Erick hurried down the hall, his hands shaking at what he had left behind. He held on tighter to the spear, using it as a point of order in the chaotic tides of the events around him. The woman's eyes still haunted him. She had been so ready to die, and part of him could understand why. The other part of him recalled Agnes just before she had died. Life couldn't be treated with such a cavalier attitude.

He stopped at the unconscious guards, looking down at them. Blood ran from the younger guard's nose and onto the floor.

"He's a monster, isn't he?" he whispered. "No normal man could do such a thing so easily."

However, these same men had done horrible things, hadn't they? They were complicit in guarding the woman in the room below. They were a part of Tartarus.

"So am I," Erick whispered. "Twice now, right under my nose, I've had two monstrous experiments I've helped guard. That's not even counting the small things I've seen."

He had seen soldiers abuse their rank and authority. He had seen them beat common people whenever they could get away with it. He had never done it himself but hadn't stopped it either. Agnes's accident, and the reason he had to transfer so far away from home, slapped him hard across the face. He had denied the possibility back then. A weight settled over his heart, and he quickly took one of the guard's now empty chairs at their desk and sat down. He rested the spear against the table and covered his head with both hands. He needed a moment.

"I'm going to be sick," he whispered. "There was no reason to be on the course so late."

Had those soldiers smiled when they brought her body back to the barracks? Thinking back, he couldn't be sure. He had just wanted to get away from there, to get away from the sight of her broken body. The moment he was done with training, he applied to go as far away as he could and never thought about it again.

He had run away from the truth, just like after Cragg Hollow. He had just run again with Klaus, right into the same people who had hurt him before. Now, he was running away again, too cowardly to face what had been done by the Military police under the eyes of the Empyrean and the Scions.

"Some hero," he said. "You'll run headlong into danger but escape the truth."

He half expected Agnes to appear and chide him like she used to—like she had haunted his thoughts back on Cragg Hollow. However, he just sat at the table alone in the hallway. There was no ghost to help him now. Only he sat in that chair.

"Stand up and go," he said, grabbing his spear and using it to push himself up from the chair.

Click. Click.

He started toward the stairs, but a sound from down the hall stopped him. It was the steady sound of steps across the metal corridor. Someone was coming down the hall. Erick gripped his spear tight as he turned to face the turn in the hallway. He had no idea what he could or should do, but he faced it regardless.

"Well, well," a woman's voice echoed around the corner before Secretary Eaton stepped into the hallway. "What do we have here? Private Landson."

Erick froze for a moment, holding his spear ready. Secretary Eaton shouldn't have been on the island. She was the Commander's Secretary, but that didn't give her equivalent rank to an officer. No, she might run errands between the various officers of the base, but she shouldn't have been on the island.

"Secretary Eaton." Erick nodded. "Funny to see you here."

"The guards outside were indisposed," she said, flicking one hand across her bangs and letting them settle back down. "And now I find you standing next to these two. What would Commander Milton think if he saw you here?"

"What would he say to you being on the island?" Erick said, his legs spreading out as he let go of his spear with his left hand, leaving it only in his right. "You shouldn't be here either."

"That's a good point." She held up one hand and rested her fingers on her chin. "If you step aside, I'll not mention your presence here, and we'll just go our separate ways."

Erick almost did it. He didn't owe the Military Police anything. Whatever Secretary Eaton was doing, he knew that she wasn't acting as she should. She was a traitor of some kind. He could walk away right now and let her pass, and no one would know. He could reach the entrance, get on the boat, and return to the docks.

It would be so simple.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm who I've always been." She smiled. "Secretary Eaton, of course."

"And you want down below?" Erick held the spear tight. "Do you know what's down there?"

"Something valuable," she said. "Something that forms the cornerstone of Tartarus's power. Isn't that enough? Step aside private. Let me through."

Very few moments in a man's life required him to do something foolish. Erick thought about that woman lying on the table below. Alex was about to kill the woman, maybe. Whoever Secretary Eaton was, she would do something with the woman as well. If Erick stepped aside, Secretary Eaton could have walked down there unimpeded.

However, Alex had saved him once when there was no reason to. Erick could believe in that. Alex still had a choice down there. Maybe he would find a way to save the woman. He brought his spear back, grasping the forward shaft with his left hand as he leaned down and assumed his stance.

"Sorry," Erick said. "I'll have to stand in your way."

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Secretary Eaton she shook her head. She was every bit the woman he had known for the little time he had been in Tartarus, and he didn't see how she expected to make it past him. He tightened his grip on his spear. He could attack, but it felt wrong. He would wait for her to make the first move, to come into his reach.

"Save me from foolish men." Secretary Eaton laughed, throwing her arms into the air. "Rebirth Flames!"

Two lines of fire erupted from her arms, shooting out in a line and down across the floor like a waterfall. She threw her arms wide, and they spread like opening wings around her before crashing down around her feet and rising up her legs. She stepped forward in a flash of bright orange light, her form lined with fire down her arms and legs. Tufts of flame rose up her arms and legs but didn't burn her clothes. She reached up and adjusted her glasses with one finger as a sharp smile crossed her face.

"Step aside, private, or you'll be burned."

"I—"

"Rebirth Wing."

Fire lanced out behind Eaton's legs as they blurred, and every part of Erick screamed at him to jump to the side. He threw himself into the nearest furniture, falling into the unconscious body of one of the guards as he threw himself away from the door. His spear clattered out of his hands as he rolled, and he found himself facing the ceiling. Ragged breaths escaped from his mouth as the sharp smell of burnt wood filled his nose.

Secretary Eaton stood where he had been, a blazing leg extended at the end of a high kick. With a pivot of her heels, she adjusted her position, slicing through the air again with a kick down at where Erick lay.

It hit the remaining part of the table beside Erick, the flames slicing through the table like an axe's edge.

The table didn't last under the assault, the flames cutting through it faster than should have been possible. Erick had seen flames before. He had a fire in his hearth every cold night, and wood shouldn't have burned that fast. Erick didn't want to know how hot those flames burned. Just imagining it made sweat run down his back and over his face.

Crack. Thunk.

"Stay down and out of the way." Eaton held a burning finger up to her lips before blowing it out. "I don't want to ruin that handsome face with a burn mark."

Erick almost stayed down. He almost gave up then and there. What could he do against those flames? There was nothing he could do.

He thought of Klaus. He thought of that boy he had helped back on Cragg Hollow and adopted as almost a son. He thought of the woman lying in the room, bereft of her limbs and asking to die. If Alex hadn't done her in, would Secretary Eaton? Was she there to steal the woman away and use her in more experiments? Neither seemed like a good option for her. If he let Secretary Eaton pass by, he would be causing more pain and suffering for her.

"I can't do that," Erick said, a fire flaring up in his heart as all his muscles clenched across his body at once.

Erick clenched his teeth. He threw his hands beneath him and jumped up onto his feet. He didn't have his spear in his hands anymore, but he didn't care. He threw himself at Eaton, wrapping his arms around her as he threw his entire weight behind his jump. They fell to the ground together, and Erick positioned himself so that his weight was on top of her.

Thump.

Erick knew that Eaton's curse would burn him at any moment. He didn't care. All he knew was that there was a victim one floor below and that he couldn't let Eaton get any closer to her. Regardless of what happened down there, Erick knew that letting Eaton down there would lead to more harm.

He may die, but that was a soldier's duty. He clamped his hands over Eaton's mouth as she struggled against him. He hoped he could hold her down for just a while. He just needed to wait for someone to come help him. Erick tasted blood in his mouth as Eaton flexed against his hold, and she tried to yell through Erick's fingers.

"Mmph!"

Eaton's lips were wet against Erick's grip, and he suppressed the image of Agnes in the same situation. He clenched his hands as tight as he could around her mouth. She struggled, pushing him to the side with one arm with more strength than he thought she had.

As she did so, he positioned his other arm around her neck, snaking it up and beneath his other arm. His idea was to close off Eaton's airway long enough to at least knock her out. It was a vain hope but a better plan for dealing with a cursed person than anything else. Techniques and curses both required breathing. After expending so much fire, Erick guessed that Eaton needed a breather before acting again.

Judging by how much she struggled, Erick was right.

"I'm not letting go!" Erick gasped between breaths as he pushed his arm onto the other to close the circle around Eaton's neck.

Eaton dug into his arm with her, her nails digging through Erick's uniform and into his flesh. Erick clenched his teeth but held on. If he let go, he wasn't going to get back up. If he gave Eaton the opportunity now, she would turn him to ash. Erick couldn't give up.

Crunch.

A sharp pain shot through his palm as teeth dug into them. Erick gasped, and for just a moment, he released the pressure that held her down. He tried to reestablish his hold, but it was too late; Eaton had an arm between Erick's arm and her neck in an instant and immediately started forcing the arm out and away. Erick tried to hold tight onto Eaton's mouth, but his fingers kept slipping.

"Grah!" Eaton gasped as she pushed through Erick's arms and threw Erick aside.

Erick fell back against the ground hard and lay there in shock. Part of his mind knew that he had to get up. He had to keep up the pressure to stop Eaton from burning him alive. Yet, his hands froze, his body seized, and he forced himself up to his knees a moment too late.

A palm touched his forehead as he knelt there, fingers splayed out over his eyes before they gripped hard into his skull like sharp talons. Erick reached up to grab the wrist of the hand, but it was as strong as steel. He wasn't a lieutenant or a captain. He didn't know the Path of Might. All he had were his own muscles, and nothing he could do would break that grip.

"You're a crazy one, aren't you?" Eaton asked, her voice cracking as she held on tight to Erick's head. "You nearly got me back there. If you hadn't let go, I'd be dead right now."

She paused, and Erick dug his fingers into her wrist.

"You can stop struggling." She sighed. "You're not going to break out of it. It's a shame to burn someone as cute as you were, but I'm afraid our games end here and now. Rebirth Bla—"

Thud.

A hand grabbed Erick's ankle, and the grip was gone. He phased through Eaton's hand like it wasn't there and fell to the ground an instant later. Eaton looked at him for one moment. Her head tilted as skin fragments peeled away from her face.

"Step."

Boom. Thud.

A man in a black jacket stood where Eaton had been, a fist extended with a silver orb in his hand. Erick hadn't even seen the punch. One moment, Eaton had been there, and in the next, she was gone.

"Alex," Erick whispered as he fell to his knees, all his strength leaving him. "I can't believe it."

"Sorry," Alex said, holding up the orb. "I need to let out some anger, so I just had to step in."

"You didn't do it," Erick whispered, shaking his head.

"I did what was necessary," Alex said. "Now let me handle her while you and Klaus get out of here."

Erick tilted his head before looking down at his leg. Klaus was wrapped around it, his eyes closed as he held on tight to Erick's leg. Erick blinked, the entire scene struggling to fit together in his mind.

"What?" He looked at Klaus and back up to Alex. "What?"

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