"Bring him in! HURRY!"

Lara stepped aside as Rath rushed into the room carrying Dokan's unconscious body over one shoulder.

"Is this it?" said Rath. He looked around suspisciously.

"Yes! Over there!" Lara pointed to a rectangular table by the wall. The 'table' was actually a part of the floor, and rose seamlessly from it as if they were both carved from one block. "Put him down!"

Rath lay Dokan on the table. As he did, he saw the network of lines etched into the table's surface. They seemed to form some kind of large pattern, but Rath couldn't make out what it meant.

"You know how to use this thing?" said Rath.

"I'll find out. Where are the others?"

"Too slow. They'll catch up... if not, I'll go and find 'em."

Lara was standing in front of one of two disk-like objects that sat on top of a short, thin column. It looked like a small round table... or a fountain. On an adult human, the disk would have been chest-high... but for the small girl it was almost to her chin. Undaunted, Lara climbed up and crouched on the edge of the disk like a bird. There were about twenty-five symbols etched onto it's surface... none of which looked familiar to either her or Rath.

"Can you read that?"

Lara just stared at the symbols. She realized that she had no idea what any of them meant... but her heart wouldn't let her accept that fact. There HAD to be a way to interpret them.

"You don't even know if this is the right place, do you?" said Rath.

"I'm positive," said Lara. She didn't bother to explain WHY she was positive. "I just have to figure out how to use it."

Lara reached down and tapped one of the symbols.

"TRIFKOD QUILTRIOH," the disk hummed. The symbol lit up, and several spots on the table where Dokan lay began to glow. Nothing else happened.

"YES!" said Lara. "This is the Cthrain's written language! I can do this!"

"You can read the language?"

"No... but I can learn. I know enough of the spoken language... Dokan had me memorize all of Park's published books before we left." She touched a few more symbols at random, and listened to the sounds that the disk produced. The only result she produced was to make certain other symbols flash bright red. "Hmm... these symbols aren't letters. They're words. Some of them are entire sentences..."

She pushed another symbol:

"STRYAE LOUNEAU," said the disk.

"It said 'Prepare Subject'!"

"Well, the 'subject' doesn't look too good," said Rath.

Dokan's entire body was riddled with pulsing purple veins. Blood was beginning to pour from his ears and nose in a continuous stream. Rath put his ear to Dokan's chest and listed to the man's heartbeat. And to the three faint flutterings that were just beginning to establish separate rhythms in his body.

"If he ain't gone now, he will be in the next few minutes," said Rath.

Lara knew what half of them meant now... but it wasn't enough. She still didn't know how to make the machine heal Dokan. She pressed one of the unknown symbols and hoped....

"QUILTROH LOUNEAU..."

vvmmmmmm....

The lines underneath Dokan began to glow. Some pulsed on and off... at various intervals, others shimmered continuously. The entire table hummed ominously.

"What's that..."

"'Scanning subject,'" Lara translated. Suddenly, a bright green haze appeared all around her. "WHOA!" Lara backflipped off of the table and landed a few feet away, poised and ready to sprint. But what she had interpreted as an attack was something else entirely. The green haze was an image taking shape in the air above the control board... an incredibly detailed, 3-dimentional image of Dokan's body. The form was translucent... not only could Lara see the wall behind it, but she could actually see some of the organs inside her mentor's body. Other images popped up around it... strange lines wiggled through the air, pulsing in time with Dokan's heartbeat and other biological functions. Lara stared at them eagerly as more and more data was displayed. Then came more symbols in the Cthrian's language. As the symbols appeared in the air above it, the control board's deep, resonating voice read them aloud in words that only Lara could translate:

"Species 132284 - Unmodified.
Estimated Biological Age: .00012 Adjusted Cthrain Years
Health Index...
...WARNING...WARNING...WARNING...
Parasite Detected: Species 1025, subspecies 7, Modified (see file 1025-23).
Parasite development 87%
LIFE SYSTEMS CRITICAL..."

A loud, pulsing buzz filled the room as several of the indicators flashed red. On the examination table, Dokan began to cough violently. He turned his head to the side, allowing a lung-full of blood and mucous to drain out.

"...LIFE SYSTEMS FAILING..." the Cthrian machine continued. "SPECIMEN LOSS EMINENT: TERMINATE/RESTORE/IGNORE...TERMINATE/RESTORE/IGNORE...TERMINATE/RESTORE/IGNORE..."

Sutton, Zackery and Rester staggered into the room, breathing heavily from trying... and failing... to keep up with Rath.

"What's going on!" said Sutton.

"Dokan's dying!" Lara reached up an hit the button that was marked with the Cthrain symbol for 'RESTORE'"

CLUNK-VMMMMMMMM

A rectangular block began descending from the ceiling. It was exactly the same size as the examination table, and was positioned directly over it. As it lowered, Dokan's body began to sink into the table on which it lay... as if the solid table had suddenly become a liquid. When he was halfway inside of it, his body stopped and the descending piece came down on top of him... sealing Dokan inside of the table.

"...LIFE SYSTEMS FAILING...RESTORATION PROCEEDING... LIFE SYSTEMS CRITICAL..."

A deep vibrating hum filled the room. The display of Dokan's body began to change as the machine did things that none of them could fathom.

"I think he's going to be okay," said Lara.

"How can you tell?" said Rester. "How do you know that thing isn't killing him... or worse?"

"I just know. But I don't know how long its going to take."

"We'll wait here until its done," said Rath. "One way or another."

"I'll keep an eye on the hallway," said Rester. He eyed the machine with obvious distrust. "I'd rather not be in the same room as this kinda magic."

"I'll join you," said Zackery. "I don't like the sounds that thing is making." The pair left the room quickly.

Lara shook her head.

"They'll fight monsters and giant worms... but they're afraid of a few blinking lights. Amazing."

---

The hum and vibration of the machine continued unabated for several long minutes. Krycek and Drayn watched as Princeton Park sat motionless in the strange device's grasp.

"What do you mean... a horrible mistake?" said Drayn.

"This machine," said Krycek as he studied the chair in which Park sat. "Cannot POSSIBLY be a library. Every library I've ever encountered was voluntary."

"But Park got in there on his own."

"Park was mistaken. And he may very well already be dead. This is clearly some kind of torture device... or worse." Krycek eyed the mechanism that was clamped to Princeton Park's head. He reached up to touch it, but then changed his mind. "Stand back... this situation calls for desperate measures."

Drayn moved back, as did Krycek. The mage put about two yard of space between himself and the chair, then he blasted the upper section of the claw with a fireball. Flames licked up and down the arm... but there was no damage done. Krycek followed it with a crackling energy-bolt... which the mechanism greedily absorbed like water into a sponge.

Krycek nodded to himself, and began to cast a more complex spell.

Right in the middle of his spell, Princeton Park opened his eyes.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" said Princeton.

"Wha-!" The surprise spoiled whatever spell Krycek was planning. The magic fizzled at his fingertip as the Cthrain machine ceased its vibration. The deep humming sound faded.

The claw disengaged itself from Princeton Park's skull and retracted back into the ceiling. Inside the storage area, a similar claw released the large glowing pod. Only the pod wasn't glowing any more. It was ominously black... though not cracked and scorched like the others.

"Princeton? Are you all right? What did that machine do to you?"

"It did exactly what I said it was going to do," said Princeton. He tried to get out of the chair, but appeared too weak to do so. He sat back down to catch his breath. "Oh, Krycek... you have no IDEA of the things I've just learned!"

"How do you feel?"

"Dizzy," said Princeton. "Headache. But none of that matters! The things I know now! MAGNIFICENT things! Look here!" Princeton managed to get out of the chair and stagger over to the control panel. "I know what these symbols mean! ALL of them... and THOUSANDS more!"

"The machine taught you their language?" Krycek said doubtfully.

"Language? BAH! It taught me EVERYTHING! Don't you understand... EVERYTHING!"

Krycek gave a quick glance at Drayn, who nodded silently and began circling around behind Princeton.

"The power! Ohhhhh, Krycek, the POWER! You have no IDEA! The POWER they had at their command... at their FINGERTIPS!"

"Tell me, Princeton," said Krycek. "I want to hear all about it."

"You came here for magic! HA! Magic! MAGIC! As if the Cthrain would taint themselves with something so... so primitive!"

Drayn was creeping up behind Princeton now, but Krycek stopped him with a quick shake of his head. Drayn halted, and gave Krycek a confused look.

"Explain," said Krycek. "There's no magic here?"

"Yes, of course there is! But to the Cthrain, magic was no different than any other kind of energy! The could control and manipulate it at a level that not even YOU could comprehend! Energy! Matter! Magic! ALL the same thing! ALL under the Cthrain's control! They weren't masters of the world... they were masters of... of CREATION ITSELF!"

"You're speaking lots of words, Princeton... but you aren't saying anything. You're babbling. Are you SURE you're alright?"

"Alright? I'm MORE than alright! I'm... don't you understand, Krycek!? The Cthrain were a race of GODS, and I've peeked into their holiest of places! I've partaken of their knowledge! Don't you SEE!? No... no, of course you don't. What I've seen can't be described in words... you have to experience it for YOURSELF!"

Princeton returned to the control panel and reached for the symbols.

Krycek nodded at Drayn, and the mercenary lunged for Princeton in an attempt to grab him and knock him away from the controls. He didn't quite make it.

Krycek wasn't quite sure what happened. One instant Drayn was moving... and the next, he was sprawled out on the floor behind Princeton.

"OOOF!" Drayn grunted. "What the-"

"What was that about?" said Princeton, looking down at the mercenary. "What are you doing down there?"

"I fell," he said. He looked up at Krycek's doubtful expression. "No, really... I tripped and fell!"

"There's nothing there to trip over," Krycek informed him.

Drayn looked. Whatever he'd tripped over was either invisible, or it was no longer there.

"Princeton," Krycek warned. "I suggest you step away from those controls."

"Nonsense! I know EXACTLY what I'm doing! I have never in my life been so PERFECTLY and CLEARLY AWARE of what I was doing as I am right now! You wanted the Cthrain's secrets? I'm about to show them to you! Sit down in the chair!"

"No," said Krycek. "I will not."

"What? I thought you wanted-"

"I will study this machine further before I subject myself to its ministrations."

"Nonsense! It's harmless, you've seen for yourself!"

"We should find the others," said Drayn. "I don't like this."

Princeton looked at Krycek, then at Drayn.

"This is what we came here for," he said. "This is what YOU came here for, Krycek!"

"And I will accept our discovery on my own terms. Not yours."

"You! Drayn! YOU sit down... we'll both be enlightened and leave Krycek to his ignorance! Sit!"

"You're out of your mind," said Drayn.

"We'll see about that," said Princeton. "Yes indeed... we shall see just WHO is out of WHO'S mind... ohhh, yes..."

Princeton's skinny fingers began darting back and forth across the control board's surface. The chamber began to hum as it had done before. In the storage chamber, the mechanical arm advanced toward another of the glowing pods... but then it stopped with a sudden jarring motion. All of the humming and vibration halted abruptly, and several lights on the control board began flashing bright red.

"What!?" Princeton screeched. "NO!"

"Not so sure about what you're doing any more?" Drayn sneered.

"No, no! There's a power drain! This entire facility is functioning on stored power. There should be more than enough... but something else has... Those FOOLS!"

"They've found the healing chamber haven't they," said Krycek. "They're using it to cure Dokan... and it's interfering with the machine here."

There was a look on Princeton's face for the briefest moment. And expression of such pure rage that it didn't even seem humanly possible to express it fully. It was there for just an instant... and then it was gone, replaced with a sly, sinister smile.

"Ahhhh.... but that doesn't matter now. Oh, yes. Krycek... you wanted to see the Cthrain's power? Well there is ANOTHER way that I can show you. Something you will have no objections to. Something I think you will enjoy."

"And what would that be, Dr. Park?"

"Follow me!"

Princeton strolled out of the room with head held high and chest thrust forward... walking very much like a monarch strolling the halls of his own castle.

"Where's he going?" said Drayn.

"Princeton!" Krycek called. He and Drayn followed him. "WHERE are you going!"

"To SHOW you! To show you what power REALLY is! You wanted secrets, Krycek... I'll GIVE you secrets!"

"Whatever it is, I don't want any part of it!" said Drayn. "You could put us all in danger!"

"I know what I'm doing," Princeton replied. "You're safe as long as you're with me."

"And the others?" said Krycek.

"I wouldn't worry about the others," Princeton said... his sinister smile returning. "I wouldn't worry about them at all."


---

"Don't get us lost," said Rester. He and Zackery wandered the halls near the healing chamber. They weren't so much looking for anything as getting as far as possible away from a man who could explode and spurt nasty parasitic creatures at any moment.

"We're not lost," said Zackery. "We took a left, two rights, and another left."

"Right," Rester replied.

"No. Left."

"Right... we took a left."

"Right. I think."

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"We're lost, aren't we?" said Rester.

"Uhhh.... yeah. But just a little."

"A little lost? Isn't that like being a little pregnant?"

"I don't know... I've never been pregnant."

In truth, the duo had been trying to find their way back to the others for ten minutes. But the network of identical hallways and confusing intersections foiled their attempt. They'd been lost as soon as they lost sight of the healing room... only they didn't know it until they tried to get back.

"Rath can find us," said Zackery.

"If those things don't get him. That old man was about to pop. And they think a city that's been empty for a hundred years can save him? Madness!"

"I think it's been empty for a bit more than a hundred years."

"Even worse. You know... all this time I thought I'd feel relieved when we finally got here But now that we're here... I just wanna get out. This whole place just-"

"Doesn't feel right?"

"There ya go."

"At least we made it. Think about all the people that didn't."

"Vithor. And Juhz."

"All of Sutton's people, too. They never got a chance to even see this place."

"But ya know," said Rester. "I can't help but thinkin' that maybe those guys were the lucky ones."

"Now yer just being crazy," said Zackery. "Being alive is ALWAYS better than being d-"

"Shhh!" Rester stopped walking and grabbed Zackery by the arm, pulling his friend to a stop in the hallway. "I heard something."

"What... you think you're Rath now?"

But a second later, Zackery heard it for himself. Hard, rhythmic sounds. Footsteps.

"We ain't alone in here," he said.

"And that don't sound like Park or the mage, either," Rester added. "Not unless one of 'em is wearing a pair of iron boots."

"We need to find the others."

"Hell, that's what we been tryin' ta do for the past ten minutes!"

"C'mon..."

Zackery and Rester tried once again to retrace their steps to where they'd left Lara, Rath, and Sutton. This time their efforts were more urgent... driven by the approaching footsteps of something large and ominous. Something that seemed to know more about the sanctum than they ever could. The sounds followed them... getting rapidly closer one instant, and then moving away the next... only to suddenly grow loud again as the thing moved down adjacent hallways to cut them off.

"Damn!" Rester swore as they backed away from another intersection, driven back by the sound of approaching footsteps. "I thought that thing was back there... but now its coming THIS way again!"

"What now?"

"I saw we find out what these things are." Rester glanced up and down the hallway, looking for a place to hide and give them the element of surprise. There weren't any. All he saw was black walls lit by eerie blue light. "You with me?"

Zackery drew his sword and the two men stood back to back, each facing an opposite direction down the hall. They listened as the incessant clanging grew louder and louder... closer...

"This way-" Rester aimed his crossbow into the intersection of another corridor not far away. He squinted into the darkness and prepared to fire. "It's coming this way."

"No, I don't think so," said Zackery. "Sounds like its coming from over here." Zackery pointed to a different corridor.

"You're crazy. I hear it-"

"I hear it too! And it's coming from over-"

Thurg and Red emerged from two separate hallways and came at them from opposite directions. Thurg still wielded his bastard sword, and Red his huge axe... but the weapons were the only things that were recognizable. Each man was covered from head to foot in thick, rocky plates, and each of them carried another bundle of strange armor tucked under one arm. Their feet clanged noisily as they approached... their loud footsteps were in perfect unison, as if marching to the cold, military beat of some unseen drummer.

Rester fired. The bolt from his crossbow bounced off of Thurg's massive chest. Rester reloaded and fired again... this time the bolt struck flesh... a bullseye hit to a tiny gap in Thurg's neck armor. Thurg kept coming, oblivious to the missile protruding from his throat.

"What do ya think?" said Zackery.

"I think we should run. NOW!"

Both men bolted down the hallway toward the nearest intersection. Thurg was blocking their path, but like they'd been practicing the maneuver for days, Zackery and Rester veered to either side and tried to shoot past him. Thurg turned and slashed at Rester, but the archer ducked and kept running while-

CLANG!

Zackery's ineffectual sword strike drew Thurg's attention. Thurg spun to face Zackery, but then one of Rester's bolts sank into a shoulder joint, distracting Thurg for the split second it took for Zackery to get out of reach.

"RUN!" Rester cried. He needn't have bothered, Zackery was right behind him... and the Overseers were right behind THEM, moving much, much too fast for men dressed in alien plate-mail. Zack and Rester only had a few yards head start... and creatures were devouring that lead with frightening speed.



---

"Hey, what's this one do?"

Sutton was looking at the other control board. There was only one examination table in the room, so there was no telling what the second board did. That didn't stop Sutton from pushing one of the symbols, however.

"Don't-"

"READY" said the machine in Cthrain.

A green, translucent haze appeared in the air above it. It didn't form into an image... it just hung in the air...a silent, shapeless aura.

"I'd thank you not to touch anything else," said Lara.

"We're here to explore, right?" said Sutton. He waved his hand through the green haze, which failed to react to his arm at all. "I mean... it's safe for YOU to go around pushing buttons, but when I touch something its the end of the world... why is that?"

"Because she's smarter than you," said Rath. "Back away from the machine."

Sutton shrugged and stepped away, but his actions had already gotten Lara's attention. She walked over to the control board and, standing on her toes, studied its surface. The symbols on the second board were different than those on the first, but Lara recognized many of them from when the first machine was speaking and displaying information. She reached across the board and pressed one of them."

The green haze snapped into focus, forming images in the air above her. The first and largest image was of a slug-like creature with mouthparts like a leach and a tail like a scorpion. Other shapes appeared around it... most were Cthrain heiroglyphs, but some were of other creatures. They all looked similar to the giant leach-thing, with minor differences in the mouth and tail.

"Whooaa..." Sutton gasped. He pointed to one of the smaller pictures. "That's the one that got the old man!"

"Where?" said Rath.

"This one-" Sutton pointed to the image, but was a bit over-zealous in his reach. His finger touched the picture, and the entire display changed instantly. The symbols and smaller pictures rearranged themselves, and the large, central image became that of creature to which Sutton had pointed. "Hey! I didn't mean to do that!"

"The images are linked to commands," said Lara. "Be careful what you touch."

"This is the thing that attacked us all right," said Rath. "What does it say about it?"

In defiance of her own warning, Lara reached across the board and pressed one of many glowing symbols on its surface. A deep, otherworldly voice began speaking in Cthrain, and Lara translated it for the others.

"File 1025-23
Species 1025, subspecies 7, Modified
Class 4 Organism
Hermaphroditic, Self-Reproducing Internal Parasite
Native To: 276SV-675
See Unmodified Organism for Baseline Traits/Description.
Modified For:
Enhanced Reproductive Metabolism
Projectile Tail
Enhanced Motility
Enhanced Aggressiveness
Cross-Species Infestation
Extended Lifespan
CAUTION: Species is Extremely Dangerous."

"Sounds about right," said Rath.

"It's an index," said Lara. "All the things the Cthrain encountered."

"And what they did to them. They found these creatures somewhere and they changed them to suit their own needs. Made them more dangerous. See if there's anything in there about the thing that got Thurg... and anything else that might be wandering around this place."

Lara's nimble fingers began darting across the controls, touching the symbols in a rapid dance. The images flickered and changed... dozens of strange, grotesque shapes flew by so fast that they became an undecipherable blur. Lara looked at them nonetheless, her trained mind taking only a brief fraction of a second to study each shape and dismiss it as not being the one she was looking for.

"Here," she said finally. Her fingers came to a rest, and a familiar image floated above the control board: A pile of flat, stony plates. She pressed the "READ" symbol and translated the spoken file:

"File 0013-01
Overseer
Species 0013A, subspecies 2, Modified
Class 2 Organism
External Parasite
Native To: Cthrain-1
See Unmodified Organism for Baseline Traits/Description.
Modified For:
ACCESS DENIED
Note: Must combine with standard host organism or suitable
substitute before deployment."

"Let's see what a 'standard host organism' is..." said Lara. She touched the corresponding symbol in the image, and the display changed once again.

"Uh-Ohhhhh..."

"I'll be damned."

"Class 2 Organism," said Lara. "Species 24799, or, as it's known in Montfort: the VonsSinterborne Monster."

"Carrion Diggers. Those things were hard enough to kill on their own. Slap some armor plates on 'em and they'd be-"

"Unstoppable," said Rath. "Or pretty damned close. What else does it say about 'em?"

"Not a lot," Lara replied. "There's more information, but I'm not allowed to access it."

"If we've got one of those things running around in this city with us, we need to know what its capable of."

"We can't," said Lara. "That information is restricted."

"Why would they Cthrain restrict information from themselves?"

"Perhaps they weren't the only ones using this stuff," said Lara.

"Hmmm..."

"Hey," said Sutton. "These things are Overseers, right? So that means there must have been slaves. What does it say about THEM."

"Probably humans from the surface," said Rath.

"Let's see..." Lara considered the display for a moment, then reached out and touched a few symbols. "I think I'm getting the hang of the lang-"

"WHOOOA!" Sutton blurted as the image changed. "I know I've probably said this a hundred times since leaving Montfort, but: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?!"

"That would be your slave," said Rath. "Definitely not human."

"Ugly bastards!"

They all stepped back and looked at the thing who's image floated silently above the control panel. Rath was right... it was certainly not human. But it did bear an unsettling resemblance to the human form. That only added to its grotesqueness... that something could be so close to human, and yet be so clearly INhuman...

"Enhanced strength and metabolism," Lara translated. "Enhanced healing with limited regeneration. Heightened senses... smell, eyesight, hearing-"

"Sounds like somebody we know," said Sutton.

"Prehensile tail. Non-rigid bone structure... redesigned joints for added flexibility..."

"What kind of animal has both fur AND scales," Sutton said, pointing to the image.

"Something the Cthrain cooked up for themselves, probably," Rath replied. "But this isn't telling us anything else about the thing that got Thurg- wait..."

"Did you hear that?" said Lara.

"What? I didn't hear nothin'"

"Sounded like a sword," said Lara. "And someone shouting."

"A fight." Rath's eyes pulsed red. "The others are in trouble. You and Sutton stay here with the old man; I'll be back."

---

"HELLLP!!!" Zackery cried. He could barely hear his own voice over the sound of his pursuers. The creatures that were once Thurg and Red were gaining fast, but what was truly maddening about the pursuit was that the Overseers weren't even running. They were walking... no, marching... yet easily keeping pace with two men running their full speed.

"How can they move so fast!!!?" said Zackery.

"Stop yappin' and r-AAAGGGHH!!!"

There was a flickering light, and a crackle of energy. Zackery saw Rester fall. He heard the man screaming as tiny tendrils of energy snaked across his body.

"RESTER!"

Zackery reached for his friend, intending to grab an arm and haul the man to his feet. But when his hand got close, the cracking energy leapt through the air and raced up Zackery's arm.

"AAAIIIII!"

PAIN!

It was only a fraction of the agony that was twisting Rester's body into convulsive knots, but even that fraction was enough to reduce Zackery's mind to one small and incredible bright spot of pure, unadulterated pain. For a second, Zackery couldn't move at all. He lost control of his muscles, and that the only thing that kept him from taking his sword and sawing off his own arm. The limb felt like it was devoured by acid... every nerve ending in his arm was on fire.

"ARRRRRGGGH!!!"

Zackery staggered back away from Rester and dropped his sword. With the contact broken, the pain ended almost instantly... but the mere memory of it still had his mind and body locked down. He stumbled and fell, joining Rester on the floor. Rester had curled into a tight ball and was still having convulsions so powerful that Zackery could hear his joints popping.

The sound of the Overseers' pursuit slowed, and then halted. Thurg and Red stood silently over them. Zackery got on his knees and tried to crawl-

"...Rester... Rester, come on..."

"....can't move....leave me...go! Go while you can!!"

Thurg grabbed Rester's leg and dragged him back away from Zackery.

"RESTER!"

Zackery was on his feet before he even knew he could move.... but it was too late. With Thurg holding him down with a foot on his chest, Rester had no prayer of avoiding the parasite that Red dropped onto him. Rester screamed as the plates slid over his body and fastened themselves into place with thousands of painful tendrils... each one burrowing deep into his flesh!

"AARRRRRRRGGGGZACKERY RUNNNN!!!!" Rester howled. And then it was over.

Powerless to help his friend, Zackery could do nothing but watch. He was too weak to run. Too overcome with awe and fear to even attempt a scream. He watched as Rester's body vanished beneath the armor. He gasped when the thing that was Rester rose reborn... Rester no more. The third Overseer stood between its brothers. All three of them staring menacingly at Zackery.

Thurg took a step forward. Thurg... who had yet another parasite ready and waiting for an unwilling host.

Now, Zackery ran. Or at least he tried. He turned, but his legs failed him on the first step. Zackery was on the floor once again... scrambling on his hands and knees to get away from the trio of creatures that had once been members of his party.

Something grabbed his leg and yanked him back.

Something else... something HEAVY... landed on his upper back. Rester's foot shoved him down hard.

"AAAA-MPH!"

KRUNK!

Zackery's nose shattered when his face struck the floor, but Zackery fear kept the pain from reaching his brain. He swung his arms and legs, frantically trying to free himself before the inevitable happened. He couldn't SEE what the creatures were doing... but he knew! He knew!

"HEELLLLPPP MEEE!!!" Zackery's cry was one pure terror.

It was answered by a growling, rage-filled war cry that erupted from Rath's throat.

Rath raced down the hallway and threw himself at Rester and threw himself at Rester, with the intention of knocking the creature off balance and allowing Zackery to escape.

It only half-worked.

Rath slammed into Rester with enough force to send three men sprawling. Rester didn't so much as grunt. But when the Overseer tried to grab Rath in a powerful bear-hug, the change in stance allowed Zackery to squirm free. Zackery scrambled away and tried to get to his feet.

Rath spun away from Rester's iron grasp an instant before the powerful arms would have captured him. He made a low leg-sweep aimed at Rester's armored ankles while slashing at Red with his knife. The knife drew sparks as it skidded across the armor, and Rath's kick wasn't enough to knock Rester off balance. It was like kicking an iron post and expecting it to fall.

WHOOSH!

Rath ducked. Red's huge axe severed the air over his head. Rath's hand went for an opening, jabbing his blade deep into Red's wrist.

No damage. No reaction.

Again, Rath dodged. Rester's fist missed him by an inch. A spinning slash had no effect other than to dull the blade of his knife on the monster's forearm. Rath followed the attack with a vicious jab to the abdomen... sneaking the blade in between two plates and sawing it back and forth through the flesh beneath. The strike should have sent blood and intestines spurting down the hallway, but, if Rester was hurt at all, he showed no signs of feeling it. Instead, the Overseer grabbed Rath's arm before the mercenary could spin out of reach. Rath transferred the knife to his free hand an made an upward jab into a tiny, unprotected grove in Rester's throat.

No damage. No reaction.

Rath heard Red come up behind him. With one arm caught, he didn't have much space to maneuver. Still, he managed to side-step a downward slash from Red's axe-

WHOOSH!

Then execute a kick at Red's hand, attempting to disarm the once-human creature. It didn't even come close to working. Rester picked Rath up and threw him into the nearest wall.

"UNGH!"

The impact was a bright flash, followed by a symphony of pain and broken bones. But the Overseer had made a mistake: Now Rath was free!

Rath spun and-

KKRRAACCKK!

Rester's fist caught him squarely in the face. Rath couldn't ever remember being hit so hard in his life. Ever.
One devastating punch sent Rath flying back into the wall once more... his skull shattered and neck broken. His body began knitting itself back together instantly, but for a second he was stunned and immobile. It was a second too long. Rester grabbed him by one shoulder and shoved him to the floor.

Red pinned him down with one foot on his back... but suddenly, Red turned around and attacked Zackery, who had been sneaking up behind him for a surprise attack.

CLANK!

The axe met the sword. Sparks flew. Zackery's wrist snapped from the impact, and his sword hit the ground in two pieces.

Holding his shattered wrist limp at his side, Zackery drew his hunting knife and crouched down... ready to fight.

Rath looked up and saw what was happening.

"RUN!" Rath shouted.

"Hold On!" said Zackery. He jumped back to avoid a slash from Red. "I'm gonna get you out of this!"

"Are you INSANE!? RUN! THAT'S AN ORDER!!!"

Zackery took a few tentative steps back.

A large shadow fell over Rath. Instinctively, Rath rolled to the side. Thurg missed him. The parasite he was thrusting onto Rath's back hit the floor instead.

"GO!!!" Rath shouted as he struggled to his feet.

"COME ON!" Zackery replied. Still foolishly trying to get past Red so he could help Rath. Rath saw a clear opportunity and took it. When Thurg reached for him, he ducked low, slid between the Overseer's legs, and came up behind him... right in front of Rester.

Rester threw another corpse-making punch. Rath spun away from it just as Thurg was turning around... the punch hit Thurg instead. There was a sound reminiscent of two boulders slamming into each other while simultaneously being struck by lightning. Despite the sound, neither Rester's fist nor Thurg's skull seemed to suffer any damage whatsoever.

"NOW we run!" said Rath. He bolted.

Zackery lunged toward Red, attempting to distract him so that Rath could get past. It might have worked... if Rath had made it that far.

Rester and Thurg pointed at Rath's back. There was an electric crackling sound, and twin bolts of energy arced across the space between their fingers and Rath's wide back. There was an explosion of pain so intense... so complete... so elementally pure... that Rath's mind couldn't even process it. His higher brain functions shut down, and Rath became a writhing mass of flesh having a pain-induced seizure on the floor.

Zackery saw Rath fall and tried to rush to his aid-

WHOOSH!

A slice from Red's axe brought him up short. Zackery backed away, then turned and ran. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Thurg dropping the parasitic Overseer armor onto Rath's quivering body.

Perhaps it was the fear... or the desperation. Something in Zackery's mind jarred loose, and he found himself unconsciously retracing the path he'd taken when he left the others. Zackery didn't even know he was doing it; he had no idea that he was running in the right direction. He was just running. Fast. Faster than he ever thought possible.

And while he ran, Zackery tried to force himself not to hear. He wished beyond hope that he would suddenly be struck deaf, so that he wouldn't hear what was happening behind him... so he wouldn't hear Rath's screams. Or hear those screams suddenly end. Or hear the sounds of the Overseers footsteps as they marched after him. It was the last that he wished to hear least of all. The footsteps.

Four, distinct sets of footsteps.


---

"What do you think happened to the others?" said Sutton.

Lara shrugged and continued with what she was doing: monitoring the machine's progress on healing Dokan. There were so many symbols and indicators that it was almost impossible to tell what was going on. Most of them looked a lot different now than they did when the machine first set about its task. But some of them looked the same. Did that mean something? She wasn't sure. All she could tell was that, somewhere within the machine... SOMETHING was happening.

"Is it almost done?" Sutton asked.

"I can't tell. I think so."

"How do you know that thing isn't turning him into a giant, purple, man-eating lizard? Or one of those Overseer things?"

"I just know," Lara replied.

"Yeah, but HOW do you kn-"

"I just KNOW, okay!"

"Sorry. I'm just... I'm thinking that maybe the other two had the right idea. Maybe we shouldn't be fooling with this machine. We really don't know what it does... what its for..."

"If you had some of those creatures squirming around inside YOUR gut, would YOU want us to 'fool' with this machine?"

"Uhhh... well, ya see that's-"

"That's what I thought."

"I didn't mean-"

"HURRY!" Zackery cried. The hysterical adventurer ran into the room and screamed at the top of his lungs. "HURRRY! WE'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE! THEY'RE COMING!"

"What happened!"

"THURG! RED! RESTER! They're all like THURG, now! And they're coming THIS WAY! WE have to GET OUT!"

"Dammit, I KNEW something bad was gonna happen!" said Sutton.

"Where's Rath?"

"Rath's one of THEM, NOW! They got HIM, TOO! COME ON!"

Zackery ran up to Lara and grabbed her arm. He tried to pull her after him, but with twist and a nerve pinch, she was free.

"We can't leave!" she cried. "What about Dokan!"

"We can't STAY HERE, EITHER! Don't you understand! THEY! ARE! COMING!"

Then Lara heard it. Zack was right... there was something headed toward them. Something loud and ominous that sounded like a marching army.

"Overseers," she said. "We have to do something! There has to be a way to seal this room!"

"Seal the room MY ASS! WE GOTTA RUN! There are FOUR of those things... and ONE of 'em is RATH!"

"We can't leave Dokan!" Lara was scanning the control panels for a symbol that might have something to do with the door. She found nothing. "Can we fight them?" she said.

"Didn't you HEAR ME!" Zackery screamed. "One of them is RATH! The three of us couldn't take Rath by HIMSELF if he was BLINDFOLDED with BOTH ARMS tied behind his back! NOW he's got an army!"

"They're coming," said Sutton. He was listening at the door... getting more and more nervous with every sound he heard. "I can hear 'em now. They're coming! Lara, can't you close this room yet?!"

"No, but I'm-"

"...Oh, gods..." said Zackery. "We're doomed. We're dead! We're DONE! Game over, man... GAME OVER! They're gonna come in here and kill us and turn us all into those THINGS and- "

CRACK!

The punch hurt Sutton's fist almost as much as it did Zack's jaw... but it had the desired effect. Zackery shut up.

"Zack, grab the girl," said Sutton. "We're getting out of here."

"WAIT!" Lara objected. "We can't leave! You can't make me go!"

"As the only conscious, non-hysterical adult in the room, I out-rank both of you... and I say we're getting the HELL out of here! RIGHT NOW!"

"AMEN TO THAT!"

Ignoring Sutton's order to secure Lara, Zackery ran for the door just as two Overseers stepped into view. Everything after that happened so fast that not even Lara would remember it clearly.

There was a loud, crackling sound as tiny sparks began to leap back and forth across Rester's and Thurg's armor. They both pointed into the room and fired bolts of pain-energy. One struck Zackery in the chest. His muscles locked down, and he was paralyzed with agony by the time he hit the floor. Sutton was luckier. He managed to leap out of the blast's path at the last instant. He hit the floor and rolled across the room, coming to his feet next to Lara. That's when Rester fired another blast... this one at the girl. Sutton shoved Lara out of the way... not knowing that she was about to leap to safety on her own. The blast hit him instead and knocked his convulsing body backwards onto the control panel for the healing machine. His spasms sent his arms and legs flailing across the panel's surface, striking multiple symbols-

"WARNING!" the machine announced in Cthrain. "MODIFYING A PROCEDURE IN PROGRESS WILL RESULT IN UNDEFINED RESULTS!"

"Dokan!"

Rester and Thurg entered the room, followed by Red... and then the fourth Overseer: Rath. Thurg collected Zackery from the floor and stood back to watch the others. Rester grabbed Sutton and threw the barely-conscious man over one shoulder. Red headed for the control panel, while Rath advanced on Lara.

"Don't make me hurt you!" she cried, already reaching into her pack to retrieve a weapon. Rath continued undeterred.
His body began to light up as energy crackled back and forth across his armor.

Meanwhile, Red was activating the controls on the machine.

"UNABLE TO COMPLY." said the machine. "SHUTDOWN REQUIRES HIGHER ACCESS"

Red began tapping another sequence of symbols...

Before Rath could fire his blast of energy, Lara put the blow-gun to her lips and fired a tiny mushroom dart right into a gap in his alien armor. Lara expected Rath to fall. Apparently Rath didn't know that he was supposed to be dead, because he didn't even flinch, grunt, or stagger. Instead, he unleashed the full brunt of his pain energy right into Lara's face.

The pain was so pure and sharp that it was almost beautiful.

Lara's muscles seized, rendering her immobile instantly. Pain washed over her in never-ending waves, threatening to carry her mind with them into oblivion. Lara reacted instinctively, slipping into a meditative state and taking her mind above and beyond the agony that her besieged nervous system tried to inflict upon it. But even then, echoes and memories of it assaulted her and dragged her back down to reality. She fought back... forced herself to open her eyes... to see and listen... to TRY and move...

"ACCESS GRANTED." The Cthrian machine announced. "COMMAND ACCEPTED... SHUTDOWN IN PROGRESS. WARNING! SPECIMEN STILL LOADED. SHUTDOWN WILL RESULT IN SPECIMEN TERMINATION. PROCEED (Y/N)"

Red pushed a glowing red symbol.

"SHUTDOWN PROCEEDING. SPECIMEN LIFE-SIGNS UNSTABLE.... SPECIMEN LIFE-SIGNS CRITICAL....SPECIMEN LIFE-SIGNS TERMINATING..."

Lara saw the machine's indicators fall grow arrhythmic and chaotic...

"...no... Dokan! NO!"

"SPECIMEN TERMINATED. SHUTDOWN COMPLETE."

"NOOOO!!!!"

Now the machine was silent. The indicators all read flat lines before they finally winked out. Everything in the room was deathly still.

"...Dokan..." Lara cried. "...you killed him..." The tears came unabated. Though the pain was fading, Lara didn't even try to resist when Rath picked her up and placed her over his shoulder. She had no reason to resist... she had no fight left in her. Lara relaxed and let what remained of the pain claim her. The last thing she remembered before everything went black was the rhythmic thumping of Rath's footsteps as he and the other Overseers carried them all away.

---

Krycek grabbed Drayn's arm and pulled him back... further away from Princeton. They'd been following Dr. Park for the past ten minutes as he navigated the labyrinth of hallways in the Cthrain dome. Princeton seemed to know where he was going, but every time Krycek or Drayn asked for an explanation, all the doctor would say was "To See Something Magnificent" or some other vague non-answer. Drayn wanted to have nothing to do with it, but at the mention of 'power,' Krycek seemed to have grown more tolerant of Princeton's ambiguities.

When Drayn turned to see what Krycek wanted, the mage motioned for him to be silent and lean closer.

"Be ready," Krycek whispered. His voice was so low that Drayn could barely hear it even though his ear was less than four inches for Krycek's mouth. "We're going to have strike soon."

"Strike?"

"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. You've been thinking it since we left the library. And so have I."

"Dr. Park?"

"That isn't Dr. Park," said Krycek. "I've been watching his aura since he got out of that chair. It was fine at first... its been slowly changing."

"What's it look like now?"

"It doesn't. He doesn't have one any more. It vanished a few minutes ago."

"We need to move now-"

"Just a little while longer. Whatever else that machine did to him, it DID do what he said it would... he knows more about the Cthrian now than anyone in existence. He knows their secrets, and he seems intent on showing them to us. I want to get a little closer to those secrets before we employ extreme measures."

"I don't care about secrets, Krycek. If this man isn't what he seems-"

"Just be patient. It won't be long now."

"How do you figure that?"

"Because I think I know where we are..."

Princeton lead them around a corner and down a short hallway... and then they emerged into the long, central corridor that had greeted the party when they first entered the dome. High columns and rows of passages stretched seemingly forever in both directions. They descended the huge steps to the main floor and then headed for the gigantic spire that was barely visible in the distance.

Krycek's eyes were fixed on the spire when Drayn elbowed him and pointed to something on the floor. It was blood.

"How are you feeling now, Dr. Park?" Krycek asked.

"Feeling?" said Princeton. He turned to face Drayn and Krycek. "I'm fine. Why?"

"Because your nose is bleeding," said Drayn.

"Oh?" Princeton rubbed his finger under his nose. It came away covered with blood. "So I am. What of it?"

"Why so you suppose its doing that, Princeton?"

"I don't know," Princeton said in an annoyed tone. "My subject is language and archaeology... not medicine. It doesn't hurt, so I'm not going to waste time worrying about it."

"You said your head was hurting earlier."

"What is this, Krycek... an interrogation? Do you want to see what I have to show you or not?"

"What EXACTLY is it that you're going to show us?" said Drayn.

Princeton looked at him, then at Krycek. He smiled.

"When I show you what the Cthrain were capable of, you'll wish that they were still here so that you could fall down on your knees and worship them!"

"You seem to want to do that already," said Drayn.

Princeton's smile faltered. He quickly turned and started walking again... seemingly unaware that two of his teeth had just slid right out of his mouth. Drayn and Krycek continued to follow him, although they did so with even more reluctance and greater caution. As they made their way toward the spire, Princeton dropped a few more teeth and several fingernails. The flow of blood from his nose was soon joined by a trickle from both ears.

"What's happening to him?" Drayn whispered.

"I think... hmmm..."

"What?"

"I'm wondering if the man still has a heartbeat."

"Let's find out. PARK!"

"Oh, WHAT NOW!" Princeton growled.

"We ain't going any further until you let us examine you," Drayn demanded.

"WHAT!? What the hell are you talking about!"

"Egads, man, you're falling apart!" said Krycek. "Whatever you're going to show us... you'll be in pieces before we ever get there!"

Princeton looked down at his hands. His skin had taken on a sickly, pale, bluish pallor.

"Hmm... now this is interesting," he said.

"Interesting hell!"

"Maybe that machine can reverse whatever it did to you, Princeton."

"Why would I want it reversed?"

"You're kidding, right?" said Drayn. "I mean... do you KNOW what you look like?"

"Even if I did want it reversed... which can't be done... I couldn't do it until I restore main power to the facility. That's what we're going to do now. So... follow me."

"Main power?" said Krycek. "I'm not so sure that we need to be restoring power to anything until we study-"

"When did you become such a coward, Krycek? Don't you want to see... don't you want to know?"

"What's that noise?" said Drayn. One of the nearby passages was alive with the sound of heavy footsteps. Something was coming.

Krycek stepped back, decided on a spell, and prepared to cast it.

The Overseers emerged from the passage and started down the steps toward where Princeton stood. Three of the monstrous creatures carried a human being tossed over one shoulder. Lara, Sutton, and Zackery.

"Oh, don't worry..." said Princeton. "It's just my Overseers."

"Your?"

"Overseers?"

"Yes, of course!" Princeton smiled... a smile that took up a bit more of his face than it should have. A smile that was missing a lot more teeth than the previous one. "I TOLD you not to worry about the others," he said. "See! Here they are right now... safe and sound!"

Drayn drew his sword and stood ready.

"They look hurt! PUT THEM DOWN!" Krycek demanded. "Put them down and explain yourself NOW!"

"Explain?" said Princeton as the Overseers fell into formation around them. "All will be made perfectly clear very soon."

"How about right now?" said Drayn. "What are these things, Dr. Park? What happened to the others? Where's the old man?"

"Maxwell? Oh, I'm afraid he didn't make it."

"...run..." Zackery mumbled. "... for heaven's sake... run..."

Thurg, the Overseer who was carrying Zackery, energized his armor with pain-energy. Zackery screamed loud and long... then fell silent. The scream awakened Lara, who looked across at Sutton and saw him looking back at her. She immediately lowered her head and pretended to be unconscious, hoping that Sutton would do the same.

"Krycek... you notice anything familiar about that axe?" Drayn pointed to the large battle axe that one of the Overseers was carrying.

"Red. And Thurg. And If I were to guess about the other two-"

"So you see... one big happy reunion!" said Princeton. "Shall we continue, now?"

"I'm afraid not, Princeton," said Krycek. He was pointing at Princeton, energy crackled between his outstretched fingertips. "Release the others and send these things away or I'll be forced to turn you into a sizzling red stain on the floor."

"Now, Krycek you really don't want to do that, do you?"

"No. But I will. This has gone far enough. I don't know who or what you are... but whatever you've got planned isn't going to happen. Release the others now."

"And Don't Try Anything!" Drayn added.

"I must say... I'm disappointed," said Princeton. "I was only trying to give you what you wanted."

"The next words out of your mouth had better be an order to let the girl and the others go."

Princeton and Krycek stared into each other's eyes.

"Overseers," Princeton said. "I order you to... KIL-"

THAAAZZZZZ

Three bolts of energy leapt from Krycek's fingers and streaked toward Princeton. Princeton's order died in his throat as the blasts struck him in the head, chest, and abdomen. The impact knocked him back... he flew several feet, then hit the floor and slid several more. When he came to a halt, thick cords of foul smoke rose from his body.

"NOW!" Lara shouted as she leapt free of her motionless Overseer. Rath reacted to her shifting weight, but he was a hair too slow to catch her before she slipped away and hit the ground running. Sutton did the same. The Overseers turned to pursue. Krycek turned to the nearest one and fired another trio of bolts into Red's chest.

The blasts absorbed into the armor and did no damage. Not even a little bit.

Red charged toward Krycek. Krycek drew his sword.

"RUN, KRYCEK!" said Lara.

Krycek took a moment... a mere second... to consider the situation. Then he sheathed his weapon and ran.

"SPLIT UP!" he ordered. "RUN IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS!"

"SUTTON! LOOK OUT!"

At Lara's warning, Sutton veered left. Thurg's blast crackled past him, narrowly missing him. He gave silent mental thanks to the girl and kept running, heading for the stairs. He was almost there when he saw something rise up in front of him and-

WHAM!

He ran into a wall.

A wall that hadn't existed a second ago.

Bleeding, with a fractured nose and a concussion... Sutton stumbled dizzily for a moment before sliding down a steep incline that hadn't been there before.

Meanwhile, Lara was heading straight down the main corridor toward the dome's exit. Suddenly it became more difficult to run... as if she were running uphill. She WAS running uphill... the floor rose up in front of her, creating an incline that grew steeper and steeper until it was almost vertical. Lara tried to get a handhold on something... she employed every trick of balance and dexterity she knew... but when the surface suddenly became perfectly frictionless, she found herself sliding back in the direction she had come.

Krycek and Drayn encountered the same. It was as if the floor of the sanctum had come alive. It rose up around them, blocking their path... then lowered into a steep, frictionless incline that dumped them right back where they had started.

Lara, Sutton, Drayn and Krycek ended up in a heap, almost on top of one another. Lara was the first on her feet. Then she grabbed Krycek and yanked him to his. The mage immediately saw why.

The floor surrounding them around them was moving and undulating like an angry sea. Waves and ripples disturbed the formerly solid surface in every direction.... waves with crests as high as a man's waist. The four of them were standing in one of a very few tiny islands of stability... and even that island rose and fell in sudden, unsteady jerks.

The Overseers stood motionless amid the chaos... each one occupying in his own zone of semi-stability.

"Are you doing this?" said Lara. "Please tell me you're doing this!"

"I wish I was," said the mage. "I may be able to levitate one or two of us out of here-"

"Oooohhhh, I really wouldn't try that," said Princeton Park. Dr. Park strolled calmly toward them... the floor becoming motionless at his feet, allowing him to pass safely, and then returning to its chaotic undulating state once he had cleared an area. The sight was unsettling in the least. It looked almost... no EXACTLY like Princeton Park was walking on water.

"...Dear gods," said Krycek. "How-"

"Perhaps you weren't paying attention when I said that magic, energy, and matter were all just playthings to the Cthrain. Now I know those secrets. Oh, and speaking of magic... I think I have something that belongs to you, Krycek."

"Wh-"

Princeton thrust his hand out and returned the magic that Krycek had used against him... three bolts of energy struck Krycek in the abdomen and sent the mage flying back. A section of the floor rose up, and Krycek slammed into it.

"UNGH!"

Krycek slid to the ground and lay still. The 'wall' he hit slid back down into the floor.

"No!"

Lara put her blow-gun to her lips and launched a mushroom-dart at Princeton. It sank into the tender flesh of his throat.... a perfect shot.

"Ouch!" said Princeton. He plucked the dark out of his skin, looked at it, and then put the poisoned tip in his mouth and began sucking on it. "MMMMmmmm...," he said "Quite stimulating!" Princeton chewed on the tip for a moment and then tossed it away. "Thank you! It was delicious."

"He isn't human," said Drayn. "If he was, he'd be dead."

"Oh, wait..." said Princeton. "I'm feeling a bit cramped... perhaps I should loosen up a bit..."

Suddenly, Princeton Park's skin began to move. It swelled obscenely in some places and shriveled away to nothing in others. Huge knots rose and fell and rose again in a different location. Some literally CRAWLED from place to place as the grew, eventually getting so large that the skin couldn't hold them... gnarled lumps of bloodless flesh burst out through the disintegrating skin as Park's entire body structure began to warp and change. Bones lengthened... new joints came into existence with wet 'popping' sounds all over his body. Arms and legs grew longer. Fingers changed shape and position. The rear and top portion of Princeton's head bulged outward... doubling in size as the hair vanished from its surface. His entire body became a mass of twisting, gnarled flesh that snapped, slurped, popped, cracked, and hissed as the various parts re-arranged themselves to form something not human. Something hideous. Something alien.

"Don't look girl," said Drayn. The mercenary placed his hand over Lara's eyes even as his own were captured by the grotesque abomination taking shape before them. "Don't look at it..."

The thing was a monster; of that there could be no doubt. Its enormous, bulging head and wildly protruding lower jaw marked it as nothing short of a nightmare. Its thin, almost vestigial arms and legs seemed unfit to the task of supporting its huge head and chest... but support it they did. The four long fingers on each hand wiggled gleefully as the thing eyed Lara and the others with large, black eyes. But the worse thing by far... the thing that made Drayn want to fall on his own sword to escape... was the face. Human features still decorated the grotesque thing's bulging head. They were stretched and twisted and warped... but still recognizable as having once belonged to a human being. The creature wore Princeton Park's face almost like a mask... a vile caricature of the man from which it had sprung.

"AAAHHhhhhh..." The creature hissed/roared. "MUCH better!"

"What have we done..." said a weak voice from behind them. "May the gods have mercy on our souls..." It was Krycek. The mage wasn't dead. Krycek tried to get up, but the huge, cauterized wound in his gut made that impossible. He tried anyway, and It was only then that he realized that he couldn't feel his legs... they were the only things that didn't hurt. He looked to make sure that he still HAD legs. They were there, but he couldn't feel them. Krycek fought back against the nausea and shock. He focused his mind and tried to cast a spell...

Krycek felt something grab his arms. The floor had sprouted HANDS. Two human-seeming hands had grasped him just above the wrists-

CRACK!

They snapped both his forearms in half before releasing him and sinking back into the floor. Krycek didn't give Princeton the pleasure of hearing him scream. He just clenched his teeth and stared up at the thing that was Princeton.

"You ATTACK me? I thought you WANTED this!?" said Princeton. "You wanted to see power? You're seeing it now! You wanted to know the Cthrain? BEHOLD!"

The creature spread its thin, gnarled arms and un-folded several of its leg-joints... rising to its full height...

"I AM CTHRAIN! Come... take a GOOD LOOK!"

Krycek began to move... not under his own physical or magical power, but because the floor was moving under him and carrying him along with it. He slid helplessly past the others and came to a stop at Princeton Park's feet. The thing looked down at him...

"You wanted to know our secrets!? Here... I will share some with you now!"

Princeton's eyes began to glow... a sharp, hideous white light that was painful to behold. Krycek tried to look away, but he couldn't. He couldn't move. He couldn't blink. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Park's face no matter how much it hurt to look into the thing's eyes. The thing's lips twisted into a smile as it opened a door into its own mind... a tiny, infinitesimal crack into what lay within it. Krycek saw that crack... he saw the ocean of power that lay beyond it... and he saw the horrors that swam there...

"NO!" he screamed. "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

KRUCKT-CRACK!

It began with a crack down the center of his skull, and quickly became a rush of blood and pain and power that shattered Krycek's skull like a mellon under a hammer's blow. Bits of flesh and gore sprayed everywhere as the mage's headless body fell backward.

"NOO!" said Drayn. He started to charge, but Lara grabbed his arm and held him back.

"Please don't," she pleaded.

"Now," said Princeton. "Does anyone ELSE want to know what I am?"

"Why did you do that?" said Lara. "What purpose did that serve... he was OBVIOUSLY no threat to you!"

Princeton leveled his gaze at Lara. His eyes began to glow, but Lara quickly turned away.

"Not so curious now, are you, child!" said Princeton.

Princeton glanced at his Overseers. A silent, mental order was given... and they all closed in on Lara and the others. Their armor crackled with power.

"What is it that you WANT!" said Drayn.

"Follow me," said Princeton. He turned and began to move... not walking, just standing still and letting the floor carry him forward. The others, however, were force to make their way on foot with the Overseers lined up behind them like a moving barricade.

"Where are you taking us!" said Lara.

"To the Chamber... where you will witness the RETURN of the CTHRAIN EMPIRE!"

"Just kill us now!" said Drayn. "We've seen enough!"

"No," said Princeton. "You have only seen the BEGINNING!"

---

Somewhere else... somewhere behind a dozen passages and hallways... was a silent room. The huge machine held its occupant like a grave. Cold, hard, heavy and unmoving. It even resembled a tomb, though one that was not carved by human hands.

The surfaces were already beginning to collect dust from when they were last touched. The air was still, yet it was alive with the traces of what had happened not long ago. Sweat. Fear. A few drops of blood. A faint residual buzz of energy. The near-impereptibly remains of a battle that wasn't even a fight, fair or otherwise.

It had been loud and violent... but all was still now. Still and quiet. Silent.

Empty and motionless.

Not quite.

No, not quite empty. Not quite motionless. For, deep in the clutches of the tomb.... Dokan Maxwell opened his eyes.

[To Be Continued]