"Atlas!" Ashe didn't step out any further, staying grounded in Alaska with one boot planted firmly on permafrost doused in two inches of water. She blinked a few times before she rapidly shook her head and ripped off a strip of tape from her arm. "Quick!"

It took him long moments before he acknowledged what was happening. This easily? And Chaos knew?

"I don't know where Arrone is," he said quickly, pressing a palm against the solid side of the oil slick. That was such a confusing sensory not unlike what he's seen in this world so far—his hand could grasp it like the frame of a door, and yet when he looked his skin touched nothing but glittering air.

"We'll come back." She ripped off another piece of tape.

Now he knew what she was doing. She was bursting the seductive bubble of the oil slick's Siren call with each rip of a bandage.

You don't really think that, do you?

Chaos' booming laugh made the ground shudder beneath his feet. Atlas scrambled for the edge of the shimmer to keep himself upright, his boots sliding on the skin under him.

Better look behind you.

And then came the most deep, rumbling growl he'd ever heard.

Ashe screamed and ducked, her body disappearing back through the portal. He saw a glint of light before something fast and nimble leaped into his chest.

The beast impacted like a hundred pound stone. It launched him eight feet from the oil slick and his body skidded even further. He crumpled onto the ground wide-eyed, gasping from the pain blooming in his ribs.

Atlas watched as the rest of them quickly met the same fate, creations of tangled, rusted iron standing over all three of them with heavy paw-like features pinning even Grayson's large form to the ground.

They looked eerily similar to Cerberus, just more dog-like, and far, far more agile.

He squirmed beneath its weight, kicking its hind legs and underbelly with all of his strength.

Somewhere behind him, he heard slow, heavy footsteps accompanied by the rattle of what his imagination could only fathom as steel-plated armor. He could hardly hear it over the frantic banging of his boots and his ragged breath, but it was enough to fill him with more vigor, because he didn't want whatever that thing was to get any closer.

Finally, he heard a solid crunching sound as the heel of his boot made contact with a thinner strip of iron. Somehow, the now-foot-shaped indent gave him the leverage he needed. He dug into the ground with his shoulders, and with an arching back and every ounce of strength in him, he managed to thrust the dog away.

Gasping for breath, he scrambled to his feet only to see Grayson had beaten him to it. The larger man stood above Dizzee, an elbow hooked around the third beast's neck. With a grunt, he yanked it back from his partner's body and kicked it away.

Somehow, he was surprised he could even move. That either of them could. Despite the bruise and ache in his body, he didn't feel like it was immobilizing.

Atlas backed up. He needed to stay as close to the two rescue workers as he could. They had already been separated and the three metal creatures stood between them and their only chance of escape.

Unfortunately, that put him in the position to see what had made the rattling of an armed knight. And unsurprisingly, it was the familiar, massive biped form of Cerberus.

His blood ran cold when he saw what it was carrying on its shoulder.

His mother smiled when she caught his eye. There was a new glint in her hazel gaze, and a smug smile on her face. He was forced to see her in full, Cerberus' shadow dropping over them, metal glinting in the white-gray lights from the movie film above their heads.

She wore rough leather from her neck to her ankles, a locket hanging from her neck made in the same shape as that poor-man's wedding ring his father had given her. Her outfit and even her eyes had a horrible red sheen to it, like she stood in the rain beside the emergency sign at Mission Hospital.

"Where do you think you're going, hon?"

Atlas had nothing to say to that. He backed closer to Grayson, and with each step the beasts' eyes followed him, if he could even call them eyes. How did they even get out of this situation? So far, he escaped from sheer luck, but this? What could he do against four iron beasts and... his mom?

"Home?" Dizzee said. "It's pretty obvious."

His mother regarded him for a short time before dismissing him with a shake of her head, returning her focus to her son. "You didn't even say goodbye." There was an obvious smile to that voice that made Atlas know she felt no sorrow for that.

This wasn't the same person, she just looked like her, he told himself. It didn't help the sense of uneasiness that continued to creep in. Somehow, they needed to get through the three dogs and get Ashe to open the portal once more for them. But how?

He didn't get a chance to even think before Cerberus picked up his mother and placed her on the ground. She stalked forward with wide strides and the dogs shifted to the side to let her pass. Her fingers grazed over the middle one's head. Each of the dogs reached up to her waist, and the length from their head to their short, stumpy tails had to have been five feet.

Actually, his mother was taller than before. He found himself looking up. She stood straight with her shoulders back, her smile now dropping from her lips. As usual, there wasn't a single streak of make up on her face.

"Who is this?" Dizzee asked from behind Grayson.

Atlas hesitated before he answered. "My mom."

She stopped in front of him, gripping his chin with firm fingers. "You really don't care, do you?"

He shoved her arm away, stepping back once more. By this point, he was getting further and further away from the portal, and her oddly tall, red-radiating body blocked his view of it. Grayson and Dizzee inched away from them, but the metal dogs prowled a little closer with each movement until they, too, stopped and just watched the scene unfold with palpable tension.

"Stop talking to me," Atlas forced out through clenched teeth. His heart raced in his chest as he lifted his head to look his mother in the eyes with all of the willpower he had right then. "Us wanting to leave has nothing to do with you."

His mother laughed. It startled him.

"It has everything to do with me, hon." She peered at her arm for a moment, like she was surprised he resisted her at all. All he could do was stand in silence in the shadow of Cerberus and his three minion dogs and wait for her to react. She tightened her hand into a fist, her gaze snapping back to him. Her voice came out in a soft, soothing hiss. "How about we go back to drinking our wine."

And with that, she snapped her fingers.

Immediately, the dogs leapt into action. And so did Grayson. He grabbed Atlas by the collar of his shirt and yanked him to the side. Sharp metal barely missed him as all three of them took off in a diagonal sprint mostly in the direction of the oil slick.

"Ashe!" Atlas yelled, as if she could somehow hear him. And... maybe she could. Her head briefly popped out of shimmering light and she waved them down.

Grayson abruptly stopped, and as if he had trained for this very moment his whole life, he caught one of the metal dogs mid-leap with his elbow, twisted, and slammed it down into the ground.

His arm pulled away with scratches running down skin. But still, like the tank of a video game, he drew the attention of all three, and that gave Atlas enough time to change course.

He and Dizzee took off toward the oil slick now that they had no pursuers. A high-pitched whistle behind them was all they heard as they finally came within arm's reach of Ashe. She stepped aside, her taped arm the last thing holding the portal open like an elevator door.

Atlas grasped its edge the moment he heard Dizzee shout.

He made the mistake of looking behind him. At his mother's whistle, one of the dogs parted, and now Dizzee laid flat out on the ground.

And he knew he would hate himself for the rest of his life for doing this.

Atlas ducked his head, and threw himself through the oil slick, leaving his two saviors and the clang of metal behind him.

He crumbled down on the other side, rolling and falling face first into inches of lukewarm water. Ashe knelt beside him as he panted, spitting out melted snow and mud, pressing himself up onto his elbows. He knew that he couldn't stay right there before Chaos' sedation would overcome them, and they'd walk right back only to be attacked a second time.

"Wait!" Ashe stopped him, throwing open the top to a white medical box. She grabbed the tape and scissors and began cutting them up. He pushed back his now-drenched long. There was an emergency blanket in the box, and he frantically unfurled it and used it to dry his arms off so the adhesive would stick.

That warm-hug feeling was starting to curl over him again. The sound of water trickling and the patch of evening sunlight behind him warmed his back. It calmed the throbbing pound in his chest and head from the adrenaline, it stilled his shaking fingers, which ended up being an advantage for him as he regained some of that calmness he had felt back when he and the two rescue workers had chatted idly before his mother surrounded them with dogs.

Once he finally got the first piece of tape to stick, he immediately ripped it off, discarding it into the water with Ashe's.

The sense was exactly like being slapped in the face. The calmness vanished, panic began rising in his chest against his will, and the impeding wave of pure, unrelenting guilt rose on the horizon of his conscience.

What kind of person was he, to leave the people who saved him from the Eye behind? And yet, he had never felt more relieved in his life. He had made it out, thanks to them. If anything, he wasn't the type of person who would forget them, if they didn't make it out themselves.

He clenched his knees, his whole body growing rigid as he focused on a spot on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Ashe's soft voice barely resounded over the sound of his own onslaught of thoughts.

Atlas nodded, but yet he still found himself saying, "no."

"Are you okay to go up?" She kneeled beside him. "I'll stay here for them."

"Yeah."

Despite his answer, he stayed there, kneeling. His head was starting to get fuzzy again, a tired lull pulling his head down until he violently yanked another strip of tape off. "What in Hell am I even supposed to do?" His voice cracked then, and when he heard the pathetic sound he couldn't help but start crying.

He was completely stupid.

He was completely useless.

Ashe sat in discomfort in front of him, fiddling with the clip on the emergency kit. "We can't ask for help, or it'll just repeat again," she said solemnly. "At least until you decide what to do, because you know what's going—" Her voice hitched.

Atlas flinched when she suddenly grasped her stomach, her eyes going wide.

"Ashe?"

He wiped his face and pushed himself forward onto his knees. He placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't react to his touch at all.

And then a far too familiar rumble sent stones skittering and rippled the water. Chaos' laughter. He froze when the being's voice radiated out, deep inside his head.

I told you not to think you're winning. You're not back in Alaska yet!

There was no way. But he had made it through the portal!

Ashe screamed and threw herself onto her side, her back arching as she clawed at her arms.

Atlas grabbed her shoulders. "Ashe! What's going on?"