There was a thoughtful face staring through the windscreen at the sun. The car was parked somewhere that was a little less rundown than the neighborhood it had previously inhabited, but while she was in her little shell of tinted glass the world outside didn't matter.

She didn't know what she should have been thinking about. Things were just happening and Valina was riding this wave of strangeness. The ex-witch met the eyes of her reflection, slightly above her in the curved windscreen; they looked bigger than they were before, light curls of bewilderment around her pupils.

Mandarin was still unconscious; he'd been pushed hard during that recent excursion. She felt a bit sorry for him. Worried, even.

Gaze drilling into her reflection, Valina demanded why. The thin, warped face couldn't think of an answer.

The monkey twitched and made a small groan as he finally stirred. His vision was blurry, and he blinked a few times to clear it. He was lying on his back staring up at… Something grey and fuzzy. It certainly wasn'tsky…

The simian groaned as he pushed himself up. Smooth leather, silly grooves and painful contours all over the place. Right. The stolen car.

"Up at last, are you?" Her eyes had travelled to the rear view mirror.

The simian grunted in response, and since his mistress had given him no command to do otherwise, flopped gracelessly back into the plush seat.

There was a silence, but it wasn't unwelcome by any means. Valina's attention flicked away from the mirror, to other soundless thoughts, while Mandarin felt no desire to converse at the moment.

Unfortunately, since the simian wasn't speaking, that meant he had no choice but to lie there and think.

Valina had done him a great favor, whether he liked to admit it or not. Whether he understood it or not. The fact that she had risked her own safety -Mandarin felt an uncomfortable choke here- to protect him was undeniable. It was too bizarre to wrap his mind around. Simply put, it was the first instance that anyone had ever done something for him... As opposed to to, which was sadly what he was more comfortable with; he knew how to handle that.

"Good job, by the way." The comment was hesitant and grudging, but the witch managed to grate it out. She held up the ninth of thirteen amulets.

"I'm vaguely impressed that you actually managed to get this. I'm aware it was no easy task to get to it in the first place, and then with the added factor of having to dodge an onslaught of bullets…" The witch cleared her throat and fingered the steering wheel.

"I suppose you deserve some credit for pulling it off."

There was a brief buzzing in Mandarin's head, which slowly faded away as the compliment sunk in.

It was at this point that the monkey became convinced that he'd woken up in an alternate dimension.

Suddenly, there was something churning in his stomach. Then he felt it begin creeping its way up. It began to bubble up his throat, and, before he could stop it, it spilled out of his mouth and splattered against his hearing.

"Thank you."

They both knew what they were talking about. The matter was something to be watched and tested with caution; this whole damned bridge could collapse at any moment.

"For keeping me away from those guards," Mandarin tried again. "It was rather...convenient having you around at the time."

The witch in the front seat blinked, returned to the strip of mirror. She nodded once.

The silence returned, but this time Mandarin wished it hadn't. There had been too much meaning in the exchange, and the words hadn't matched the meaning. When he could take it no longer the orange simian asked, "Where precisely did you learn all that again?"

"Hmm? The hotwiring at the park, you mean?" The sorceress scoffed dismissively. "My parents owned an arcade, Monkey. If I was horrendously bored and had no pocket money I'd tinker with the game consoles so I could play without paying. It was a start."

Mandarin found himself feeling somehow incredulous, and -in spite of himself- impressed. "And the car?" he asked.

The corners of Valina's mouth twitched upwards for a fraction of a second. "That's another story altogether."

The witch reached down abruptly, and turned the key in the ignition.

"We aren't finished yet, Simian…"

She recovered her sight in time to see the dust settle. Thick clouds of it, white plaster drifting down leisurely...

...to cover the bodies.

Step backward, one, two. Let the eye roam, roam so dizzyingly. Let the blood freeze in your equally frozen body.

The explosion had torn a jagged strip out of the ceiling, it seemed. Her eyes rose to take in the cracked roof beams in the dimness overhead and the tiles perched perilously on the edge of the gap. A zigzag line of white sky. It was as if all the energy inside the house had built up and escaped in a single, monumental burst. It had gone directly upwards, one building-split force, and the roof was the only part of the building that had been damaged. Spectacular.

It made Dia's mind pound with fear.

The rosebuds on the wallpaper stretched, blooming and dying, as her vision swirled. Dust, dust everywhere.

She carefully avoided the black-armored men on her carpet. Rather, she was careful not to step near the oily pools of their remains. Ink stains on cards, she thought numbly. The kind the doctor tells you to look at, and tell him what you see.

I see...

By her feet, she knew, should have been the head of the red-headed boy, face-down. The silhouette of his arms reached out, the right arm upwards and the left by his side. His legs were an indefinable mess, merging with each other and his torso.

But it's not really arms and legs and a head. It's just ash, pressed in between the orange-pink fibers of the carpet.

Such destructive power, and shaped from her hands. There wasn't even blood. A hand, white as the plaster, white as the cloud-wrapped sun, rose to cup her mouth. The words rang out again spasmodically, each time with more chilling reality.

There's not even any blood!

"Mistress Dia," the skeleton began.

The girl whirled around, heaving in gasps of air. It's still here? The figure stood erect and stone-frozen on the other side of the room, staring back. But, aha, it is not stone at all... The coal black eyes, its outstretched claws; this horrible formless thing was hers!

It grated out its words, almost as if it was in pain. "Mistress, it would be best...if we left," the Formless said, stepping woodenly towards her.

Dia reached for the back of the lounge, latching onto it desperately. "You killed them, didn't you?" Her arms and voice shook.

"It was Mistress Li-Anne's wish."

"My sister. Where is she?"

The Formless said nothing and its eyes did not move.

"Where...is...Li-Anne?" the mage enunciated slowly. An image of the young soldier with red hair flashed through her mind. "I command you to answer me!"

Step backward, one, two. Let go of the sofa and use your eyes. Absorb all the horrors in this cottage, and find the one you don't want to see.

Hers was the only human body intact. Locks of her hair lay limp on the floor, twisted and beautiful like the sunrise. The sleeves of her sorceress' robe were stained with blue and black, the tangible remnants of the magic she had used. And red, too. Why the red?

"Did you kill her?" Dia loathed herself for saying it so calmly.

The Formless took another step. "I am forbidden to harm you." It said this just as levelly.

"She told you to do it, didn't she? You helped her, you know. You helped her by killing the soldiers like that."

"Mistress. It would be better for you to leave. It is no longer safe here." In two strides, it was in front of her, nose to nose.

"No, no, stay back!" She staggered backwards, hands held up protectively. Dia wondered if she had enough strength to summon her magic. "Leave me alone! You'll just keep killing, like you killed Li-Anne! Just keep killing and killing..." The young woman slipped in some ashes and started sobbing as she climbed to her feet.

"Murderer!"

And with that final condemnation, Dia turned her back and ran out of the doorway.

She ran down the street.

She ran past the last buildings of the city.

She ran through the wasteland and its freezing night.

It was when she staggered, too weak to remember why she had cried so much on the way, into the mass of green and grey that they arrived.

The sun had set some time ago. The moon was on the rise, albeit continuously disappearing behind an assortment of clouds, making any sort of vision intermittent. The warmth and light were seeping away; there wasn't much time until they would be lost in the Savage Lands' complete darkness.

Neither the witch nor the monkey had been exactly thrilled upon discovering that their next objective lay somewhere within the hostile land's boundaries.

Tripping clumsily over the dense undergrowth, Mandarin hugged the gun he'd pilfered earlier closer to his chest and growled. They'd been walking for hours… And from what he could tell, they were no closer to their goal than they had been when they had started.

"No, we couldn't have taken the car." Valina said this with an uninterested inflection, without looking up from her 'map'.

The orange monkey knitted his eyebrows together. "I didn't say anything, Witch."

"You were going to say it. If not now then eventually. I know."

Mandarin wrinkled his nose in indignation. "I'm not stupid, Witch. You think we could have maneuvered that thing through all this?" He gesticulated at the rambling vines all around them.

Rather than incite an argument the sorceress decided to simply move on from this. It took some amount of tongue-biting. Their verbal spars (which seemed to arise every time either one of them got frustrated) were distracting and a waste of time, but it felt right. She was the master, he was the servant. That wouldn't change, so what could you do?

Only say with a half-smile, "You're learning, Mandarin."

Mandarin changed hands holding the gun. It wasn't large for a human, though it had a thick grip and a long barrel. Annoyingly cumbersome for a smaller monkey. "You truly think we'll meet something out here that would require a firearm?"

"Seems a waste of a weapon if we didn't bring it," Valina said, almost cheerfully.

She looked up from her amulet again before halting abruptly, her head whirling to her left. Mandarin (who'd been glaring into the surrounding foliage) collided with the back of the witch's legs and stumbled back a pace or two. The monkey scowled up at his mistress briefly before taking note of the direction of her gaze. He turned to look, and found himself staring into the black, gaping mouth of a cavern.

"Is it in there?" Mandarin asked shortly, half-dreading the answer.

"No," Valina replied. "But something else is. I heard a noise-"

As if awaiting some cue from the sorceress, a rustling from deep within the cave rebounded off its walls and rushed to meet the pair. Mandarin instinctively raised the gun while the witch took a half-step back and lifted her fists. The rustling suddenly amplified, indicating that whatever was inside the cavern was now making its way out. Both simian and witch were tensed in waiting, each quietly wrestling with the notion of bolting and hoping their partner had the sense to follow, when something launched itself out of the cave and landed in a crumpled heap at their feet.

It took Valina a moment to register any recognition towards the filthy little creature that currently lay quaking by her boots. The skin was sallow and the cheeks were sunken; fear and lunacy sparked in its wild eyes. The hair was an undistinguishable color under all the grime, and was tangled and long and matted.

It wasn't until the pitiful little thing actually met the witch's eyes that Valina dimly recalled a child with a short red bob of hair and freckles that had occupied a fraction of her memory.

"Dia?" The name flung itself from her dry throat. Surely this dirty, crazed, pathetic thing couldn't be the innocent, sweet-looking child that had been a member of the Skeletal Circle…

Mandarin was incredulous. "What?"

The girl's eyes widened in anguish as she stared, disbelieving, up at the fuchsia eyes of the young woman. She shook her head slightly. "N-no…y-you're…you can't be... You're dead... Valina, you're dead! You're- I'm- I'm- I'm dead-" Hysterical weeping burst from the child's lips, silencing her speech.

Valina resisted the urge to smack the girl, instead choosing to grab her wrist and haul her to her unsteady feet. She let go almost immediately, however. The child's arm had several vicious looking puncture wounds in it. The skin was puffy and slightly green. Infection was obvious.

The girl tottered on her feet for a moment while the witch collected herself. "Stop whimpering," she commanded finally. "You aren't dead. I'm not either. Not anymore, anyway…"

The child sniffled and sniveled as she gazed at the sorceress.

Valina looked back, contemplating. It was quite clear that this girl's amulet was the one they were looking for. However, as far as she could see, she didn't have her amulet. Which was peculiar…Why would Dia forgo her only weapon in the Savage Lands? Well, unless the child was a raging idiot, she wouldn't. No, all evidence suggested that the girl had lost it somewhere. Presumably a long time ago, judging by appearances and by the fact that she was a stuttering mess…

"Dia..." the witch began evenly. "Where's your amulet? Do you know?"

Dia started; an invisible shock ran up her body and she began to shake. "No, I- I- no."

"You don't know where it is?"

The girl shook her head. "I can't- It was lost. I-I can't get it back."

Valina opened her mouth to speak again, but was cut off.

"Th-they swarm. They never attack one at a time, they- they always attack in groups."

The sorceress's blinked. "Who always attacks in groups?"

Dia either didn't hear the witch's question or decided it wasn't worth answering. "I-I ran. I had to get away, or I would've been- Would've been just like Li-Anne-"

"Li-Anne?"

"I ran and then when I got here they all came. They- they all swarmed and bit and scratched and when I ran from them they took my amulet. I-I can't get it back. They- they'll kill me; rip me to pieces."

Valina's brows furrowed, becoming frustrated with the girl's inability to answer her questions. "Who?"

Dia was beginning to lose control of her breathing again. This time it was very clear that she could no longer acknowledge the witch's inquiries, much less answer them. "Can't go back either. It'll find me and kill me too. Just like Li-Anne."

Clearly the child's psyche had snapped somewhere along the way. The witch watched numbly as the girl spiraled into a frenzied panic again, realizing that no amount of questions would draw out any sort of answer from her.

"It's unstoppable, it's going to destroy everything, it- it-" She stopped with surprising abruptness, the whites of her eyes shone against the background of dusted skin. These wild eyes locked with Mandarin's, who'd been silently observing the conversation that had been taking place between the two females with extreme confusion. Fear stretched the eyes further.

"You! Like...but not like- It's-" Again her voice was cut off. Attuned to a sound they could not hear, the girl turned to Valina with new terror. Sinewy fingers grabbed the witch's hands, shook them, and a whisper: "Save me."

With that the eyes rolled back into the girl's head, and with a last single shaky exhale she collapsed against the witch.

Valina stumbled against the added weight before finally managing to ease the girl to the ground. Hesitantly, she checked for a pulse…

It was weak. The rhythm of Dia's lifeblood pumping through her veins was slow, getting slower, and desperately frail. Within seconds, the beat evaporated to nothing, leaving the empty shell behind.

"She's dead," the witch stated quietly.

Mandarin stared. Evidently his mind was still trying to catch up with what had happened. "What…killed her?" he asked lamely.

Valina was about to shrug, but then something in the back of her mind chirped 'infection' and the sorceress slowly pulled up the girl's loose sleeve to reveal the wounds.

"…Ah…"

A pause.

The monkey had the audacity at that point to act indignant, dropping the gun to his side and placing a hand on his bony hip. "I don't suppose you have any idea as to what she was talking about then?"

Valina began to shake her head, when there was a faint rustling a ways away from the pair. Valina's mind provided her with an answer to her minion's question almost immediately. She swallowed and turned her head to look over her shoulder.

"Simian?"

"What?"

"You remember the day we started looking for Skeleton King's skull?"

Mandarin's face contorted into a fierce scowl at the memory. "Are you referring to when you tortured me for information? Yes, I believe I vaguely recall that…" In the back of her mind Valina acknowledged the animosity in the monkey's words. Apparently, he still wasn't over the incident. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

There was another rustle from a different direction and closer this time. Valina slowly stood up.

"Do you remember what the Skeletal Circle did with the skull?"

The orange simian raised a questioning eyebrow. "They tried to curse the city."

More rustling, in several places now. This time Mandarin heard it too and jumped.

"And what with?"

"What does that have to do with-?"

"Answer the question, Mandarin."

The rustling was very close now and from all sides. The monkey raised the gun taking a few steps back. He licked his lips nervously. "Frogs were first, I think, then while we were in that chamber battling the Hyper Force and your parents it was spiders…"

Valina moved, and now she and her minion were standing back-to-back. "And what else?"

It suddenly dawned on the simian what the witch was getting at, and he got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The noise in the bushes got louder as it neared, and both mistress and minion said in unison,

"Rats."

A large, greasy, black ball of fur suddenly leapt out of the foliage, screeching horribly. The pair barely had time to act as they threw themselves out of the way. Valina landed awkwardly on her side, but Mandarin rolled and was on his feet in an instant. Sparing only a second to take aim, the monkey pulled the trigger of the gun. Blood splattered from the creature's shoulder. It squealed and thrashed, as if trying to shake out the bullet.

It was as if the gunshot had been a signal. Black exploded from the bushes; squealing as they rushed towards them. Twin sets of reddish eyes glimmered out from bodies the size of motorbike sidecars. How many were they? Too useless to count. Mandarin swung the gun around and squeezed.

The onslaught of gunshots clashed horribly with the wailing of the rats, and the furry black bodies jerked and fell to the ground as they were struck. Valina stared, aghast, at the scene before her. She bit her tongue to quell the urge to egg the monkey on, and instead scuttled back. Her minion had a usable weapon against the oncoming enemy; she, as much as she hated admitting it, was close to helpless. It would do her no good to draw attention to herself.

Her eyes scanned the battlefield. She'd never seen so many rats in her life. Let alone such massive, demonic-looking ones…

Her gaze settled on what was probably the biggest, most gnarled rat of the group, and she gasped.

With the chain wrapped around its teeth, it held Dia's amulet in its mouth.

Forgetting her earlier plan to try to remain ambiguous, Valina, still moving backwards, yelled out while pointing anxiously, "Mandarin! That one! Shoot that one-!"

She had touched something vaguely soft and definitely wet behind her, and she jolted and looked.

It was Dia. Or what was left of her... The witch stifled a shriek, staring at a very sickly looking rat. The creature looked up from its meal, and began to hiss. It started to advance on her, the hair on its spine raised, and Valina's hand felt around on the ground. Slowly, the creature's nose came within inches of hers, and as it gave a strangely high-pitched growl the sorceress's hand shot up, holding a thick, heavy stone. There was a loud CRACK as it made contact with the rat's temple, and the witch got to her feet quickly and scrambled away from the rodent, aware that more were coming to take its place…

Mandarin had lost sight of Valina.

He tried to alternate between shooting things and scanning the area for his disappeared mistress, but was having a time trying to do so. How had she managed to go missing? She'd been right behind him a moment ago-

A long, grey hairless tail lashed out from nowhere and whipped Mandarin across the chest, sending him flying. He landed hard on his back, the wind getting knocked clean out of him, and the gun bounced from his grip. The simian struggled to regain his breath and desperately reached for the weapon, when suddenly he felt himself be lifted off the ground.

His abdomen was trapped between the rat's huge jaws.

Mandarin began wriggling in a frantic attempt to free himself. Suddenly his eyes went wide, and he started screaming in pain, thrashing, madly.

The rat's jaws were closing.

There were a series of loud crunching cracks as the sharp teeth began to penetrate his armor. Mandarin could feel them start to dig into his stomach as his ribs were forced in on themselves; the two massive teeth on the rat's upper jaw started to sink in just beside his spine-

Gasping for air as pain began to overwhelm him, the monkey clawed frantically at anything he could reach. The creature whipped its head from side to side in response.

Mandarin yelped and gagged on the blood that was making its way up his throat. Forcing as much logic as he could into his brain above the pain and panic that swirled within his thoughts, he reached down. Finding the spot on the creature's neck just under the jaw, the simian stabbed down and ripped sideways, tearing the rat's throat open. Its grip loosened, and Mandarin tore himself out of its maw, crashing to ground. The creature stumbled around drunkenly as its life bled out from its neck, before finally falling to the ground with a dull thud.

The monkey lay choking on the now bloodied soil, trying to breathe and not simultaneously inhale blood. He had to struggle more as seconds ticked away. He couldn't do it. His ribs were too crushed and agony had enveloped his mind. The panic that set in then was predictable, but that didn't make it any more convenient. His artificial arm convulsed horribly, repeatedly slamming itself against the ground. Mandarin squeezed his eyes shut and prayed- begged for it all to stop…

He didn't notice five more huge rats spot his prone form on the ground.

Valina shrieked out of nothing but pure fear, an occurrence that was, admittedly, new to her, though she was rapidly becoming familiar with the action. A rat had her cornered. It had lunged out at her, and had practically caught her. She threw herself out of the way for the umpteenth that night, and tried to scramble away as it reared and sprung again. She barely glanced back at it in time, and this time she flattened herself against the ground. The rodent went soaring over her head, landing several feet away. She forced herself to leap to her feet, then swore vehemently as a massive head rush overtook her.

She didn't have time to throw herself out of the way.

She grunted as she was tackled to the ground by the rat, her skull cracking against the ground. The world spun before her eyes, though all her world currently consisted of was the ugly snout of a rat. The jaws opened wide and lunged forward-

Valina's hands flew upwards and caught the rat's muzzle before it managed to take her head in a bone-crunching grip.

The rodent made a horrible noise of fury and indignation in its throat, spittle flying and hitting the sorceress's face. She grunted with exertion as the creature flailed above her, trying to force its mouth down to her. She hissed in pain suddenly, the rat's claws beginning to dig and slash into arms and stomach as it fought against her waning strength. Perspiration began to form on the witch's brow as she struggled underneath the creature.

Valina frantically glanced around herself, then back at the rodent on top of her. There had to be something she could use as a weapon… Or something she could use to somehow throw the rat off… The creature's breath was foul and hot against her face, and its beady black eyes were filled with more hate than she thought it possible to reside in an animal's-

The eyes.

The sorceress swallowed, trying to bring some moisture to her parched throat. Minimal success. Calling on final reserves, Valina straightened out her arms, pushing the rat's head up. It screamed and pushed harder. Abruptly, the witch released her grip, and the rodent's large snout came flying at her face. She jerked her head to the side, and the creature's head smashed into the ground.

While it was disoriented, the witch shakily, disgustedly (but no less quickly) reached over and grasped inside the rodent's eye sockets-

The rat screamed.

Valina brought her knees up to her chin underneath the hulking mass of fur, then savagely kicked up with both feet.

She didn't loosen her grip.

There was a terrible, squelching, ripping noise as the rat went flying into the air. It hit the ground on its back, but quickly got back to its feet. It screeched and shook its head from side to side, trying to free itself from the pain and wipe out the blackness that had descended on its vision. Valina retched and scrambled to her feet, throwing two slimy balls as far as she possibly could away from herself.

The sorceress was shaking all over, and it only got worse when she saw three or so more rats descend upon the one she had just blinded. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head, momentarily disregarding that she was still vulnerable. When she opened them again, she saw Mandarin, several meters away, on the ground.

The gun was a few feet away from him.

So were five other rats.

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw two of them surround him, the other three occupying themselves with the nearby corpse of one of their kin, and she was moving before she was even aware her brain had sent the signals to her feet. She saw one rat begin to tug on the monkey's arm. As she passed the fallen artillery, Valina bent down and scooped it up, but didn't slow. She pulled the trigger and held it.

The first shot caught one of the rodents just above the eye. It was dead instantly.

The second shot missed, hitting the trunk of some partially dead tree in the background.

The third shot caught the second rat in the right back paw.

In retrospect, it may have been easier to shoot if she hadn't been barreling forward so haphazardly…

The injured rat and one that had been hunched over the deceased hissed and started to attack, but by that point Valina was close enough to deliver a killing blow. She reached her minion, felt her ability to breathe disintegrate. He was practically lying in a pool of his own black blood.

"Mandarin!" She really shouldn't have wasted time calling his name, she knew. It was doubtful that he was even going to answer in the first place, and either way it would've much more fruitful to simply pick him up and run. But she wanted some sort of reaction. Some sort of acknowledgement that he wasn't (completely) dead yet, be it a grunt or a simple twitch of the tail. To her…relief? The monkey slowly twisted his head and blearily looked up at her.

A squeal. Valina's head snapped up as another rat leapt into the air and began to fall upon them. The trigger of the gun was pulled again, and the rodent's body jerked in the air before crashing to the ground not far from her and Mandarin.

The witch glanced around herself, and saw the rest of the pack closing in. They were becoming very annoyed with their meal putting up such a troublesome fight. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the large, menacing looking rat that held the amulet. Surprisingly, however, she found that she had higher priorities that trying to retrieve what it possessed…

Valina bent down, snatching up her minion, before she held down the trigger of the gun and waved the barrel around in front of her. She got a good number of rats with that, and a number of other ones leapt out of the way. The path was more or less clear.

Running as fast as she could, the sorceress darted through the opening she'd made, and sprinted away, breathing heavily, while the vile rodents momentarily occupied themselves with the freshly-dead.

The moon had taken its place high above; on the other hand it could not penetrate the dense canopy. It was to flee or fight them off in total night, and neither of their lives would come out of that battle.

Relief washed over the sorceress when she found the rocky outcrop. It was merely a strange protrusion of stone covered in moss, like a big 7 leaning over the ground, but it was shaped in such a way that if she laid Mandarin in the hollow and stood in front of him, the rock formed a roof over her head.

There's no one to watch my back. How many bullets are left in this thing? And they're coming. Valina was glancing all around now, up at the edge of rock (if a rat tried to jump down from the outcrop it'd have to land in front of her), left and right (she'd need quick reflexes and a good eye if they came from the side), and deep into the jungle growth.

Moments trickled by. Then, directly in front of her between a narrow tree trunk and a broad leaf, a tiny light.

The large rat Valina had seen before leapt, exploding from the shrubbery with its front paws outstretched. For one long instant the saliva trailing down its teeth flashed in Valina's vision, but then she realized that she'd waited too long to fire-

Reflexes tilted the gun up, pressed urgently and painfully against the trigger. As the animal curved in the air, on its way down to meet her, a bluish ball of light flew out of the barrel and burst.

It was akin to a small supernova. Brightness expanded in all directions, sweeping through the trees, burning through the atmosphere. A particular image printed itself onto Valina's retina: The airborne rat with its paws flailing in the sky, lit spectacularly from below before-

The mage jump back when the carcass –half of it burned away- fell to the ground. Right out of the sky, with a resonating thud.

A dozen meters away in the bushes, the rest of the pack froze. Confusion rippled through their ranks. One second their alpha had commenced the attack with a flying leap; the next the prey had shot light at them. The general idea was that their alpha was dead. He, whom no other rat could challenge, was lying before their eyes with his entrails hanging out of a gigantic charred hole.

Valina was equally surprised at this result. A portion of her brain acknowledged that her shoulders were trembling, a cocktail of fear, exhaustion and excess adrenaline surging through her veins. Gun's never done that before. Must have pressed one of the buttons...

One of the rats padded forward in an attempt to salvage the attack. It tried to jump but a bullet in its back leg had shorn through the muscle. The prey didn't react. The rat could spy the petrifying terror in its two eyes. So it chose to saunter forward and to the side, one hop at a time, gimlet eyes locked with the prey.

On the contrary, the sorceress was gently feeling along the gun's handle. Which button had it been? Just shoot, shoot it! She pressed one at random and aimed between the approaching rat's eyes. Four meters away, two meters...

Nothing happened, other than that the rat pounced. Front paws landed on her shoulders. Crushing weight. The same button, a prayer and a pull. A silken sound issued forth, the beautiful sound of death sliding through a creature's brain.

Short-range.

The next minute passed in a whirl. The pack surged as one, certain that sheer speed and numbers could win this struggle. A third button flung bullets whistling through the animals.

Long range.

Valina found the first one and sent triumphant orbs of blue light to three others. But then they all fanned out and readied themselves to attack at once-

Valina had nothing except a tremendous feeling of being right, and the fourth button.

Long-range blast.

The last of the pack were wiped away with the sound of a scream. When their fallen bodies smoked and the sighing of the earth replaced their death-screams, Valina sank to her knees. Her jaw fell open and a glassy liquid sheen covered her eyes.

Oh so many times she could have been irreversibly wrong...

And the amulet lying in the dust glowed with heat instead of magic.

Mandarin saw everything.

He remembered hyperventilating when the teeth crashed down, he remembered blacking out soon after he hit the ground to meet a myriad of faces in his dreams... The same face, really, popping in and out of the gloom. Limp hair, pale skin, red eyes.

When the simian's eyes had finally opened it made little difference; a shell of darkness cocooned him. He could hear. Dirt shifting. Someone breathing.

The orange monkey was lying flat on his back –spread out like a star and shivering. He tried one slow breath and a cautious exhale, and winced. A line of fire ran from neck to navel with blackened blood marking the trail.

But he was awake, quite awake. Unbeknownst to him, his flesh was literally pulling itself together: Muscle and tissue infused with sticky veins of Formless ooze melded into one again. The microscopic black lines meandered through the meat of his body next to nerves and capillaries, working like thread to heal the monkey with each second. Mandarin's lacerated lung sealed back together and suddenly the next breath wasn't so agonizing.

I am unstoppable...

Light.

Then the last stand between Valina and the jungle rats passed right before his eyes. Through half-closed slits the monkey witnessed the incineration of the alpha male, then as his eyelids found the strength to lift he saw more: Valina's experimental shots, the final all-or-nothing lunge.

Mandarin tried warnings that came out as croaks, a reach that became a twitch in the fingers. But he felt just fine. Like a cripple he lay unable to speak or move, while Valina defended herself as deftly as she could. When the fearful episode had ended Mandarin lay as he had before, eyes wide open, adrenaline swimming through his limbs as if he had been the one holding the gun.

Shadows descended again.

Come look at this.

The air is as murky as the womb, soul-chilling as a grave. One, the woman, sits with her knees drawn tight together. She has her foot on her weapon and holds her prize between her hands. It warms her fingers. The other lies on his back, blinking in bafflement. He cannot comprehend why he still lives. Silently, he rises into a sitting position.

"...unstoppable..." a voice says, though not where we can hear it.

They are both trying to quell their trembling. She in particular has many matters to be concerned about. The Skull Sorceress cannot see, and when one cannot see, what is the truth? What is real in the fathomless depths?

The simian has not made a sound, not even a wordless murmur. And she, not sensing him near her, wonders if he has gone. A disturbing little spike of apprehension in her chest; she leans forward on her knees and stretches out her arms. Valina is just trying to find where Mandarin is lying, but if you held up a candle to this scene you would see golden light flickering against a face with half-closed eyes, and open palms seemingly searching for...

...an embrace?

"What is she doing?"

She heeds this voice not. Something against her fingers, a body that stiffens at her touch. She latches onto it and pulls it close. In her arms, up to her face to listen for a breath. The textures against her forearms are what they should be –that of the monkey's fur and armor- but feel strange and alien.

"Mandarin?"

Is this you? Are you all right? I was worried. What else can be said in a voice so quiet and nervous?

"What is she doing?"

The monkey is frozen, so rigid that his arms and legs have gone numb. He does not know what to say, scared to move. The arms cradling his head are soft. A fluttering, overwhelming desire seizes him, quite apart from savage instinct. His weary bones ache happily to be here, finally at rest. He doesn't want this to end.

"I'm...fine."

Valina feels the weight on her heart lift when he turns his face into her palm. She sighs in the dark and rests a hand on his head.

"Stop it! Stop it this instant!"

The witch smiles into the invisible trees. "I should have known it would take more than jungle rats to get rid of you." The monkey is hugged a little tighter, nonetheless.

"I'llkillyouI'llkillyouI'llkillyou-!"

Something explodes.

Grimm –former favorite disciple of the Skeleton King, formidable sorcerer, the sole ghost of Limbo- sank to the floor.

Come look at him.

"Val...ina..." The syllables dripped from slack lips. Without warning he slumped forward, a grey hand reaching for his chest; echoes of screams flung themselves through his mind and he drew hoarse, ragged breaths. His hands were shaking.

It was still a game. Grimm had to keep the bigger picture in focus, not give in to the flood of rage. Pawns fall by the wayside. Knights and bishops, in service to their king. All of them, always for the king. Rooks, bishops, pawns - Queens, even.

"Not her," he rasped. "Never her... I won't allow it! I won't allow it!"

The screams in Grimm's head escaped all at once. The walls of his house shook in the roaring, deafening waves. All the chairs were blown off their legs and crashed haphazardly against the wooden panels. Outside, the dull, empty sky howled around a crimson sun.

"I'll tear you apart! I want your throat to burst under my fingers! Damn you!"

The witch-Valina. His witch-!

Again and again the wizard blasted the seats about the shack. One at a time, in threes, all at once, it wasn't enough. He needed more. His eyes were wide and utterly crazed, his breathing was so erratic he might not have bothered breathing at all for all the good it was doing him. The house? Destroy the whole house? Damnit, there simply wasn't enough here to demolish-

Suddenly it all stopped. The furniture dropped to the floor, and then there was quiet.

Grimm was shaking with the effort of staying in control, just barely suppressing the storm inside. Couldn't afford to waste energy. Plan falling to pieces. Needed to think. Pacing. Deadly steps, like a tiger eyeing its cage bars and noting what lay beyond them: I'll remember you. I'll come for you-

Oh, Grimm couldn't wait till he could see Valina again...

The hand that was not clutching his heart –now beating so quickly it was simply quivering in his ribcage- made one great sweeping motion by Grimm's side.

A dagger with a black and silver grip materialized in his hand. Grimm brought it before his face, hooked fingers encircling the obsidian-hue handle. He saw his own bloody eyes reflected in the blade.

"Is this a dagger which I see before me? Why, I do believe it is."

Grimm was going to destroy everything that stood between him and his witch.

Mandarin gasped and curled into the fetal position. A guttural voice growled in his consciousness, as if the speaker was right behind Mandarin's ear.

"I'm going to kill you. Have no idea. Going to kill you."

Someone stabbed him with an invisible blade, sending lightning bolts up his spine.

Mandarin screamed, loud and high-pitched. Valina threw her hands up to her ears; it sounded like a banshee, a scythe against the human soul's tolerance. The monkey's cry made something shudder sickeningly inside her.

She realized her wrist was being pulled down, crushed in Mandarin's rough hand. "He's going to kill you," the simian whispered in between shuddering gasps. For a moment he seemed about to howl again, but it cut short. "Going to kill me. He's going to burn you!"

"What's the matter? Mandarin, why- Let me help you!"

It all sounded so faint. Voices...didn't matter -voices couldn't help –stop it!

Mandarin was going to kill someone. He knew it, from the sound of pumping hearts all around him. His very soul wanted bloodshed. It was kill or die convulsing on the dirt. Getting tasered wasn't as awful as this. Flowers of pain blossomed all over his body, where moments ago had been exquisite sensations of rest and tenderness. One blow after another; Mandarin bucked and squeezed himself into a ball, only to garner no relief. One episode seemed to originate from his very heart-!

Someone was sliding the blade all the way to the hilt.

It all came at once. The knowledge, the shame. Grimm, that sorcerer, was in his head. The very first command when Mandarin had picked up the amulet: "Take me to the pit." The insane man's puppet all along. And now Grimm was furious.

"You..." Blindly, Mandarin writhed around and sought to meet Valina's eyes. He couldn't see, but he could smell, hear even the blood rushing up by her temples. "You're the reason. You're the reason he's doing this!"

The monkey clone attacked.

Valina was unprepared for this. She felt a staggering blow on her midsection, where one of the rats had mauled at her. It took her breath way, forced her to sob tearlessly.

Sensing another swipe approaching, Valina threw Mandarin's body off her lap. No time to wonder about it. In a split second he lunged back. Blood splashed into her eyes and the woman yelped. Mandarin had thrown himself right on top of her, scratching and breathing into her face. Valina managed to pry one of her knees between Mandarin's small chest and hers, felt the simian thrashing. In one movement, Valina rolled onto her side and kicked him right in the face.

"Mandarin! What are you doing?" She felt the blood trickling down her cheeks like tears. For some reason there was no harsh growl in response, not even the sound of heaving breathing.

Complete night. Where was the gun when she needed it? He could come from anywhere-

There was a noise behind her, and as she spun quickly to meet it, the witch did probably the worst thing she could've done at that moment.

She slipped, and fell.

Now on her back, Valina could do nothing as her minion landed on top of her (whose left hand was now once again a massive crab claw) apart from scream her terror.

Despite the gravity of the situation, the sorceress briefly flashed back to when a large rat had pinned her to the ground (had that battle really only just been an hour or two ago? It felt like it should've been days). This situation was alarmingly similar…she was once again pinned by an animal that wanted nothing more than her blood.

The witch tried to fling up her arms in defense, but too quick the huge claw was around her throat. Valina froze, feeling momentarily that the slightest movement would cause her attacker to end her life. The monkey slowly leaned in.

"Now, Skull Sorceress, I am going to kill you. Indefinitely," Mandarin whispered. "Not that mad Grimm. Not like the Skeleton King. By dirtying my hands with your blood, repaying you for all the torment. Even when you're not trying to hurt me, I seem to suffer for you..."

The feeling of having her neck in his claws was...dizzying. It was so solid; it grounded him through the rage and stinging agony. He shouldn't have waited to do this...

Valina closed her eyes. "Not like this."

Mandarin raised an eyebrow, just slightly, without realizing it.

So it ends like this? When a score of yesterdays ago I had straddled the simian like this and battered him with my fists, and a dozen tomorrows after that we had the Chiro boy at our mercy and he bled onto the street... Now it is me. Here. Now.

I can't die on the ground again...!

The ringing in Valina's ears alerted her to the fact that she had screamed this last lachrymal thought.

"Well." A rueful laugh. "But so it must end, hmm? Mandarin, I do want you to know that...hurting you all those times...I regret it now, don't I?"

Mandarin could feel her shoulders moving with her laughter.

Oh gods.

Mandarin paused and in that dreadful moment a haze of awareness came to him. Somehow, through the pain, the monkey began to see the pieces of what was happening before him and put them together.

He was in pain.

He was trying to kill Valina.

The pain was starting to swell. Mandarin was losing his mind. Who was he again? Did it matter? Who was this woman he gripped with his claw? Where were they? The intense aching devoured everything.

Why was he trying to kill the witch?

To make the pain stop.

Who was causing him so much pain?

The witch-

No.

The wizard, the wizard from that misty place was causing his pain.

The monkey's mind sharpened, and so did the pain.

Grimm was trying to use him as a pawn that mad evil man was trying to use him this pain was because he'd been displeased this was just like what Valina always did-

Valina caught him when he fell she protected him from the guards Valina saved him from rats she'dheldhimValinahadheldhimshe'dbeenworriedabouthimshe'daskedifhewasalright-

The simian was shaking. Agony was all he knew. Every nerve in his body was screaming for the bloodshed that would release him from this.

But his mouth opened, and Mandarin said, "No."

The claw wrenched itself open.

Grimm increased the pain. As much as he could inflict and then more. A furious, harsh growl raked out from his mouth. He couldn't remember a time he'd felt this much rage. And yet there was still something under that. Yet another one of the undistinguishable feelings that had never been felt by him before and as of yet didn't have a name. This one was strangely dissimilar to all the others, however…

This one…hurt…

Another great surge of feelings flashed across the wizard's mind; these, however, where not his own. Almost against his will, he paused his torment briefly to view what was taking place outside.

He was surprised by what he beheld.

The monkey had attacked Valina, and he had not been merciful about it. The ex-witch had blood smeared across her face, her stomach was bleeding, and she was lying on her back, the simian's claw clutching her throat. A part of Grimm felt a rush of deep satisfaction, of sadistic, bitter pleasure; yet another part of him was screaming in horror.

The sorcerer theorized momentarily on the purpose of the monkey's actions, incensed but (though he'd never admit to it) confused. It occurred to him that the only logical explanation was that the wretch had somehow connected Valina to the misery he was feeling, and was trying to eliminate her as a source.

He was truly trying to kill her.

Grimm felt a panicked, frantic lurch in his chest. You still need them, you fool! You still need them both!

The simian, he saw, had removed his claw from the woman's neck, but who knew how long he would be able to restrain himself (or why he was restraining himself in the first place, for that matter)? Grimm hesitated for a moment, then released his grip, the silver dagger clattering to the floor, leaving him still trembling with half-sated rage, and with things churning in his chest and stomach.

He took solace, however, in the fact that even when the monkey collapsed, Valina made no move to go to him, instead sitting up slowly and bringing her knees up to her chin, staring at him wide-eyed in complete shock.

When the sun rose over the eastern horizon, Valina and Mandarin were in the same positions they had been in when the night had fallen. The witch sat hugging her knees, staring into the middle distance. The simian was lying on the ground –on his side this time, as if he wanted to curl into a shell. His arms folded against the length of his body, hands under his cheek. Once again, strange feelings were flooding him. Every now and then he shivered.

"There's something really wrong with you, isn't there?" Valina said sadly.

Mandarin only brought his knees closer to his chin. The dirt scraped loudly; it had been cold during the night.

"Why did he hurt you? What pushed him over the edge?" Valina pushed.

"You knew?"

"I wondered. I never truly suspected that he had any hold over you."

A part of Mandarin sank down into his stomach. "Then here we part ways."

The witch turned sharply, her black dress bunching around her waist. "What are you talking about?" She said this with a barely contained glare.

"You can't trust me. I tried to kill you a few hours ago. That was my hand around your neck."

Valina stared steadily at him. She had no answer for at least a minute.

"I'm not going to abandon you," Valina said. The sun was high enough now for her to spot it in the sky, a burning ball in the redness.

"Do you hear me?" she asked it. "I'm not going to leave him behind. You can't take him from me.

"He's mine forever."