The exact moment Eleanor shot electricity out of her hand, Anthony fired a spear aimed for her chest. Both were meant to maim or kill. The shock connected with Anthony sending him flying backward. Eleanor was going to use telekinesis to catch the spear but the drain caused her to fall forward. A huge pair of hands caught her before she fell and she looked up to see Markus. The man's smile quickly turned to a grimace.

"Markus?"

Eleanor felt Markus falling. She laid him on his side and saw the spear protruding from his back. The black man coughed up blood; his eyes were no longer dull.

"Why you not run," Markus asked.

Eleanor picked up the man's big hand and squeezed it. "You seemed like a good person. I could not believe, even for a second, that you had evil intentions. It was not supposed to end like this." She turned her head away in anguish. On the ground she noticed the compass lying shattered on the ground. She thought it must have fallen from her dress when it was torn off. Eleanor picked it up and cradled the object in her hands.

"My compass," Markus spoke weakly.

"Yes. It is what brought me to you. It showed me the truth that I otherwise would have been blind to."

Markus chuckled spitting up blood. "I don't care what the boss says. You're no 'poster"

Eleanor thought of when Aunt Gracie almost died and then she remembered her ability. "It is going to be alright. I can heal you." She pulled out the spear and rested her hands over the area where the spear had penetrated.

"Don't heal," Markus replied. "You do and I'll be a slave again."

Eleanor began crying as Markus breathed his last. She kissed him on his forehead and shut his eyes. "Rest in peace dear Markus and thank you."

"Yes, rest in peace. You know he was always troubled by his conscious," said Mathew with an amount of disgust. But *C'est la vie.*"

Eleanor wiped her red eyes and stood to confront Mathew and his brutes. Her thoughts turned dark and she lusted for revenge. Her fists were poised to release hell when something tugged on her leg.

She looked down and saw a little boy with dirty blonde hair, whom she had seen hiding under the desk, pushing her leg away. He looked at her with an annoyed look as he kept pushing. When Eleanor finally moved her leg the boy knelt beside Markus's body. A long syringe was retrieved from his dirty vest and he plunged the sharp end into the deceased body.

Even though harvesting was a common occurrence, Eleanor could not help but grimace every time the hyper-needle punctured the corpse of her friend. When she tried to stop little brother, his face snapped in her direction and he stared at her with eyes rimmed in black.

"Ah, yes I do not believe you've met our harvester," said Mathew. "His name is Billy not that anybody uses that name a lot. He was a failure presented to me as a gift in case one of our little sisters were ever taken. And he has come in handy," Mathew said emphasizing the last part.

"Eleanor!" Fred rushed into the room; his revolver in one hand and Stanley's collar in the other. "You, your clothes?" He looked across the room at Mathew and saw Eleanor's dress. "You bastard. I knew you were no good the moment we met. Eleanor, are you hurt?"

"I am just fine except for being a little chilly. We need to get out of here."

Eleanor had no sooner finished her sentence when more brute splicer came charging through the melted door behind her. They were completely surrounded and cut off from the exit.

"I do not think you will be going anywhere," Mathew replied. "Billy would you kindly step away from the bad people so we can kill them."

Billy looked at Mathew with lazy eyes and complied. But just as he walked away, Eleanor picked him up by the waist. Billy twisted and stabbed Eleanor a couple time but she held him tightly.

"Eleanor! What are you doing?"

"Fred we are taking this boy with us. Grab his syringe."

Billy stabbed Eleanor's arm one more time causing her to grimace. Fred snagged the hyper-syringe from his hand and pulled it out of Eleanor's arm. The wound healed but the multiple punctures still did not help at all.

Fred carefully pocketed the syringe and trained his revolver on the nearest brute. "So what's the plan?"

"Same as always. We retreat."

"How?"

"Do not know yet, still working out the kinks."

"Oh good. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble."

The sound of fingers snapping resounded through the room and every brute brought forth a weapon aimed Eleanor and co.

"I fear you will not be going anywhere," laughed Mathew. "I plan on parading you through the halls of Persephone as an imposter and possible leader of the brute splicer uprising."

Eleanor, still holding the struggling Billy, handed him off to Stanley. "Hold the boy and do not let him go," she said sternly. She then jutted her finger in the air and pointing it at Mathew. "Who in their right mind would believe your lies?"

"Believe my lies? My dear, the good people have believed my lies for some time now. Of course there always will be doubters but that shall just be another excuse to turn them into brute splicers."

"You are insane!"

"No I'm just an idealist. And you are dead. But I promise a quick execution if you give back the boy. And trust me I am being more than generous. So what is your decision?"

Eleanor walked between her friends. Her eyes glanced at one then the other. Fred had a curious look on his face while Stanley troubled himself with holding the boy. "Give me the syringe," she whispered to Fred.

Fred handed the tool to Eleanor who quickly drank the crimson liquid it contained. The act alone felt somewhat familiar in an eerie kind of way but she dismissed it polished off the collecting end of the syringe.

Mathew looked in horror as he realized his prey was about to escape. "No, no, nooooo! Shoot them. Stop them. Kiiilllll them!"

Author's notes: *C'est la vie.* is French for 'Such is life' for those that did not know. Au revoir un ami