"This is the place." The Hellhound runs a paw down the wall tenderly. The burned-in map is not complete by any means, with places that have been written over or scratched out dozens of times. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are huge areas where the map goes blank, although they lessen as they work up to where the Hellhound has placed her paw. As she draws it away, she reveals a circle with an eye engraved in the center. "That's one of the Obsidian's greatest assets. We've been working for months, if not years, to get into it. If we could take it out, the damage we could wreak on their empire would be immense. However, it's not quite a weapon, at least not in the traditional sense- it's a portal."

My heart leaps in my chest. Even Iris can't hide the desperate want in her eyes as she stares down the scoured marks in the metal. "Our way out of here," I state, the words lingering in the air like smoke.

Iris traces the paths upwards towards the portal, weighing our options. "This doesn't look good." she says, indicating the x-marks that represent major Obsidian sentry locations. "Even if we got all the way to the inner circle stations, located here, half the Factory would be on us before we could so much as blink."

"My elites have ways of handling this." the Hellhound assures her, "We have cloakers of all kinds, cloakers who were a bitch to break out of their cells. We will have to aggress the Obsidians at some point, as a large number will be guardian the portals, but we're far enough away that they won't expect an attack."

"Can you hold cloaking for so long, on so many? We'll need a pretty powerful attack front to break through their guards, let alone the automated defenses." Iris continues, tone flat as unstirred water.

"No, but we've also been systematically attacking cameras for a while now. Don't you have electrokinesis?"

Iris's jowls slide back, revealing bright white fangs that crackle with electricity. "To some extent."

"Good, good, we'll need that. And you," Her eyes narrow.

"Torch," I respond. "It's Torch."

She nods. "Well, judging by the embers you've been letting off this whole time, you're a fire elemental."

Have I been sparking? I've been sparking the whole time, haven't I. I stutter something smart like, "Erm, yeah," and the Hellhound nods.

"Good. You two'll both be with me 'tomorrow'." She takes a quick pace about the room, "That's one of the worst parts, that is. There's no sunlight here, and no days either. What I wouldn't give just to feel light on my fur again..." With an exhaustive sigh, she turns back to us, "I'm sorry for rambling. Do you have any more questions?"

Iris ponders this for a second, and with a dismissive twitch of her ears proclaims, "I suppose not. It's not as if I have much to lose, anyhow."

"Our lives," I argue.

"True." I admit, though the thought of it turns my stomach. "Are you sure about this?"

"The plan? Of course I'm not sure. This is the riskiest thing I've ever done, save for coming here." the Hellhound laughs.

"You... came here?" Torch asks.

"I thought it was the only way I could hope to defeat them. The Obsidians conquered thousands, if not millions, of our kind and slaughtered many more in the time I was... home. They conquered many alternate timelines, hoping to get at our power and natural resources, and perhaps even regain the energy lost to them when Nethera was first cast out from the Terreskians."

"Terreskians?"

"They're sort of... guardian spirits." she says, but Iris tilts her head and to be quite honest neither of the words hold much meaning to me either.

Still, I ask, "Nethera was one of the good guys?"

"Not... not quite. Oh, you'll have so much to learn when you get to Dreamland." The Hellhound says. "One last request- if you find someone names Lotus, tell her I'll be home soon. If she's still around. It's likely she may no longer walk amongst the living."

I look to Iris, who just squints back at the Hellhound. The expression on both their faces is unreadable, full of emotion I have no words for.

"We'll find her." I say, my throat tense with sudden conviction.

***

I never thought I'd fall asleep, not with the fate of my life, Iris's life, and that of an entire uprising on the line, but the only thing I remember after walking into one of the barracks is waking up what must've been hours later with half of the Hellhound's troops mobilizing around me. My head is buried in Iris's fur, which though coarse, is a thousand times better than sleeping curled around myself. I feel secure, as if the Factory is a thousand miles away and I'm alone with her in the comforting void of space.

Unfortunately, we are in the Factory, and if we ever want to be otherwise, we need to go. Now.

"Iris," I whisper.

She gets to her paws without a hint of hesitation, ice blue eyes trained straight ahead.

I stagger to my own, but it feels like the weight of the world's on my back. Weariness shoots up my whole body, threatening to send me back into the abyss of sleep, but it's followed by a rush of fear and adrenaline strong enough to keep me standing stock upright.

The dragon from earlier is watching us, though her expression is by no means friendly. Her forked tongue darts from her mouth, and she hisses, "She's looking for you."

"The Hellhound?"

"Who else?"

I hold close to Iris as the dragon (Oriole, I think? I'm no good with names) leads us through the mob of assembled beasts. We look frightening as the Obsidians, a desperate, writhing mass of beings with no common thread to bind us except an undying hatred of this place. The Hellhound, mouth smoking and ready for war, is no higher than the rest of them, even with the addition of her long, upwards-curving horns, but she moves with such an authority that everyone else backs out of the way by instinct.

"I will not mince words. Today's mission may be our last. Never before has something so dangerous been executed by escapees, no, nothing of this magnitude has ever been attempted. Make no mistake- we risk our lives. However, we risk them not because of pride in something small as my love of my planet, despite certain rumors. We risk our lives in the love of all planets, all worlds, and all dimensions. According to intel gathered by some of you bought here in more recent times, Dreamland is a hub of worlds. If we can get these two out of here, they could signal for help and bring the entire ring of timelines crashing down on this forsaken place."

I feel a sharp pain in my chest, but Iris whispers in my ear, "Strong, Torch. This isn't just about us."

No, nor should it be. I take a deep breath and compose myself, and Iris nods. The Hellhound begins listing assignments, going through both familiar names and words so alien that they are, to my ears, little more than hissing and grunting noises. All the while she interspaces this with their intended strategies:

"-To the left, scatter and flank-"

"-should be small enough to fit into the ventilation, at least in liquidous form. If you can clog the controls, it should force them to rely solely on the hivemind, which is less efficient than they'd like us to believe."

"If we manage to divert them with an attack on another essential project, over here, it'll hold them off long enough for us to take the portal without having to fight our way through a legion of them. Aur'eal will be in charge of this mission. If anything goes wrong, we go down fighting. Hold your ground. Is that clear?"

"We who have nothing left burn in her name." chants one, raspy voice from the back, and then the group joins into an overwhelming chorus, accelerating with fierce joy and pride into an almost unrecognizable mess of noise as they continue: "She who burns in the name of her everything lights one flame and casts out all darkness. The light of a sun will shine upon our backs, in this life or the next. The waters of an ocean will rush beneath our limbs, in this life or the next. The air of a world that breathes will swim within our lungs, in this life or the next.The Hellhound approaches!"

The last words, clear as the sound of a distant bell, linger on the air like smoke.

The groups split every which way, and Iris guides me with her sharp grace back to the Hellhound, who stands at the center of the fray. Others emerge behind us, of varying sizes, number of limbs, composure, you name it. All of them are still before her.

"Right then," the Hellhound says, eyes glittering with excitement and fur glowing from within with the sheer amount of heat she radiates. "Let's go."

We take the halls at new speed, one tough for even Iris, but the determination of our group more than makes up for it. From our sheltered position in the middle, Iris and I can't see the front, and the group utilizes all the available space. Some creature skate the walls, emerging from shadow and disappearing back into it, while others alight on several huge wings, soaring at breakneck speeds and hardly making the rough, mechanical Factory turns. We only know there's been trouble when we start hearing crackling noises up ahead, followed by the noise of something crunching to bits.

"Have we been caught?" I ask, panting so hard I can hardly draw breath. "I-is this-"

"Less than we expected." replies a voice from in front of me, in that awkward pan-Factory dialect. We've slowed our pace, and the ten-legged creature before me turns a long, almost equine face to reveal several eyes working their way down its snout.

Iris lowers her ears, and by the way she's clenching her jaw I know she's thinking about being at the front, too. Is it bloodthirstiness or gratitude that fuels her want to fight? I don't know.

The pace continues to slow as the mobs pour on in front of us, and the back of the group can see the bolts of fire from back here. Around us, we shift as many of our number circulate through the front line, pushing forwards as another group holds the flank, where Obsidians have begun to spring up. Someone spits acid on a camera, which loses its shape in the most painstaking manner imaginable, melting drop by drop as it ceases to function. As we move forwards I see a still-burning insignia burned onto a melded shut door.

The progress picks up again, then stalls, then picks up. It's an organized chaos with Iris and I at the center of the storm, back to back. It seems we're almost stopped when we enter another large room with high columns, and a flood of new fighters enter from the left, wounded but furious. At their head is a familiar figure, wings extended and chest covered in obsidian splinters.

"Squad C's back. We've got 'em on our tails, let's go, let's go!" cries Aur'eal. "We don't know if they've given the signal to close the portal room yet. We don't have much that can break through the alloy they use on their top-security rooms, and I don't want to think of the casualties we could sustain while breaking the door down."

"You heard her! We're a few halls away. Don't give in now!" cries the Hellhound.

The Obsidians surge in just after the C squad does, from all directions, and the equine from earlier orders, "Get in front."

We slide in as the groups behind us form a ring around the back, holding the Obsidians off in all directions. I stumble over the corpse of a poor animal no larger than Iris and I, with four legs and almost the same composition. The sharper ears and body shape identify it as feline, with sharp claws, and the familiarity of it makes me hurt.

A sign overhead in an unintelligible language bursts into flame as the Hellhound burns it to a crisp and falls just inches from us, almost hitting Iris's wing. She steps over the burning text the same way she stepped over the body, guilt and disgust in her wide eyes and snout.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I've come down these halls before," Iris remarks, dumbfounded.

"Do you remember why?"

She shakes her head.

The hall descends into total darkness, opening into a room five times the size of any prior area I've been in. At the back is a control panel taller than I am, the only thing visible in the gloom.

Every light in the room turns on at once to reveal the machine standing behind it. It takes up the entire back of the room and is best described as similar to a giant, lidless eye, as drawn by the Hellhound. It's elliptical in shape, with inlaid metals all around the edge. A thousand blinking lights flash on and off outside the edge, and on either side two generators whirr at impossible speeds to try to get it running.

There are dozens of Obsidians in the room already, and this time we're close enough to the front to see them. Iris takes off and slams one right in the stomach with her claws, which doesn't do a thing except enrage it further. Furious, both fall back, and Iris begins firing beams of electricity in several directions. The generators scream as two of the Hellhound's fighters surge forwards and begin pumping more and more power into it. The eye begins to open- from the center of the void, a black nothingness emerges, at first just a line of it but then it flares to two dimensions, growing and overtaking the whole center as it spreads towards the gems on the outside. The Obsidians turn their attention from us to the void.

"Strike them down!" the Hellhound yells. "They can't get through."

I blow a breath of fire out towards one Obsidian in aerial form, which crashes to the ground far too close for comfort from the control panel and begins bubbling. Iris backs me up, blasting anything I miss with each fireball, but the numbers of Obsidians is only increasing. They've got other entrances. We're running out of time.

A voice colder than death echoes through the room, raw and guttural. "Hellhound," mutters Nethera. I don't need to see her to know she's there- the Obsidian queen is like death incarnate, looming over everything. Every creature in the room shudders, Obsidian or otherwise. I feel water flooding me like it did inthat small room, but now it's in my throat.

I can't move.

I can't feel anything.

The lights begin to dim around me as all emotion is sucked from my body as she feeds.

Overhead, a bright light shines through the area- a fireball, straight from the Hellhound's mouth- and lands right in Nethera's jaws. The Obsidian queen gurgles in pain as her flesh swelters from within. She's reforming quick, but we don't have that kind of time. I still can't feel anything but my numb paws move of their own accord as Iris drags me forwards.

"Lotus," The Hellhound whispers. "That was for every time you killed her."

Confusion burns at the back of my mind but it's followed by a more insistent voice. Iris yells, "Jump!" and the two of us fly over the controls together, with no one to stop us in the midst of the Obsidians' panic. I feel intense heat at my back for a split second and then everything is cold. Nothingness takes us both like slee.

Iris and I are light and fire, suspended between worlds for seconds, adrenaline racing, blinding- and then we're gone.