"I know you want to go with us, but this is what I need from you. Joanna, stay with her. No arguments, please?"

Both of the other women nodded, so Heda took off down a winding set of stairs with the rest of the crew in hot pursuit. At the bottom, they found another couple of doors, one of which led into the basement while the other had no sign. Heda did not even ask, she just pointed to the door, and then Billy plowed through it. Beyond was a set of stone stairs that descended into darkness.

"Why do you hold on?" Detrius asked.

"He would have let you die a long time ago."

Madison had nothing left to tell him. Everything she said was met with a blast of cold air. She couldn't feel her fingers anymore, so she had wrapped the chain around her arms. The silver had seeped through her thin clothing, and her arms were blistered and bleeding.

The pain was excruciating, but it was not the pain that was sucking all hope away, at least not by itself. Madison was tired. So very, very tired.

“We should not protect them!" he screamed at her.

"They are the arrogant elite, and they use whatever power that they possess to hurt us! They take everything away until only the bones are left, and Alvin Hannity is just as deserving of death as Reichert.

‘Is that what you want? You want me to empathize with whatever problems you have with the Reptile King?’ she thought, even as her teeth chattered and her skin burned. The chain slipped a bit, and she tried grabbing it with fingers that were likely to break off.

"You said I had a choice?!" she shouted as tears froze on her face.

"I choose me! Kill me instead, because I'm not fucking like you and won't be."

"You ARE like me --"

"No, I'm not! You hate us because we're part animals? I'm more human than you, you son of a bitch, because I wouldn't be able to Live with myself doing what you've done. Alvin's an ass, but that doesn't mean he deserves to die. I won't let you pin this on me, and I won't let you make me be like --" She screamed as cold air was again blasted down on her.

"I choose me!" she shouted again, allowing the frigid air to permeate her throat and creep down towards her lungs.

A loud noise started buzzing, and the air was cut off. She tried reaching out with her echolocation, but whatever concoction of chemicals Detrius had given her was suppressing her Gift as well as her ability to shift. She heard scuffling somewhere, then the faint echo of "no no no," as if the microphone was still on but Detrius was not near it.

"Alvin," she shouted, thankful for the distraction, “are you alright?"

The chain yanked a bit against her arms and she heard a thump nearby.

‘If he's hanging from the chain, he's probably swinging on it right now.' Her feet slipped on the other side of the tube, and she scooted up. If she just let him drop, it would probably pull her right out of the —

‘What are you thinking?’ she asked herself. ‘Could you really just let him die to save your own ass?' Not that the choice might not be taken away from her, as the chain slipped again. The pain in her arms was almost unbearable. She heard a crashing noise, then a lot of shouting. ‘Someone's here,” she thought. Then, the explosions started.

She felt a wave of heat erupt somewhere nearby, and something slammed into her tube. ‘Oh no,' she thought, ‘if this thing breaks, then I can't brace --' Another crash, and she could hear the tube cracking.

"No! Please, someone help me! If I drop this --" Suddenly the cold air came back on, full blast. The tube continued to crack, its structural integrity further weakened by the conflicting temperatures.

The chain slipped a little more.

“Oh God I'm sorry," she said. She couldn't feel her limbs anymore, and the pain caused by the silver chain was just too much. Whatever strength she had left simply abandoned her, and the chain started to slide.

She heard another crash, and bits of glass came raining down on her.