Jace glanced over his shoulder and growled, "Damn." He pulled to a stop, picked up the skateboard Locke had given to him and started to run. She's been following me for two days now. Doesn't she ever sleep? He hadn't returned to school since he'd left the morning of the day they were going to paint the building. Apparently Chandra hadn't either because that was how long she'd been following him. He growled. He dodged around people easily but ended up taking to the rooftops instead of trying to weave through the crowd. He knew Elspeth would kill him if she found out. That was probably why Chandra was following him. Elspeth had requested that she do so. He kind of felt bad for leaving Kaious behind but he had things he had to do and didn't want Kaious to get in trouble with him. Of course the dragon wouldn't have cared. Jace didn't care whether he cared or not. He wasn't going to let Kaious get in trouble especially not with Elspeth. As much as he denied it the blond haired knight was terrifying. He could admit that to himself easily enough. He didn't know why he couldn't admit it to anyone else but that wasn't important anymore. He was going to get off this world himself since he couldn't rely on the others to work with him to do so. He knew he was being illogical. Chandra was probably going to kill him for running. From the school and their company, because they were the ones that were best able to help him, and from the past that was coming back to haunt him. He didn't entirely care. He hadn't ever looked deeper into his past for a reason. When the past is left behind it should stay there.

Jace dropped down to the ground and started skirting through the alleys. Of course Chan-Phoenix called in her assassin friends to help her. I'm not going to be caught. It's NOT happening. He skirted into a small crevice in the alleys and crouched there. He was completely still. He closed his eyes so the fact that they reflect light wouldn't give him away. He listened carefully to the assassins that had been trying to catch him.

"Uh...Phoenix. He disappeared," he recognized Dragon by his voice.

You can't win hide and seek with someone who's been hiding all their life. Jace crept backwards deeper into the street until the shadows of the buildings hid him completely. He opened his eyes and turned. His ears pricked in surprise when he heard what sounded like a cry of pain.

"Ow! Hey! That hurts!" There was silence for a moment. "Ow! Please! Stop!"

Jace found himself moving closer against his will. His curiosity pushed him onward against his better judgment. Phoenix would not hurt someone just to trap me. He took a deep breath and picked up his pace. He found himself standing in a fork between alleys. One led more right but still straight while the other led directly to his left. He waited for the cry to come again silently.

Whoever it was grunted as though they were thrown to the ground. They were to his left.

"That's right little one. Just keep quiet."

Jace heard a muffled cry of pain as though the person had been gagged or silenced in a similar matter. Phoenix was completely forgotten as he crept ever closer. He clearly saw three high school aged boys. One appeared seventeen while the other two appeared to be a year, maybe two younger. One of the younger ones held a much smaller but probably not younger boy. His hand was over the boys mouth and his other arm held the boy in a submission hold. The other younger one watched. He looked around in mixed fear and sympathy. He obviously felt bad for the boy that was being tormented but was too scared of the other two to speak out against them. Jace's eyes narrowed. He crept silently forward. Of course they were too enraptured in their fun to notice him. He shot forward with the speed and precision of a predator. He knocked the bigger one into the wall and used him to springboard around the boy they were tormenting into the one that was holding him.

The bigger one pulled a gun and grabbed the boy they were tormenting, "Don't move! Freak!"

Jace's blue eyes flashed, reflecting the minimal light around them. He rose calmly to his feet.

The big one pointed the gun at the boy he held, "I'll kill him if you take one step closer!"

Jace smirked, "Really?" He began to walk closer. His blue eyes were icy cold and emotionless. His smirk flattened into a dully unimpressed look. He continued to walk forward.

"Shoot it! Kill the freak!" The bigger of the three shook in fear as Jace continued to approach. His catlike ears flattened and his tail flicked back and forth. His face remained completely clear.

The one that had held the boy pointed a gun at him. The sound was deafening but Jace didn't need to hear. He flipped and caught the bullet in his hands before landing again. He rose from the neat perfectly balanced crouch he'd landed in and dropped the bullet beside him before continuing his advance. His gaze flicked over the boy, who seemed to be just as afraid of him as his tormentors. He looked at the larger boy that held him, "Let him go."

The boy pointed the gun at the kid's head again and shook his head, "Take one more step and I really will kill the kid."

"And if I kill you first?" Jace's voice remained icy cold.

Everyone else present shook with fear.

"Y-you wouldn't!" the bigger one said.

"Yeah! The Black Lotus would be on you in an instant!" The second one tried to sound strong and confident but his voice cracked with fear.

Jace looked casually over his shoulder, "The Black Lotus? Why would that worry me?" He leaped forward. He knocked the gun out of the bigger one's hand and knocked the back of his head into the wall behind him. The boy sank to the ground. Blood started to well from a wound that had opened in the back of his head. Jace turned away from him and flicked his hands, more for shock value than to get the blood off his hands. The other one pointed the gun at the kid they tormented and fired. Phoenix dropped in front of the kid and blocked the bullet. She pulled her goggles off of her eyes and lit her right hand on fire. The second kid fired at the kid again and again but Phoenix continued to block. Jace came at the kid from his side and knocked him to the ground. He didn't get back up.

"T-T-What was that?" the tormented kid stuttered in mixed fear and relief.

Jace blinked in surprise. He shrank away from the shocked looks he was getting and darted into the alleyway. Dammit. This is why Kurai's supposed to take care of the fights. I don't even know if either of those kids is dead. I'm not going back to check. I'm kind of afraid of the answer. His hands were bleeding from the bullet he had caught but that made it look like he was responsible for someone's murder. He felt bile rise in the back of his throat. Not all of the blood on his hands was his. He kept to the alleys and rooftops to avoid unwanted attention. He was fast. If he kept up the pace he was going at then he'd be out of the city by midnight. It was nearly three in the afternoon. Days here were getting shorter which did nothing but confuse him. He stopped long enough to wash his hands and get a new pair of gloves but otherwise he kept going. Why did I even approach that situation? His mind raced. He felt dread and fear settle in his stomach, making him feel sick. This is why I don't fight. I refuse to fight. What happened? How did...it surface again? It shouldn't have. There was nothing about the situation-Images flashed in his head, interrupting his thought.

Lucy cried in pain as she was thrown to the ground.

"Looks like if you can't finish the group maze your project will be terminated." The metal door closed loudly.

Jace moved over to the wall where he'd hid a first aid kit. He did his best to treat the fox girl's wounds but his best was minimal. A group maze? They won't be terminating her project. Or any of the others'. I won't let them. He looked around dully. Everyone around him would be in the maze. The mazes were used to train them to react extremely quickly to any sort of situation. Every one was filled with dangerous traps as well as giant automata that could easily kill them should they be hit. The entire purpose is to successfully get to the end of the maze alive. Jace ran through mazes until he collapsed or they ran out of mazes. Whichever happened first. They used any method necessary to create the perfect superhuman soldiers and apparently he was the only progressing the way they wanted. That however meant that they wouldn't terminate his project even if he failed the group maze. They'd be expecting him to win but if he failed he was in much less danger than any of the others. His eyes narrowed. Then I'll fail. If Lucy doesn't fail or gets far enough in then they'll allow her to live, though how long that'll last I have no idea. He finished up with Lucy and hid the first aid kit away. He checked in on the baby dragon that he had found during his previous escape. He wasn't going to do that again that was for sure. He didn't want to connect to someone just to lose that person in an extremely violent and entirely unnecessary way a short time later. He didn't sleep but had learned extremely quickly how to believably look as though he was asleep.

"There can only be one winner. The goal is to get to the end of the maze. Destroy whatever gets in your way."

Jace had no idea who the person that spoke was but he could see him. There was a room above the mazes that was made nearly entirely of windows. It was impossible to reach and if someone successfully did so they would be killed on the spot. Jace hod no intention of dying. He could see everyone else that was going to running the maze with him. Some had names. Others didn't.

"Begin."

Jace knew that if any of them hesitated the walls would start to close in on them. He shot out of the entrance area and into the maze. Running through them was like second nature to him by this time. Whoever he didn't recognize was just an obstacle. They were either maneuvered around or removed from play. He didn't register whether or not he killed them. The details weren't important as long as they were out of his way.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Director's prized Kitty Cat." Jace recognized Shade. The other boy wasn't his favorite person. In his grasp he held the little rabbit girl that had miraculously managed to survive this long. Jace had no idea how she did it but it probably had something to do with the fact that she was a rabbit. Shade had a Templar's sword in one hand and a malicious smirk on his face, "Think you can get to your precious little girl before I kill her, Kitty Cat?"

Jace hissed.

"Ah look. You actually do sound like a cat," Shade's smirk changed into a maniacal grin. Outside of the mazes the boy appeared perfectly sane but the death of his sister, the one and only person he cared for, and the fact that he had been told that he wasn't strong enough to protect her and that was she had died had driven him mad. He was itching to be at the top. In order to do so he had to remove Jace from his path. Jace wasn't going to let that happen. If Shade was on top then the others didn't stand a chance.

"Ah. Ah," Shade squeezed the girl's neck harder, "Be still little one." He swung the Templar sword in the direction of the girl. He'd probably end up cutting his own arm off but that didn't matter to him. Jace leaped forward. He moved faster than the sword. He slid between Shade, the rabbit girl and sword and caught it. He slammed the back of his head into Shade's nose and kicked the sword out of his grasp. Jace let the sword clatter to the ground. It was too large for him to be able to comfortably use. He grabbed the rabbit girl and set her down a good distance away.

"So you could!" Shade laughed coldly, "But there's a Templar on it's way. Can't you hear it? Can you protect her from both me and them without dying?"

Jace's mind blanked. When he became aware again He saw Alice running down the maze hallway with the girl safely in her grasp. Shade was lying on the ground. He was bleeding and unconscious at the very least. He might just be dead. At least if he was he could return to his sister. Seven Raptors and three Templars were lying on the ground in broken piles.

Jace shuddered. He swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. According to what Kurai had gathered from Tessa's mind Shade hadn't died then. Apparently Isabelle had disintegrated him in an explosion of rage. He realized that he was standing outside the city. He recognized the area where they had landed and began to walk forward. He didn't really have a destination but away was good enough for him. Away from everything was good enough for him.