Go left.

Great advice. Truly, words of wisdom. Can't fault that logic.

Right up until I find myself at the end of the corridor, trying to figure out which direction I'm supposed to go...

You know, for the next hundred turns I'm going to have to make to escape this Hell-hole.

I like Robin, really, but there is something seriously wrong with the people in her family.

Though I don't know what it is exactly, it should definitely be made an official mental disorder, and be given a fancy scientific name.

One that rhymes with Crazy.

Rubbing my forehead to ease the pure frustration accumulating in my temples, I took a moment to convince myself not to chase the giant man with the bloody sword down and abuse him for giving me crappy directions.

Hey Maddison, this is your brain calling. I know that I've been neglecting you lately, but I'm here for you now.

I hope you realise that, by getting yourself killed, you'll be taking the entire family down with you.

That's why the boss has asked me to offer you a... A little persuasion.

You see, I happen to have access a lot of... Private information. Stuff that someone may want to keep secret if you know what I mean.

So let's not do anything stupid, okay kid?

"So much for an easy solution to my problems." I sighed, opening my eyes to glare calculatingly at the latest screw up of my life.

Okay, I can figure this out. I'll just use my abnormal brain to deduce an answer from thin air.

Blindly trusting my Subconscious has never failed me in the past right?

Fretfully, I began to pace.

He's set me off in the right direction. This is a starting point, so as long as I don't backtrack past this point, I won't get more lost than I am now.

... Just try to think like a Linquesta, trust your instincts and sense the lefty vibe...

A squelch came as I stepped in something wet. I froze, already getting the sinking feeling I wouldn't like what I would find as I slowly looked down.

Please don't be blood. Please don't be blood. Please don't be blood. Please don't be blood...

The metallic scent hit me as I lifted my foot back out of the dark puddle.

The lab was dark.

But I didn't need the sun in its full shining glory at my side to be able to figure out what exactly I had just stepped in.

Tests conclude that we have blood positive.

Stifling the urge to scream, I looked away from the blood, letting my eyes roam the dark hallway before me.

If I didn't know to look for it, I probably wouldn't have spotted the odd gleams in the dark, where dark liquid reflected the distant fluorescent light.

...Following the trail of blood works too.

I groaned, imagining the tedious search in the dark for tiny drops of red liquid.

... It's just going to take a while.

Not that A While was anywhere near an accurate description of next the gruelling chapter of my life.

Where I was driven to the brink of insanity and back out again by the mind-numbing task of navigating the dark via the twisted bread crumb trail left by old men playing Hansel and Gretel.

But it was either this or wait for Jack to find and torture me to death so...

I'll have to let Jack know he only lost by a very small margin.

The closer I came to my destination, the more frequent the drops of blood became and the faster I was able to travel.

My nerves felt about ready to snap, and by the time I actually encountered the reason why I had been asked to go this way, I felt about ready to cry.

Both relieved that the search was over and terrified of what I would find...

Behind the ajar door with the smiley face drawn on it.

In blood.

Whether this was meant scare or reassure me, one thing was clear,

....I do not appreciate it.

I had seen doors and empty rooms in my travels down the long hallways, but never wasted the moment it would take to investigate the abandoned destruction inside each one.

I don't have the stomach for horror, but since this is where the blood is leading me to... I don't really have much of a choice... But to die horribly to whatever is waiting for me on the other side of this door.

Swallowing a frustrated whimper, I slipped through the opening, expecting to be jumped scared the moment I stepped into the room.

... It looked like the least comfortable waiting room in all clinical history.

The remains of metal furniture scattered the room, bent and rusted beyond use. Every inch of floor space seemed to be covered in paper documents, magazines, plastic cups from the fallen water cooler and other random objects left abandoned. The place even had a corpse in the corner, if dead pot plants could be counted.

More importantly.

"See? Told you she could do it."

I had found what was taking Alex so long.

"Shut up. " Alex hissed, speaking to the phone that lay at his side.

Where he sat, slumped against the wall.

Covered in blood.

"I can forgive you for being confident enough to bet your life on her safe return." The grumpy redhead breathed, sounding more furious than I had ever heard him before. "But for betting hers, I'll make you pay for this PeriWinkle."

All I could do was stand in the doorway and stare at the damage.

Being what amounts to an expert on the subject, I could tell that Alex had just gotten his butt handed to him on a silver platter.

He was bleeding from nasty cuts on his arms and legs, but the majority of the blood dripped down from his chin, from the wound hidden behind his blood-soaked hair.

Lark Linquesta doesn't screw around.

When I didn't make a sound, Alex sighed, his lips twisted into a grimace. "Don't go quiet on me Maddison. It gives me the creeps."

He didn't lift his head, obscuring my sight of his face.

His eyes...

A wound that wasn't intended to kill, but to immobilise...

I swallowed, suddenly very not okay with the situation.

"What happened?" I asked, voice thin.

Alex twitched.

"It's not as bad as it looks. "

Yea right.

"I doubt that you are in any position to say that Alexander." Peri's voice came from the phone, strained and oddly irritable.

Alex smirked, shifting uncomfortably

"Already with the blind jokes, huh?"

It had sent me many threats in the past, but today was the day my stomach decided to betray me.

I dry heaved.

Violently.

If I actually had anything in my stomach at that moment, it would have met the floor.... gone on a date, got married and had a few kids.

I could have maybe passed it off as a hiccup, but my body had no intention of cooperating in that endeavour, as I continued to retch.

"Maddison." Alex begun, voice strained and demanding my attention, but I wouldn't listen to him no more than my body was listening to me.

Blind. Alex was Blind. He hadn't come for me because he had been slashed across the face with a sword and now he was blind blind blind...

"Do something!" Peri begged through the phone, experiencing my freak out first hand.

Alex swore harshly, scooping the phone up as he pushed himself forward onto his hands and knees.

"Of all the days for you to become squeamish. " He muttered, crawling carefully across the floor towards where he could hear my stomach trying to escape my body.

"Stay away!" I gasped out, gaining some control at the prospect of Alex coming closer. "I want... to die... In private..."

Alex just scoffed, ignoring my continued protests as he closed the distance between us.

He stopped when he was within arms reach, a blind hand cautiously tracing the floor in front of himself in search of me.

By the time fingertips brushed against my booted feet, the heaves had died down to a convulsive trembling.

At this point, I pretty much expected him to flick me over on my ass for being such a cry baby drama queen.

Delinquents do not have or tolerate panic attacks.

"Idiot." He muttered, his finger tracing up until he found my hand and pinched it gently between his thumb and forefinger. "You better be dying. Otherwise, I'm going to kill you for making me worry like this."

I stared down at where he held me, the end of my arm lost in a hand that could hold my entire body. His fingers were sticky with blood, and my own were raw from climbing, but couldn't quite bring myself to care.

Handholding... I must sound extra traumatised... or the bloodloss has him in a special place...

"You can fix it, right?" I asked quietly, the lack of volume doing nothing to hide the anxiety behind the words. "With Nanotechnology? "

Alex sighed, likely thanking his lucky stars that my freak out hadn't escalated into full-blown hysteria.

"Do you think I would be this calm if I couldn't?"

Calm translating into only mildly irritated with the situation?

"I think we don't have time for you to be evasive and answer all my questions with questions," I muttered, in no mood to let him off easy. "Jack's still after me, you know."

He sighed, but this time it was followed by him carefully laying face down on the floor.

"You'd need more than misdirection to make it past Lark Linquesta. Bird boy's probably curled up in a hole licking his wounds by now."

Even as he lay in an exhausted heap, Alex kept my hand in his, maintaining the contact.

Probably so he doesn't have to search blindly for me again if I try to run off and do something stupid.

"The only reason it's taking this long and this much energy to heal is because Linquesta's a sadist who coats his sword in anti-tech. I'm technically fighting off an infection here, so just give me a minute."

I grimaced, not liking how quickly Alex was dismissing everything.

"Why did he...?" I trailed off, unable to fully put what had happened into words.

Alex grumbled something rude into the floor, answering my question with a reluctant sigh.

"As you may have deduced, Mc'Valium and Linquesta senior showed up. We had a difference of opinion. Robin's daddy made sure I wouldn't be coming to find you and this traitor... " He held the phone. "Took their side."

"I did not!" Peri protested indignantly. "I evaluated the situation and made an educated decision. Like an adult."

"Backstabber." Alex hissed unforgivingly, causing Peri to give a frustrated huff.

"You have to at least explain things from my side!"

"Nah-ah." Was Alex's uncommitted mumble. "Maddison is here now, so you know what that means."

"Maddison, don't let him..."

"We don't need you anymore. "Alex sang mockingly, holding the button on the side of the phone down, switching it off.

"... Well, that was mature." I commented blandly, taking enough pity for the guy trapped inside my head to say something in his place.

With a dull thud, Alex let the arm with the phone drop.

If only I could see Peri's indignant expression right about now... I need the cheering up.

"So." I looked at the dead phone, nervously. "Was that because he was just annoying in general, or because he was about to say something you didn't want me to hear?"

Alex remained silent, either unconscious or well on the way to wishing himself there.

In a sudden burst of temper, I yanked my arm out of his grip. A noise of protest came from the giant as his fingers reached out for me.

I stepped back.

"What are you not telling me?" I demanded. Alex muttered a nasty word at me, and I kicked him in the hand hard enough to bruise.

"... He wouldn't tell me where you were." Alex finally muttered sourly in his own defence.

"To prevent you from traipsing blind down the hallways where both Jack and Linquesta are on the prowl?" I asked impatiently, already feeling myself taking the Supervisor's side.

"That," Alex admitted quietly. "But more so for the same reason, Linquesta blinded me in the first place."

I held still, waiting silently for Alex to elaborate.

"The further away the radio waves get from the origin, the more broken they become."

I swallowed, taking another nervous step back.

"You're out of her range here?"

"On the edge of where it might start becoming a problem."

"And if you had come to rescue me....?"

"I had every intention of doing so even if she had you sitting in her lap." He growled. "She's pretending to play fair though, giving you a chance to move further out of her influence."

"And Peri found out about this and decided to make you stay put while I made my way to you?" I concluded with a slight twitch of annoyance.

Not that I needed to be rescued like a princess or anything, but there were stairs...

"It was probably the most logical decision," Alex admitted. "Basic First aid. Trying to rescue someone by jumping headfirst into a hazardous situation is only going to make more people to rescue."

I stood silently, letting the news sink in.

"... Wow, I didn't realise that Peri was such heartless Jerk. " I crossed my arms, dumbfounded.

"Damn straight. "

"I mean, sacrificing little old me just to keep your dumb ass out of danger, the guys practically an unfeeling robot."

"Ouch Maddison, a little bit too close to the truth there, don't you think?"

Rolling my eyes, I softly punched his hand. "You're an idiot Alexander Floid."

"Takes one to know one."

"Yea, but at least I have my looks to fall back on."

"Bite me pipsqueak."

Turning my back to him, I sighed the words so quietly I was sure Alex wouldn't hear.

"Thank you, Peri."

As Alex muttered something about bad decisions in life, I sat down with my back pressed against his curled fingers.

"You should rest now Alex, and recover from the great injustice that has been done to you." I sighed "When you're healed, I'll help you get your revenge."

"Promise?"

"Yea... Till I get bored of it anyway. "

Alex's fingers twitched at my back.

"Don't get too comfortable, I can already fill my eyes starting to itch. I'll be seeing again within the next ten minutes. "

I grimaced. "You just keep your gross eyeball regeneration details to yourself, and we're not going to have a problem."

I could hear him smirking before he spoke.

"... Then I guess you don't want to hear about the time I regrew my...?"

"Hey, here's a topic change that will make you uncomfortable." I interrupted, jabbing an elbow back into his hand in warning.

"What would have happened, if you had gotten close enough for Cassandra to affect you with her radio waves?"

Alex immediately shut up, and I knew I had found the perfect way to keep him silent for the next ten minutes while my brain recovered.

"Isn't it obvious?"

I froze.

How had he gotten past...

I looked up.

Oh

"Mother dearest intends to hit the reset button on her precious. Little. Alexander."

He used the vents.

In a swoop of dark feathers and claws, Jack dropped from the ceiling.

Clever birdie.