Chapter X – The Crone of Innsmouth:

It happened in an instant.

The sound was deafening, the splintering of wood and the scraping of hundreds of rusty nails on concrete assaulted their ears as dozens of the waterlogged crates were tossed about like leaves in a hurricane. They couldn't see what was directly causing the effect, but they were skilled enough to start dodging right away.

In addition to the sealed flying crates, strange objects were spilling from the broken ones. Even glancing at them briefly started to blur her vision so Asuna tried to focus only on the debris and her team. She narrowly avoided a piece of re-bar that shot past her head before she stole a quick glance at her party. In all the chaos, it took her a few moments to realize that they were all slowly being forced apart from each other. She wasn't even sure if anyone else had actually seen their target.

"Up there!" she shouted, pointing to Barnabas Marsh.

He seemed to be directing the attack on them, but exactly how, Asuna couldn't tell. His arms were now outstretched, but his hands were still hidden beneath his long black robe. Some of the others took notice, but Asuna wasn't able to tell exactly who as she narrowly dodged another crate and made for Marsh's location herself.

She had never been in a hurricane before, but Asuna had to imagine that is was not that dissimilar to her current situation. As she tried to push towards her target, every few steps required a swift dodge. Left, right, back, left, back again, she could barely keep her forward momentum going.

The first impact hit the back of her left shoulder while she was dodging another crate from the opposite side. The force spun her like a wild top and dropped her to her knees, taking with it a small chunk of her HP. Before she could get her feet under her again, another crate barrelled straight towards her head.

A force grabbed her and pushed her forward. It took a moment for her to realize that Kirito had looped his arm under hers and brought her both to her feet and into a run in one smooth motion.

"The others are spreading out to distract him. We're on Marsh." he shouted through the cacophony of scraping metal and shattering wood.

"Right." she replied, joining stride with Kirito.

She couldn't see the rest of her party anymore, but whatever they were doing seemed to be working. The items being tossed about the room had lessened and after dodging a few more crates, they made it to the base of the gantry where Barnabas Marsh stood.

The gantry itself was supported but several wood beams set at an angle. Fortunately for Kirito and Asuna, the old wood was damp and in poor condition, much like the rest of the facility. With a quick slash from both of their weapons, they brought the whole gantry, and Barnabas Marsh with it, tumbling down.

Everything came crashing around them causing instinct to take over as they shielded their eyes from the debris kicked up by the crash. When they lowered their arms to see, the oppressive din about the warehouse had ceased and an eerie silence had fallen over the factory. Standing in the exact centre of destroyed gantry without so much as a speck of dust covering his dark robe, was Barnabas Marsh.

Kirito and Asuna didn't wait for the dust to settle, they moved in for the kill.

Asuna was closer to their foe and took the lead in the attack. With her trademark lightning speed, she closed the distance in mere moments and thrust for her target's heart.

So fast that even Asuna could barely follow, Barnabas Marsh bent backwards, as if he had no spine at all, and evaded the strike. Something struck her right ankle a moment later, taking her legs out from under her and landing Asuna on the floor. The next moment, a strike from the opposite side the sent her rolling right into Kirito's path.

Kirito stumbled, hopping awkwardly over Asuna's tumbling form as he tried to follow through with his attack. A flash of something came from his left and only his instincts got his blade up to block in time. The impact sent him soaring and landed him on top of Asuna in a heap, but even then, he still had no idea what had actually hit him.

Standing in the middle of the rubble, as though he had yet to move a single muscle, remained Barnabas Marsh.

"Some NPC, I can't even see his attacks." Kirito groaned as he pushed himself to his feet and offered Asuna a hand up.

The rest of their party slowly made their way over the scattered remnants of the warehouse to surround their target. Liz and Klein were almost directly opposite of Kirito and Asuna, Argo was to their right crouching atop one of the few crates that had not been tossed about in the attack, and Agent Nishiyama was on their left gnarled staff pointed at their target.

In the centre remained Barnabas Marsh, still seeming completely unconcerned with them and making no obvious move of his own to attack.

The party circled their target, slowly closing in on him; yet still he did not move.

"I'll draw out his attack, you figure out what he's doing." Kirito whispered.

"Right." Asuna replied. She maintained her readied stance, but stopped advancing.

Kirito lunged forward with an overhead strike, aiming to connect with Marsh's left shoulder. The impact he expected, but didn't see, hit his torso on the left and sent him careening harmlessly past Barnabas Marsh.

"The floor! Watch the grates on the floor!" Asuna shouted.

As Kirito rolled himself back onto his feet he took a closer look at the floor of the factory around him. Interspersed across it were over a dozen large grates, made to drain water out of the facility. Each of them had a set of hinges to allow them to be opened easily, and underneath Barnabas Marsh's robes, he could just barely make out the tip of an opened grate.

"We need to get him off that grate!" Asuna shouted to her party. "Move in together, keep each other covered."

Kirito shifted back to Asuna's side and readied his blade. This time they moved up cautiously, one eye on the grates near their feet and one eye on their target. Liz and Klein did the same on the opposite end. Argo and Agent Nishiyama, both separated from the group, approached even more cautiously.

The attack came fast, but this time they were ready for it. A large tentacle whipped out of a nearby grate but Kirito already had his sword prepped for the strike. Right as the tentacle was about to connect with his chest, Kirito's blade thrust deep into the muscly tissue. Instantly the tentacle flailed violently, catching Kirito under the chin and sending him stumbling back, but the blow also disoriented Marsh and created an opening.

Asuna didn't waste the moment, she made the last fifteen feet between her and Marsh in a flash and planted three quick strikes right in his torso.

Barnabas Marsh reeled from the blow, but sprung back towards her with terrifying speed. He was just about to slam his face into Asuna's when he let out a deafening scream and flailed to the side.

Asuna's sanity metre dropped slightly as Marsh, his HP down to nearly ten percent flopped to the ground beside her, flailing about like a fish out of water. Over the grate that Marsh had used to attack them, Klein now stood, his katana drenched in foul ichor from cutting clean through the tentacles beneath the monster.

Liz, Argo, and Nishiyama, who had all been battling their own tentacles, finally lowered their guard as the muscly appendages fell into whatever tunnel system connected the grates together.

Asuna turned to back to Marsh's body to finish the thing off only to see an empty cloak with no creature inside of it.

"He's still out there." she said as she readied her rapier once more.

"Circle up." Kirito ordered and the party quickly converged in the centre of the room, putting their backs to each other.

Asuna scanned the shattered remnants of the factory for any sign of their target, but it was easier said than done. The entire place was littered with strange objects and if she let her vision linger on them for even a moment, she would start suffering sanity loss. It was a strange type of camouflage, but it was also proving surprisingly effective.

There was no way Asuna was going to find him like that, but perhaps there was another way. The factory had turned deathly quiet, perhaps as Argo had done before, they could hear their target instead. She quickly shushed the rest of the party and calmed her breathing, focusing on anything that sounded out of place.

Dripping echoed through the ruined warehouse accompanied only by the soft, regulated breathing of her and her companions. Perhaps he's run off? She thought to herself, but then something caught her ear. It was very faint, a slight clicking to her right, as though something hard but light was scurrying across the concrete floor.

Then a slightly louder clack reached her ears and she spun in that direction. Something was in mid air, heading right for her. There was no time to line up a proper strike, but she was able to get her rapier up to block its path. She intercepted the creature and it clamped tight to her sword for just a moment which was all she needed to take in the measure of the thing.

The creature was about a foot and a half long and had a dark maroon armoured shell in its back. It had latched onto her sword with it's rows of small gnashing teeth feeding into an abhorrent spiral of pulsating suckers. A definitive head did not exist, but it did have two long antenna that swung about wildly trying to find its desired prey. Further down were two sets of crab like claws and below that were a further four sets of jagged appendages covered in small spines. At the far end of the creature swung a small tail with two needle-like barbs on the tip.

Barnabas Marsh's true form swung its tail around, aiming for Asuna's chest. She thrust herself back and away from the creature, evading the attack but putting herself off balance. She stumbled, but held a grip on her sword and causing Marsh to fall with her. Quickly the monster leapt from her sword and landed in the middle of the group just as they were all turning to face it.

Before anyone else had their weapons ready, Marsh sprung onto Klein's left leg digging in hard with its spiny legs and sinking its siphon-like mandibles deep into its target. Rapidly, Klein's HP began to drop and Marsh's began to recover.

Kirito was right next to him and drew back his sword to attack but paused, there was no way to get a clean strike without hitting Klein as well.

"Do it!" Klein shouted.

Kirito's blade fell a moment later, digging into both Klein's leg and the vulnerable underside of Barnabas Marsh. Several of the creature's legs came apart followed but a screech that shook them all.

Marsh hit the floor with an audible crunch and tried to scurry away, but Nishiyama was faster. With a few words of the eldritch language Marsh slowed, wobbling in place as though he couldn't tell which direction he was going. Argo moved in next, not striking for the armoured shell, but scraping her Katars along the concrete floor beneath Marsh and using them as a lever to flip him into his back.

Liz was ready in the next moment, as soon as Marsh was on his back, but as she raised her mace to strike her hand froze. With Marsh squirming slowly on his back, they finally got a good look at him, each of the creatures many limbs overlapping above is hard torso drew to mind an image of a face, stretched almost beyond recognition and frozen in the state of a horrified scream.

Everyone's sanity meters dropped and Asuna's vision began to swim. She saw Liz with her mace teetering over Marsh's body, Asuna couldn't be sure exactly what happened next, but she saw Liz fall forward and before a thunderous crack shook the warehouse.

Asuna fumbled thought her menu straining to locate what she sought. Eventually she managed to select her laudanum drops and quickly downed a few of them. Her sanity meter recovered and her vision cleared, but not completely. Two debuffs now appeared on her HUD. The first read Laudanum Overdose, which simply read: consuming more Laudanum will be fatal. The second read: Acute Hypoxia, but didn't say anything else.

She groggily pulled herself to her feet, she felt sluggish and a little dizzy, but still nowhere near as bad as when her sanity meter had almost bottomed out a few moments before. She looked over to Marsh's body and saw that Liz's mace had connected cleanly with the centre of the creatures body and split it clean in two.

The horrific face had dissipated and the creature's HP finally dropped to zero allowing the party a much needed moment to relax.

"Uhh, little help here." Klein said.

He sat on the ground cradling the mangled mess of his leg with one hand and pulling out a few of Marsh's spined appendages that were still stuck in him with the other. Klein's HP was down to twelve percent and he now had a Mangled Limb debuff that prevented him from using his right leg.

"Good thing this ended when it did, I doubt we would have lasted much longer." Liz remarked.

None of them had any stats remaining over fifty percent. Klein and Argo had lost the most HP and Nishiyama and Argo were hanging onto their remaining sanity by a thread. Both of them had also acquired the Laudanum Overdose debuff, but Asuna wasn't able to see what other side effects that had received from it.

"You just had to say something." Kirito said and pointed up to where the gantry used to be. "Look."

Atop the second level of the warehouse next to the ruined supports of the gantry stood a familiar figure. Even though she had not gotten a good look at them the first time around the heavy cloak was familiar enough, also their nameplate still read Mysterious Informant.

She had a very angular face that almost seemed to come to a soft point in the middle and a long black ponytail that swayed slightly behind her. Cradled under her left arm was the Golden Coral Crown.

"I owe you all a great deal, I never would have been able to steal this on my own." She offered a deep over the top bow as her nameplate changed to Master Thief. "I honestly hope that you can survive the aftermath. Best of luck."

Kirito and Asuna gave chase but the Master Thief, quickly dove out of a nearby window. By the time the pair reached the window themselves, their quarry was nowhere to be seen. What they did see however were the denizens of Innsmouth moving to surround the factory from all sides. The forming mob looked like a cast of sand crabs slowly emerging from the tide.

"That's... not good." Kirito said.

"Come on, let's get back and help the others." Asuna said, turning back to the group.

As they jogged back Asuna opened up her menu and messaged Sinon. We're surrounded down here, do you see any way out? It was only then she realized that they had been so busy with the fight, that they hadn't seen both Sinon and Riordan's health and sanity deplete. They were both at less than twenty percent and were throwing out skills as fast as their cool-downs would allow, no surprise they hadn't been able to give them a head up about the mob outside.

"So do you want the bad news or the worse news?" Kirito asked as they rejoined their party.

Nishiyama sighed. "Dealer's choice I suppose."

"The thief's nowhere to be seen and even if we could find her, we're not in any condition to fight."

"And the worse news?"

"We can't contact Sinon and Riordan," Asuna chimed in "they're tied up in combat right now. Also, the entire building is being surrounded."

"Just great." Klein groaned.

"Maybe we could log out?" Liz suggested. "It might reset the quest and we wouldn't be surrounded anymore."

"Yeah, but then it would re-spawn all the mobs in here." Argo pointed out.

"Oh... right."

Asuna then remembered the whole reason they wanted to get the crown in the first place. "We might not have to get very far." she said.

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked.

"That shop we found, the old lady that ran it said that she had a barrier up that kept the creatures at bay. If we can get there, we might be able to find a way out. We just need to rush past the mob, it's maybe one hundred meters from here. Nishiyama, would you be able to heal Klein's leg like you did my arm?"

"Sorry, but I don't have enough sanity left. If I cast a spell that strong, I'd bottom out and you'd have a useless blob instead of someone with only one leg."

"We can make it," Liz insisted. "I'll support his leg if you can all cover us."

"No, I'll help carry Klein instead." Nishiyama insisted. "I'm dead weight without the ability to cast spells anyway. Better to have people who can still fight keeping them off us."

"Alright, let's move fast then." Asuna said. "The less time we give them to surround us, the better."

The party quickly made their way through the ruined warehouse to the door that Kirito, Asuna, and Nishiyama had used to enter the facility. Asuna paused by the door and put her finger to her lips to quiet the group before slowly opening the door a crack and peeking outside.

Outside, the crowd was slowly shambling together. They didn't seem to have any particular organization to them, Perhaps killing Marsh affected them somehow? Asuna thought. They milled about around the factory grounds and on both sides of the fence, almost like mindless zombies. From what she could tell, they weren't as strong as the monsters they'd defeated already, but there were just so many of them. Even taking the clearest route, there were half a dozen between them and the shop.

"Stay fast and stay mobile, but keep Klein and Nishiyama covered." Asuna ordered. "If we slow down, we're done. On my count, three, two, one, go."

The party broke from the warehouse with Asuna on point, Kirito on the right, Liz on the left, and Argo in the rear with Klein and Nishiyama protected in the centre of the formation. Ahead of them were two clustered groups of three NPC's all named Innsmouth Mob, one before the gate and one after. If they moved fast enough, they'd be able to get away before the other NPC's could surround them.

They closed on the first group within seconds, all of whom seemed to be in the mid-stages of the Innsmouth Look and carried various improvised weapons.

Asuna power slid through the mud and between the legs of the large man in the centre, striking his knee with her rapier as she went through. His crippled knee gave out under his weight allowing Klein and Nishiyama to easily sidestep around him.

Liz deftly blocked a blow from a two by four with a massive nail in it and crashed into her attacker with her shield practically bowling him over and allowing her to push past. Once she was free and clear, she quickly fell back into formation next to Klein and Nishiyama.

Kirito deflected a blow from a makeshift club with one sword, and quickly severed his attacker's wrist with his other. He moved to re-take his spot but the mob member leapt at him, trying to tackle him to the ground.

Argo met the attacker mid jump, driving her Katars into its exposed side and quickly ripping them free in a shower of purple ichor. The monster dropped like a stone, sprawling to the ground in agonized spasms. She spared Kirito a quick wink and fell back in formation behind Nishiyama and Klein.

"Keep pushing, we're almost there!" Asuna shouted as they passed through the open factory gate and closed in on the second group.

"Caster!" Kirito shouted, noticing the largest threat.

Two members of the group looked the same as the ones that they had just blown past, but the third in the back was completely covered in a cloak, hunched over, and bore a gnarled staff. As the party drew closer, the two mob members in the front closed ranks to protect their caster as he started to chant.

"Boss, boost me!" Argo shouted.

Nishiyama let go of Klein who stumbled and fell to his knees then turned around, cupping his hands into a launch pad just as he had done when they snuck into the facility. He boosted Argo high up over the heads of the front guards allowing her to come down right on their target, driving her Katars clean through the casters face before he was able to finish chanting his spell. His two guards turned to attack Argo but were quickly cut down from behind by Kirito and Asuna as Liz got Klein back on his feet and running again.

"Time to go." Nishiyama said as dozens more of Innsmouth Mob NPC's closed in around them, joined by the ones they had only injured as they ran past.

Asuna made it to the door first, pulling it open and holding it in place with her leg. "Move everyone!"

Kirito took up guard on the other side of the door as Argo bolted into the shop. Liz and Klein were through next followed closely by Nishiyama then Kirito.

Asuna paused as she headed through the door, noticing that the mob had stopped about a dozen feet from the front of the shop. They didn't look like they were physically trying to enter, but she still had aggro on all of them, they were trying to get at her. The ocean of unblinking stares sent a shiver down her spine and her sanity dropped just a little, bringing it a hair's breath away from worsening her vision. Quickly Asuna scrambled inside slamming and locking the door behind her with a satisfying click.

As she turned around to rejoin the party, Asuna saw the last thing she expected. A standoff.

Everyone had their weapons drawn, Liz had even gently set Klein down to ready her shield. Standing at near the front counter, a little over ten feet away was the NPC tagged as Master Thief. She had a colt .45 aimed at the group in one hand, and in the other she still cradled the Golden Coral Crown. ETO wasn't anything like GGO where Kirito could deflect bullets, and at their current low health pools a single hit would likely be fatal.

"I have to say, I'm impressed that you all managed to track me here." she stated.

"It was more of a fluke actually." Asuna admitted.

"Either way, you can't have the crown." she placed her finger softly on the trigger and the whole group tensed.

"STOP!" A thunderous voice shook the entire store causing everyone inside to stumble and drop their guard. "There will be no fighting in this place."

Once the voice wasn't shaking the building's very foundations anymore, Asuna recognized it as Hagatha's. Sure enough, a moment later the old shopkeeper rounded a set of shelves and placed herself between the two conflicting parties.

"Grandmother, these people were trying to take the crown." the Master Thief insisted.

"That's because I asked them to Ruby." she replied.

"Wait... what? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Because I had told you repeatedly not to get involved, if you had listened you wouldn't have almost shot my guests here."

"I..." Ruby trailed off, her gaze dropping to her feet.

"I apologize for my granddaughter, she tends to get a little overzealous at times. Please allow me to introduce myself properly. My name is Hagatha Standish, and I've been living here as long as there had been a here to live. I have hoped for a long time that people such as yourselves would once day arrive to purge the festering rot that had taken root within this place."

As she spoke her nameplate changed to Hagatha Standish, Innsmouth Crone and Ruby's changed to Ruby Standish, Master Thief.

"Now however is not the time for a lengthy discussion. As I told you before, my wards are very weak at the moment and unfortunately even with the crown, the ritual to restore them would take far too long." As if to punctuate her point, the glass on one of the many barred windows shattered and a scaled hand reached through trying to grab at anything in reach.

"This way please." she stated calmly.

Everyone looked to Asuna who nodded and followed Hagatha as led the party over to another part of the store. It didn't seem any different at first until she slowly bent over to peel back a rug and reveal a trap door underneath.

"This will be the only way out for us now." she said before turning to her granddaughter. "Ruby dear, can you please prepare a parting gift for our friends outside?"

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Hagatha took a moment to look around her shop before a small weary smile crossed her wrinkled lips. "Quite sure my dear."

"Alright, but you'd all better get a head start." Ruby replied before disappearing into the shops back room.

"Please this way." Hagatha told the group before descending down a creaky wooden ladder into the darkness below.

"Are you sure about this A-chan?" Argo asked once she thought Ruby and Hagatha were out of earshot. "I've never come across any record of this NPC in my research on Innsmouth; I know not a lot of players have been here yet, but still..."

"It's possible it could be because this is the path that the players who lost their minds took." Nishiyama pointed out. "We have to investigate this."

"Either way, it's not like we have much choice considering the army outside." Kirito noted.

"She seems earnest to me and she's been helping us out. I'm not about to mistrust her without cause." Asuna said and followed Hagatha down the stairway.

"Yeah, it's not like one of them lied to us and almost got us killed or anything." Argo mumbled as the group slowly took turns following Asuna down into the darkness.

A dim yellow light flickered on, then another, and another, dozens lit up a gloomy dirt passageway reinforced with old damp wooden beams. Dotted along the pathway where small mucky puddles and rats that quickly scurried from one side to the other.

"This passage will take us out beyond the boarder on Innsmouth and will allow you to lay low until things calm down." Hagatha said as she took the lead down the tunnel.

"What about the ones behind us?" Asuna asked. "Won't they find the passage?"

"Don't you worry, Ruby will make sure that is all taken care of."

As everyone was gathering themselves up to follow Hagatha, a message finally appeared in their party chat from Sinon. Sorry we've been out of contact, we were ambushed at the Gilman House and had to fight our way clear. We've currently taken cover nearby and seem to have finally cleared agro. Are you still in the factory? Where do you need us?

Asuna quickly typed a message back. We're in a passageway leading out of the town. Not sure where it will drop us off, will message you when we're out.

After a minute of silent walking Ruby rejoined the group carrying some kind of box with a cable attached to it. She jogged up to Hagatha and said "This should be far enough."

Ruby took a knee and set the box down on the ground, only once Asuna saw the plunger sticking out of the top did she realize exactly what she was looking at. With a sly smirk Ruby plunged the handle down and a moment later the entire passageway shook as a massive explosion took place overhead.

Asuna quickly jogged up to Hagatha's side. "But your shop..." she started.

"Is no longer necessary." Hagatha assured her. "I can't say that I won't miss my little home, but sentimentality won't keep any of us alive against the kind of threat we face."

"How... much do you actually know about that threat?" Asuna pressed.

"I have existed here for as long as there has been a here to exist in. I remember the days when this town was first founded, where it was the bold new horizon for people to seek their fortune. Now when I see the tendrils of corruption that have wrapped themselves around the souls of the people here, I know that no sacrifice is too great to banish the darkness."

"If you only knew." Asuna mumbled.

"What I know is that you and your companions have faced down dangers beyond my understanding and come through victorious." Asuna looked over to Hagatha who had a sly knowing smile on her face.

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh my dear, these old eyes see more that just the person before me. They see the energy of your very being, a soul that has travelled a great distance and fought against terrible hardship. I no longer need my shop because I have faith that what we need right now are you and your companions."

"Thank you." Asuna replied. "I hope we prove worthy of your trust."

"As do I."

Asuna thought about all the people that had come to Innsmouth before her, could they have followed this path as well before they died? Maybe Hagatha could direct them in the right direction. "I had been meaning to ask, do you know the source of the corruption in Innsmouth? Can we strike at whatever is causing this?"

"In a manner of speaking, what plagues our people is a threat from beyond time and space. I have kept myself and my granddaughter alive by simply staying out of its way, but now I sense that the time of our seclusion has come to an end. Once you are clear of danger, we will do what we can to find the source and will contact you if we do so."

"Thank you, but I wouldn't want you to put yourselves in danger on our account."

Hagatha smiled a warm smile. "Oh my sweet child, we are all already in grave danger."

Asuna wasn't quite sure how to respond to that and as the silence dragged on, she slowly slowed down to walk beside Kirito instead.

"What did she say?" Kirito asked.

"She said that she'd help us, but it's hard to tell if this is all just part of the quest."

"You think it's not?"

Asuna took a few moments before answering in a whisper. "Depending on how advanced the AI design is, it might not be; she certainly sounds like a real person. It's not like I can just ask her, 'hey by the way do you actually know that this is all a program'?"

"Fair point."

"Either way, it's still a lead. Even if it is just part of the quest, it could point us in the right direction."

The party walked for another fifteen minutes occasionally passing a few branching paths but pressing ever forward until they finally reached an old iron door sealed by a massive padlock. Hagatha removed a worn key from around her neck and unsealed the exit before Ruby stepped up and slowly pushed the door open.

They came out into the dim light that permeated everything around Innsmouth and realized that they were just outside of the town itself but not quite in the forest. Asuna and Kirito quickly clamoured up the hill to get a look at how far they had come. The town sprawled out below them with a large plume of smoke rising from where they assumed Hagatha's shop had once been.

"You will be safe here." Hagatha assured them. "There is a small ring around the town's limits where the locals do not venture, but neither do the creatures of the forest. Now we must check the seals on our other exits to ensure that none have been found, I shall contact you if we discover anything of importance."

"Thank you once again." Asuna said, bowing awkwardly from her spot atop the hill.

Hagatha returned the bow and she and Ruby disappeared back into the tunnels beneath Innsmouth.

"I just got word from Sinon, they're actually not far from here." Kirito said.

"That's good to hear." Nishiyama said joining him at the top of the hill. "We need to rest up and get back in there as soon as possible."

Everyone in the group nodded mentally preparing themselves for another harrowing confrontation.

"Augh!" Nishiyama shouted as he threw his half full rocks glass across his office and watched it shatter against the wall. "Three days, three fucking days in Innsmouth and we've gotten absolutely nowhere!"

"Dai, you've got to calm down." Agent Shirai told him.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" he snapped. "We're this close I can feel it." he held his fingers a hair's breath apart from each other. "But we're stuck, spinning our wheels while who knows what is going on behind the veil."

Chiho Shirai gently put her hands on her friend's shoulders. "You've been at this for almost three weeks straight now, I think it's time that you all took a break."

Nishiyama brushed Shirai's hands off and walked across the room to pick up the scattered bits of broken glass. "You know we can't do that. We could have another victim tomorrow, or the day after. If we don't' stop this soon, more people are going to die."

"And if you're all exhausted wrecks when you finally figure this all out, will you still be able to save everyone?" Shirai sighed inwardly, she hadn't wanted to bring this up, but her partner gave her no choice. "Look, you built the team this way so that you could have people making sure everyone is acting like themselves. Dai... you're not acting like yourself."

Nishiyama spun around ready to shoot back a retort when a spike of pain flared out and up his right forearm. Immediately he looked down to see a few drops of blood falling from his hand, he'd clenched a fist around the broken glass without even realizing it. He stared down at his red palm leaking blood, felt the spiky tingling pain dancing along his nerves, and wondered why he had done that.

Shirai quickly ran out of the room to grab a towel and returned to see her friend standing in the same place as before, still staring at his bloody hand. She took his hand in hers and cautiously unfolded his fingers. Upon closer inspection, the wounds looked worse than they actually were and she was able to gently removed the shards of glass before wrapping up his hand.

"Okay, I suppose you're right." Nishiyama finally said when the job was done.

"Thank you." she said with a soft smile. "One of them was a little deeper than I thought, a few stitches though and I'll have you patched right up; then I'll fill the team in."

"No, it's okay; I'll do it." he insisted, then looked down at his hand once more. "Though perhaps you should be the one to give them a lift home."

The drive home was a quiet one. Kirito and Asuna had taken his motorcycle back and Klein had given Liz a lift in his car since they lived close to each other. Sinon sat in the back seat looking absently out the window as Agent Shirai drove. Argo was the only other person with them and she had nodded off to sleep across from Sinon.

"I hope you don't hold it against him." Shirai finally said breaking the silence.

Sinon withdrew her gaze from the glimmering city lights and redirected it to the front of the vehicle. "Hold what against him?" she asked.

"How hard Agent Nishiyama, is pushing all of you. He's always been a very passionate person, sometimes he can let his emotions get the better of him; even if it doesn't always seem like that's the case. It's just that after we've failed to help people so many times... it's like... what was the point in us doing any of this in the first place, why did we even take the job if we can't even do it right. I can't say that it hasn't been getting to me either."

"You two are really close, aren't you?" Sinon asked.

"That obvious? We've been friends since we were kids, grew up together, went to the same schools, had the same friends. Honestly I can't remember a time in my life when we didn't have each other."

"Are you two... uhh, never mind."

Agent Shirai chuckled. "It's okay, I don't mind sharing; just don't tell Nishiyama. We were once, it lasted just long enough for us to realize that we were far better off as just friends, and we've been like that ever since."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Sinon finally got up the courage to ask what was on her mind. "Do you think he resents us... do you?"

"I don't resent you Asada, any of you; and I don't think Nishiyama does either. We just wanted to help people, and if others were faster at it than us, then we're happy that those people were helped. I can't speak for Nishiyama, but if anything, I think a resent myself a little... for not being good enough."

"You will be this time." Sinon insisted. "You've brought us all together, found this threat that no one else will acknowledge. If... when we put an end to this, you two can hold your heads high."

The car slowed to a halt outside Sinon's apartment complex, she had been so focused on the conversation, she hadn't realized they were almost to her home.

"It's funny, I was trying to make sure you weren't worried, to cheer you up and you ended up doing that for me. I guess you're better at that too."

"I didn't mean-"

"It's okay, it was just a joke." Shirai said as she popped open Sinon's door. "Goodnight Miss Asada."

Sinon clamoured out of the car into the chilly night air. "Goodnight Agent Shirai." she replied.

As the car drove away and she turned towards her home, Sinon couldn't help but wonder. Shirai had said that it was a joke, but was it really?

Hey everyone, sorry it's taken so long to get an update out. Between my computer practically dying on me, a bunch of real life BS, and a heaping helping of writer's block on the Barnabas Marsh fight, it's been a battle getting this chapter squared away. Glad to finally share it with all of you. :)

I've noticed that I've been bouncing around POV characters a lot through out this story with Asuna running the show for most of this chapter, while the previous chapter was kinda all over the place. Has anyone been finding that jarring at all? I've been tending to just use whatever person is most central to everything going on in a particular chapter or even scene.

I'm already well into the next chapter and it's turning out to be quite the long one, probably the longest yet. I'm thinking that like I did with the Innsmouth section, I may split it into two chapters in order to get another update out in a reasonable amount of time.

Since you've all been waiting so long, I guess I'll throw in a little tidbit about the next chapter. It will be titled The Sniper & The Scythe and will focus on Sinon and Riordan. I had wanted to get their escape from the Gilman House into this chapter, but it didn't really fit organically. They'll be up to something else in the next chapter though.

Oh, and for anyone wondering, Barnabas Marsh's true form was based off of a Siphonostomatoida Copopod; a type of parasite that can reside in many sea creatures, including octopi.

Until then,

- Tawnis