The room was dead silent, even Quinn's footsteps were lost in the gloom and scattered bursts of light. She took a deep breath and quickened her pace despite that it jostled her wings and sent spasms of pain down her back. In a couple seconds she was running, just wanting to find the other end of the damn room. It was the creepiest place she had ever been, almost as bad as the places she found herself in in her nightmares. She swallowed as she reached the end of the hall, only to find that there wasn't a door. She ran her hands along the width of the wall, which was only a couple meters long, and wondered if it was set up higher. If it was than she was most likely screwed.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She couldn't afford to panic. She had to think logically... think like Mark. What would he say if he was there? Probably make some joke in a serious voice to reduce the tension that would set her off a bit. "Make a joke," she said quietly, as though speaking to him. "Come on, make a joke."

She looked around to see where the eerie lights cast their glows, and found that there was a crack under one of them. She ran over to it and noticed that it was like the crack of the door back in the other hallway. She fished Mark's Christmas present out from the side of her boot and slid the tip into the crack, hoping that it wouldn't break. She ran the knife down the wall and it parted a bit, just enough for her to edge her fingers in and pry the door the rest of the way open. She put her knife away and did just that, using all her strength to pull the door open. It took a little bit but she finally widened the crack enough for her to wedge her way through and into a normal hallway. The door shut behind her and when she turned she coudn't see the crack anymore.

Not stopping to think about that she continued down the hallway at a steady pace. She was in a hallway with no doorways in sight and not turn offs. All she could do would be to keep walking and hope that either the 'flag' was at the end, or that there was a branch up ahead. She sighed and flexed her hands, feeling restless since leaving that room. It had put her on edge and she hated the goose bumps that were still raised on her arms. It was almost exactly like the place from her nightmare last night, except that Mark's dead body wasn't lying in the middle of the floor with a masked guy standing over him holding a knife. She shuddered.

A turn appeared out of no where, coming up on her left, and she jogged a little faster, wanting to reach it and get out of the endless hallway. Then Mark stepped through, looking dazed and disoriented. He looked over at her. "Quinn? Your wings... What happened?"

She slowed, opening her mouth to speak, when she felt something dislodge under her foot. She looked down and raised her boot, and as she did a button lifted off the ground. "Crap."

A rummbling filled the hall and Quinn sprinted towards her friend. "Run!" she shouted, her mind picturing the boulder from the adventure movies, but as she started to run pieces of the floor started to crack and disappear out from under her. She jumped to a steady spot, and noticed that Mark hadn't moved even though the hallway behind him was falling to pieces as well. "MARK!" she shouted. "MOVE!" He looked up at her just as she saw a crack form under his feet. Gritting her teeth she jumped the two meter span between the two of them, forcing her wings to keep her in the air, and she grabbed onto her friend's uniform. She managed to drop him on the edge of a steady floor tile just as she felt her wings flutter once and go motionless. She fell for a second, then her hands caught onto the edge of a stationary tile. She struggled as she tried to pull herself up, but she didn't have the arm strength. She could feel her fingers slipping, her blunt nails trying to grab hold onto the tile, but she knew that she would eventually fall.

She closed her eyes, trying not to imagine an endless pit below her or even worse, some sort of endless well. She shuddered and felt her hand slip another inch. Oh god. She really was going to fall.

Then a set of strong hands caught her wrists and hauled her up. She colapsed into Mark's chest as he wrapped his arms around her, moving around her wings. "You idiot," he hissed, but she didn't care what he said to her. He flicked the back of her head and slowly pulled her to stand on the tile that was barely big enough to accomodate them. "Come on," he said. "Let's make you practically killing yourself worth while." He released her and jumped effortlessly to a tile near theirs. Quinn followed him as they played a dangerous hop-scotch game to the edge of a solid hallway. When she landed on the solid floor Mark quickly pulled her away from the edge and they continued down the hall.

"Have you seen Kitchie?" Quinn asked, and Mark shook his head.

"No," he replied. "He knocked me out and when I woke up the only person there was Caim, who was unconcious too." He looked at her. "Your work?"

She nodded. "I did what I had to do," she replied flatly. He didn't say anything in response and they made their way down the silver corridor. At the end they found a door and Quinn narrowed her eyes, wary that it might lead to a room like the nightmare one from earlier. Mark reached a hand towards the knob but Quinn swatted it away; if the room was like the one before she wasn't going to let Mark in it. "What are you doing Quinn?" he asked.

"Trust me." She turned the knob and opened it to find a big red button sitting in the middle of a table in the center of the room. She blinked, caught off guard. "What the hell?" she asked. She took a slow step into the room and her back exploded into agony; apparently the doorway wasn't wide enough to let her wings pass. She stumbled back, her teeth ground together and her eyes squeezed shut. All the pain she had been repressing was flooding through her barriers and she fell to her knees. "Fucking press the button," she snapped through clentched teeth, guessing that this was their 'flag'. If not than they were probably in a lot of trouble.

She heard Mark step through the doorway and then a little pop. She lifted her head enough to see and opened her eyes. Sticking out of the red button was a small orange and black flag. She let out a choked laugh at the fact that the flag was hers and Mark's favourite colours.

"Congradulations Nightmare and WeaponMaster," Mr. Xavier's voice said. Quinn winced at the volume. "Excellent teamwork. Now, let's bring you two back to the Institute."

The world disolved around them until they found themselves standing at the far end of the danger room. Kitchie was standing behind them to their left and him and Mark met gazes. Caim lay, still unconcious, towards the center of the room. Quinn weakly rose to her knees and stummbled towards him, wanting to make sure that she hadn't killed him or anything. Before she could reach him Ms. Dugan was there, kneeling next to him and speaking quietly. After a moment she saw his hand ball into a fist and his body shudder once before he slowly started to sit up. Quinn sighed in relief and ran a shaking hand through her hair.

"Quinn."

She turned to see Mark standing behind her. He went to say something, but then stopped and hugged her. She leaned against him, her head on his chest.

"We need to talk," he whispered.