around. If what Bianca had said was right, and he believed it was, Horvath was probably already on his way up. His thoughts were confirmed when he heard footsteps from the end of a side hall, as well as the clinking of a cane on the floor. Gritting his teeth Balthazar stuffed the picture in his pocket and started to summon up a plasma bolt. He threw it in the direction of the noise, only to have it deflected.

That had been what he was expecting though. He took off running then, knowing that Horvath would follow someone with the audacity to attack him in such a manner. Horvath had a thing against plasma bolts in particular, probably because Balthazar had always been better at them. It was only after a few minutes that Balthazar realized he'd turned into a service staircase that went to the top of the building.

His mind flashed back to the picture and he winced. There had been no flux lines, none whatsoever. No matter what he tried he was being drawn to one inevitable conclusion. Yes, perhaps what he did after this would make things change. However, he couldn't see how him being shoved off the roof of the Chrysler building with Horvath holding the Grimhold could have a happy ending.

.

.

.

"We've got to stop," Lacy begged, sinking to her knees.

Robin tried to help her up, only to find that she couldn't. Every time he thought her legs were balanced she just slipped down again. He picked her up then, deciding in practicality over the blushes he was getting then. She was light, he knew that, but at the same time he was also quite weak in comparison to the adults who were carrying her. He was even weak for a fourteen year old.

Please don't let me fail because I chose choir over gym, please please please, he begged the powers that be inwardly, I promise I'll get stronger, I'll work out every day, I'll even join that stupid football team full of those morons who can't do long division. Just please don't let me fail her.

Somehow he managed to get her into her father's office. Dust sheets had been thrown everywhere and unopened buckets of paint lay stood near a blank white wall where he guessed the mural was going to be. However, he had been in John Steed's office almost as much as Lacy had, and he knew his way around quite well despite all of the dust sheets.

Knowing that her Arcana must be drawing near he settled her down onto a sofa, not bothering to take off the dust sheet. He helped ease the messenger bag off of her shoulder and onto the floor. Picking it up he put it at the end of the sofa for a pillow before laying her down gently.

Straightening up he went over to one of the buckets of paint. Using a tool that some thoughtless workman had left behind he pried the top off of the bucket. Then he picked up a paintbrush, probably left behind by the same workman, and started painting on the floor. Mr. Steed could yell at him for ruining his office later.

Methodically he started to draw the symbols in the Merlin Circle. He wasn't strong; he had never had the aptitude for magic like Bianca had. Still, the Circle would allow him to at least put up some small modicum of resistance. Robin finished with the symbols and tossed the paintbrush back into the paint bucket.

Tiredly he walked back to the sofa and knelt beside it. She was shaking horribly now and crying gold onto the sofa. Tentatively he laid an arm on her shoulder. She smiled at him, then stiffened somewhat.

"Is this-?" he started, holding onto her a little tighter.

"Not quite," she said, "I think…yeah…just another preshock. Somewhere in that area though…"

Biting her lip she closed her eyes and leaned a little more strongly into his shoulder. He could see that gold was still flowing out beneath her eyelids.

"I need another story," she sang softly, "Something to get off my chest…my life gets kinda boring…need something that I can confess. 'Til all my sleeves are stained red…from all the truth that I've said…"

With mounting horror he stared at her. Robin had always enjoyed listening to Lacy sing; she'd even told him she'd like to do it professionally one day. Honestly he knew that that was what she should be doing, even though everyone knew that she wouldn't need to be doing anything professionally for the rest of her life. Not with John Steed as her father.

Now though, he wished she'd stop. Even now her voice was still lovely, even with the gold shimmer on her face and her body trembling. Nothing could harm that voice. Still, he couldn't help but lean his forehead near hers in an attempt to fight back tears. He wished she'd stop; he didn't know what she was singing and it was obvious it was causing her pain.

"So tell me what you want from me," she continued, oblivious to everything around her, especially the boy next to her, "Something that'll like those ears, sick of all the insincere, so I'm gonna give all my secrets away. This time, don't need another perfect lie, don't care if critics ever jump in line, I'm gonna give all my secrets away…all my secrets away…"