Waiting increased the tension.

Mettan ran his hands over the older man’s body. The toxins that were being pumped in through an IV were keeping both patients sedated. He felt out the sedative with his mind. It was a simple solution. It wouldn’t be easy, but he could filter it out if they used the same solution to keep Caleb asleep.

“Do you think this is going to work?” Alex asked.

“Yes.” Mettan turned away from the sedated humans.

“What if it doesn’t?” Alex asked

“She kills us.”

“Happy thought.” Alex turned three shades of white, “Why are we doing this?”

Mettan nodded towards the door, “She keeps us from having to fight them.”

Alex shrugged, “Why don’t we just take them?”

Mettan shook his head, “We want to get in and out of here without fighting the whole security force at once.”

“Do you really think that taking these guys down will make that much noise?”

“There is no way to know what powers they have.” Mettan put his finger to his lips, “Get ready.”

Alex nodded and moved behind Mettan.

Mettan looked over at Paige. Her eyes were closed while she concentrated. Her lips moved and her hands were pointed at the door.

“The first one is right outside your door!” The Elf whispered

The air in the room grew thick as Paige began pulling the breathable air away from the door.

“What are they doing?” Alex asked

“They’re slowing down.” Mettan answered, “Wait one of them is going down!”

Alex winced, “What about the other two?”

“One of the other ones is reaching for a radio!” Mettan’s voice grew concerned, he pushed his way around Paige, “Stop separating the air!”

Mettan pulled the door open. Water snaked out of his uniform and shot at the radio. It crackled in protest as the water soaked through the cracks. It sputtered twice before it began spitting sparks. The soldier holding it dropped it and danced back.

He stepped over the sparking radio and punched the soldier in the face. The soldier fell back and crashed on the floor. He turned around; ready to hit the third soldier.

There was no need. Paige was glaring at the soldier with both hands pointed at his throat. He was making hacking noises and clawing at his throat.

Mettan replaced the water in his uniform. He stepped over two fallen ceiling tiles. A brown bandana on the soldier’s left arm labeled the soldier as the culprit. He hit the Soldier on the back of the head. The soldier’s pitched backward, then fell face down on the floor.

Paige’s hands followed the soldier’s fall. Mettan stepped over the soldier and put his hands over hers.

“You can stop,” Mettan said quietly

“O-o-k-a-ay.” Paige chattered

Mettan looked at Alex, who was standing in the door, “Help me move them into the room.”

Paige stepped away from the man that she had choked, “Are they dead?”

Mettan grabbed the soldier and threw him over his shoulder, “No,” He walked into the room and dumped the soldier on the floor by the older man’s bed. He reached into the pocket in his belt and pulled out a tube. Inside was a sedative that would keep the soldier out for the next three hours.

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Alex dragged the second soldier in “What is that?” he dumped the second soldier on the floor next to his comrade.

“A sedative,” Mettan said as he reached over and pressed it against the second soldier’s neck.

“Is she going to be okay?” Alex pointed out the door where Paige was still standing.

Mettan set the sedative on the floor. He stood up and looked out the door, “She almost killed that soldier. She’ll get over it.”

“She’s just going to ‘get over’ almost killing someone?” Alex shook his head, “I don’t think I could do it.”

“You kill or you die.” Mettan said, “The Dark Legion won’t hesitate to kill you. You can’t hesitate to kill one of them.”

“They can’t be reasoned with?” Alex asked

Mettan picked up the third soldier, “The only purpose the Dark Legion has is to inflict as much pain on other as they can. They are monsters that have to be put down.”

Mettan dropped the soldier on top of his comrades.

“Has anyone tried?” Alex asked

Mettan sedated the soldier, then replaced the tube in his belt. He looked at Alex. There was almost a hundred years of pain that he had witnessed at the hands of Dark Legion agents. He tried to keep the pain from showing on his face, but there was too much to hold it all back.

“Many have tried to end this war peacefully.” Mettan leaned against the bed under the weight of his memories, “The fighting only gets worse. They do not want peace. They only want to kill.”

Silence hung in the air as Mettan’s words sank in. He thought about what he had just said. It wasn’t Alex’s fault that the human had been insulated from the atrocities that the Dark Legion had visited on him. It was actually a good thing that the humans were naïve about such things. Maybe they would be spared the trauma that most other beings had come to accept as normal.

Mettan stepped out of the room and rubbed Paige’s shoulders, “Are you okay?”

Paige just nodded

Mettan bent over so he could look her in the eyes, “They’re going to be okay.” He lifted her chin with two fingers when she tried to look away, “You’re doing great.”

“How come I don’t get an ata boy?” Alex asked from the door of the room

“You don’t need one.” Mettan said, “Close the door.”

Alex stepped into the hall and pulled the door closed behind him. “Which room is he in?”

“Room three-fourteen,” Mettan answered

Mettan walked up the hall. He stopped at the first set of glass elevators and waited for Alex and Paige to catch up with him. Paige was moving slowly, but she had broken out of her trance and was shuffling her feet. Part of him wondered what possible help she was going to lend. Her power was decent, but she had no will to use it. He doubted she would ever be much of a fighter, which in the world he lived in equated her to have a very short life expectancy.

Mettan hugged the left side of the hall as he walked quickly past the elevators and waiting room. It helped that the waiting rooms didn’t have glass floors, but the large glass window overlooking the hospital parking lot had him on edge. It was unlikely that they would be seen, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. The fewer problems they had the faster they could get out.

Mettan walked up the hall to the room that was just before the room next to the second set of elevators. He gripped the door and pushed it open. Inside the room was two beds just like the one that they had been hiding in. In the bed closest to him was a silver-haired lady. He guessed that she was in her late fifties. Her skin had begun to yellow and was wrinkled. Lines by her eyes told of a life where worry was frequent.

In the other bed was Caleb. Decades of working construction had tanned his skin and filled out his muscles. His blonde hair was cut short. Bruises lined his face and arms. Trauma from the car wreck, then from pushing himself while searching for his wife had left their mark on the carpenter’s skin.

Mettan pulled the IV off of the needle and dropped the tube to the floor. He gently placed his right hand on Caleb’s chest and ran his left hand down Caleb’s right arm and gripped the IV needle.

Mettan concentrated on the sedatives, splitting them out of the blood and pushing them down the arm and out the needle. He felt the pressure of a second mind looking at what he was doing. He recognized Alex’s touch and thought about overpowering his student, but the human didn’t try to interfere. It was good to see him take an interest in learning how to clean toxins from a system.

The pressure of Alex’s presence vanished. Mettan continued to work, then had a frightening thought. He opened his eyes and turned around to see Alex standing over the older woman. His hands were placed in the same positions as Mettan’s had been. A few drops of sedative dripped out of the top of the IV needle.

“Stop!” Mettan ordered

Alex’s eyes opened and his focus fell away from the woman’s body.

“What?” Alex held his hands up and stepped away from the bed. He bumped into Paige in a hurry.

“Don’t do that,” Mettan said

“Why not?” Alex pointed at the woman, “I can help her.”

“You’re tired.” Mettan pointed at the woman, “We can’t take her.”

“But we could help her get out,” Alex said

“We can’t help everyone.” Mettan said, “How are you going to decide that she is one that we are going to help? What about the other six hundred people? What makes her special?”

Alex shrugged, “I was just trying to help.”

“You can’t wear yourself out.” Mettan said, “You’re no good to anyone if you push yourself into exhaustion.”

Alex moved back to the door. “I’m going to take a look around.”

Mettan turned back to Caleb. He was about a quarter of the way done. It wouldn’t take him very much longer to finish. He closed his eyes and focused back on the sedatives. He hoped they could get out before anything else happened, but he had a bad feeling.