Michael held tightly to Maria's hand as they hurried down the halls, winding through and between gaping doorways. They heard a soul-shattering scream pierce the uneasy blanket of silence that had settled over the complex.

Maria looked up at him with a pained expression.

"Katie," he murmured, she nodded and they began to run faster.

Maria had noticed when the second star of darkness had materialized in her satchel, but spoke nothing of it. Eventually she broke the silence. "We have to get the keys, Michael," her eyes were pleading with him.

"How?" he asked, and he saw tears forming in her eyes.

"I don’t know," she wailed softly. "I wish I did, I just know that one is in you, one is in Izzy, and one is in Max. They're what give you your powers. But I don't know how to retrieve them without hurting you three."

"Then we won't get them out. Maria, I'm not going to risk losing any of my friends to this damned crystal."

Maria slipped into silence, trying to think of how she could extract the keys.

Suddenly Michael collapsed to the floor, as did Isabel, and Max in other parts of the complex. They curled their knees to theirs chests and shared a vision.

Maria placed a hand on Michael's shoulder and saw what he saw. Inadvertently, Alex did the same to Max, getting sucked into the image with the rest. Liz, however, crouched next to her companion, watching in distracted disinterest.

The first thing they were aware of in the vision was the sound of footsteps.

"Get up!" it was Katie.

"I can't, damn it, you broke my ankle you bitch!" Michael looked at Maria, who stood next to him looking in on the cell.

"Damn near tore it off, more like," Katie smiled. "Now get up. I want to spar." She hovered over the agent, her foot raised to kick her in the ribs.

"Spar?" the blonde agent obviously wasn’t as smart as she thought.

"Yeah, you know, I kick, you block, you punch, and I block, etceteras, etceteras, etceteras." They could see the girl looking down at the blonde agent. Katie had obviously given the woman her already tattered shirt to tie around the break to apply pressure and ease the swelling, since she was standing with her back to the clear barrier. Deep gashes were running down her back, how she'd gotten them none of them could tell, the clasp of her pink bra dug into one of the more hideous wounds and the straps rubbed painfully against several of the smaller wounds."Come on, get up." She prodded the woman with her toe.

Topolsky slowly crawled up the wall and balanced on her good foot.

"Ok, so let's go," Katie, said, her voice hard, she had fallen into a fighting stance. "Come on, you've had me cooped up in here for the equivalent of weeks and now you're not going to let me have any fun?"

"I can't walk on this damned broken ankle, how do you expect me to fight you?" Topolsky demanded, and Isabel chuckled, they sounded like schoolgirls.

"Oh, hell!" Katie sighed, grabbing the agent's wrapped ankle, sending the woman flying to the floor. She unwrapped the now disgustingly purple-black and bloated ankle and inspected it. "If you're going to be a child about it…" she twisted the ankle until it was at the proper angel and the bone was set. "Give me some cloth."

"What?"

"Tear some fabric from your shirt or something, just give me something to wrap it with!" despite her hatred for the woman, Katie wasn't a completely vicious animal.

Topolsky grudgingly took off her jacket and tore a few strips of material from the bottom of it. Katie rolled her eyes and snatched the jacket, tearing off the sleeves and wrapping them tightly around the ankle.

"You'll be fine now. Get up."

Topolsky rose, tentatively testing the stability of her ankle, surprisingly, once it had been properly set and was not twisted almost all the way around, it wasn't quite as painful. "I still don't think I can spar…" the agent said hesitantly.

"Too bad," Katie said, and her anger had returned, "My patience is through."

"What?" Topolsky was hardly ready for the blow the struck her down. With a precise, aquiline movement Katie had slammed a fist into the soft stomach of the agent. She doubled over and began coughing.

Katie laughed. "Come on," she prodded, "I know you've got more in you than that! Some little bruise going to let some worthless, homeless little nothing like me beat you?" she laughed again, but it was cold and bitter, and it chilled the five onlookers to the core. She believed the words she spoke about herself; she thought it true that she was unloved, worthless…

Maria's heart constricted as Topolsky rose to her feet, her face a mask of stone fury.

"You want to play like that then?" she grinned, and the grin was almost as disheartening as the laugh Katie had let out moments ago.

Topolsky threw a fist, and Katie dodged it easily, effortlessly. She was now half facing them though she couldn't see them, and the scars on her stomach were clearly visible. Deep, dark letters carved into her stomach.'With My Soul' That was all that was written, but it proved a disturbing fact about the girl.

She knew nothing of physical sensations.

Every pulse of anguish, fear, passion, pleasure, it all stemmed from a deep emotional well. She had no sense of self-preservation, she wasn't allowed to have any, her life belonged to those that she protected, those that she had failed to protect, at least in her mind. She moved like liquid, one movement flowing into the next. Jab, hook, roundhouse, and block… it was a strange, enticing dance that they shared.

Finally Katie seemed to tire of the game, and in one swift, catlike movement, she slammed her fist into the agent's jaw, while sweeping the woman's legs from under her with a booted foot.

Topolsky fell the floor with a thud, her hand rushing to her ankle as the adrenaline ebbed away. She glared daggers at the girl who had sat down on the floor and was now drumming something nondescript with her fingers on the cold linoleum. The two fell into silence, Katie's hatred for the situation was clear on her face. Alex could feel the waves of anger coming off the battered girl.

"Christ, she could kill someone with that glare," he muttered, and four heads turned to look at him. He shrugged. "We've seen all that we're supposed to. Let's actually find her and get out of here," he took his hand off Max's shoulder and disappeared. Maria smiled and looked at Isabel, whose face was stained with tears. She hugged the blonde tightly before dropping Michael's hand and disappearing.

"We'll find her," Michael said stonily, "I swear to you Izzy, you'll see her again."

Isabel nodded, throwing her arms around her friend. She looked to Max and moved one arm to welcome him into the embrace. "We may not have had the chance to know you before, but we still love you now," she whispered and held onto both before she disappeared.

"Max," Michael murmured, as the other boy was about to leave.

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to tell you, since I may not get the chance again…" he paused, looking over at the girl who was still drumming angrily on the floor. "I envy you so much."

Max smiled, "Why? You have Maria who loves you, Izzy who simply adores you, a keeper who carves promises into herself, who loves you, you have me and Liz, who love you, and Alex, who will eventually love you too."

"You have two sisters," Michael muttered, looking at the floor, "two sisters who would both defy space and time to make sure you're safe. I have no family. I have friends, yes, Maria, I couldn't live without, but I've never had family." Max shook his head in disbelief, was this really Michael Guerin speaking?

"Michael, look at her," Max pointed to the girl, "If you ever had a mother, it'd be her. She's lived since god knows when, redeeming the lost, she never once got caught, until now."

"And it's my fault," he frowned, "I let the only conceivable family I've ever had get dragged into this…"

"No, it's not you fault," Max said sternly. "She thinks it's hers. She thinks because she let herself love you like the son, like the brother, she was denied, she failed you."

Michael looked up at his friend, "Thanks."

Max nodded, "I envy you too Michael," Max said, after a strange silence.

Michael looked confused."Whatever for?"

"I envy what you and Maria have," he sighed, looking at the floor, "we have to go now."