Though their pace was brisk, their circumstance and destination made their progress seem more like a funeral march. Lara, Sutton, Drayn, and Zackery eyed their assumed destination with ever-increasing dread. The enormous Cthrain spire rose before them... a dark monument to the horror they had unleashed. The thing that was Princeton Park marched them toward it, and his Overseers loomed menacingly behind them, ready to unleash whatever amount of pain it took to keep them in line. Zackery was barely conscious and was being supported by Drayn and Sutton.

"Did I miss anything?" Zack mumbled in one of his coherent moments.

"We're still doomed," Sutton replied. "Go back to sleep."

"Oh."

"Look, there it is again..." Drayn pointed to Princeton. The alien creature shuddered slightly as its skin rearranged itself on its twisted body. A few new knots of flesh bulged to the surface and settled quickly into place. Princeton continued walking as if he hadn't noticed. "What was that? What's he doing... making himself uglier?"

"I don't know," said Lara. Her attention was fixed on the solid in front of them. The next few minutes brought them right up to the solid face of the massive spire, but Princeton showed no signs of even seeing the wall. He walked up to it and waved one gnarled hand before him.

The wall rippled like a quiet pond disturbed by a stone. The ripples intensified until finally a new motion began: The section of wall twisted open to create a perfectly circular doorway twelve feet in diameter. Park walked through it as if it were the most normal thing in the world. But then, to him, it was. The Overseers ushered the others in after him.

They found themselves in another hallway; this one much smaller than the massive corridor they'd just left. The 'doorway' remained open behind them. The march continued, and Lara took in every detail of everything they passed.

There wasn't much to see. The corridor was devoid of doorways or other openings... there was only smooth, hard stone all around them. At one point the hallway opened into a cylindrical room with a large set of stairs winding up through the center and disappearing through the ceiling. They walked right past it without slowing. A minute later the passage ended in a plain, empty circular room. Princeton walked to the room's center and stopped. He turned around to face the others.

"Come..." he said. His voice was deeper and more...alien... than it had been before. It reminded Lara of the voice from the Cthrain control panels. His face had changed as well. His head was bigger... a like a giant mutated egg with Princeton Park's torn features stretched across it.

Lara and the others entered the room, and the Overseers... formerly Red, Rester, Thurg, and Rath, arranged themselves around them. The doorway through which they'd entered squeezed shut like a fist.

Then something began to move. Everything around them remained motionless as far as they could see, but there was definitely movement. The humans were nearly thrown to the floor by the sudden upward acceleration. Princeton rocked back on his bizarre feet and smiled, eyes twinkling slightly. The room rose... faster and faster... racing up to the top of the spire. Lara couldn't tell how fast they were going, but whatever their speed... it was incredible.

"What's going on!" Sutton said. He was crouched down, trying to maintain his balance.

"He's doing it," said Lara. "Park is doing this somehow... I think" Lara hazarded a glance at him. The skin of his face heaved outward, and several small horn-like objects settled themselves onto his forehead. Lara looked away.

"Planning something, little girl?" said Princeton. "An escape, perhaps?"

"I never liked you," she replied.

"Plot and plan all you wish... in a few minutes I'll demonstrate just how much power and hope you DON'T have. You'll see it with your own eyes."

"Let's get on with it, then," Drayn said defiantly. "You know... that machine didn't change you one BIT! You were an asshole before...and you're STILL an asshole... only UGLIER!"

"Boldness is a quality that does not befit a slave," said Princeton. "And here there will only be Overseers, slaves... and experiments. Which will you be?"

"A corpse," said Drayn. "THAT'S what I'd rather be."

"Perhaps your wish will be indulged later. But now, we have arrived!"

The room suddenly halted... going from unimaginably fast to dead stop in about three seconds. Lara felt her feet leave the ground for an instant as her momentum caught up with that of the room. She managed to land upright, but Zackery, Rester, and Sutton had to pick themselves up from the floor before they could follow Princeton Park out through a new opening in the wall. The Overseers made sure they did so without delay.

They exited that room and walked down a short corridor. They passed one doorway and entered another room at the end of the hall.... this one just as empty as the elevator room, though it was fully five times as large. It didn't remain empty for long, however.

With a wave of his hand, Park activated... something.

Shapes began to rise from the floor and push away from the featureless walls like ghosts emerging from their crypt. Control panels and displays and a dozen other unidentifiable things swung into place around them. Park stood motionless in the center of the room as a semi-circular control panel rose up around him. Four sections of the wall melted away to create huge open windows that looked out over the city. Through them, Lara could tell that they were in the very tip of the spire... the tallest place in the city. The domed sanctum they had first entered was far below them.

"If I were to take a running leap out of that window, do you think I'd make it?" said Zackery.

"Make it to where?" said Drayn.

"I don't care... I just want to get out of this room."

"If ye decide to try, let me know. I'll join you."

A deep, rumbling sound echoed through the room... followed by another... and another. The sounds were the Cthrain language, and it was coming from the main control panel. Princeton Park was touching the symbols on the panel around him, and it was responding with sounds and images. Other sections of the room began to light up and hum ominously.

"What's he doing?"

"I can't tell," said Lara. "Most of these words are unfamiliar. It's something about power..."

"He said he was gonna restore the city to full power," said Drayn.

"Indeed I shall!" said Princeton. He twisted around... not turned, but twisted in a most grotesque fashion... to look at them. "What a shame that Krycek turned traitor before he could witness what he came so far to see."

"You're the traitor, Park," said Lara. "Turning against your own species for some race that's been dead for millennia."

"Dead?" Princeton laughed... a painful sound full of hisses and growls... "I'll show you how dead the Cthrain are!" Princeton nodded at the Overseers, who each grabbed one of the humans and shoved them against the wall.

"Now you've done it, girl!" said Sutton. "OUCH!"

"I'm STUCK!" Drayn cried. He was stuck. When he hit the wall a part of it became like living water, flowing around his hands and feet before becoming solid again and trapping the mercenary's limbs. Zack, Sutton and Lara were similarly caught... held tight by bands of the strange rock-like substance around their wrists and ankles.

Then Rath and Thurg left the room. They returned to the moving chamber that had brought them all. The wall rippled and closed after them, and there was a faint rushing sound as the room descended. Meanwhile, Red and Rester took up a position on opposite sides of the captured humans.

The Overseers had performed all these tasks without a single spoken word from Princeton.

"Afraid of us?" said Drayn. "Gotta have your guards stand around and watch your back?"

Princeton just smiled at Drayn and went back to work. More Cthrain echoed through the room.

"You have no concept of where you are," said Princeton as his fingers danced across the Cthrain symbols. "Of what this place is. You came here thinking that it was a city... but it much more than that. A city. A vessel. A living thing. And, like all living things... it has a heart. Would you like to hear it beat?"

Princeton touched one final symbol.

Everything... the room, the spire, the dome... the entire city.... shuddered. Every inch of the city gave a massive heaving gasp as, far below the streets, huge machines... structures larger than the city itself... awakened from their millenia-long sleep. A hundred... a thousand... a thousand thousand things happened all at once. Mighty engines hissed... then hummed... then roared. Pistons and mighty shafts of unknown metal screamed as the engines drove them from their resting places. Relays closed and valves opened. Power flowed in conduits that had lain inert for centuries.

The city and everything in it rumbled and shook like a giant awakening from a long sleep.

"Can you feel that!" Park hissed. "CAN YOU!!!"

"No, could you turn it up a little?" said Drayn. The room was shaking so violently that if he hadn't been secured to the wall, Drayn would have been sprawled out on the floor. However, Princeton Park's multi-jointed legs seemed able ride out the city's convulsions without the slightest sign of effort.

"Seismic Engines!" The Park-thing announced. "Geo-Mechcanial Extractors! We are drawing power from the movement of the CONTINENTS themselves!"

"'We' who?" said Sutton.

"But this is just the beginning! THIS is just a spark to ignite the FIRE OF CREATION!"

Princeton touched another symbol-

THA-THOOM!

The sudden lurch was like a fist to the chest of the entire city. And it was followed by something even more sinister...

Silence.

The city's shuddering ceased as the seismic engines tripped offline... their part was done; they no longer needed. The city's heart... the huge reactor that lay at its subterranean core... could now beat on its own. Its gentle hummmm released amounts of power that man would not be able to calculate for millennia... power that flowed not through wire or cable, but through the very substance of the city itself. The walls and streets and arches and columns all vibrated with new warmth... new energy. They grew brighter... harder... more powerful, like a strong muscle clenching for the first time after a long rest.

"Ohhhh, yesss..." Princeton hissed with almost orgasmic glee. He began triggering more symbols, and all around the room, different panels lit up or went dark. "And NOW a demonstration of what TRUE power is!"

An image took shape near the center of the room... in front of where Princeton Park was standing. It was a distant view of a small village. It was much smaller and more rural than Montfort, but still packed with people. It was just after dawn. Farmers were tending the fields, storekeepers were opening their doors, and late-waking travelers were heading to the stables to get a start on the day's journey. On they way, they passed the hunters that were dragging in fruits of last night's labor. Children that were too young to work played in the street under the watchful eyes of mothers and grandparents.

"Take a good look at this town," said Princeton. He poised his finger above a glowing symbol. "Now say goodbye."

The finger dropped.

There wasn't a thud or a shudder or a roar... at least none that they could feel. But they could all see the results of what Park had done. The town in the image was under assault, not by Overseers or giant insects or carnivorous mushrooms... but by something the townspeople couldn't even hope to fight against. The ground beneath them shook so violently that the houses and buildings were thrown down like the playthings of a petulant child. One shudder... one shake... and nothing was left standing. Nothing. The one mighty heave of the ground blossomed into a quake of unimaginable magnitude. People and animals couldn't run... couldn't even stand. They just crawled frantically, squirming and screaming as their city disintegrated around them. The quake kicked up a massive cloud of dust that swallowed the town in the blinking of an eye. After that, the quake increased... until finally the earth ruptured and cracked. A chasm... a huge gaping mouth... opened up beneath the city and, like a living thing, swallowed the town whole. Buildings, roads, people and animals all slid down its jagged throat. Then the mouth slammed shut with such force that it was felt three cities away. Where it once was... where the city once sat... there was now only a crater.

The entire spectacle had taken less than fifteen seconds.

"HAA!" Princeton Park barked. He clapped his hands together and, liking the sound that it made, began to applaud. "AAAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! The legend of the CTHRAIN is REBORRRN!!!"

"....great gods above..." Zackery gasped.

"No!" said Princeton as he twisted around to face them again. "Great Gods BELOW! HAHAHAHAAAAA!"

"WHY!!!" Lara shouted. "WHY did you do that! Those people couldn't hurt you! You SLAUGHTERED THEM! WHY!?!"

"Why?" said Princeton. "WHY!? Because I WANTED TO!!!"

"How do we know that even happened?" said Drayn. "All I saw was some picture."

"Then lets do it again... you can take a closer look-"

"NO!"

Princeton touched a few more keys and a new image appeared. It was of a body of water... a flooded river that had just now begun to recede. Bits and pieces of washed-out buildings were barely visible above the rushing water.

"hmmm...." said Princeton. "I see that I'm too late for New Venyce. Perhaps another..."

The image changed again.

"GODS NO!" Sutton cried. "PLEASE DON'T!"

"Say goodbye to Montfort."

Princeton's finger paused above the glowing symbol that meant destruction for Montfort. His fiendish grin twitched... then twitched again. The skin on Princeton's head split open and a new set of sharp, bony ridges rose out of the underlying flesh... another mini-transformation that made him much more hideous than he was before. And not only that... Park's entire demeanor had changed. What was once a mask of sadistic pleasure was now much more serious, as if whatever he'd been thinking an instant before was now long forgotten. His finger... which was now an inch or so longer... still hovered above the symbol, but it did not descend.

"Hmmmm..." said Princeton. He moved to another section of the control board and began working with a different set of symbols.

"Still got some heart left, Princeton?" said Drayn. "Even the Cthrain can't make you destroy your own home-"

"SILENCE!" Princeton roared. An actual roar... much louder and deeper than anything his voice could have managed a few seconds ago. "THIS IS my home! Now there is work to be done and I will not abide the buzzing of INSECTS!"

"Whoa... what happened?"

"He's losing more of himself," said Lara. "Whatever happened to him didn't change him all at once... he's part Cthrain and part Princeton. But the Cthrain part is growing-"

"And it looks like it just took a big chunk out of the Princeton part," said Drayn. "So what happens when Park is completely gone?"

"I'd rather not be here when that happens," said Lara.

"You got a plan?" Sutton whispered.

"...working on it..." Lara replied.

"Well you'd better hurry, because I don't like the looks of that-" Drayn nodded at the image in the room. A second image had appeared beside it... an image of the Cthrain city. Specifically, an image of the large courtyard outside of the dome. Thurg and Rath were there walking around amid at least two dozen empty piles of Overseer armor. They had gathered them from other parts of the city and placed them there for reasons that were unknown, but sinister nonetheless.

"With full power restored," Princeton hissed. "I can now begin the work of restoring my home to its former glory. That will require slaves. And slaves will require... Overseers." With the touch of a few buttons, the Montfort-image zoomed in to show a crowded market square. It was a scene typical of any city: merchants and shoppers haggled and argued over wares while thieves tried to make off with whatever they could.

"Park, what are you going to do!" Drayn said in as threatening a voice as he could manage. Park ignored him. He pressed several symbols. Something flashed in both images.

In Montfort, exactly twenty-seven people inexplicably vanished from one of the more crowded merchant squares.

In the Cthrain city, exactly twenty-seven confused humans appeared in an ancient courtyard, where they were immediately assaulted by two Overseers. The creatures stunned them with pain-blasts, then grabbed them and threw them to the ground... right on top of the parasitic Overseer armor that had been laid out in expectation of new hosts.

The sound of their screams would have shamed Hell itself.

Seconds later, twenty-seven new Overseers rose from the ground and wandered off to seek out other parasites so that process could be repeated. But next time, with more Overseers to manage the crowd, there would be many, many more hosts.

Perhaps even an entire city full of hosts.

"You monster!" said Lara.

"Monster?" said Princeton. "Little flea... it is YOU who are hideous. Soft and weak and...ugly. But that will change. Oh, yes... that will change... in just a few moments."

Princeton nodded at the two Overseers in the room. They stepped away from their posts and stood by as the wall released the prisoners. The doorway to the elevator-room opened. The Overseers shoved Lara, Sutton, Drayn and Zackery into the elevator and then followed them in.

"Four new hosts," said Princeton as the wall closed. "And soon, the world will have four new gods..."

---

After a near-freefall descent, The Overseers ushered them out of the elevator and marched them back down the long column-lined corridor. They were going back the way they had come.

"What did he mean by that?" said Sutton. "About four new hosts? They gonna turn us into one of those-"

"Worse," Drayn interrupted. "There's a machine that turned Park into what he is now. From what I saw, there's maybe fifty more just like him, waiting for some warm body to latch onto."

"The Cthrain," said Lara. "He was serious about rebuilding the Cthrain empire."

"Looks like he's gotten off to a pretty good start so far," said Zackery.

"Well if he thinks I'm gonna let one of those things hold me in that damned chair while it injects a monster into my brain, he's mistaken."

Drayn, like everyone else, was still carrying his pack and weapons. Neither the Overseers nor Princeton Park had seen fit to disarm them... not that there was a need. The Overseers and their master didn't fear swords, daggers or crossbows. Drayn's sword rested in its scabbard on his side. His hands gripped the pommel so tight that his knuckles were turning white.

"I'll fall on my own blade before that happens," he continued.

"I'd rather fight, but..." Zackery cradled his broken wrist and glanced at the empty scabbard on his own hip.

"But they'll just stun you unconscious and do it anyway," said Drayn. "Best to make sure the deed is done, lest you wanna wake up with a head the size of Montfort."

"If you two are finished planning your own deaths," said Lara. "I think we have a chance."

"I'm listening," Sutton turned to look at the Overseers walking several paces behind them. Could they hear? Did it matter?

"Walk in my footsteps," Lara mouthed silently. She made sure that everyone understood her, and then continued walking normally as they fell in line behind her. They followed her exactly, mirroring her movements and placing their feet exactly where she had placed hers. None of them saw any point to it... not at first.

Then Drayn saw it. He looked confused for a moment, then smiled as he stepped over it. Zackery and Sutton followed the movements even though he DIDN'T see what was going on.

Two steps later, the first Overseer hit the tripwire.

-click-

A thin line of almost invisible cord gave way before Red's armored foot.

"DUCK!" Lara shouted. The humans hit the floor-

-wzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZ-

-as more lengths of the same cord shot over their heads from several directions, all converging on Red. Had Red not been an Overseer, the speeding lines of cord would have sliced him to pieces. But instead, they wrapped around him, pinning his arms and weapon to his sides, rendering him motionless. In the next blink of an eye, the net flipped end-over-end and rose up toward the ceiling, suspending Red upside down above the floor.

Meanwhile, Rester was turning back and forth, searching for the source of their attack. His armor crackled with energy as he sought a target to unleash it upon.

The target found him-

-click-thwip-KLANG!-

The spring loaded grappling hook fired from the shadows. The specialized head was like an arrow while it flew, but when it pierced a tiny seam in the back of Rester's armor, three prongs popped out and dug deep into the creature's flesh. The missile was now anchored to the very armor that protected him. Another line of cord ran from the base of the hook back to where it had been fired. Predictably, Rester grabbed the line and pulled-

-click-

And suddenly Rester was suspended from the high ceiling alongside Red. Unlike Red, however, Rester's arms were still free. He pointed down at the humans and fired a blast of pain-energy at them... but with his body swinging wildly back and forth in the air, all he managed to hit was the floor. He fired a few more times, then gave up and instead tried to pull the grappling hook out of his back. His own impenetrable armor made the effort useless. Not far away, Red was attempting to free himself from the net. Unfortunately, the net was constructed so that any force exerted on one part of it only served to tighten or further entangle another part. The cord was stronger than it looked, and since the net was constructed from multiple cords, breaking just one of them didn't guarantee freedom.

"Don't just stand there looking like idiots!" said a shape emerging from the shadows. "Are we leaving or not?"

They all looked at the man who'd rescued them.

"Don't take this the wrong way," said Sutton. "But... uhh... who the hell are you?"

---

In the apex of the spire, Princeton Park paused in his manipulation of the control panel before him. He'd already set it for a mass-teleport of 65% of Montfort's population, then decided to follow it with seismic rupture large enough to destroy the city and its remaining populace. He set the controls for that, and then checked the progress of the Overseers. He didn't need to call up their images to do that... all he had to do was think. All Overseers... even those without hosts... were connected by a telepathic network that allowed each to share the experiences of the others. And, as a Cthrain, Princeton Park could plug into that network whenever he chose simply by activating the proper area of his brain. He did so, and let all of the sensations wash over him at once. (It was much more efficient than viewing them one at a time.)

All was as planned. The parasites were being gathered and-

"hmmm...." Princeton's grotesque, mutated brow furrowed.

Why were two Overseers hanging from the ceiling in the Central Hall? He looked through their eyes and saw the humans.

Then he smiled.

"Another host," he said. He gave a telepathic order for two of the closest Overseers to report to the area for re-capture. Then he searched the network for a specific Overseer, and dispatched him as well.

Princeton thought for a moment, then decided that perhaps this would be more entertaining if he were there. After all, until the other Overseers finished their tasks, he had nothing better to do.

With the slightest thought, Princeton extended his mind out into the floor below him. The strange minerals that composed it became an extension of his own body... the floor reached up and embraced him, then gently carried him away...

---

"DOKAN!"

Lara ran up and wrapped her arms around their rescuer. At the sound of his name, the others began to recognize him... although he bore only a slight resemblance to the Dokan they knew. He was the same size and proportion, but his muscles were a little bigger... not bulging, just not as shrunken with age they had been before. He carried his cane tucked into his belt, unneeded, even if it was only a pretense before. The white hair that once adorned his head was now dark brown... almost black... with only a few stray strands of silver. His face was devoid of the wrinkles and age-lines that the years had painted onto his distinguished features. They'd been replaced with the red flush of healthy youth. It was no wonder the others couldn't recognize him ... so much of his appearance had been tied to his advanced age, but now that was gone. Whatever had happened to him had subtracted a good 30 years from his body, yielding a man that was only slightly older than Drayn or Zackery.

Dokan patted Lara on the shoulder and then moved her away.

"No time for reunions," he said. Even his voice sounded younger. "Those traps were hastily constructed; I don't know how long they'll hold. We have to go."

"We can't go," said Lara.

"Like HELL we can't!" Sutton started running. Drayn grabbed him.

"She's right. Even if we can get back to Montfort... by the time we get there, there won't BE a Montfort."

"So what do you wanna do... stay here and get turned into egg-heads?"

"We can hide ourselves," said Dokan. "find our way into whatever magic or machinery controls this place, and then sabotage it."

"That's IT!? THAT'S your big plan! So what happens when we run into Park!?"

"Princeton?" said Dokan. "The others are still alive?"

"He doesn't know," said Lara. She pointed up at the suspended Overseers. "THOSE are the others. The armor is some kind of creature. And Princeton has transformed himself into their master. He gives them orders with his mind-"

"Which means he may already know we've escaped," said Dokan.

"We can't fight him," said Zackery. "There's no way. Krycek died trying... there's no way."

"Rath?"

"They got him, too."

"Can we discuss this somewhere else?" said Sutton.

"Agreed-"

"AH-AH-AHH!!" The taunting voice came from everywhere... the floor, the walls, the columns and the ceiling. Everything vibrated as one, turning the entire chamber into a giant throat from which the thundering voice emerged. Then the floor began to shake violently. Some distance away, a part of the floor rose up to form a huge, bulging mound that jutted ten feet into the air. The hill moved toward them with a deep, rumbling sound... almost as if something were tunneling its way through the floor.

"IT'S PARK!" Zackery screamed. "RUUUNNNNNN!!!!"

They ran. They turned and streaked down the hallway as the thing chased them, growing faster and larger with every inch.

"SCATTER!" Dokan ordered. "SCATTER!"

But before anyone could take another step, giant pointed spikes burst from the floor in front of them. More spikes rose up to either side... and they kept coming... erupting from the floor in wave after wave, each sharp tip pointing out at a 45-degree angle toward the fleeing humans.

They had no choice but to turn and run back the other direction, toward the mountain that was chasing them down the hall.

"RUN AROUND IT!" said Dokan.

Too late. The erupting spikes appeared to either side of the mound as it rolled to a halt. They were trapped.

The mound rose even higher, changing shape as it grew. It became a gigantic skull whose base merged with the floor. The skull filled out... becoming a human head. The head of Princeton Park.

The mouth opened, and a gnarled, alien figure emerged... walking down the tongue as if it were a carpet. Princeton was even worse than before. Now he had sharp fin-like protrusions around his ears and a set of thin tentacles hanging down from the back of his head like knotted strands of hair. The tentacles moved of their own accord, slithering through the air as if being blown by some nonexistent breeze.

Even Dokan couldn't help but shudder.

"Don't look at his eyes," Lara warned him. Princeton's eyes were glowing white, like stars set into his skull. Everyone looked away. Sutton turned around entirely... that's when he saw the trio of Overseers approaching from the rear. The spikes the blocked their path retracted temporarily to let the Overseers pass, then rose up again once the creatures were clear.

"We're caught," said Sutton. "Gods, I hope he just kills us."

"I wouldn't count us out just yet," said Dokan.

"Well, well," said a voice that was part Princeton Park, but mostly Cthrain. "The old man."

"Hello, Princeton," said Dokan. He kept his eyes locked on a space just above and between Princeton's eyes... giving the illusion that he was looking directly into them even though he wasn't. "I see you've found what you came looking for. Are you happy now?"

Princeton hissed... it wasn't clear whether it was a hiss of annoyance, amusement, or just a sound he made while breathing.

"I take it that means you'll be letting the rest of us go."

"You," Princeton pointed at Dokan. "Will be dissected and studied. The rest of you... your fates haven't changed.

"You'd better kill us now, then!" Drayn shouted. He drew his sword and waved it defiantly at Princeton... even as the Overseers lined up behind him and the others.

Princeton smiled. It was hideous.

"Oh no," said Princeton. "That would be a waste of good flesh."

"Waste THIS!"

Drayn put the edge of his blade to his own throat-

FAAAZZZZZ!!!

Twin blasts from the Overseers put him on the floor before he could take his life. Screaming and convulsing, Drayn knocked his blade away... it slid across the floor and ended up at Zackery's feet. Zack snatched up the weapon and attacked the Overseer behind him.

"YAAAAAA!!!

KLANG!

The blow yielded nothing but sparks... and the Overseer's attention. It reached for him. Zackery ducked, spun around and tried to slide his blade into a side-joint. He pricked something soft beneath the armor, but had to dodge away before a swipe of the Overseer's arm nearly took his head off.

Meanwhile, Sutton, Lara and Dokan dropped to the floor as the other two Overseers unleashed energy blasts at them. The blasts sailed over their head... and hit Princeton Park, who shrugged them off with an annoyed growl.

Dokan slid the hidden sword out of his cane-

"We can't fight these things!" Sutton cried.

"Fight with your MIND!" Dokan cried. "They're wearing PLATEMAIL!"

Dokan leapt from his crouching position and charged the closest Overseer, driving his thin blade right into its abdomen. He yanked the blade back out and then... then turned and ran away. The Overseer was so focused on Dokan that it didn't see Lara until it was too late. She sprang from the floor and landed on its chest. Holding on with one hand, she brought her other hand around... in it she was holding a water skin. She thrust the opening into the surprised Overseer's face and squeezed. Liquid squirted out into the creature's armor and covered its face, then Lara leapt away... doing a flip in mid air... and landed on her feet before the creature could energize its armor.

By that time, the Overseer realized that it wasn't water that the child had sprayed him with... it was glue. Its face was completely covered. The glue hardened almost instantly on contact with the air, And, since the creature couldn't remove the parasitic armor, there was way for it to prevent its nose and mouth from being sealed shut... and no way to remove the glue once it set.

The Overseer... the parasitically enhanced engine of pure distruction... quickly suffocated. It teetered unsteadily for a moment, then Sutton threw himself against it and knocked it over-

CLANG!

It fell to the floor like an unbalanced statue... landing directly into the path of the second Overseer, one that was reaching for Sutton. The two Overseers collided, and the second one fell on top of the first. Lara darted in and doused its exposed face-plate with glue, squirting the last of the substance into the armor. The thing almost caught her, but she spun away from its grasping arms before its fist could close on any of her extremities. The creature got up and lumbered after her... then it suddenly toppled over and went still.

---

Dokan was still running... right toward Princeton Park. Princeton responded as expected... 45-degree spikes burst from the floor directly in Dokan's path. But of course, the spikes could only be a few feet high in order to be effective. Dokan's powerful, youthful legs thrust him up and over them easily.

While he was still airborne, a huge slab shot up from the floor between him and Princeton... just what Dokan needed. Instead of slamming into it, Dokan twisted around, caught the edge of it with one hand, and used it to propel himself over... over the slab and over the second set of spikes that awaited him on the other side. He performed a mid-air flip and came down right in front of Princeton... sword arcing in a downward slash.

Princeton jumped backward, but-

"EEEEEEE!!"

Dokan's blade sliced him open from the center of his chest to the lower abdomen. Now gushing multicolored blood, Princeton continued his retreat. Two huge hands burst up from the floor and reached for Dokan. Dokan twisted out of their grasp at the last instant and pursued Princeton.

Princeton had been caught by surprise once... he wasn't going to let that happen again. The floor beneath him shot upward, carrying him up and out of Dokan's reach. At the same time. A knot of hands descended from the ceiling... each finger tipped with a razor-sharp blade. The blades began sawing at the cords that still held Rester and Red. A second later, both Overseers fell to the ground.... striking with loud, thundering impacts that did no harm to either them or the floor. They got up instantly and charged toward Dokan.

Princeton was now standing atop a 30-foot solid column. Dokan ran up to it, then veered away at the last instant. Long, pointed spikes thrust out from the surface of the column. If Dokan had started to climb up as he intended to do, he would have been impaled.

But now that the spikes were already out...

Dokan grabbed hold of them and started climbing... taking himself out of the Overseer's reach an instant before they arrived.

---

"HEY! Got any more of that stuff!" Zackery called.

"No!" Lara replied.

Fighting with one hand, Zackery was hard-pressed to keep the Overseer from crushing him into oblivion. The fact that this one was bigger and faster than the others didn't help. All he could do was keep it occupied and HOPE that Dokan and the girl managed to do something. There were already two Overseers down... something that Zackery never thought he'd see... but Princeton had released the two that Dokan captured, and who knew how many more were on the way. Still, things had been going well-

WHAM!

Zackery saw blackness... then stars... the ceiling. The Overseer had made a sudden lunge and managed to swat him across the head. Now he was on his back with the Overseer's foot planted on his chest. If the thing wanted to kill him, he'd be dead. But now he couldn't move.

"GRAAAAA!!!!!"

Drayn drew his hunting knife and threw himself at the Overseer. He jammed the blade into an exposed part of its throat again and again-

"GOTCHA!" Drayn snarled, eyes red with rage. "GOTCHA! GOTCHA! GOTCHA! GOTCHA!"

The Overseer grabbed Drayn by the neck, picked him up off the floor and threw him across the room-

WHAM!!

The flying mercenary struck Sutton, and both men went down in a heap.

Then the Overseer energized its armor. Tendrils of energy coursed down its leg and into Zackery's chest.

"AAIIAAAIIIIIAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGHH!!!!"

zzZZZZZ-CLANK!

Lara's spinning disk bounced off of the Overseer's head. The creature turned to face her. Then it left the still-convulsing Zackery on the ground and came after her, armor still crackling with energy. As it did, Lara saw its eyes and a little bit of its face behind the armor.

"Oh, no..." she gasped. "It's Rath..."

---

Princeton looked down and saw Dokan scrambling up the side of the column toward him, using the spikes as hand holds. With a mental shrug, the spikes became dozens of grasping hands seeking to tear Dokan apart... but there was nothing there to tear. At the first sign of the transformation, Dokan sprang away from the column and leapt to safety... or rather, into the Overseers. He landed on one foot... on top of Rester's head. He quickly vaulted away, and hit the floor. Both Rester and Red fired bolts at him, but Dokan was zig-zagging back and forth, making himself a harder target. But then-

"DOKAAAAIIIIII!!"

Lara's scream distracted him. Rath had her by the hair, and he was pumping energy into her. She was screaming like he was pulling her skin off.

"LARA, NO!"

One of Red's blasts grazed Dokan's shoulder. Pain exploded through his entire body. He stumbled and went down... hurting so badly that he didn't even feel it when he hit the floor. Rath dropped Lara and stormed toward him.

Dokan got up on his hands and knees-

FZZZZAAAM!

Double blasts from Red and Rester put him back down again.

But he got right back up-

WHAM!

Rath drove his fist straight down into Dokan's back.

"UNGH!"

Dokan was flat on the ground. Rath reached down, grabbed his head, and sent continuous streams of pain into him until Dokan stopped moving.

"Ahhhhh...." said Princeton as the column on which he stood sank back down to the floor. The wound on his chest was closed. It would have killed a normal human, but then, Princeton wasn't human any longer. He walked over to where Dokan lay and stood over the unmoving body. "For some reason, the phrase 'resistance is futile' comes to mind," Princeton gloated. "I'll make certain that your vivisection will be particularly long and painful-"

Dokan was on him in the blink of an eye. Using reflexes that he hadn't had in decades, the master thief sprang from the floor while snatching the knife from his boot. Before Princeton and the Overseers even registered the fact that he was moving, Dokan's blade was hilt-deep in Princeton's chest.

"AK!!!" Princeton gurgled.

Rath's massive hands slammed down on Dokan's shoulders. The Overseer's armor crackled and sent wave after wave of pain energy into Dokan's nervous system.

Dokan smiled. He had a dreamy, far-away look in his eyes.

"Meditation is very good for the soul," he said. "With it, one learns that pain is just a sense that can be turned on and off as easily as closing one's eyes. Now YOU try!"

SSSLUCKT!

Dokan yanked up on the blade, splitting Princeton's flesh open right up through his bulging throat. The Princeton-creature gurgled and hissed and spat as it staggered away. It doubled over in coughing fits, each heave causing bizarre fluids to pour... no, gush... out of the grievous wound that Dokan had dealt it.

But then the coughing turned to chuckling... and Princeton stood upright again. It walked over to Dokan, stood in front of him, and laughed in his face... spraying the thief with blood and gore.

"Is this the part where I die?" it said. "I'm sorry... I'm afraid I can't do that. I'm much to busy rebuilding my empire! And you... are no longer entertaining enough to keep around."

"...damn..." Dokan sighed.

"Rath," said Princeton... using spoken words more for effect than necessity... "Kill this fool. Slowly."

Dokan felt Rath lift him up off of the floor. He squirmed and tried to pull free, but Rath's grip was too tight. The next thing he knew, Rath had him in a bear hug with one arm pinned to his side.

"Rath, don't do this!" Dokan shouted.

Rath began to squeeze.

"RATH! Fight this fool! Don't let Park control you!!"

Dokan felt the bones in his back began to yield.

"Rath, you're stronger than-

Rath gave a sudden squeeze, and all the air rushed out of Dokan's lungs. He tried to take another breath, but he couldn't. He pounded on Rath's armored head as his ribs began to crack.

"....." Dokan's mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

"Look," said Princeton. "He's trying to scream..."

Dokan looked down at Rath's face.

Rath squeezed again. Dokan sent the pain from his mind and continued pounding on Rath's armor. The sharp edge of one of the plates sliced across his hand. Dokan saw his own blood... then he ran his arm over the edge again, opening up a deep gash across his wrist. Red blood spurted out of the severed veins, and Dokan pressed his bleeding arm right over the hole in Rath's helmet. He felt himself weakening... from suffocation and from the blood that was pouring out of him. His vision began to go dark...

rrrrrrr...

"What is this?" said Princeton.

Rath started to tremble. Dokan could barely feel it... but it the deep rumbling growl in Rath's throat grew

rrRRRRRR...

-and grew-

RRRRRRRRR...

The Rath-Overseer began to swell. Gaps in the parasitic armor widened as the shape that wore them got larger-

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...

-and larger. Tufts of fur began appearing at the seams.

Dokan blinked, and found himself on the ground at Rath's feet as the huge armor-covered lycanthrope reared back and roared:

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGET THIS STUFF OFF OF ME!!!"

"Kill It!" Princeton ordered. Red and Rester converged on Rath. Princeton was in the air again... another column rose beneath him and carried him swiftly away from the rampaging armored man-beast.

"GRAAAAA!!!!"

Rath, who dwarfed Red even when they were both human, grabbed Red by the head and swung the Overseer like a weapon...

KLANG!!!

...bashing Rester across the face and chest so hard that it drew sparks. The impact literally sent Rester flying. He landed several yards away and continued to slide across the floor several more feet. Rester got up and charged toward Rath as Dokan crawled to safety.

Rath lifted Red into the air and brought him down onto his upthrust knee.

KLOOONG!

Just as Rester slammed into them both. The two Overseers scrambled to contain him, but Rath would not be contained. Fueled by anger and blood-lust, Rath tore into them like a hellstorm. Fists of thundering rage pummeled them so hard that the armor actually grew hot from the repeated impacts. He snatched up Rester, turned him upside down and drove him straight down into the floor the way a man would drive a tent peg.

KKRUNCH!

The floor cracked.

Red came up behind him. Rath let Rester go, turned and threw one punch-

The sound was so loud that it nearly popped Dokan's eardrums. Red's entire head lit up like a lantern as chips and small bits of armor flew away from the point of impact. The blow sent Red spinning around like a top, lightning streaking uncontrollably up and down his damaged armor. Then Rester threw himself at Rath. Rath grabbed him around the throat and threw him to the ground. Holding him with one hand, Rath grabbed Rester's chest plate with the other and began to pull.

Nothing happened at first... but then there came a sound. A high-pitched screech, like a small animal being slowly eviscerated. It wasn't Rester.

It was the armor.

With a strength born of rage and magic, Rath slowly pulled the huge chest-plate off of Rester... and the armor screamed as it came apart.

"eeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

sssSHRRRUCK!

Rath yanked the plate away and tossed it aside. As it came free, all of the other plates fell off by themselves... revealing what lay beneath. It may have been Rester at one time, but not it more resembled a half-digested hunk of meat carved in the shape of a human.

Then Red landed on Rath's back and began pounding him with his armored fists. Rath shrugged off the blows and caught Red's head between his massive hands.

Growling angrily, Rath began to twist... and twist... and twist... and-

KRACK!

...twist and twist...

-Krik-
-SNAP!-

...and twist and PULL-

KA-KRACK
"EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Rath pulled Red's head off, tossed it aside and then turned toward Princeton:

"PAARRRRRRRRRKKKKKK!!" he roared

Instantly, a gigantic hand rose out of the floor and closed around him. Rath flexed his muscles... the stone fingers twitched... but continued to hold him tight. Even tighter. The hand squeezed, but the armor that Rath still wore protected him. He flexed again, but still couldn't move-

Meanwhile, Dokan was tying a scrap of cloth around his shredded wrist. He'd lost a lot of blood. Probably too much. He was too weak to stand, but he could still crawl. He saw Princeton staring down at Rath like a child watching a captured insect. Rath roared in frustration, still unable to move. The blood lust was no match for the power of a Cthrain's mind.

"...got... got to do something..." said Dokan. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," said Zackery. "This one's on me. Time for Park to come down off his high horse..."

Zackery leaned back and threw Drayn's sword as hard as he could. The blade tumbled through the air-

-whoosh-Whoosh-WHOOSH-

SLUCK!

And impaled Princeton right through the chest... knocking him off of his platform and sending him hurtling to the floor-

WHAM!

The hand that held Rath weakened... Rath burst from its grip and charged toward Princeton, who was already getting up. He was just pulling the sword out of his chest when Rath plowed into him at full speed... which, of course, shoved the sword right back in again.

"EEEARRG! UNGH!"

"GET HIM, RATH!" Zackery shouted. "GET HIM!"

Rath grabbed the sword and ripped it out... sideways.

Princeton made a noise that sounded like pain... but could very well have been laughter. Torn almost in half, Princeton staggered around spouting blood that looked like an explosion at an alchemist's shop. His eyes flashed bright white, and Princeton caught Rath's gaze with his own.

Rath froze.

"Heh, heh, heh," Princeton sputtered.

"Heh, heh, HELL!"

Rath swung the sword... it sliced Princeton's enormous head cleanly across the middle, separating the top half from the bottom.

"EEEEEEEE-"

KRA-THOOOOM!

The Princeton-thing's scream ended in an explosion of light and energy that sent even Rath staggering back. The sword in his hand melted like wax as energy tore through him. Colors... some of which had never conceived by the human mind, poured out of Princeton Park's severed head and coalesced in an enormous shape that hovered above Rath. The thing was huge and grotesque beyond description... something with too many dimensions... something that couldn't possibly exist in this universe. It was as far beyond Park's physical form as that form was beyond human. The thing screamed silently through two of its mouths while three more snarled... but no sound came. It lashed out at Rath... but the ephemeral claws passed through him without effect. The creature had no physical body, thus it could do no harm.

The thing screamed again... and then it began to blur and loose focus. Still howling silently, the thing flew off down one of the dozens of hallways, leaving a trail of twinkling sparks in its wake. Soon, those too were gone.

"It's getting away!" said Zackery.

"Its going back where it came from," said Dokan. "Wherever that was."

"Let's go KILL it!"

"We can't," said Dokan. "...it's pure energy. Immortal. The Cthrain really ARE immortal."

"And if that wasn't bad enough," said Zackery. Rath was coming right for them, eyes blazing red within his armor. He was beginning to shrink back down to his normal size, but that still left him angry and quite dangerous. Zack stood protectively in front of Dokan.

"Gonna have to go through me first, big guy," he said. "That oughta take all of... ohhh... two seconds."

"Me too," said Drayn. The mercenary had managed to disentangle himself from Sutton as was literally dragging himself over toward Dokan. "For what its worth."

Rath's eyes flashed brighter for an instant, then-

"Don't flatter yourselves."

"Rath?"

Rath began tugging at the armor plates that still covered him. They wouldn't budge.

"Won't come off," he said. "But I think its dead. Or asleep."

"You're you? You aren't going to kill us?" said Zack.

"Only if you piss me off. How's the old man-"

"Not as old as I used to be," said Dokan. With Zackery's help, he managed to stand. He rubbed his wrist, which, unbeknownst to the others, had a two-day old scab on it. "Lara-"

"I got her," said Sutton. Sutton was sitting on the ground beside Lara, wondering how he was going to carry himself and her at the same time. "I think."

"You think they've got a way to get this stuff off of me?" said Rath.

"The machine that healed me-"

"Uh-Oh..." said Sutton. "I hate to break this up but- we got company!"

Overseers.

Almost two-dozen of them were marching down the hallway toward them, their rhythmic footsteps were like the sound of an army.

"They don't look friendly," said Drayn.

"And they're between us and the exit. Rath-"

"Not that many. Not a chance."

"What now?"

The Overseers spotted the humans. Their pace doubled... then tripled, becoming a running march.

"Everybody grab someone," said Dokan. "We find a place to hide-"

"The sp-spire..." Lara moaned. "I can... get us out..."

"You heard the lady! Let's go!"

"RUN! HURRY!"

Rath grabbed both Sutton and Lara and started running while Drayn and Dokan tried to keep up. Zackery brought up the rear. There were dozens of doorways off to either side... some of them possibly leading outside. But they passed them all without a glance as they ran for the spire.

"I hope you're right, girl," said Zackery. "We get trapped up there we won't have a way back out!"

"There's always a way out," said Dokan. "But first we have to make it there."

The first energy blasts sizzled down the corridor after them. They were still about fifteen seconds away from the spire. Rath was already inside with Lara and Sutton, but the others were still running, with Overseers gaining quickly.

FZAAM!

"AGH!" Drayn went down screaming. Zackery turned back to get him. "GOOOO!!!" Drayn managed to shout between screams of pain. "GGGOOO!"

Zackery ducked as another blast sailed over his head. He grabbed Drayn, got him to his feet, and together they ran for the spire.

"Leave me! leave me! leave me!" Drayn cried. He was slowing Zackery down, and he knew it.

"No way!"

Ahead of them, Dokan had just made it into the spire.

FZZAAAAM!

"AAAIII"

Zackery fell, taking both himself and Drayn down. Everything around him was white-hot with pain for several agonizing seconds. When Zack opened his eyes... when he could feel anything besides pain... he saw that he was moving again.

With Zack over one shoulder and Drayn over the other, Rath sprinted back toward the tower as fast as his legs could take him. He changed directions at random, and the Overseer's blasts never touched him. In the blink of an eye they were inside... and still running... down the hallway...

"This way!" Lara called. Rath returned to the set of stairs that the Overseers had marched them past earlier. He started up, quickly catching up with Dokan, Sutton, and Lara.

"UP!" Rath ordered.

Behind them, Overseers were storming into the spire.

The stairs were brutal. There seemed to be thousands of them, but they took them all two and three at a time without stopping. Everyone was on their feet now, fear and adrenalin deadening their wounds and robbing them of any sense of fatigue. The sound of their pursuers was like a solid force that pushed them faster and faster up the steps.

"I'll stay here and hold 'em as long as I can," said Rath.

"No... this will slow them," said Lara. She took a small canister out of her pack.

"What is that?"

"Oil."

"If we light that-"

"It won't hurt them... but on this narrow staircase, once the first one falls, it'll be an avalanche."

"Works for me," said Zackery. He grabbed the canister from Lara. "I'll pour, the rest of you run! I'll catch up!"

Zack started splashing the oil over the steps behind him as the others moved on without him. He had five or six steps completely covered when the Overseers reached him. He heard their thundering footsteps racing up the stairwell, and then he saw their shadows... and then-

-the stopped.

They army paused on the step before the oil slick, their bright eyes glaring with intelligence. Zackery peered around the corner at them. They looked at him... then at the step... then at him.

"...they know," said Zack. "...how could they know?"

He jumped out in front of them.

"COME ON!" he shouted. "COME GET US!"

There was a long pause, and then they began to move-

CLANG!

The first one hit the oil, slipped, and fell face down on the steps. It then slid down into those behind it, sending the mob collapsing into a chaotic pile... a pile that kept sliding down, collecting even MORE Overseers as it rumbled down to the bottom.

Meanwhile, Rath and the others had reached the top. They emerged onto the short hallway that lead to the control room.

Just as Lara had hoped, Princeton Park had left all of the controls active.

She sprinted to the main control board and started working the symbols on its surface.

"Do you know what you're doing?" said Drayn.

"Yes... I watched Princeton and listened to the words. This machine brought people from Montfort here so it must mean that it can send US to Montfort."

Her nimble fingers raced across the symbols as the control voice boomed in response to her commands.

Zackery rushed into the room.

"Whatever you're doing," he said. "Hurry. They're still down there, and that oil isn't gonna keep 'em away forever!"

"I'm working, I'm working!"

"But what about this city?" said Dokan. "We can't just leave it like this?"

"What?" said Zackery. "Now you're starting to sound like Princeton!"

"If we teleport out of here... what are we leaving behind? A city filled with monsters?"

"Monsters that are waaaaaaay underground!" said Zack.

Lara paused in her commands and looked down at the board.

"A city at full power," she said. "filled with Overseers."

"Are they smart enough to use this stuff without Park?" Sutton asked.

"Can we take that chance?" said Dokan. "Can we? You've seen more of what this machine does than I have... you tell me. Can we risk leaving it running... just waiting for an Overseer or anyone ELSE to come along and use it?"

"We have to shut this place down," said Lara. "Destroy it if we can."

"But that means somebody has to stay here."

"The girl is the only one who knows the controls."

"She can't stay," Dokan objected. "She can teach them to me... I'll make sure its done."

"If you can do it, then so can I," said Drayn. "I'll stay."

A loud clamor echoed down the hallway as the Overseers tried... and failed... to pass the oil-slick on the stairs.

"All this is assuming that he girl can get ANY of us out of here," said Zackery.

"I can... its just that..." Lara studied the controls. The expression on her face wasn't good.

"Just what?" said Sutton.

"We can get back home... just not from here. We have to get back outside."

"Excuse me.... WHAT!?!"

"I can move the remote end of the transfer anywhere I want... but on this end, it'll only transport things to and from the courtyard outside the building. If there's a way to change that, I don't know how. We have to get to the courtyard..."

"Do you know how many of those things are between us and the front door!?"

"...and once we get there, someone HERE will have to activate the machine."

"Lara, show me what to do," said Dokan. "I'll get you all out, and I'll make sure this place isn't here for the next group of fools to come along."

"I'm not going to let you STAY here, Dokan!"

"I'll do it," said Rath. "If those things get in there, I'm the only one that can fight them off. Nobody else would stand a chance."

"It doesn't matter!" said Zack. "We're trapped in here, anyway! We can't make it to the outside!"

"As I said, there is always a way." Dokan pulled a spool of cord from his pack. "We'll secure this end and use it to slide down the outside of the spire. Child's play."

"Do you have enough cord to reach the bottom?"

"No," said Dokan. "But it'll get us a lot closer than we are now." He was already securing one end of the line by wrapping it around the bottom of the control panel. He tied it in a knot and placed three small metal hooks on it, and attached leather straps to the hooks. "Only got three hooks, so we'll have to double up. I'll take Lara with me. Drayn and Zackery can help each other. Sutton... you're on your own."

"Thanks. I think."

"Show me what to do," said Rath.

Lara made some adjustments to the controls. As she did, more sounds began to emerge from the stairway. Footsteps.

"They're through," said Sutton. "We'd better get on with this while we can."

"This symbol activates the teleport," said Lara. "Watch this image and press the symbol once we're in place. When we're gone... press these four symbols in this order-" Lara showed him.

"What's that do?"

"Re-engages the seismic engines and activates the weapon the Cthrain use to destroy cites... with the target set right below this dome. If that doesn't destroy this place then it can't be destroyed at all. I don't know how long you'll have to make it out."

"Don't worry about me," said Rath. He had to raise his voice over the sound of the approaching Overseers.

"Can you fight them off long enough to do this?" said Dokan.

"I haven't let you down so far," Rath replied. "Why start now?"

"If it comes down to a choice between saving us and blowing the city-"

"This place is toast."

"Well you don't have to sound so enthusiastic about it," said Sutton.

The Overseers were very close now... mere seconds away from reaching the top of the steps.

"I'll see you on the surface," said Lara.

"No," said Rath. "No, you won't see me.... because when you get back up there, you're going to seal up those entrances as tight as you can. Blast 'em shut if you have to. Then you're going to gather up every copy of every book that Princeton Park ever wrote... and you're going to burn them. Every one. Understand?"

"But-"

"No one can ever know what happened here," said Rath. "Nobody. Never."

"Grab a strap and jump!" said Dokan. Lara leapt onto his back and held on as he climbed out the window. Sutton was right behind him.

"That's a loooong way down," he said.

"It'll be over in a few seconds," Dokan assured him.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of."

"The best way to banish fear, Mr. Sutton... is to face it. See you at the bottom!"

And with that, Dokan and Lara were away. Dokan held the leather strap with an iron grasp as he repelled down the spire. He dropped a few yards, then stopped and waited for the others. Sutton came down at them like a rocket... then he planted his feet against the side of the spire and gradually slowed himself until he came to a halt just a few feet above Dokan. Zackery and Drayn did likewise... with Drayn holding the strap and Zackery holding onto Drayn. When they'd all stopped, Dokan shouted:

"NOW!

They all shoved away from the spire and dropped like stones. When their path carried them back to the side of the spire, they dug in their heels and brought themselves to a stop. Then they repeated the maneuver... then again... and again. With Dokan calling out the rhythm, they descended the spire like professionals... dropping long distances, then stopping, then dropping again. After five cycles they reached the top of the dome, from which the spire protruded like a giant finger. The incline became less steep, but they still had a long way to go.

And, unknown to them... they had a very short time in which to do it.

The second that Zackery and Drayn stepped out of the window, the Overseers stormed into the room, marching two-abreast like soldiers in formation. Rath got a running start and slammed into the first two, knocking the both back into the others and throwing the formation into disarray. They quickly recovered and came running back into the room in twos and threes. A powerful backfist sent the first one staggering back... but two more zoomed around it. One headed for Rath and the other went past him and reached for the control panel. Rath grabbed the second one by the arm and slung it into the first, knocking them both aside. But then two Overseers hit him at once. Their combined might knocked Rath off of his feet. His armored head struck the control panel as he went down, but he didn't feel it. When he hit the floor, Rath tore his left arm out of one Overseers grasp... then gave it right back to him in the form of a clenched fist to the side of the head. The powerful blow yielded more noise and sparks than damage, so he repeated it. And then once more with even more force. The last blow stunned the armored monster for a second, allowing Rath to shove it aside and head-but the other one into allowing him to twist free. Rath jumped to his feet, already swinging his fists at anything that dared approach. Inside his armor, Rath was as strong and well-protected as the Overseers, but skill, speed and anger pushed the advantage to his side. The Overseers had superior numbers... a fact that MIGHT have helped them if they were all intent on joining the fray. But not all of them were.

Rath noticed almost too late that he was only fighting the first three or four of them while the rest were going around the battle and heading for the control panels. It was a set-up... and Rath had walked right into it.

One Overseer was already poised over the controls. Rath leapt across the control board, hooked his arm around the creature's throat and threw it to the floor. Another Overseer rushed up from behind, attempting to pull the same maneuver on HIM. Rath bounced his elbow off of its face, then drove his fist down in a hammer-blow to the creature that was just rising from the floor in front of him. The two attacks did nothing to discourage the Overseers, but it did give them enough pause for Rath to deal with more of the creatures. Positioned in front of their target... the control panel... he had the mob's full and undivided attention. Their assault came in relentless waves of violence. He beat them back again and again and again... using every inch of his body, and sometimes the enemy's bodies, as a weapon. But they STILL kept coming... throwing themselves at him in pairs, trios, and sometimes all ten of them at once.

Ten?

If there were only ten Overseers in the room, where were the other ones?

Rath got a sinking feeling in his gut that told him that something... something other than the obvious... was very, very wrong.

He didn't have time to consider it. A surge of armor-plated death lunged at him... six Overseers tried to overpower him as the other four attempted to squeeze around behind. Rath ducked down low and caught two of the rushing Overseers by the legs. He lifted them up and tossed them both over his shoulders... they sailed over the control panel and landed head-first on the floor beyond it. One creature grabbed him around the waist. Rath swung his fists out to either side smashing them into the heads of two more creatures, then brought both fists down onto the back of the first one as hard as he could. The creature hit the floor amid a shower of sparks and an echo of thunder. An elbow-thrust loosened another Overseer's jaw. He grabbed the heads of the next two closest monsters and slammed them together with all the strength he could muster. The Overseers were stunned for a few seconds... nothing more. Second later, they were on top of him again, along with all their brothers.

There were too many of them. Rath knew it. He had what it took to shut one or two of them down, but not this many. As soon as he laid his hands on one of them, four more were reaching for him. He couldn't fight them all AND watch the control panel, too. If he tried, he'd fail at both.

Rath didn't want to do it, but the decision was already made. As yet another Overseer-rush roared toward him, he turned and leapt for control panel... armored fingers reaching for the self-destruct symbols. An Overseer grabbed for his arm... Rath let him have the elbow, right in the throat. Then, before anything else could grab him, Rath touched the four symbols that activated the Cthrain machinery.

---

Dokan and the others were almost at the end of the line when the entire city started to come apart. It began with a sudden, powerful upward motion, followed by a gut-wrenching downward lunge... as if someone had taken up the edge of the city and snapped it like a towel.

The line that supported them swung away from the building and started swaying in mid-air as everything around them began to rumble, shake, and twist itself in eighteen different directions at once. Dokan heard the others screaming, but he couldn't look to see of they were still there... with the world spinning around him, it was all he could do to hold on and try to swing himself back toward the dome before the cord ran out.

"HOLD ON!" he shouted to anyone who could hear him. He shifted his weight to one side, and then the other... using what little control he had to try and steer them to something solid. The black wall of the dome zoomed past them, and then the massive structure lurched to one side-

WHAM!

"UNGH!!!"

Dokan's fingers scrapped desperately across the surface, trying to find something to hold onto. There was nothing there... the dome was too smooth. He pressed as much of his body as he could against it to gain whatever friction it would give him... and all the while, the Cthrain city was convulsing about them. The wall shook so badly that it was like a giant fist slamming into him over and over again. The ground below them was worse, and some of the other buildings were swaying back and forth like pine trees in a hurricane.

Then the cracking began.

It was like thunderbolts all around them.... the deep, terrifying crunch of a city stronger than steel finally yielding to a force more powerful than itself.

"END OF THE LINE!" Dokan warned. A second later, they were sliding down the surface of the dome without the benefit of a secured line. He heard more screams from above. Dokan looked, and saw that with his weight no longer keeping the line steady, the cord was snapping back and forth like a whip. It flung Sutton off in one direction, and tossed Zack and Drayn in another.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAaaaa!!!" came Sutton's terrified cry. His luck carried him at an odd angle and dropped him back to the dome. He slid down the incline, bouncing repeatedly off of the vibrating surface just as Dokan and Lara were doing.

Zackery and Drayn weren't so lucky. The line flung them clear in mid-air, and they took the remaining distance straight down. Both men screamed all the way to the bottom. Dokan didn't see them hit the ground, he was already trying to position himself for his own landing. Still scraping and scrambling against the dome's slick surface, Dokan managed a semi-controlled descent until he finally pushed free. He and Lara separated in the air and they both landed side-by-side. It took them a second to even realize they'd landed... the quakes were so severe that it felt as if they were striking the ground over and over again.

Sutton was about fifteen yards away, closer to the courtyard than Dokan and Lara. He was on his feet, but barely able to stand on the tumultuous ground.

"GO!" Dokan ordered. He pointed at Sutton and shoved Lara toward him. "Run for the courtyard, I'll check on the others!"

Lara ran, stopped to look back at Dokan, and then kept running.

Dokan raced in the other direction, hoping that the others were still alive... but doubting that both of them could have survived the fall. Still, he had to try.

Running was nearly impossible. The ground yanked his feet in a different direction every second, sometimes dropping away entirely only to slam back into him with ever-increasing violence. Cracks were starting to form all around him... tiny at first, the ruptures in the dark surface grew with frightening speed. The thundering ground became more jagged and uneven with every step. Even a master of agility was hard-pressed to make any progress, but Dokan was more than a master... and he would not leave the others behind. He heard their shouts after only a few yards. They were ahead of him, around a sharp corner created by a collapsing piece of the dome. They were screaming.

"Dear gods, their bones must be shattered!"

Dokan rounded the corner. Zack and Drayn lay in bloody heaps on the ground, bones jutting from their shattered legs. But their screams were not of pain... but of terror.

Overseers.

Five of them towered over the defenseless duo, and as Dokan watched in horror, two of the creatures dropped empty suits of Overseer armor onto Zack and Drayn. The last thing that Dokan saw before he turned and ran was the look of pure terror in Zackery's eyes. The screams, however, continued to follow him as he ran.

Overseers. What where they doing here? It was almost like they were waiting here at the bottom. But if they were...

"LARAAA!" he shouted.

The only reply was an apocalyptic BOOM from somewhere in the city. Dokan leapt into the air as the ground ripped itself apart beneath him. He came down, crouched, and started running again immediately. Far to his left, and entire section of the city cracked away from the whole and began to sink. HUGE cracks were forming in every structure still standing. The dome continued its collapse, as the spire leaned dangerously far to one side. Behind Dokan, the squad of Overseers... now including two new members... came barreling after him, moving faster and faster despite the ground's quake-induced gymnastics.

Dokan saw Lara and Sutton ahead of him... running TOWARD him.

"WRONG WAY!" he shouted.

"Overseers!" said Lara. Dokan couldn't hear her... he had to read her lips. "We came back to get you!"

"GO! GOOOO!!! The others are gone! Get to the Courtyar-"

KrrrraaaaAAAAAAAK!

On the far side of the city, huge crack opened... it propagated with lightning speed, shooting across the city like a living thing, bisecting the Cthrain stronghold straight down the middle... and opening like a monstrous mouth right in Dokan's path. He barely had time to react. He weighed a dozen options in the time it took to make his next footstep, and then he sent every ounce of energy he had into his legs and vaulted across.

He almost made it.

The chasm continued to widened even while he was in mid air. Even though he had calculated to overshoot the opposite side by at least a foot, by the time he landed, the opposite side was a foot and a half further back. He saw the chasm wall crumbling and knew he wasn't going to make it. He reached out for it anyway.

His fingertips grazed the edge... almost finding purchase... almost... he caught hold of the tiniest bit of stone... but then the chasm wall gave way beneath his hand and he tumbled away-

---

"NOOOOOO!!!" Lara cried. She was supposed to be running, but she heard the crack open and turned just in time to see Dokan leap across it... and fail to reach the other side. "DOKAAAN, NOOO!"

"Come on, girl!" Sutton grabbed her arm and tried to pull her along with him, but he could barely stand on his own. She wrenched out of his grasp and sped across the undulating ground to the edge of the chasm. Sutton went after her.

"DOKAAAN!" she shouted. She was on her knees when she reached the edge. Her heart pounding with fear, she looked over. The chasm was deep... deeper than she could see. But it was not darkness that peered up at her from the bottom... no, the chasm floor was filled with bubbling, red-hot lava that was rapidly rising up the jagged walls to the surface. The heat washed over her, just the air rising from the lava was burning her skin. She didn't budge. She stayed there, perched on the edge, searching the shadows for any sign of Dokan.

She saw him. Halfway to the lava, she saw him. He was crouched on a narrow shelf of rock, looking up at her.

"GO!" he mouthed.

"I'LL GET YOU OUT!" She shouted back. She had no rope or cord in her pack, but she searched frantically for anything she could use. And all the while, the city continued to shake itself apart all around them. She found nothing. So she started to climb over the edge, trained eyes already spotting hand and toe-holds. The rock was almost red hot. She didn't care. "I'M COMING DOWN FOR YOU!"

"NO! THE WALLS ARE UNSTABLE! YOU CAN'T CLIMB THEM!"

"I'm not LEAVING YOU!"

"SUTTON, TAKE THE GIRL AND GET OUT OF HEEEERRREE!"

Lara hauled herself over the egde... just as another shock tore through the city. The wall gave way beneath her... she was falling...

...and then she wasn't.

"Oh, no ya don't!" Sutton grunted as he seized her arm and hauled her back up.

"I have to go down and get him!" she protested.

"If you could climb down there then he can climb up here on his own! You can't help him!"

"Yes I can!"

"No you CAN'T! He's already GONE! Look!"

Sutton pointed. The shelf of rock where Dokan was standing was gone... dislodged by the last violent shockwave. The lava was already rising up to cover the place that she'd last seen Dokan.

"NOOOO, PLEASE NOOO!"

"COME ON!"

Sutton grabbed Lara and tried to run, but the ground was too unsteady. He tripped and fell. Lara helped him up and together they sprinted... or tried to sprint... for the open courtyard...

The courtyard that was filled with Overseers, each one waiting for them with a fresh pile of empty armor. Lara saw the spot in the courtyard where they needed to be. Overseers were all around it.... as if they knew that she and Sutton were coming. When the pair approached, the Overseers began to converge.

"Oh, NO!"

"Ignore them, girl!" said Sutton. "Just run! Run for your life!!"

The city continued its dance, tossing its mass from side to side... tearing itself apart. There wasn't a single intact building left standing... everything was missing pieces, and what remained was riddled with cracks that widened by the second.

The Overseers didn't seem to care. They came for Lara and Sutton as if they two of them were the most important thing in the world. The powerful quakes slowed them some, but they still came. Lara pulled Sutton along as she dodged and weaved through their ranks as best she could. Cracks opened up beneath her feet with every step she made. Some cracks hissed and spat droplets of lava at them. Others snaked across the courtyard, merging and growing as if guided by some sinister intelligence. The whole courtyard heaved up into the air briefly, and huge chunks of it blasted away from the surface... catapulted by the high-pressure lava that was building up below them. It looked like the end of the world.

"LOOK OUT!" Lara yanked Sutton to one side, and another chasm opened up where he was standing a second ago. An Overseer was storming toward them... the chasm caught it. The monster vanished without a sound. No scream, no cry of fear or pain... nothing. "DOWN!" Lara ducked. A pain-blast went over her and Sutton's heads... and then sizzled out of control as the Overseer who'd fired it slid into massive hole and hit the hot lava with a splash.

"ALMOST THERE!" said Sutton. Three Overseers were between them and their destination...

kkkrrrrrRRRRAAAAACCCKKK!!!

Another massive, city-spanning chasm yawned open. The violence of its birth sent the Overseers tumbling. One fell into the chasm. The other two teetered on the edge for an instant before regaining what little balance they could. Lara and Sutton had already used the deadly distraction to streak past them.

The crack continued to widen, slicing the Courtyard in half and trapping most of the Overseers on one side. Lara and Sutton were on the other, along with one sole Overseer... who lumbered toward them with parasite-armor in hand.

"We're here!" Sutton announced. They were standing on the exact spot where the teleporter would activate. Right on the EXACT spot.

But nothing was happening.

"IT ISN'T WORKING!" Lara cried as the Overseer made its way toward them.

"Have faith girl... any second now...C'mon Rath.. PLEASE!!!!"

---

Up in the spire, Rath bellowed in fury as he burst from the mob's clutches and kicked one Overseer clear across the room. The room... no, the entire spire, was falling apart around him. The Overseers were STILL coming at him! There was no stopping them! They simply would NOT give up! He bashed one across the head, sending it lurching away. Another one grabbed for him, but the room tilted violently to one side and threw it off balance. Rath picked it up by the shoulders and tossed it out the window. It made absolutely no sound as it fell.

Four of them came at him at the same time. They rammed into him and drove him to the floor. Rath used the momentum and, planting his foot in one monster's chest, vaulted it across the room and into a wall. The other three moved in to try and hold him down.

A section of the ceiling collapsed... and it took part of the wall with it. As well as a couple of Overseers who'd been standing nearby. The room tilted again, this time in the other direction. Rath used it to his advantage... rolling in the direction of the tilt and breaking free. The unbalanced Overseers scattered. One hit the floor and rolled right out of the spire through the newly-made hole in the wall.

Rath was on his feet!

WHAM!

A punch caught him by surprise, but Rath shrugged it off as easily as the Overseers had shrugged off HIS attacks. A spinning back-kick knocked the creature into a wall... which immediately began to collapse... along with the rest of the ceiling... and the floor.

...but as he executed the maneuver, Rath saw the image from the Courtyard. After all the damage, the machines were still working! Lara and Sutton were in place; there was still a chance to save them!

He started running... running for the control panel, plowing through Overseers like a cannonball. Two Overseers were reaching for the control panel as well. They were closer, but Rath was meaner. They were just following some ancient program, but he HAD to do his... he HAD to!

Suddenly he crumbling floor caught up with him. The firmament beneath his feet disintegrated, leaving nothing but a long vertical drop into a lava-filled chasm that was even now swallowing what remained of the dome. Rath leapt... arm outstretched... reaching for the glowing symbol that would send Lara and Sutton home. If he missed it, there wouldn't be a second chance...

---

"HE'S COMING! WE HAVE TO RUN!" Lara was shaking with fear as the Overseer came. "It's not working! We have to get away!"

"It'll work!"

The creature's armor began to crackle with energy. Sutton took the girl's head in his hand and held her face to his chest.

"Don't look," he said, holding her tightly for an instant. "Close your eyes... don't look at this..." Then he was gone.

"Wha- SUTTON!"

With hunting knife in hand, Sutton threw himself at the Overseer. He drove his blade into the thing's throat just as the pain-blast hit him. He screamed in agony... still stabbing the creature again and again, trying to drive it away.... to keep it back just long enough for the girl to make her escape.

But the creature now had what it wanted. Ignoring Lara, it threw Sutton to the ground and thrust the empty armor onto his chest.

"AAAAARRRRRRRRGGGG!!!"

"SUTTON, NOOOO!!!"

Then all of the color drained out of the world. Everything turned a dark, sinister grey... a deep, empty grey that got darker and darker until there was nothing left but outlines, shapes, and shadows... then even those began to fade. The last thing Lara saw was the great Cthrain spire finally collapsing upon itself.... and a fountain of lava rising up to take its place in the center of the city. After that, everything turned pitch black...

...then bright white...

...and then Lara was somewhere else.

The market square.

In Montfort.

The sights and sounds of it all grabbed Lara like a fist. The realization squeezed the strength and breath right out of her. She was in Montfort.

Alone.

And all the others were...

She couldn't breathe. All she could do was sway back and forth in the nonexistent breeze until she finally felt herself falling.

The streets were bustling with activity. Merchants were still trying to sell their wares as the Tower Guard wandered from booth to booth, investigating the mysterious disappearances that had occurred earlier. No one saw her until she was already on the ground, trembling.

Then the crowd gathered. They hovered like vultures, or demons sucking the strength out of her. She looked up at them blankly. Then came the questions. Who was she? Where did she come from? What was wrong?

What happened?

What happened...

"...I lost them..." she muttered. Words that she wouldn't even remember saying the next day. "...I lost them all..."