Atlas held Ashe's wriggling frame down. With a knee pressed onto her stomach, he pinned her elbows down at her sides. Even when he tried ripping more tape off her arms, nothing changed.

Already, her fingernails were wet with her own blood. Long scratches ran down her neck and her arms, and her face was tense and pale as she writhed in whatever mental agony Chaos put her through. Blood and mud spun away from her frame in the rippling of the water beneath them. If one good thing was happening right then, it was how her head curled upwards, away from the water that could drown her faster than Atlas could figure out what to do about it.

Once more he felt completely powerless as he watched his friend be tortured from the inside out.

You're not back in Alaska yet! Chaos' words continued to echo in his head, leaving the most bitter of lumps in his throat.

He couldn't leave her pinned. He needed to get her further away from the oil slick. Now.

Pain filled his chest as he backed up from her, and yanked up the now-soaked through emergency blanket. He couldn't carry her flailing - could he restrain her with it if he tied it around her?

He fought against flailing limbs and fingernails as he tried to slide the blanket under her and tie her arms down to his chest. It was impossible. She'd kick him in the leg, scream, rip at the thin fabric with clawed hands. Restraining her would be a two person job.

Atlas couldn't help but feel guilt once again as he turned and started running.

"Levi!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "Someone! I need help!"

How far did Chaos' reach go in the tunnel?

He skidded to a stop as Chaos' laugh once more resounded against the towering rock walls. More stones skittered down, and then it became a roaring tumble. He shouted, scrambling back. He tripped, and landed butt first into the water as large rocks and boulders came crashing down in front of him.

He watched completely helpless as his exit was filled with dirt and rubble.

When it calmed down, the tunnel was filled up to the top with an impossible amount of earth. A few pebbles continued to bounce down, and just barely, he could hear some confused shouts from above.

Those sounds were his savior right then. On shaking legs, he stood up, backing away from the rubble. "Levi!" he screamed again.

His voice echoed, and his call was not returned.

Blood pounded in his ears as he continued to desperately look up at the sky. But what would it matter? He couldn't climb out - what if the rocks fell again, and he was crushed? Or what if he watched one of their coworkers try to help only to fall to their doom?

He would have to go back, or hope Dizzee and Grayson could make it through too.

His thoughts were squashed when he heard the sound of splashing footsteps behind him.

Atlas twisted around, almost hoping to see Dizzee or Grayson following suit, and froze.

His mother stopped, maybe five feet away, with a hand on her hip and that same smile from before on her face.

"How did you—?"

They could come through the portal, too?

Were the dogs going to be right behind her? Cerberus, even?

He thought seeing his mother there would only add to the panic he felt right then, but no, for the first time since Ashe collapsed, he felt the sedative calm of the Siren call wash over him followed by the faint scent of sandalwood.

The vision of his mother blurred and he swayed slightly. And then he started walking.

No! He ripped the tape off of his forearm. Once again, the calmness was slapped away. He shook his head, only to see that his mother was coming closer, water rushing out of her wake with each step. And he had nowhere to back away this time.

"Don't worry too much about it," she said with a sweet, curling voice.

His mother stopped right in front of him, and once more reached out and grabbed him. He froze in place, his calves pressed back against the rockslide behind him. She lifted his arm, rubbing a finger down the length of one strip of tape.

"You know I love you, right?" she said.

Atlas shook his head.

She frowned, and without moving her gaze from his, she ripped one of the pieces off. He winced, trying to break her grip on his arm, but it was futile. She dug her fingernails in until it hurt, and then tore off another.

And then he finally got it into his head to shove her.

Was he supposed to fight her? Was that the only way to get out of his corner?

"Leave me alone! You're not my mom."

He couldn't say she was not real anymore. How could anything so intense be fake? He couldn't keep himself in denial about it. Whatever this woman was in front of him, she was going to drag him back there. And he would never go back there, even if the guilt of leaving his helpers behind haunted him for the rest of his life.

This was a villain standing in front of him, he told himself. She was the incarnation of everything his mother never stood for. It was what people outside of their family saw of her, just some woman who drank and smoked and turned her back on the Christianity she claimed to follow every Sunday when she stepped into the church of God.

This woman sounded like her, but it wasn't her. His mother would never grab his face and frown. She'd yell, and he'd yell back, and then they'd forgive each other and move on. It wouldn't happen now even if he was patient or passive like he had been.

So no more listening. He needed to do something.

Atlas took a deep breath. "You're not my mom," he said again.

But this wasn't the Labyrinth. He couldn't just declare with every fiber of his being that Chaos had no power over him and win the battle. This was more than that.

"You clearly don't understand—" she scowled, brushing mud off of the red-tinted leather on her shoulders "—what's going on." As if it had been lying dormant, the scent of sandalwood exploded forth. Its essence spread out from her palms, and red and fibrous it twisted into long formidable chains that coiled in the air beside her like two snakes.

Oh. That was new to him.

Atlas couldn't back up anymore, and well he wasn't getting any closer to her, that was for sure!

He ducked when one of the snake chains shot forward, covering his head with his arms. It didn't do him any good. The sandalwood circled him in a comically wide spiral before suddenly snapping together with the force to knock the air from his lungs.

Once more he found himself unable to breathe as the chains constricted him, cutting into his exposed skin on his forearms down to his boots. They were hot, too, like they sat out in the summer sun all day. He ground his teeth, sucking his stomach in as much as he could to relieve the pressure on his ribs that already ached from before. Squirming was useless, though. With a flick of her wrist, the chains coiled and threw him forward onto his knees.

His mother sighed. He heard water splash as she leaned down in front of him.

"Too bad it has to be like this. You could have just decided to stay, you know?" She patted him on the head, her eyebrows drawn back then like it did truly bother her.

He turned his head away, refusing to look at her anymore.

He let out of a muffled gasp when the chains yanked him back up until his feet hovered above the ground. He must have looked like a stringed puppet with his arms bound over his head and his knees crossed under the strain of the sandalwood chains.

"Doggies!" his mother called. Almost immediately, rapid splashes followed suit. Two of the metal beasts thudded down the corridor. One of them stopped before Atlas and turned. Promptly he was dropped onto its back and secured there as the second chain snake wrapped around them both.

With no hope left in him, his mother dragged him back through the oil slick. He didn't even have it in him to scream for help again. What was the point?

When they stepped through the shimmering rainbow portal, there were a few things Atlas noticed immediately.

One, Ashe was no longer in the tunnel. Was that why Atlas stopped hearing her cries? Was his mother that close behind?

And two, when his head touched the slick, he realized it was like when he had sunk to the bottom of the eye. It felt dark and muggy, but unlike then, it only lasted a couple heartbeats.

His mind didn't have time to wrap around why that could be significant before gray movie film filled his vision and he forced his head to look away.

His stomach knotted as he took in the sight on the other side of the portal.

Ashe had been tied up, too.

Her bound body was thrown in a little pile beside Dizzee and Grayson, who had also been constricted by red sandalwood chains. Red streaks ran down her arms, but she seemed to have settled down, Chaos' influence gone from her mind now that she wasn't a risk to him anymore. Her face was contorted though, and sweat beaded on her forehead, sticking dark hair to her face, like she was having a bad nightmare.

The two firemen were asleep as well, shoulders and heads slouched together, but unlike her, they looked at peace, almost.

The last dog and Cerberus stood tall like rusted, iron guards beside them.

Atlas started when his carrier shook him off. He thudded onto the ground like a package, his elbow slamming onto the ground. He grimaced, but could do nothing but stare at his mother's leather shoes with watery eyes.

Chaos didn't bother mocking him then. There was a content silence around them besides the sound of his mother's footsteps like hide drums as she came closer, as if the skin beneath them was hollow.

He refused to look up at her, even when she kneeled in front of him, an arm resting on one knee.

"Hon, look at me," she said, her voice still sweet and sorrowful.

He turned his head closer toward the skin beneath him and said nothing. His mind was silent, then, too. Everything was so pent up he couldn't even put it into words anymore. Every thought turned in on itself and shut down. Or maybe it was that siren call starting to seep through his system once more. His head became heavy and his shoulders relaxed above his face.

She pressed warm fingers to his cheek. "You won't believe me, but I'm doing this because I care about you. And because I'm upset. But mostly because I care, you know? It's safer for you to stay here now." She pulled some of his hair out from a chain where it had gotten stuck, as if she were about to tuck a child into bed. "Now, how about you go to sleep. We'll take you some place comfortable enough."

Against his will, his eyes closed, and the ever calm of Chaos' sedation finished the job.