A/N: I did my research. I know what I'm talking about. Kinda. Like I said, there's always method to the madness. Sometimes.

Also, want to know something that'll blow your mind? Stay tuned for the end of the chapter.

Gracepunk

Cold. Darkness. Nothing but a void of cold and darkness and icy pain. And he couldn't move. He was paralyzed. He couldn't see. He couldn't breathe.

It felt like he was drowning.

He couldn't breathe.

Nothing but the cold.

So cold...

So dark...

Nothing.

Suddenly, he heard a voice.

"Hey! Andrew, can you hear me? Andrew...?"

He followed the voice, and a moment later, the darkness began to disappear. Nothing else changed though. It was still freezing cold, and he still couldn't move or breathe.

After a minute, he was slowly able to blink his eyes open, and he saw Ben kneeling in front of him.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, dumbass," said Ben with a smile of relief.

Andrew struggled to focus on Ben, but his eyesight was a bit blurry and unfocused. He opened his mouth to ask what happened, but he couldn't make any words come out.

"You're probably wondering why you can't talk or move, aren't you?" asked Ben, his smile disappearing.

Andrew managed to force a nod.

"Well, you somehow managed to give yourself hypothermia. It's actually incredible that you're still alive right now!"

"W-why...?" Andrew choked out painfully.

"Because your body temperature is about 80 degrees, which can be lethal," he said. "But I guess your Grace is what kept you alive. Your temperature is rising again though, so you should regain the ability to move soon."

Andrew slowly nodded. That was when he realized that he was bundled up in blankets, and the twins were on either side of him, snuggled up against him. Then he noticed that he and the twins were sitting on Josh's lap. The sun had already come up, and it was reflecting brightly against the freshly fallen snow.

"So how did this happen?" asked Ben.

Andrew shifted through his hazy memories to try and remember. That was when he realized he had spent all night putting out fire heat. That must have been what lowered his body temperature. But why was he-

Andrew gasped and sat bolt upright as well as he could. However, when he gasped, he sucked in a lung full of the icy cold air, which sent him into a coughing fit. The twins helped him sit upright so that he could breathe.

Finally, once the coughing stopped, he choked out a question. "W-what h-happened to C-Caleb...?"

A small smile appeared on Ben's face. "He made it. He's alive... for now."

Andrew breathed a sigh of relief, mainly for the young Seer, but also for Jen.

Ben nodded. "The Pitch hasn't relapsed yet, and his infection hasn't gotten any worse. He only has a slight fever, but I think he'll be okay." He thought for a minute before quickly walking to the nearest tree and knocking on it three times. "Don't wanna jinx it."

Andrew rolled his eyes, and one of the twins giggled silently.

Over the next hour, Andrew slowly regained the ability to move, see, breathe, and think clearly as his temperature returned to the usual three degrees above normal. There wasn't much activity around the small camp, and it actually worried Andrew that they hadn't packed up and moved on yet.

Just as he was about to ask someone, however, the activity picked up, and the rest of the Gracepunks came out of their respective tents.

Caleb and Jen were the last two to emerge. Caleb still looked deathly pale and exhausted, but it was a major improvement from the day before. He was bundled up in blankets, but he was walking on his own, and his limp was less noticeable. His feet had been bandaged too, and he had covered the bandages with his socks. Jen was walking right next to him, ready to act if he fell.

Not a minute later, the tents were down, the fire was kicked out, and they were on the move.

Andrew noticed that no one was talking. Christopher was walking in the very front of the group, and Caleb and Jen were near the back. Andrew himself was the last one in the group, and he found himself walking next to James, who was so focused on something in his right hand that he almost ran into a low-hanging tree branch.

"What are you doing...?" Andrew whispered to him after a few more minutes.

James held up a small device that looked like a single miniature helicopter propeller with a tiny motor on the bottom, along with two small hooks.

Andrew cocked his head to the side. "What is it?"

"Well, as soon as I can get it to work, it'll fly," said James. "However... it's very difficult to build with only one hand while walking. Even harder because it's cold, and even harder still because I'm left-handed." He held up his left hand for just a moment, staring at the cane. "I supposed I could switch hands, but I really don't want to fall over."

Andrew nodded. "Anything I can do to help?"

James nodded and held out the device, and Andrew took it gently in his hands. James immediately began fiddling with the device under the propeller, and Andrew saw sparks coming off of his fingers. A moment later, he picked it up. The little propeller started to spin.

"Perfect," he muttered.

"What's it for?" asked Andrew.

James handed him the little flying device. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. It took Andrew a second to realize that it was the head of a bullet.

"I-is that-"

James nodded. "Yes, it's the bullet that Ben removed from Caleb's side. It's been washed of course."

Andrew took a half step away from the inventor.

"The thing is... it's got a tracker in it," said James, inspecting the bullet closely. "The Gracebeasts are using it to track our exact location at this second."

Andrew almost fell down. "Wait, what?!"

"Calm down," said James, taking the device back from Andrew and clipping the bullet to it with the two hooks. "Because we had to take a detour back at Emerald Valley, they'll interpret our path wrong. And that's why I built this little flying device. It'll hopefully lead them off of our trail." He held the device up, and the little propeller took it into the air, along with the bullet and the tracker. A second later, it buzzed off in the opposite direction of where they were heading.

"Well, okay then..." muttered Andrew, not sure how to respond. "I really hope that plan doesn't backfire."

Felix was staring at one of the many display screen in the cockpit of the small airship. There was a drone to his left and right, both of whom where flying the airship. He, however, was staring at one screen in particular: the screen that displayed the location of the tracker.

Only a few hours ago, Warren had finally woken up, and even though he was delirious from his fever, he had a few small moments of clarity where he was able to tell Felix that he had shot two of the Gracelings – completely by accident, he had mentioned.

Warren had made no mention of the Seer.

After he had lost consciousness again, Felix went straight to the Baron and asked for permission to take out an airship to look for the group again, telling him that two of them were wounded, and the group would probably be much slower and less stealthy. As he expected, the Baron had told him to hurry up.

Now he was standing staring out the window of his favorite airship, a small but fast dark one, labeled as Number 22. On the screen in front of him, he saw a blinking light on a map, showing the location of the tracker and the direction in which it was heading. Another blinking light indicated where the ship itself was.

They were right on a collision course.

"Okay, if we keep going straight, we should see them right up ahead," he said, more to himself than the unresponsive drones.

He glanced out the window again, but when he looked back down at the screen, the direction of the tracker had changed, and it was now heading the other way.

Felix swore under his breath. "Turn around, head the other way," he said to the drones.

"Why?" asked the drone on the left, the one responsible for steering the ship. The drone's voice was so heavily mechanized that Felix had to take a moment to decipher it.

"They changed directions," he said. "We have to follow them."

The drone on the left made a crackly noise that sounded like a sigh as he began to turn the ship around, while the drone on the right, the one responsible for altering the height of the ship, made a noise that sounded like an animal choking. Felix could only assume it was a laugh.

They continued on.

James' trap had worked.

The group of Gracepunks had been walking in silence only a minute before Caleb gasped. Everyone turned to look at him, and they saw that he was staring up at the sky, a look of horror plastered on his face.

"What is it?" asked Jen, trying to hide the concern in her voice.

"Hide..."

Not a second later, the group of Gracepunks were all completely hidden in the bushes. Then, only five seconds after Caleb's warning, a silent dark airship flew overhead. It didn't stop, though.

And if it hadn't been for Caleb's warning, they would have all been spotted.

After regrouping, they continued on, but Andrew couldn't help but look over his shoulder every few minutes.

He knew the ship would be coming back soon.

They walked on for another hour before Caleb started to succumb to the pain and exhaustion. Andrew, who was walking right behind him, noticed that he had started to stumble, and his limp became more pronounced; he barely put any pressure at all on his left leg.

When they stopped for food, Caleb wouldn't eat anything, no matter how much Jen begged or threatened.

Over the next hour, Andrew noticed that his asthma inhaler made more appearances, and finally, he stopped putting it in his pocket and carried it in his hand. He would cough weakly, as if it hurt. Andrew just hoped that the kid wouldn't have a serious asthma attack. He had gotten even paler, and his whole demeanor screamed exhaustion.

Finally, after another hour, Caleb's knees gave out, and Jen and Andrew both caught him before he could fall to the snowy ground. Ben appeared in front of them, and he pressed his hand to Caleb's forehead.

"Caleb, can you look up?" asked Ben.

Slowly, Caleb raised his head, and Andrew saw that his eyes were glassy and unfocused, a result of his fever. He also noticed that he was gasping, taking in shallow, rapid breaths.

Ben bit his lip, a look of concern washing over his face. "Dammit..." he muttered under his breath.

"What is it?" asked Jen, her voice quiet but saturated with worry.

"I think I know, but I can't be sure," said Ben. He reached into his bag and pulled out a towel, which he gently used to cover Caleb's head.

"Keep your mouth and nose covered," Ben said to him. "Don't breathe in any more cold air."

Caleb nodded weakly, holding onto the towel to keep it in place.

Ben nodded and turned to Josh. "Can you carry him?"

Josh nodded and gently picked Caleb up off the ground, cradling him in his large arms.

"We should stop soon," said Ben to the rest of the group. "Right after dark. No fires, not with that airship still around."

There was a murmur of agreement, and the group moved on. Jen was up walking right next to Josh, quietly talking to Caleb. Ben fell back and walked with Andrew.

"What exactly is it?" asked Andrew.

Ben bit his lip again. "Let me hold off on a diagnosis until we're somewhere relatively safe, or at least until I can look again in the light."

Andrew nodded. "Just... one more question."

"Yeah?"

"Why the hell do you have a towel in your bag?"

Ben cracked a smile. "The universe is a lot safer if you bring a towel."

Andrew couldn't help but smile, and they hurried on as the forest grew darker around them.

Felix repeatedly smacked a hand-held device against the wall of the ship.

"Why. Isn't. This. Damn. Thing. Working?!" he exclaimed. The object he was hitting against the wall was an infrared gun, which had chosen that exact moment to malfunction.

"Do either of you tin cans have heat vision?" asked Felix angrily.

Both drones shook their heads, no.

Felix growled and threw the device to the ground before stomping on it with the heel of his boot, shattering it.

"Well. I am sure it will work now," said the drone on the right.

Felix threw a piece of the broken device at the drone, and it bounced harmlessly against it's stainless steel head. "Whose dumbass idea was it to give you sarcasm?!"

"One of us had to be entertaining," said the drone on the left. "Your friend Warren gave him sarcasm."

Felix rolled his eyes and collapsed in a chair. It was already dark out, and they couldn't continue their search without the infrared camera.

"I guess we should wait out here for tonight," said Felix after a minute. "They'll show themselves in the morning..."

The drones nodded and lowered the airship into a clearing, where they turned off all the lights. And waited.

They finally reached a large clearing after dark. The temperature had plummeted again, but there was no snow this time. The skies were clear, and if the situation had been less serious, Andrew would have taken the time to admire how many stars he could see in the crisp night sky.

Andrew joined Ben, Caleb, and Jen inside the tent, and he brought back the light, using the same technique he had used the night before, now that his Grace had recovered from the excessive use.

Caleb was lying curled up in Jen's lap, bundled in blankets, shivering and feverish. He was barely breathing, and his lips were tinged slightly blue. He was muttering under his breath, delirious from the fever. Ben had unwrapped the bandages, and he was inspecting the wound. Andrew noticed that his face was pale.

"Ben, what's wrong?" asked Jen, her voice strained.

Ben stared at the wound for a moment before laying a blanket over Caleb. "I was afraid of this. Not only is the wound infected, but the Pitch is relapsing. And..."

"And what?" demanded Jen.

"And... he's got pneumonia," said Ben quietly. "Any more exposure to the cold air will probably kill him. We can't keep moving him like this."

Andrew gulped. "So what are we going to do...?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

All three of them looked down to see that Caleb had come back to his senses, or at least had a moment of clarity.

"What?" asked Jen.

"It's obvious," said Caleb again. "You have to leave me. Let me get captured by the Gracebeasts."

A/N: The answer to what will blow your mind: every story or book that you've ever read is simply a collection of 26 letters arranged in different ways.

Has your mind been blown yet?

Also... now the good part starts. ;)