Torn apart by rage and fear
Hold on to what brought you here
Don't let it go
_______________________________

Cammie had rarely been happier to see anyone than she was to see Vino. Despite everything that was happening, her heart fluttered a bit when they got back to him. Writing it off as just nerves, she was just glad to be one step closer to getting out of here, she told herself. And anyway, was glad she got back when she did, as it was obvious that Vino was exerting himself to keep the vines under control; she could see the sweat gathering on his forehead. She winced as the soldiers hit the ground. That would leave a mark in the morning.

Vino needn’t worry about her sticking close to Nat. She wouldn’t let Natellia out of her sight again until this whole mess was sorted out. And as Vino took her free hand, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to leave, either. Cam wanted to make sure he stayed safe, too, although she had less control over that.

Ok, same plan. Easy enough. Cammie didn’t say anything, what could she say, ‘hey Nat, this strange boy saved me from a group of rapist soldiers, and I don’t really know who he is or what he does, but we’re going to trust him.’ Even in her head, it sounded kind of stupid, like the things her mom had always told her not to do. ‘You trust too easily,’ Cammie had always been told. ‘It’s going to get you hurt.’ Well, this [i[was[/i] different, and what was the worst Vino could do? Nothing worse than those soldiers, Cam figured.

She looked toward the gaping hole in the auditorium, and across the ‘battle field,’ it seemed impossibly far. Taking strength from the two people on either side of her, Cammie nodded, focusing on ignoring Vino’s thoughts, and the terrified soldiers that ran and shot wildly as they approached. One soldier collapsed, sobbing, when Vino nudged him out of the way, and Cam squeezed more tightly Vino’s hand. She worried that this would be scaring her already frightened sister, heck, it scared her a little bit, but she trusted this boy that had come to her rescue. Cam wondered what he was making the soldiers see, but decided she didn’t want to know. Not now, she could always ask questions later.

Following closely behind Vino, not releasing his hand, Cammie looked back at Natellia. “We'll be ok now.” she said in what she hoped was a strong, reassuring tone, trying to comfort herself as much as her sister.

Defend what is yours, they will not take our souls
It’s time now to rise and fight

Cicada was still getting used to the fact that her best buddy was now a werewolf-type monster. Though she trusted that Caleb, the person, was in control, she was on edge, uneasily waiting to see if the monster would take over and rip her to pieces. So far, so good; the most damage Caleb-beast had done was lick her cheek, which was both weird and uncomfortable. Cicada didn’t like regular dog slobber, and Caleb-dog slobber was…well, weird. She wiped at her cheek with the back of her hand, muttering aloud, “It had to be a dog. It couldn’t be a giant cat. Or a spider. A dog. Of course.” However, there wasn’t much she could do about it, except work with Caleb to save everybody.

Wow, she sure sounded important. Now, how to go about doing this?

Caleb seemed to have his own ideas about what to do. He picked up Cicada around her waist, which was a shock, to be sure. Cicada held on to his hand for dear life, wide-eyed and speechless. Which was just as well, because if she hadn’t been speechless, she would have been screaming her head off. What the hell was he doing? The answer became clear only seconds later, when he swung her onto his back. Cicada finally got it: there was no way she’d be able to keep up with him, so she’d hang on and hope for the best. She held on as best as she could, appreciating her wall crawling ability even more now. It was helping her stick onto Caleb, despite the fact that one hand was still wrapped around the gun. Without further ado, Caleb ran inside.

If it hadn’t been a life or death situation, it would have been a blast. Cicada made a mental note to herself to have werewolf-Caleb run around with her more often; it was very exciting. He ran through soldiers like they were nothing, and Cicada took her first shot at trying to shoot somebody. There was no way she was going to kill anybody, so she aimed low, so she’d be hitting somebody’s leg. She wanted to close her eyes, but resisted. She pulled the trigger, and was surprised at the lack of recoil. A second later, she saw why. Apparently, not all of the soldiers had planned on killing the kids; this gun was full of hypodermic needles. The one she had shot missed her target by a long shot, but at least she wasn’t at risk for killing anybody. Feeling oddly refreshed, Cicada tightened her hold on Caleb’s back, waiting for him to stop so she could be useful.

Caleb made his way to the side of the room, out of harm’s way. He picked Cicada up and put her gently on the ground. She brushed the hair out of her face, feeling that the ends were singed. The room was hot, despite the several holes in the walls, and it appeared she had caught on fire at some point. She opened her mouth to tell Caleb something, but before she could, he went charging off towards a group of soldiers. One broke off and came for Cicada, aiming a gun at her. Thinking quick, she did what she had done before: leaped straight up and clung to the wall. This time, she shot her own gun, and hit the soldier in the foot. He started to shout, then his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed to the ground.

Meanwhile, Caleb had come back over, clutching another one of the soldiers in his huge hands. Cicada dropped back to the ground, wondering what he wanted. When he began whaling on the soldier, Cicada protested. “Caleb, stop it! We aren’t killing people!” So far, she had never asked if Caleb had ever killed anybody in his monster-state, and she didn’t really want to know. But she wasn’t going to let him run completely rampant. Before he could protest or anything, she pointed the gun down and shot the man in the arm. She looked up at Caleb, shrugging and asking, “What now?”

As Cammie grabbed her, Nat could feel her insides burning with all of the emotions. The bad part was that she hadn't had enough training yet to control that and turn it into energy yet. Right now the best that she could do was hold onto her sister and try not to hit anyone from Pantheon with her surges of emotions.

While they were running through the crowds Nat could smell the sweat and blood coming from everywhere. Hopefully no students were hurt or dead now. If any of her friends were hurt in the end then she would kill who ever did it.

As her sister, the other man and her pulled each other through the battle Nat thought 'Why is he doing this? Why would some stranger want to help out her sister and her?'. Almost as soon as the though crossed her head Nat felt waves of something from the two of them. It wasn't anything Nat had felt before. Ah! Obviously they liked one another. Well this wasn't a good time to play match maker but if she did get out of there then match maker was a definit game that she would want to play.

While the emotions were ready to burst out, Nat tried to make the soldiers angry with each other so they would fight each other instead of the students. This actually worked very well. Her power was growing emmensely over this period of time. Maybe when there was a huge surge of emotions like tonight then her power grew?

Some soldiers that got the "wrath" of Nat's power were looking confused and walking out of Pantheon. She didn't have a very strong power but at least she wasn't completely useless.

It was hard to ignore the cries of the students as they rushed by, but Nat was scared and needed to get out of there. It would still be chaos but just not as much. She looked to Cammie and saw that fear and a sort of smile was on her face. The fear Nat could understand, but the smile? Oh wait it was for Vino, nevermind.

It seemed like the auditorium had no end and they would be running forever. Nat looked over at her sister and responded "I hope so Cammie" she said in a shaky and pained voice as a bullet just barely missed her head .

Defend what is yours, they will not take our souls
It’s time now to rise and fight

Cicada had no idea how much control she had over Caleb. Clearly, he was in there somewhere, but there was also a monster-dog thing that wanted to kill people. Luckily, the monster was listening to her, or Caleb was making him listen, or something. Though the man would probably need a hospital bed (and an IV, and some meds, and surgery…), he’d live. Caleb now seemed disappointed, and shoved the soldier to the side, against the wall. Cicada rolled her eyes, hoping Caleb was doing bringing her presents. After all, there really wasn’t much she could do with unconscious soldiers, especially ones that were bleeding all over the place.

Cicada figured that by staying in one place, they were becoming a target. An especially big target, with Caleb being super tall and scary. Before they moved, Cicada took the fallen soldier’s gun, making sure it matched the one she already had so it would be shooting darts. A few more soldiers were coming their way, and Cicada shot at them, mostly missing because of her atrocious aim. One smirked at her, raising his own gun to put Cicada to sleep. Frustrated, she jumped forward, running around to behind him and climbing up his back. She then gave him a knock on the head with the butt of her gun, and he crashed to the ground. She rolled off, panting slightly but with eyes glowing. Who knew she could actually fight.

Seeing that they were in danger where they were, Cicada tugged Caleb a few more meters along the wall. They weren’t in a much different position, but at least they weren’t surrounded by unconscious soldiers. AT least, not until Caleb started going berserk again. She now took the time to look up at Caleb, to see if he had found an answer to their problem. He seemed confused at first, just staring blankly at her. Then he said her name (or the closest he could get to her name), and Cicada perked up, hoping for a brilliant idea. What she got was…interpretive dance.

Cicada watched Caleb dumbly as he mimed out his plan, the gun hanging loosely from her hand. She wished he would just change back to normal and tell her, but she supposed he had a reason for not doing that. She squinted her eyes, trying to understand what he was saying. There was her, and him, circling the audotorium…as Caleb reached behind her to knock out a soldier (she barely flinched this time, she was proud to say) she understood. “You want me to climb on your back, and tell everybody to get out?” she asked hesitantly for confirmation. “Shoot all the soldiers that don’t leave, and round everybody up so they’re all safe.” At least, that’s what she thought he was trying to say. She shrugged, adding, “Well, it’s the best idea we’ve got.”

As a result of the whole predicament, Cicada was not paying much attention to what was going on around her. All that was important for survival was keeping track of Caleb, and the few soldiers that were still menacing the pair. Thus, she gave a muffled shriek when a hand wrapped around her arm, then pushed her backwards. A dart that grazed the person’s shoulder shot past her head, and she barely ducked in time to avoid it. She recognized him; Ichimo, the guy she had danced with before the masquerade had become a massacre. He seemed of like mind that it was imperative that everybody get OUT.

“Yeah, we’re working on it,” she replied, somehow managing to sound sarcastic. She frowned, noticing that he had been shot. “Are you okay? Did you get hit by one of the darts?” She shook her head slightly, trying to dislodge the million questions she had. “Never mind. Caleb came up with a plan to get people out.” She suddenly realized that she should probably introduce the two, so Caleb didn’t try to attack Ichimo. “Ichimo, this is Caleb, and he is normally a person. Caleb, this is Ichimo, please don’t eat him.” Well, that ought to take care of it.