Chapter Ten: Ordeal by Fire and Water

Disclaimer: Hellboy characters do not belong to me. However, Erica is mine.

Author's Notes: Thanks for reviewing Blu Embyr, Psycho Llama, DarkCloudRider, and Caitlin! I made this chapter nice and long. And the last day of school was today, so that means more writing and quicker updating! And if you have any ideas for my story, go ahead and send them to me. This chapter takes place two days after the last one, and Erica and Kroenen are now in Russia. We have some lovely action scenes in here too…"Nein" is German for no, "Ja" is yes. Everyone review, pretty pwease!

Oh, if anyone's interested in a challenge fic, my sister and I came up with something that might be comical and slightly perverse. Make that definitely perverse. The challenge is this: Write a Hellboy fic based on the movie where Liz's and Ilsa's souls/minds switch bodies. Hehehehe. I can be so evil sometimes…e-mail me or something if you're interested…

Blu Embyr: Scaring the living snot out of the locals? That's a very…interesting expression...

Psycho Llama: Yes indeed, what would they do without Erica? Perhaps I should explore that in later chapters… The mental image of Kroenen in drag was funny though! 

DarkCloudRider: Erica is like you? Yay! Someone is connecting with the character! And more coolness with swords (and possibly roses) is coming up in later chapters.

Caitlin: You bet I'm going to keep writing! I love this story!

Two days later in Russia:

The underground caverns were surprisingly warm. They were also full of surprises — so far they had lost three soldiers who hadn't been watching where they were walking. As a result, the three unfortunate soldiers had fallen through holes in the rock floor. None had reappeared again.

Erica and Kroenen led the way, using flashlights to light up the passages ahead. Kroenen was carrying a worn, leather bound book. Of the two of them, only he could read it, though Erica could identify a few of the words. She had been learning several languages over the past year, including German, but the book was written in a language she was just starting to learn. Kroenen had the book open and every so often they stopped and compared their position to the map on the page. So far they were right on track.

Abruptly, the tunnel they were following ended in a rock wall. Just in front of the wall was a wide circular shaft that plunged straight down into the earth. Kroenen signaled to a soldier, and the soldier came to the front carrying a large coil of rope. The soldier tied one end of the rope to a large rock sticking up out of the floor and then threw the rest of the rope over the edge of the shaft. Then he started climbing down.

When he reached the bottom he called up to them, his voice echoing off the rocks walls.

"All clear!" he yelled.

Kroenen put the book in a pocket of his trench coat and then swiftly climbed down the rope. Erica followed him, and once she was at the bottom, the soldiers slid down the rope one by one and dropped to the floor. Two soldiers that had stayed at the top of the shaft began lowering down the equipment they had brought with them.

Erica ignored them, she was shining her flashlight over the damp rock walls. The shaft had dropped them into a tunnel that was different then the others they had passed through. The walls, floor, and ceiling of this tunnel were carved with intricate pictographs and symbols, and ahead of them the tunnel branched off in two directions. The passage on the left had no carvings in it, unlike the passage on the right. Kroenen took the book out of his pocket and looked at the map. But the map ended at the exact place they were standing.

"Erica..." he said.

"Yes. Wait a minute." she said, already knowing what he was asking her.

Over the past year Kroenen and Ilsa had been teaching Erica to control her visions. Currently, she was at a point where she had almost total control over them. Almost was the key word. Every so often one would sneak up on its own, but she was practicing to prevent that from happening. One of the things her visions— at the least the ones she brought on herself— were good for was to find out specific things like dates and times or what might happen if she went to a certain place. This last one was the one Kroenen was asking her to investigate now.

She stared at the two tunnels and then closed her eyes, concentrating. Mentally, she imagined going down the left passage. What will happen if I go that way? she asked herself. In reply, an image appeared in her head. It was as if she were running at an impossible speed down the tunnel, the rocks walls raced by her in a blur— a dead end appeared. The running stopped just before she hit the wall. She looked around. Nothing. Just a dead end. A small pebble dropped down from the ceiling and bounced on the floor. She switched her view so she could look up. Above her was a shaft that ran so far up that it disappeared into darkness. And clinging to the side of the shaft was a huge, black, eight legged— the creature leapt off the wall and hurtled down towards her! She screamed— and froze the image. The gigantic spider hung in midair four feet above her head, its ten-foot-long legs splayed out for its landing. Its eight, acid green eyes glittered eerily as she looked up at them, and its long fangs shone in the dim light, their surface coated with poison. She shuddered as she looked into that black, terrible spider's face and threw her vision into reverse. She was racing backwards away from there, the cave walls rushing by—

Her eyes flew open.

"Well?" asked Kroenen.

"Definitely not that way." she said, pointing to the left passage.

"And the other?"

She pictured it in her mind. The walls rushed by. They had something carved into their sides — at the end was an opening into a cavern— she opened her eyes.

"This way." she said, gesturing to the passage on the right.

Kroenen nodded and led the way. They followed the winding tunnel until it suddenly came to an end and they entered an enormous cavern. The beams of the soldier's flashlights pierced the darkness and revealed stalagmites and stalactites, some of which formed thick columns where they had connected. Other rock formations spiraled up from the floor or formed thin sheets of rock that hung from the ceiling in waves that were reminiscent of curtains. The ceiling itself soared up and nearly out of sight, making them feel tiny and insignificant in comparison to the vast size of the cavern.

But the thing that was the most extraordinary was that the entire cavern was covered in intricate carvings. The walls, the floor, even some of the columns had figures sculpted into their sides. Erica's eyes were drawn by the spiraling, geometric designs to the point where the designs radiated from: the edge of an opening in the center of the cavern floor.

The circular opening in the floor was about ten feet across and was filled with water that was black and as still and reflective as a piece of polished obsidian. Curious, Erica walked over to the edge and shone her flashlight down into the water. The beam of light pierced the darkness of the water, turning it a translucent green. The water was very deep, the green color gradually darkened back to black at the edge of the beam of her flashlight, hiding the bottom from view. In fact, from the books Kroenen had given her to read, Erica had learned that the entire area below this cavern was hollow and full of water. In ages past it had been dry and a subterranean city had prospered there, powered by a crystal— the exact crystal that they had come to find. As to why the city was flooded, supposedly the occupants of the city had angered their gods. As retribution, the gods were said to have sent a terrible cataclysm that swamped the city with water and drowned all of its inhabitants. It was sort of like an underground version of Atlantis.

In the background Erica heard Kroenen ordering the soldiers to set up the equipment they had brought with them. Soon the walls of the cavern were glittering in the bright beams of spotlights that formed a bright island in the surrounding darkness. Kroenen directed the soldiers to turn the spotlights to face the pool of water in the center of the cavern. While they were doing this, he approached Erica. She was still over by the pool of water, inspecting the carvings around its edges.

"Have you discovered anything interesting?" he asked her.

"Not really. I can barely read these symbols, even with using my visions to try to look into their past. All I can get from them is a sense like they're warning us away from this place."

"As would anyone that wanted to keep people away from them," Kroenen said, "Did you check to see if the water is fresh or salt?"

"Ja. Fortunately it's fresh water, I won't need to wear goggles to swim underwater."

"Good. Start getting ready." he instructed.

Erica nodded and took off her black trench coat and jacket and handed them to Kroenen. Then she sat down and removed her knee-high black boots and socks. When she was finished, she stood there barefoot, wearing only long black pants and a black T-shirt that revealed the crescent scar on her arm. Kroenen handed her four blades that had black leather straps hanging off their sheaths. The two longest blades were copies of Kroenen's favorite blade— the baton sword. Erica strapped the two short ones to her upper arms and the two long ones to her legs and then pulled her hair back in a ponytail. While the soldiers finished positioning the spotlights, she sat near the edge of the opening in the floor, staring at the water and concentrating.

Which way is the city? she asked. An underwater image appeared in her mind, showing her looking up at the surface. Ahead of her the surface was bright and behind her it was dark. Then the view rushed upwards through the water and into the bright space above where there was air. How far from here to air? she wondered. Another image appeared in her head of a tape measure cut off at about twenty feet.

"Erica?"

She opened her eyes. Around her, the puddles of water on the floor shone in the spotlights. "What?" she asked, looking up.

Kroenen was standing next to her. "Can you hold your breath long enough to reach the air?" he asked.

"Ja. It's only fifteen to twenty feet before this floor— well, down there it'll be the ceiling— starts to tilt up and away from the surface of the water. Eventually it forms an enormous air pocket above the water where some of the buildings and ground are still on dry land."

"You should be able to swim that far underwater without difficulty. Just make sure you use your visions to keep you going in the right direction. And take this with you," he said, handing her a small leather pouch hanging from a cord, "Put the crystal in it to keep it safe."

Erica nodded and slipped the cord over her head so the bag was hanging around her neck. She pulled on a pair of black flippers to help her swim and then swung her legs over the edge and into the water. Just as she was about to slide into the water, she felt a gloved hand gently grasp her shoulder, holding her back. She turned and saw Kroenen kneeling beside her on the floor, his mask a few inches from her face. He tilted his head slightly, and the round, glass eyes of his mask glinted in the bright glare of the spotlights.

"Be careful." he said.

"I will." she said.

"Good luck." he said, and released her.

Erica carefully lowered herself into the water. To her surprise, the water wasn't cold at all, it was comfortably warm. She held onto the stone edge for a moment and concentrated so she knew which direction to swim in to reach the air pocket the fastest.

Here I go, she thought as she took a deep breath and submerged. She felt the water close over her head and she opened her eyes, pulling out and turning on a waterproof flashlight that she had stuck in her belt. Fortunately, with her flashlight the water was fairly clear, although it did have a green tint to it. Erica glanced upwards at the opening above her head, where the bright light of the spotlights was filtering down through the water, and then she started swimming in the direction of the air pocket.

She didn't have to swim very far. As soon as she had opened her eyes she had spotted the change in the color of the water that she had been looking for. Behind her the water was greenish black except for where the spotlights shone down through the opening and into the water. But ahead of her, the water was a brighter green, lit by a light source of some sort in the air pocket. She swam toward it, and as soon as she was in the bright green water, she surfaced for air and looked around. As her vision has shown her, the ceiling above her sloped steeply upwards and created a large, air filled cavern above the water. The strange greenish light was coming from phosphorescent algae that coated the rock ceiling. This algae provided enough light that, from where she was, she could see where the water met the little bit of shore remaining, roughly over one hundred and fifty feet from where she was in the water. On the shore was the only part of the ancient abandoned city that was above water, the buildings and towers soared upwards as if in an attempt to reach the ceiling of the cavern.

She eyed the distance and decided to swim underwater, it was the fastest and most efficient way for her to swim. And I think I'll leave my flashlight on until I get to shore, she thought, as she took a deep breath and went underwater.

Erica swam in the direction of the edge of the lake, coming up every so often to breathe. As she swam she looked down towards the lake bottom where only thirty or so feet below her she could see the ruins of the submerged buildings. The buildings gradually came closer to her as the lake floor rose upwards at an incline and the water became steadily shallower. The towers of the tallest buildings were only fifteen feet below her when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something move. She stopped and looked in the direction of the movement and spotted the enormous, shadowy silhouettes of several eel like creatures that were swimming nearby, just barely on the edge of the range of her flashlight. She watched them cautiously, she had read about the Sentinels of the ruined city that was home to the crystal, and knew that the giant eel-monsters were to be avoided at all costs.

Still keeping an eye on the sinuous shadows, she looked back at the submerged buildings below her. They were all around her now, and eventually she was swimming among the buildings and along the underwater roadways. The water was less then ten feet deep now.

Soon after that, she found that her feet could touch the bottom and she took off her flippers. She stuck her flashlight in her belt for safekeeping before she waded through the water and onto the shore carrying her flippers. The roadway she had been following rose right out of the water and continued on land, leading the way into the city. She stood on the roadway for a moment as she looked around at the city. The road she stood on met another at a crossroad ahead of her, and after that the cobblestone paved roads disappeared out of sight behind the buildings as they meandered through what remained of the city. The windows and doorways of the buildings were dark, and the entire city was eerily quiet. The only sound was the water of the lake lapping at the shore, the sound of her own breathing, and the gentle dripping of water off her clothes. She shivered, the silence was creepy, it was weird to be the only living thing in this city. Absentmindedly, she wrung the water out of her wet ponytail and then closed her eyes and concentrated on the city before her.

Where is the crystal? she asked. Images of the buildings rushed by— pausing briefly to look up at the tallest tower in the city— racing up a narrow staircase— a small, circular room at the top of the tower — a pedestal in its center— the crystal sitting in the center of the pedestal— she opened her eyes.

The tallest tower in the city, she thought, gazing upwards.

It was easy to find. It towered above all the other buildings, decorated by gold and intricate carvings like the ones she had seen in the cavern. It was also crowned with a pointed golden spire, making it stand out clearly, even in the strange greenish light from the phosphorescent algae.

She pulled open the large, heavy door of the tower. It was very dark inside, so she flicked on her flashlight and then went inside, leaving the door open to give her some light. In front of her was a narrow stone staircase, barely wide enough for one person to walk up it. She put her foot on the first step—

BAM!

The door of the tower slammed shut behind her. Erica whirled around, pulling out one of the long blades that were strapped to her legs. Nothing was there. The door had shut by itself. Cautiously, she turned back to the stairs and started walking up them, shining her flashlight in front of her to light the way. The stairs seemed to have no end, they spiraled endlessly up into the darkness ahead of her. Enough of this, she thought. Throwing caution to the wind, she started running up the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. Suddenly, the stairs ended. At the top was an open doorway leading into a white circular room ringed with long, skinny windows. In the center of the room was a cylindrical pedestal. And sitting on top of it was the crystal.

The crystal was a fist-sized lump of black stone swirled with blood red streaks and dotted with chunks of clear quartz. Erica sheathed her sword and slowly approached the pedestal and reached out for the crystal.

This is too easy, she thought.

Expecting for a trap to be sprung at any moment, she carefully picked up the crystal and cradled it in her hands. Surprisingly, the crystal was very lightweight. She placed the crystal in the leather pouch hanging around her neck, and then turned and started down the stairs. She reached the bottom of the stairs and headed for the door, genuinely surprised that nothing had happened or tried to stop her from taking the crystal. The heavy door wasn't even locked, so Erica pushed open the door and stepped out of the tower and onto the road.

The moment she did so it instantly became clear that it had been too easy to take the crystal. And it also became evident she had been wrong when she assumed that she was the only living thing in the city.

In front of her was a blazing mound of fire about seven or eight feet high. The only thing more unexpected than the sudden and mysterious appearance of the fire was that the fire had eyes. Thirteen red-orange eyes of all different sizes were scattered all over the creature's fiery, shifting form. The eyes blazed angrily at her as the intense heat of the creature washed over her. She stood for a moment, too startled to decide what to do. The books she had read hadn't mentioned this creature. The fire-creature began to inch closer to her. As it came closer, the heat became unbearable and Erica noticed that the extreme heat from the creature was cracking the cobblestones beneath it. And still the fire-creature crept closer. That was when the heat from the fire began to scorch her skin. Erica yelped in pain and, on instinct, ran towards the edge of the lake. The fire-creature chased her, racing across the ground like wildfire on a dry grassland. The creature dashed in front of her, blocking her escape route into the water so quickly that she nearly ran into it. Vine-like tendrils of flame reached out to catch her. She swerved away from the licking tongues of flame and ran towards a bridge that was broken in the center and protruded out over the water. The creature pursued her, she could hear the cobblestones of the road cracking ominously behind her as it chased after her. She ran onto the bridge. The creature followed. She backed up as it slowly advanced towards her.

I'm trapped! she realized as she looked over her shoulder to where the bridge ended ten feet away from her.

She looked back at the fire-monster. It leisurely advanced on her, its eyes narrowed as it crept towards its victim. Those eyes— she gazed at its thirteen, red-orange eyes as they melted into a soft golden color. She stared at its golden eyes, captivated and unable to tear her eyes away. Those eyes are so beautiful, she thought. The fire-creature's eyes were ancient and deep, so deep she knew she could lose herself in those dark pupils, pupils that were as deep and pitch black as an abyss.

Stay, the creature said, its voice echoing in her mind.

It came within a few feet from her but she didn't move away, even when the stones of the bridge began to fracture from the heat. The creature frightened her, but at the same time, what she saw in its eyes made her want to be closer to it. Stay, child of the flame, the fire-creature murmured. Stay here and become part of the fire that owns you. The tendrils of flame snaked out around her and began to gently curl around her back and waist. Erica stared into the fire's eyes, totally mesmerized. She didn't mind the vines of fire wrapping around her, it didn't hurt. In fact, it was just pleasantly warm, like a sitting beside a log fire on a winter's night. Gradually, the warmth grew hotter and hotter until it was nearly excruciating. And still Erica stood, staring into the creature's spellbinding eyes. Then the heat burned. She shrieked in pain and jerked away from the fire-creature's grasp, steam rising from where her wet clothes and skin had been burned. Freed from its spell, she sprinted to the crumbling edge of the broken bridge. She stood on the edge for a moment, looking down at the water fifteen feet below her.

Stay! the creature roared angrily, reaching out to her again, Stay!

I hope the water is deep enough, Erica thought.

And then she dove off the edge.

She fell, air rushing past her and the dark surface of the water racing to meet her. Just before she hit the water she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

SPLASH!

She hit the water hard, her momentum carrying her downward several feet. She opened her eyes and began swimming again, heading for the way out. The water slightly soothed the burns on her back, but they still stung painfully. That was close, she thought, relieved to have escaped. She surfaced to catch her breath and saw the fire-creature on the edge of the bridge, its thirteen hypnotic eyes staring after her. Unnerved, she slipped her flippers onto her feet and dove back down. As she swam, she noticed the same sinuous, swimming shapes that she had seen earlier. The shapes were nearby, swimming in the alleys and roads between the submerged buildings, but the creatures were far enough away from her that they were still shadows. Very, very large shadows. She watched them warily, but kept swimming and eventually she swam far enough away that the creatures' shadows disappeared. Good, she thought, I don't want to have to deal with the Sentinels. It's just as well that they never noticed me. The flooded city was still around her, descending along with the slope of the lake floor. She swam through the window of a peaked tower and out the other side. She stopped in her tracks, an entire school of the huge eel-fish was directly in front of her! The enormous Sentinels were moving like snakes, weaving in and out of the enormous school, so interwoven that she couldn't tell where one began and another ended. Realizing she should leave before they spotted her, she started to back up, when she got the cold, shivery feeling that something was behind her. She turned around.

What she saw made her blood run cold. One of the gigantic fish was less than ten feet in front of her, its glowing, gold rimmed black eyes staring at her malevolently. Its long needle like teeth stuck out at odd angles from its gaping mouth, and its long eel like body was covered in silver fish scales, giving the fish a very archaic look. The Sentinel's mouth alone was big enough to swallow her whole, and its body was so long that from where she was, she couldn't see its tail. Erica looked up at the Sentinel in horror, completely dwarfed by its vast size. The Sentinel roared, opening its enormous, teeth filled jaws. Erica fled, glancing behind her in time to see the entire school of Sentinel's untangling itself and swimming in her direction, singing like hellish whales as they swam after her.

Oh my god, she thought.

The school of eel-fish swam after her, moving fluidly but fairly slowly. Erica needed to breathe, she risked a brief visit to the surface just long enough to gasp a breath of air. Then she dove back down, swimming as fast as she could, the Sentinels right behind her. In an attempt to escape, she swam towards the doorway of a submerged building. As she started to go through, she saw a moving glimmer in the darkness. She hesitated, treading water in the doorway. The glimmer suddenly shot forward! Erica darted away at the last second as the gnashing teeth of a Sentinel nearly came down on her. It had been lying in wait beyond the door! Great, intelligent killer fish, she thought sarcastically, just what I need. Fortunately they're so big they swim slow.

The Sentinels pursued her as relentlessly as sharks hunting their prey. Suddenly, she remembered that sharks will attack and eat wounded sharks of their own kind, and she decided to try a risky idea that might turn the odds a little more in her favor. Quickly, she darted behind a stone wall and waited, holding perfectly still so the Sentinels wouldn't know where she was. Slowly, the nose of a Sentinel appeared, and then, just as slowly, the rest of the head followed. Erica held as still as possible. The Sentinel opened its mouth wide, howling that eerie cry— and that was when she attacked. She drew one of the baton swords and stabbed it deep into the roof of the Sentinel's mouth. She jerked her arm away just as the teeth came crashing down, its jaws snapping shut with a sound like a trap shutting, forcing the blade up through the roof of its mouth and into its brain. The huge fish went ridged in surprise and then started convulsing in its death throes. Blood clouded the water. The other Sentinels picked up on the scent of blood and, like sharks, turned on the injured fish and started eating it.

While the cannibalistic feast kept the Sentinels distracted, Erica stealthily swam away from them, undetected. One Sentinel, unable to join in the feast, turned its attentions elsewhere. Suddenly, it spotted her! Erica, unaware of the Sentinel rushing towards her, felt a strong current of water push against her. She turned around to see what was causing it and realized that the current was actually a wall of water displaced by the fish as it swam. She jerked out of the way and the Sentinel went hurtling past, its needle sharp teeth snapping at her feet as it went by. The Sentinel's momentum carried it several feet away and it began to slowly turn around to face her. Taking advantage of her chance, she swam erratically in an effort to escape, weaving in between stone columns and in and out of doorways and windows. The Sentinel tried to follow, but it wasn't fast enough. Soon, it lost her in the maze of submerged buildings, and though it couldn't see her, it continued following her by detecting her movement through the water.

Erica darted towards a small hole in a stone wall, knowing that the much larger Sentinel wouldn't be able to pass through. She stretched her arms in front of her and kicked her feet to go through—when she came to an abrupt halt, caught fast by her waist.

She was stuck!

She had misjudged how small the opening was, and was now trapped in it, the rock scraping against her back, stomach, and hips as she tried frantically to force herself though. Suddenly, she felt the push of water that heralded a Sentinel's approach. Instantly she froze, holding as still as possible so that it wouldn't detect her. She waited uneasily, wishing she could see behind her so she could keep an eye on the Sentinel. She spotted a crack between the stones in the wall and craned her neck so she could see through it. On the other side of the wall, the Sentinel was swimming in a circle, trying to find her. She watched as the Sentinel searched for her, and she held as still as possible so it wouldn't detect her movement. Each time the hideous head turned in her direction she had to suppress a flood of panic, dreading that it had found her. But soon another fear was sharing space with her fear of being eaten. She needed to breathe! But if she moved, it would find her— I have to breathe!—No, just a little longer and the Sentinel would be gone, it was starting to leave. Hold on just a little longer— I have to breathe! —

She couldn't take it anymore. A few bubbles burst from her mouth.

Oh no, she thought.

She forced herself to look through the crack in the wall. The Sentinel had detected the movement of the bubbles and was slowly turning towards her. Now that it knew her general location, the enormous gold rimmed eyes pinpointed her exact position. The Sentinel grinned cruelly, relishing the thought that its prey was trapped and defenseless. Erica watched it with growing panic as the Sentinel started swimming straight towards her!

In desperation, she pressed her hands against the stone on either side of the opening, arched her back, and pushed against the stone as hard as she could, trying to force herself through to the other side. The rough stone rasped against her singed back, making her burns sting. And as she began to move forward, the jagged edges of the stone bit into her skin painfully, and she could feel some of them go very deep. She gritted her teeth against the pain as she pushed against the stone, frantically trying to tear free. After all, what were a few scars in exchange for her life? With a final push from her arms, a sound like ripping cloth and a feeling like her skin being torn off, she shot through the hole.

She wasn't a second too soon. Behind her, the Sentinel crashed into the wall, sending a shockwave of vibrations through the water as its enormous bulk hit the solid stone wall. Erica's own momentum coupled with the shockwave sent her tumbling head over heels through the water. When she stopped tumbling she opened her eyes to see a few of the Sentinel's needle like teeth protruding through the hole. The Sentinel backed away from the opening and glared balefully through the hole at her with its pumpkin sized, gold ringed black eyes. Erica stared back at it, praying that it wouldn't swim over the wall and come after her. If it did, she would never make it to the surface. The Sentinel hurled itself at the opening, trying to reach her. Instead, its nose and mouth became stuck fast in the hole, just like Erica had been. The huge fish thrashed its tail and its long eel like body writhed, but it couldn't escape.

Erica almost couldn't believe her good luck. Exhausted and her lungs burning for air, she turned away from the infuriated Sentinel. She spotted the column of light shining down through the hole in the "ceiling", lighting up the dark water, and started to swim towards it. Almost instantly, she doubled up in pain. The wounds around her midriff and back stung agonizingly, and a few bubbles escaped from her mouth as she suppressed a cry of pain. She looked down at herself and saw blood seeping out from the deep slashes the jagged stone edges of the opening had gouged into her flesh. That was when she realized that the water around her was clouded with her blood.

Oh no, she thought, I have to get out of here now, before the other Sentinels smell the blood and come after me.

With her last surge of energy, she started swimming again and was only twenty feet below the opening when she saw a slithering shape approaching through the water, racing towards her! She kicked her feet and swam as fast as she could —almost there, the surface was only ten feet away— glowing gold eyes, a flash of scales— the surface was five feet away —a jaw opening wide— three feet— shining teeth inches from ripping into her—

A pair of hands wearing black gloves reached through the hole above her, plunging down into the water. The hands grabbed her outstretched arms in a grip as strong as a vise before pulling her forcibly to the surface, jerking her away from the Sentinel's gaping jaws at the last possible second. As soon as her head was out of the water she gasped for air, her feet instinctively trying to find a footing on a stone floor slick with water. Before she could regain her balance, the person that had pulled her out of the water picked her up and swept her away from the hole in the floor and over to safety. As he picked her up and cradled her in his arms, his hands brushed against the wounds on her back and stomach, sending a searing pain shooting through her body. She yelled and struggled, but he held her still.

SPLASH!

Erica jumped, startled. Water shot out of the hole in the floor as the Sentinel tried to fit through. Water blurred her eyes, but she could see the hazy outlines of soldiers rushing to surround the hole. They pointed their guns at the enormous fish, and she heard several gunshots and shouting, and then there was some violent splashing. Red, bloodstained water streaked the stone floor as it was splashed out of the hole. Abruptly, the splashing stopped and all was still, the only sound was the water sloshing around the stone rim of the hole and trickling down the grooved patterns in the floor.

"That was very close, wasn't it?" Kroenen whispered in her ear, breaking the silence.

He gently set her down on the floor and she wiped the water out of her eyes so she could see clearly. Kroenen stood in front of her, his black gloves and the arms of his black trench coat soaking wet up all the way up to his shoulders. She also noticed that the front of his trench coat was slick with water and had dark red stains running down it in droplets from where he had been holding her. He noticed her gaze and looked down at himself, then at his gloves which were also stained crimson.

"You're bleeding badly," he observed, looking back up at her.

Bleeding? That was her blood? She looked down at herself. The lower half of her black shirt had been torn off, and the top edge of her pants was shredded and frayed. The remaining skin on her stomach and hips was pale white, the rest was covered in an intricate network of deep, bloody gashes and cuts. She tried to look over her shoulder to see the damage to her back, but Kroenen put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"Is it that bad?" she asked.

"Ja. Trust me, you don't want to look." he said, "Come with me and I'll stitch your wounds closed."

Shaking from exhaustion, she followed him over to a wall of the cave where a spotlight was standing. She sat down on a rock and he readjusted the spotlight so it gave him enough light to see clearly.

As Kroenen opened a container that held his medical supplies, Erica felt an odd weight hanging around her neck and looked down. Hanging around her neck was the leather pouch that she had placed the crystal in. She had been so focused on escaping that she had forgotten all about the crystal. She fumbled with the cords that held the bag closed and then tipped it upside down. Water poured out along with the crystal, which tumbled out into her palm.

"I went through all of that for this?" she said, "I went through all of that horror, all of that Hell for a crystal?"

"A very special crystal, remember." Kroenen said, his back to her as he sorted through various needles.

"Still, a crystal, a rock nonetheless. Strange how something that might seem insignificant can be so powerful."

"Appearances are deceiving," Kroenen said simply, turning back to face her.

He saw her holding the crystal and held out his hand. She gave it to him, and he put the crystal in a pocket of his trench coat and then turned his attention back to her. He reached over and swept the dark, dripping strands of her hair out of her face.

"You're missing one of your baton swords." he said, noticing the empty sheath strapped to her leg.

"And those monster eels are missing one Sentinel." she replied.

Kroenen laughed softly and started examining her wounds.

"These cuts are very deep. How did you get them?" he inquired.

"I tried to escape from a Sentinel by swimming through a hole in a wall. Then I got stuck and had to force myself through the hole."

"I thought you told me you were going to be more careful." he said, as he moved around behind her to look at her back.

"I was being careful! I was being careful not to get killed! And—"

Kroenen interrupted her, gently laying a hand on her back.

"How did you manage to burn your back this badly?" he asked, his voice hushed.

"I ran into a monster," she said, closing her eyes and shuddering at the memory, "It was like fire, but it had thirteen red eyes. I looked at its eyes and something strange happened. I—I couldn't look away, and I heard its voice in my head. The fire touched me and it burned me before I could pull away."

"And what did it say to you, this fire-creature?"

"It said: 'Stay, child of the flame. Stay here and become part of the fire that owns you.'"

Kroenen was silent for a moment, and then he spoke. "What you encountered was an ancient demon. You were very fortunate to escape from it with a few severe burns. If you hadn't pulled away, it would have completely destroyed you. And as you have discovered, there is a reason why the saying 'play with fire and you'll get burned' came about. I trust you'll remember that in the future."

He walked back over to his case of medical supplies and picked up a needle and suturing thread. She grimaced as she watched him thread the needle. He saw her face and laughed.

"After all the times you've had stitches you still haven't gotten used to them." he said.

"They hurt." said Erica.

"You know I would never purposefully harm you," he said, looking at her, "But don't worry, this won't take very long. After all, Grigory is waiting for us to return. And besides that, remember that we only have so long to build the portal generator."

Author's Notes: A very intense, action filled chapter. I hope you liked it, I was trying to show how much Erica and her life have changed. Next chapter takes place five years after this one, in the year 1944, the same year as the beginning scene in the movie. Please send ideas! And review, pretty pwease!