Justine wakes up in a cage with her hands chained above her head and a sneaking suspicion that this is all Indiana's fault. That suspicion is confirmed a second later when she glances over at him and he studiously avoids eye contact. She shifts in the cage and raises her brows, noting the flush high along his cheeks.

"Care to explain what happened after I fainted?"

"Not really," he mutters.

"Indy saw the shiny rocks in that statue's face and went after them," Li says, prompt as ever.

"They're the Sankara stones, Tina." He leans forward as much as his chains will allow him, excitement making his hazel eyes bright. "They have three out of the five. I went down to retrieve them and heard something behind the alter."

"Uh-huh, and then what," Justine asks.

"I followed the noises to a mine."

"And?"

"And I found all the kids from Mayapore."

"Do I really have to drag the information out of you? My hands may be chained up, but my feet are free, and I will kick if I have to. I aim for the head, Jones."

"I saw a guard whipping one of the kids, so I threw a rock at his head. He didn't appreciate it." Justine's gaze sweeps over the four additional kids trapped in the cage with them, starved to the point of bloating. The sight makes her want to scream, to track down all the people responsible for this suffering and make them pay.

"Where's Willie?"

"Shorty said she ran off while he was fighting some guards."

"Good lord, we have awful taste in one-night stands."

"You got that right."

"Now what?"

"Now the evil of Kâli will take all of us," one of the boys says. There's no hope left in him; it's been beaten out by those awful guards. He's hunched against the iron bars, collarbones sharp against the taunt brown skin pulled over them. "They will force all of us to drink the blood of the Kâli and we'll fall into the Black Sleep of the Kâli Ma."

"And what exactly does that mean?"

"It means you'll be like the guards," another boy says. "You'll be trapped in a waking nightmare and won't be able to control yourself. Mola Ram, the High Priest, he will control you."

"Indy, we have to do something. We can't let him hurt these children anymore than he already has."

"We will, Tina. Don't you worry about that." A shuffling of boots on stone has everyone glancing towards the door of the cage, spotting a handful of guards coming their way. "Maybe this will be our chance." The door swings outward and then the adults and Li are being unchained and dragged out, herded like sheep through the old catacombs.

Mola Ram is even uglier up close. His bald head has a thick red stripe painted down the center of it, outlined in black, and his dark eyes are sunken deep into his head. They remind Justine of a skeleton, a walking stack of bones that don't know they're already dead. Or soon to be dead, anyway.

The three Sankara stones are shelved on the wall, the diamonds inside them glowing bright as torches and giving off an eerie glow. Mola Ram is stroking his fingertips over one of the stones, a reverent gesture.

"You tried to steal the Sankara stones," he accuses.

Justine, held in place by two guards and honestly wishing Willie was nearby with another serving tray, can't quite hold back the scathing sarcasm that comes naturally to her. "And you stole all the children from Mayapore. Do you really want to compare the two?" Ram turns his hard gaze on her, mouth set in a firm line. "What are three stones compared to all those innocents?"

"There were five of them originally."

"Oh yes, and that makes your crimes so much better." She narrows her eyes at him, chin raised defiantly. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"That certainly wouldn't be you, Doctor Laurent." Well, at least he addressed me properly. No one else around here does. "In fact, you're small enough to work in the mines. Nearly shaped like a boy." She really hates how that remark makes her seethe, nails biting into her palms. "Maybe that is where we'll put you. We'll save your sacrifice for later and I'll be pleased to watch as your heart burns in my hand."

"Put your hand anywhere near my heart and I'll bite it off."

"Bite off both of his hands, Tina," Indiana says from where he's been chained to an old statue across the room. "That way he's minus two hands and two stones."

"The last two stones are somewhere beneath this temple," Ram says. "That is why we need the children. They can reach places my guards cannot fit; they dig for gems to support our cause and for the stones." He places a hand on Li's head, only to jerk back when Justine tries to kick him. "Soon we will have all five Sankara stones and the Thuggees will be all powerful."

"My, what a vivid imagination you have, Grandma."

"Don't worry, Doctor Jones, you'll soon be a true believer of my cause." He gestures and one of the guards stationed by the wall moves to stand in front of Indiana, powerfully built and menacing. A gate creaks as one of the boys from earlier comes into the chamber, his eyes glazed over as he hands Mola Ram a skull with a metal spout protruding between the jaws. The Black Sleep, Justine realizes with a start, they're going to drug him.

"Stop it," she shouts, struggling hard against her guards. "Let him go! Leave him alone!"

"The time has passed for that, Doctor Laurent." The guard forces Indiana's mouth open and Mola Ram pours a thick liquid down his throat, Indiana trying to spit it out and choking for all his efforts.

"Spit it out," Li shouts. "It's bad! Spit it out, Indy!" Indiana manages exactly that once the guard releases his jaw, the brown gunk splattering over Ram's face.

Ram growls something in Hindi, the Maharajah grinning as he brings out some sort of doll. It looks vaguely like Indiana, crudely carved and adorned with bits of leather to make a jacket and fedora. He holds it over an open flame and Indiana reacts immediately, back arching as a punched-out sound of pain leaves him.

Li lets out a growl of his own, kicking Zalim in the shoulder and knocking the doll out of his hand. There's an instant of utter stillness after that, just one brief second of calm, and then Ram is growling out a new command. Li is tossed aside as his guards move to maneuver Indiana, turning him so that his back is facing the others.

One of Justine's guards is forced to grab Li when he slams his chained fists against Ram's side, hooking Li's chain to one of the rocks before helping to restrain Justine again. It's all one big blur of action that only seems to drop back into reality when a sharp crack echoes through the chamber.

Justine's vision goes red, teeth bared in a vicious snarl as the guard whips Indiana in the same moment that Zalim whips Li. She lunges backwards, forcing the guards to bear her weight as she kicks out at the young Maharajah, one bare foot connecting with his jaw and sending him sprawling back to the floor.

"Leave him alone," she yells. "Don't you touch him! He's just a little boy!"

"Leave him alone, you bastards," Indiana shouts. At a nod from Ram, one of her guards lands a solid punch to her middle, the blow driving her to her knees with a pained grunt. Indiana is shaking as he's turned back around, barely managing to hold himself upright when his back is pressed against the statue again. His shirt is torn from his stolen whip, five lashes that have him too weak to struggle when the large guard pries his mouth open this time.

"No!"

"Quiet," Ram commands," or you'll be whipped as well."

She hates herself for falling quiet, for watching as Mola Ram brings the grinning skull back to where her friend is trapped. There are still bits of skin clinging to it, part of a nose that protrudes over the metal sluice. The syrup-thick liquid pours out smoothly, the stink of old blood making Justine feel sick. Indiana fights it, he does his best to keep from swallowing, but he doesn't have a choice in the end.

"The British in India will be the first to fall under our might." There's pride in Ram's voice, triumph in those deep-set eyes that makes them too bright. "The Muslims and their Hebrew God will be next, and then your Christian God will be crushed under our heels. But first we will have another sacrifice to test your new loyalty, Doctor Jones. We may not know where the other young lady is, but your assistant will do just fine."

"I'm not his assistant," she snaps, then winces.

"Take her to the preparation chamber and throw the boy back in the mines."

The worst part of being sacrificed is that the dress Justine is forced into is too gorgeous to be destroyed by magma. There's also the fact that she could die at any moment, but that's pretty much par for the course when one spends enough time around Indiana Jones.

She's pacing the length of the chamber when Willie shoots up off the straw-covered ground, heaving in deep breaths and looking on the verge of a panic attack until she sees Justine. She'd been brought in twenty minutes ago, unconscious with the beginnings of a spectacular bruise spreading along the left side of her cheek. The same group of women that had dressed Justine came in to do the same to Willie, though with noticeably less cursing this time around.

"Not that I'm complaining about the new clothes, but what the hell am I wearing," she asks, passing her hand over the necklace of colorful flowers.

"Ceremonial garb, I suppose," Justine says, shrugging.

"And why am I wearing it?"

"Because they didn't want to sacrifice us in our pajamas. Kâli must frown on poorly dressed offerings." Willie frowns and fidgets with the long sleeves of her dress, looking close to tears now. "We're going to get out of here, I promise."

"Are we though? There are more of those thug people than there are of us. Hey, where are the rest of us?"

"They threw Li in the mine and…. I don't know what they're doing to Indy." Justine wraps her arms around herself, trying valiantly to keep it together. She'll be no use to anyone if she's hysterical. "I think they drugged him to make him more compliant." Her nails bite sharply at her arms, the pain helping to keep her grounded.

Willie flops back down on the hard floor of the cave, staring up at the stalactites. Even dragged down by exhaustion and a possible concussion, she's still one of the most beautiful people that Justine's ever seen. It'd be a shame to have all of that loud personality melted away.

Justine wants to sit next to her, to comfort her and promise that all of this will be a nightmare in a week, but she can't. God help her, she can't manage the lie when she's so bone weary herself. She just wants to curl up on sun-warmed earth, feel grass tickling her bare feet and listen to her brother as he sings their favorite lullaby. She wants to be a little girl again, the one that always had a bright smile and no enemies apart from the spiders that made webs in the corners of her room.

Her eyes close and she sags against one of the walls, almost dozing as she remembers that easy childhood. She wanted for nothing back then, she was her father's little princess and her mother's plaything. Her brother used to tease her, but he never complained when she followed him to play, even taught her how to play the piano so she wouldn't be bored while he was away at school.

She's just able to picture what Gustave looked like in the last photograph his wife had sent; same unruly curls, same cheeky grin. He held a little girl in the last photo, her fine hair held off her face by a bow and her first tooth missing. Justine aches to see her niece in person, to hold her and sing to her, but there's a reason she's stayed in Connecticut for so long. A separation from her husband is one thing but petitioning for a divorce is a scandal that her father won't hear of. Justine will be welcomed back when she shelves that notion and accepts René back with open arms.

Justine's eyes snap open at the sound of the rusty gate being pulled back, a pair of priests standing in the doorway of the cave. They're a grave looking bunch, these Thuggees, like crudely built automatons that run only on the blood of Kâli. Looks like she won't have to worry about René after all.

"Come," the taller priest says, beckoning the women forward.

"No." Justine may be exhausted, but she's stubborn above everything. They'll have to drag her out of this cell kicking and screaming. The portlier priest brings a knife out of his robes and strides into the room, pulling Willie up by her hair and holding the sharp blade under her chin.

"Come, now."

"Oh hell." She allows herself to be dragged out by her arm, stumbling after the long-legged man down a long corridor and then out into the cavern. It's the same one she'd seen a few hours ago, and the same cage is suspended just over the ground, ready for the next sacrifice.

Mola Ram turns to face the women, considering, and then bares his teeth in a feral grin more suited on a panther than a human being. "The American will be first," he says. "Make the assistant suffer a moment longer before her fate."

"I hope you all rot," Willie yells, struggling as the priest shoves her into the cage. Two guards shackle her hands, indifferent as she switches between threats and pleading. Justine lashes out at the priest next to her and even makes it three feet before she's tackled to the ground, a knee in her back to keep her from escaping again.

"Let her go! Damn you all!" Mola Ram raises a hand towards Kâli as he starts to chant, letting it rest over Willie's chest for a moment before his eyes light up with an idea.

"Come," he says, echoing his priest. "You will have this honor, Doctor Jones." Indiana is standing off to the side, dressed in a pair of pants and nothing else, a red sigil painted on his forehead. He's stone-faced as he approaches the cage, eyes glazed and wandering towards the chasm before drifting back to Willie. He looks like he's sleepwalking, his mind far away.

"Indiana," Willie pleads. "Don't do this. You have to wake up. Please, don't hurt us." There's a moment where his expression seems to go soft around the edges, one of his hands coming up to cup the bruised side of Willie face. Her tears are wet on his hand, they seem to confuse him.

"Indy," Justine tries," Indy, you have to come back to us. They're going to kill us. They're going to kill Li. Don't let them do this." He glances at her over one broad shoulder, taking in the way the priest has her trapped under the bulk of his weight. His hand wavers in the air, a fine tremor, and then he's gone again. He closes the doors of the cage, chanting along with the people gathered across the fissure. "No!"

"Indy, stop!" He steps away and the cage is lifted into the air, flipped so that Willie can see that stone door set into the floor slide open, so she can see the magma swirling below. Justine feels ready to fall apart when Willie starts to scream in earnest, a heartrending sound that has Justine banging her fists on the stone.

"Get off of me! Stop this!"

"Doctor Jones!" Her head snaps to the side at the familiar voice, spotting Li as he comes running out of the shadows. He's covered in soot and moves a little stiffly but looks no worse for wear aside from that. It makes something unclench in her chest when his little body collides with Indiana's. If anyone can make Indiana wake up, it'll be his surrogate son. "Doctor Jones, you gotta wake up!"

Indiana strikes Li across the face, the little boy staring up at him with tears spilling over. There's a determination there as well, the same thing that's kept him alive on the streets of Shanghai all these years. Wan Li isn't going to die here, Justine realizes. If any of them make it out of here, it'll be him.

Li wipes the tears off his face and sprints over to the wall, disappearing from Justine's line of sight. She trusts him to get out of here, but someone needs to get Willie before she dies in that cage.

Justine throws her head back, hearing the satisfying crunch of a broken cartilage and grunt from the priest. She's able to buck him off her after that, a well-placed kick sending him deep into unconsciousness. She strides over to the chains suspending the cage, ripping off the sash tied around her waist and using it to protect her hands as she begins to shimmy her way down into the pit.

"I'm coming, Willie," she calls.

"Well, come a little faster!" The cage comes to a jolting halt that makes Justine lose her grip, dropping her flat on top of the cage with a groan. "What the hell was that?"

"I took your words to heart and came faster." She stands on unsteady feet, grabbing onto the chain to keep her upright. "I'm gonna turn the cage around, alright?" At Willie's nod, she climbs up a short length of the chain and kicks the bottom of the cage, keeping at it until Willie is facing her instead of the lava. "Miss me, doll?"

"Get me out of here and I'll show you how much I missed you."

"Easy-peasy." But then the cage is moving again and Justine's hanging onto the chain for dear life as her feet swing to the left. "I should have just kept my mouth shut." She swings back on top of the cage and hangs onto the thin bars, levering one of the doors open before the cage stops again.

"Oh God, I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Just hold on a little longer. Li's working on getting Indiana back to his senses."

"I thought he was in the mine."

"What can I say? The kid's resourceful." She gets the other door open as the cage begins to rise, her knees resting on either side of Willie's hips. "Looks like God is on our side." Willie just groans, head thumping back against the metal as Justine sets to work on the manacles. The heat makes things difficult, sweat dripping into her eyes and the metal stinging her fingers. "I need a knife to pry this open." She looks up as the cage comes to a stop above the door again, eyes landing on a knife the unconscious priest has in his belt. "I'll be right back."

"What do you mean you'll be right back?" Justine scrambles back onto solid ground long enough to grab the knife, then she's climbing back into the cage and setting to work.

The seams along the manacles are thin, but she manages to wedge the tip of the knife into one side. One of the cuffs opens as the cage begins a rapid descent back into the pit, Justine nearly losing her grip on the knife when it stops just as suddenly.

"I swear to God, I'm never coming back to India," Willie says. Her hair is plastered to the side of her face and neck, breaths coming a little too fast because of the heat. "Get me out of here, Tina. I can't breathe."

"Patience is a virtue, you know." She gives Justine a look of disbelief, waggling her free hand through the air.

"Not right now, it isn't!" The left wrist comes free and Justine's able to turn to face Willie's feet, working on those shackles next. "We're rising again. If this is how bread feels in the oven, then I'll never eat another slice." Justine can't help her laugh, an almost crazed sound as she gets one ankle free and then the other.

"Can you stand up?"

"I don't know."

"Can you run if we're surrounded when we reach the top?" Willie's blue eyes go hard as she sits up, grasping one of the chains and dragging herself to her feet.

"I see that little worm and I'll punch him right in the throat." In that moment, seeing Willie's eyes glowing with hate and her teeth bared, Justine can understand why people cling to their religions. If they get out of here alive, then she'll follow Willie anywhere as long as she's welcome.

The cage comes to a stop above the pit once more and they step out ready for a fight. Willie lets Indiana help her down and then slaps him so hard that Justine is certain his father can feel it. "Hey, wait, it's me. I'm back." She slaps him again, just as hard, before moving to help Justine down.

"Lock me in a cage again and I'll make you wish you were never born, Jones. Now where's that asshole gone to?" Mola Ram is nowhere in sight, it's like the steam rising out of the crevasse swallowed him whole.

"He's gone for now, but there's a more pressing issue we have to deal with." Willie turns to meet Justine's gaze, crossing the scant few feet between them and pulling her into a deep kiss. Justine hasn't exactly kissed a lot of people in her thirty-six years on this earth, but she can say without a doubt that Willie tops the list.

"Right," Justine says when they pull apart. "Let's go save those kids."