Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: I decided I'd try to post this chapter early before the internet gets all clogged up. At the end of the last episode, Claudia was encased in bronze by Paracelsus. Since the audience never sees the actual bronzing, I decided I wanted to write that scene. Then at the beginning of this episode Pete and Myka used the spectrometer thingy to view what happened. So, since we got part of that scene here, I decided to stick my version of the bronzing scene with this episode. Plus I wanted to write a bit of Claudia actually in bronze, and those two scenes went really well together. So here you go. Enjoy!

Ready, Set, Freeze

The first thing Claudia noticed was that her head hurt like hell. The second was that so did the rest of her body. Everything felt horribly fuzzy. Just twisting her head was a struggle, let alone opening her eyes. She could hear someone talking nearby. It sounded like Nick.

Suddenly everything came flooding back. Nick had betrayed them. He had tricked her into taking him into the Warehouse and had nearly gotten her to unbronze someone before being forced to shoot her with a Tesla. Ungrateful little...

Claudia managed to get her eyes open to thin slits. She could see Nick standing a few steps away. He looked worried. He was talking to a man that Claudia recognized as the one Nick had been trying to unbronze. Clearly he had succeeded. The man, Paracelsus, was fiddling with something on the side of the bronzer.

"What are you going to do?" Nick asked in concern. He glanced over at Claudia and she quickly closed her eyes.

"I'm going to repay the favor the Warehouse paid me," Paracelsus said darkly. Something about the way he said it made Claudia's skin crawl.

"I keep telling you she isn't a threat!" Nick protested. Maybe the little weasel had a conscience after all.

"They are all a threat," Paracelsus said. "They are hoarders with no respect for science and no qualms about removing anyone they deem a threat to their precious storehouse. They have no vision for the world, and as such they do not deserve to hold such wonders. It is high time the Warehouse was returned to more capable hands."

That really didn't sound good. Claudia reopened her eyes a fraction to be sure both Nick and Paracelsus were looking away from her. Then she slowly moved her hand toward her back pocket and took hold of the Farnsworth there. Steve would know something was up. He was probably on his way right now. But Claudia had a horrible feeling that the man in front of her was more than a match for her partner. He was going to need help, and that meant she had to warn Artie and the others.

She very carefully eased the Farnsworth out of her pocket without making a sound. Both figures were still turned partially toward her as they argued. If they would just turn their backs for a moment, she could make a break out of the Bronze Sector and lose them in the stacks long enough to warn Artie.

Then Paracelsus turned around and looked straight at her.

"You can give up the act," he said drily. "I already know you're awake."

Claudia briefly considered pretending she was still unconscious, but then he took a threatening step forward and she decided that was a bad idea. So instead she rolled to her feet, Farnsworth in hand. Nick whipped the Tesla out of his back pocket and immediately had it pointed at her. Not good.

"What do you want?" Claudia asked, looking past Nick at Paracelsus.

"What every man wants," he said with a creepy grin. "To rule the world."

"And how exactly do you plan on accomplishing that, Voldemort?" Claudia asked. She carefully eased her foot back a step as she spoke. If she could just get far enough away...

"Now what would be the fun in telling you?" Paracelsus asked. "Also, I strongly suggest that you stop moving. I'm not altogether sure what the range of this artifact is. It would be a pity to only bronze half of you."

It was only then that Claudia saw the statue in his hand. It must have come from the bronzer. Some of the people in the Bronze Sector came from before there would have been sufficient technology to create the machine, so of course it was based on an artifact.

Claudia took another step back. Both Nick and Paracelsus immediately took a large step toward her. Paracelsus was clearly beyond reason, but maybe she could still reach Nick.

"You don't have to do this," Claudia told him. "You don't have to help him."

"Yes I do," Nick said. His voice was strong, but the Tesla in his hand was shaking. "I need him."

"Let us help you," Claudia pleaded. "Whatever this is, we can find a way out of it."

"No, you can't," Nick said with a shake of his head. "Only he can save me."

"Save you from what?" Claudia asked. She took another partial step back and slid her finger along the side of the Farnsworth as she prepared to flip it open and run.

"Enough of this," Paracelsus said in a bored tone. "We have work to do. If she takes another step, shoot her."

"Nick," Claudia begged as Paracelsus came towards her.

"I'm sorry," Nick said. He sounded like he genuinely meant it.

Paracelsus stopped in front of Claudia and held up the statue. Claudia looked back at him, defiantly holding his gaze.

"Don't worry," he said with that same creepy smile. "This won't hurt a bit."

"Why don't you go back to whatever purgatory you crawled out of," Claudia said coldly.

"You first," Paracelsus said darkly.

The artifact flashed a blinding light and then everything went black.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Being stuck in bronze was odd to say the least. She could feel, and yet she couldn't. Everything was strangely removed, almost as if the sensations had to pass through a giant gulf to reach her. She couldn't see at all. Everything was black. She thought she could hear voices every now and then, but they were muffled as if from far away. And she couldn't talk back, no matter how she tried. In fact, she couldn't move at all.

She had often wondered what it must be like to be trapped in bronze, to spend eternity floating in darkness with only your own thoughts for company. No wonder HG had been so bent on destruction when she emerged. An eternity of this was a punishment far worse than death. It would be enough to make anyone go insane. And if they were already psychotic to begin with, well... Suffice it to say that Claudia was seriously beginning to question the Bat Gang's no-kill policy.

On the bright side, at least she knew rescue was coming. The rest of the team would find a way to get her out. Unless Paracelsus had taken the statue that ran the bronzer. And he really didn't seem like the type to leave any loose ends. Come to think of it, she was pretty sure she had been in bronze for a few hours by now. If they had a way to get her out, surely they would have used it by now. Or maybe she had only been in bronze for a few minutes and the endless blackness was starting to mess with her head.

Claudia quickly derailed that train of thought and set herself to finding ways to pass the time. That was slightly complicated by her own immobility, but she gave it her best shot. She ran through all the elements of the periodic table forwards and backwards. Then she set her mind to working out the kinks in her newest scientific project. It took a while, but finally she had worked out all the mathematical problems and even managed to give the project a full upgrade. And still there was no sign of rescue.

Now she knew there was definitely something wrong. They should have had her out by now. But if the statue was gone, they might have no way to debronze her. And if they had no way to get her out, there was a chance that she could be stuck in bronze for a very long time.

And then the melting began. It took a while to verify, but Claudia could definitely feel parts of herself beginning to change. She couldn't tell if the bronze was cracking or crumbling or what, but something was definitely wrong. That was not supposed to be happening. Somehow her bronzed form was unstable. That was really bad. Not only was she stuck in bronze, but now there was a ticking clock on her head. Just when she had thought things couldn't get any worse.

Suddenly she swore she had heard something. It sounded like Steve. Claudia strained her brain to listen. The sound was getting louder. It was definitely Steve. He must have found an artifact that allowed him to communicate with her.

"He was a pilot-slash-drug-smuggler who flew covert missions for the CIA," Steve's voice was saying. "You should probably-"

"Oh my gosh, Steve!" Claudia thought with all the mental power she could muster. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes!" Steve answered. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Claude! Loud and clear!"

If Claudia had been capable of movement, she knew she would have been jumping for joy. They had found a way to communicate. That meant they were working on it, and sooner or later someone was going to come up with a plan to get her out. They always did.

Now she just had to hope they could manage it before she crumbled away to nothing.

Next chapter is the season finale. Craziness. But for now, how about leaving a review letting me know what you thought of this chapter?