Jael shoved hard against the ball of magical light. It dissolved quickly around his hands, but Leocadia wasted no time in conjuring up another. Jael's frustration at being constantly locked in a stalemate like that bled into his wind. It swirled even faster around his fists, but still the light refused to yield. It was no stretch to say that the fight was not going well for him.

He needed to get in close, get around her magic somehow, but it was always there to thwart him. He'd never be able to outlast her. Already Jael could feel the telltale scrabbling in his mind that was his wind inching closer to breaking loose. He could use that maybe, let the full fury of his unrestrained wind overpower her magic. Jael tossed the idea as soon as he thought of it. It would be a one shot gamble. He had to try something else.

Grimly he forced his way past her magical ball of light, only to pound his fist against another. His wind fairly howled with his frustration, but the light held. Leocadia smirked through her magic at him, and Jael knew he was in trouble. She was simply toying with him, teasing him, waiting for him to break. He needed to be pushed, pressured into a corner. He needed to be hounded until his thoughts shut down and his instinct took over. That was the only way he stood a chance of defeating her. But she just kept him at a distance with her magic. She was giving him plenty of space, waiting, and measuring.

Jael growled and tore through the ball of light with his wind. He was glad at least that the cushion of air he kept around his arm was protecting him from the heat of Leocadia's magic. He ducked out of the path of the next orb she tossed at him and heard it fizzle out against the damp floor. The next one sizzled as it hit a stray piece of ice from the earlier explosion. Jael ground his teeth in frustration. Dodging her lobbed magic was easier than dissolving it with his wind, but it still wasn't getting him anywhere. He still couldn't get into close quarters against her.

He sidestepped around yet another ball of light thrown his way and launched himself towards his opponent. Something told him it wouldn't work, but he had to go for it anyways. Maybe she'd at least finally stop playing around. Sure enough, before he'd gone two steps she'd flung another glowing sphere at him. It was too fast to dodge and too big to just knock aside. Jael threw up his arms to cover his face, howling right along with his wind. The wind tore away from him, broke out of his grasp, and roared forward, out of control and heading straight for Leocadia. Jael never felt her magic hit. It was torn apart by the raging gust of wind. The gale blasted through the corridor for a second before he wrestled it back under control. Leocadia was smirking from behind a thinly glowing shield. Her hair was barely ruffled.

Jael didn't realize when he had stopped in his charge, but he simply stood there trying to get his breath back after being drained by his wind tearing loose and the fight to get his control back. Leocadia let her shield fall almost casually. Overpowering her magic was definitely out of the question.

What was she waiting for? Why was she just standing there letting him catch his breath? Was she simply waiting for him to collapse? Waiting for him to fall from exhaustion and his own out of control magic? Jael tightened his fists and let the smooth swirling of highly pressurized air sheath his arms. She could wait as long as she pleased. It wasn't going to happen.

Jael and Leocadia were both startled by the sound of a fist striking flesh and a cry of pain from a voice too deep to be Ari's. Jael dared take the chance to look over to where his brother and Devenki had been battling. He turned just in time to see Devenki fall heavily against the cinder block wall. His hair and clothing both were smoldering. The big man slumped down and did not move. Ari was standing over him grim faced, breathing hard and with blood running down the length of his left arm, but clearly the victor. Dark bluish flames licked up around his wrists, sizzling the blood that dripped onto them. Ari remained watchful of his opponent for a few seconds before turning towards where Jael and Leocadia were stunned and still.

Jael looked from his brother's grimly determined face to Leocadia's coolly calculating one and back again. Before any of the three of them could make a move a large and shadowy hand faded into existence squarely between Jael and his brother. Jael froze for the space of a heartbeat, his mind filled with painful thoughts of their last encounter with Senka. Then he was moving, charging, aiming a wind coated fist at the shadow hand that was reaching for Ari.

His strike hit a thin and brightly glowing shield of light. Jael pushed against it in true anger and frustration, but it refused to yield. Just beyond Leocadia's barrier Senka was smirking. Ari had his hands up ready to fight, though he was clearly favoring his left arm. Senka was cornering him against the wall, but had made no move to attack yet. Jael didn't think about what Senka could do if that hand touched Ari. He didn't think about how he was going to get past Leocadia's magic. He didn't think about tactics or logic, or what Senka's presence there said about Silvanus and Caster. He simply thought about how he was going to get to his brother's side so they could fight together as they always did. This was what he needed, what Leocadia had been denying him since their fight began.

"Senka, stop." Her voice cut through the sound of his wind, halting his charge before it even began. Jael whipped his head around to look her in the eye, to try and guess at her game. The light shield dissolved. If anything she only looked mildly irritated beneath the smug.

Senka snorted defiantly, but let his shadow hand fall to rest on the floor. Now that Jael was thinking again he noticed that the young man's dark eyebrows were completely gone and there was an ugly burn across the right side of his face. Bruises darkened his already tanned skin and his once fine clothes were ruined. Silvanus and Caster had taken a crack at him after all. For all that he had probably teleported his escape he still looked cocky. "I didn't think you'd want his interference."

"No, but neither do I want yours."

"Hmph." Senka cast his mismatched gaze around the corridor. He barely glanced at Devenki slumped against the wall. "I can see he wasn't much help. Well, things will go more quickly now that I'm here. Just let me get a hand on them and they'll go down."

"No. Keep him there so he can't interfere, but don't touch him." Leocadia delivered her orders sternly.

Senka wasn't willing to let it go at that. "Why? So you can play tag with this one a bit longer? That isn't like you."

"As if I needed a reminder of why you've never been given a position of command..." She muttered under her breath, then continued firmly to her subordinate. "If that were the case I'd let you at him. But I don't want him taken down quickly, I want to see how much he has to give."

That brought the full force of Jael's fury back to her. The look on her face told him clearly that was what she intended. She had certainly learned from their encounter in Kenhelm. Jael flung himself into an attack, channeling his anger into his magic until his wind howled around his arms. The thought that he might be giving her exactly what she wanted flitted through his brain briefly, but he shunted it aside. She was the threat he needed to deal with, and Ari had taken out Senka once already.

Of course Leocadia called up her glowing magical orbs to stop his charge. Jael battered them aside, punched through them when he had to, ripped them apart with his wind, yet there was always another to take the place of each. She was straining to keep up with him. He could see it in her face. But he too was faltering. Sweat dripped from his arms, was carried away in the wind, stung his eyes. His left side ached from Devenki's hit. He was tiring fast, and the tell tale quivering of his magic in his mind was getting stronger. He wouldn't be able to hold it in check for much longer.

One foot planted wrong was all it took. One of the balls of magical yellow light grazed across his shin, startling him as much as hurting. Jael barely deflected the next orb aimed at his face and was too late to stop the one after that. It was all he could do to duck his head and turn his shoulder into the oncoming magic.

He felt no solid impact, but pain blazed across his right shoulder and down his arm. He gave an involuntary cry and his wind fell still. For a moment all Jael could see was bright yellow and white. Then it was gone, leaving him gasping at the fierce burning all across his shoulder. He let his right arm hang limp and lifted his head to face Leocadia once more.

"Is that it?" She stood casually and looked almost disappointed. Jael could see no glowing magic around her. "Is this as far as I can push you before you break?"

She took a single step closer, and suddenly Jael saw his way out. He shifted his stance a fraction, let it seem as if he was fighting just to keep standing. It wasn't far from the truth. The throbbing pain in his shoulder was clouding his every thought. He didn't dare move that arm, or even try to support it. If it hurt any worse he was pretty sure he'd be beyond any coherent thought. So he kept his right arm limply dangling, kept his shoulders slumped and his breathing heavy. And Leocadia took another step closer.

Ari must have made some move to come to his aid because Senka's voice was the next to break the stillness. "Stay where you are and keep quiet or I'll have to ignore my orders to play nice."

Ari, please don't try anything. Jael thought desperately to himself. I can't guarantee what I'll do if he touches you.Jael didn't dare look at his brother, he needed all the focus he could get. Thankfully, Ari kept still, and Leocadia kept stepping cautiously closer. Just a little further. That's all I need.

"You've lasted longer than most." She raised one delicate hand and slowly a yellow glow began to form around it. Jael didn't have to fake the panic that was no doubt flickering in his eyes. "But still, you've hit the wall."

It was his only chance, so he had to take it. Jael ignored the growing magic around her hand and thoughts of what it could do to him if it hit. He poured the rest of his strength into movement and sprang to close the already shortened distance between them. Leocadia had only time enough to shriek before his fist connected solidly with her cheek. She landed hard on her backside, one hand already cupping her cheek. The glow of her magic was gone. Jael was there before she could even think to call it back. He hissed at the sharp stinging of his right arm and shoulder, but still used that hand to grip her arm and keep her pinned. He raised his other fist threateningly, certain he could knock her out with one more good hit.

He expected her to look horrified, but instead she was glaring at him cooly and calculatingly. Jael had to say he was a little horrified. Somehow it just felt wrong to hit someone so obviously not on his same physical level like that. He shoved those thoughts aside for later, right then he still had to do whatever was needed to keep Ari and himself safe.

"Call him off." Jael jerked his head towards Senka. Leocadia didn't so much as blink.

"Or what? I don't think you'll kill me."

"Call him off or I'll knock you cold so my brother and I can deal with him our way." Jael had traitor doubts that he and Ari could really take out Senka that easily, but he was careful to keep them from showing in his face. The tiny glimmer of real fear in Leocadia's eyes told him she thought they could. And what was more, she didn't want to be unconscious for it.

"Senka." Her voice betrayed none of the trepidation Jael saw in her eyes. She made a fluttering gesture towards their fallen comrade with her free arm. "Give Devenki a hand. We're backing off."

Senka's mismatched eyes narrowed, but he said nothing as he moved grudgingly away from Ari. Only when he was close to Devenki did he close his orange eye and let his shadow hand fade away. He gave them all one last poisonous look over his shoulder before grabbing hold of Devenki's shoulders. Then Senka closed his other eye, and both he and Devenki winked out of existence.

"Let me up and I won't hurt you any further today." She said it mildly enough, but Leocadia's glare was heated. "I've already said we're backing off, at least for the moment."

Jael slowly drew back his fist and released her arm. He took a cautious step back, but she didn't do anything more suspicious than stand up. He didn't think letting her up was entirely wise, but he didn't see much other option either. He couldn't hold her like that indefinitely. Even if he weren't sore and exhausted he figured she could find a way to break free. So long as she was willing to let them go, he was willing to not knock her out and try for some answers. Ari stepped up beside him then and Jael just knew he was thinking the same. He didn't trust her one bit, but even she would find it hard to fight the two of them together. So long as she didn't have back up of her own still.

"Where'd he go?" Ari sounded more grim and angry than Jael had heard in a long time. Apparently he had the same sort of thoughts about Senka.

"Don't waste your fear on him." Leocadia scoffed. "He's powerful enough to be useful, but should be nothing to the likes of you." She was disdainfully brushing at dirt on her dark pants and sweater. Her manner was totally at odds with the tension still holding Jael rigid and alert. "That shadow hand of his is strong, sure, but that's all it is. His disappearing act is much more useful, but he can't move instantaneously, or even quickly over large distances. He has no potential, no room to grow. You two on the other hand seem to have no set limits to what your magic can do. You are exactly what we need on our side."

"You're wasting your time." Ari interrupted roughly.

"You're worth wasting it on."

"Why?" The question was not the first one Jael had thought to ask, but he deliberately left alone the subject of Senka. Could she really not know of how he could block memories? "Why are you willing to do this?"

Leocadia actually laughed at that. "For the same reasons you work under your boss I imagine. I hunt and kill and in return I am allowed to live unhunted. I simply chose the other side. Is that really so hard to understand? We're more alike than you might think."

Jael made no answer to that. His whirling thoughts were weighed down by weariness and injury. Was she right? If the world was reset would she have been the one rescued by Mackram and they contracted by the government?

"We're not like you." Ari said coldly. "We don't hunt our own."

Ari apparently wasn't burdened by such thoughts. Leocadia didn't even blink at the statement, however. "Your own? You didn't even know the few magic users in this city existed until we targeted them, did you? You are more like me than you want to admit. You chose your boss in desperation same as I, and now we are both in too deep to back out. How close am I?" Neither brother said a word, and their silence seemed all the confirmation she needed. "The only difference is I have accepted what I am and what I do. I am living, you are merely surviving."

"You're still wasting your time." Ari's tone was frigid. "By your own supposition, we're in too deep to back out. Even if we were as like you as you say, we couldn't."

Again she laughed. "But you can. The only place you could be safe from your boss is with us. We are your only other option."

Jael didn't want to hear any more. He found he was shaking. From exhaustion or fury he wasn't sure. He knew she was wrong, knew it in ways he couldn't express in words. He needed there to be no choice. He needed to know they could not have lived any way else or everything they had done under Mackram would be meaningless. They had answered that question so many times on their own, her posing it to them again was only making him angry and more convinced.

"You don't know us. We made our choice, have reaffirmed it again and again. Your option is not one I will ever consider! I will not be a part of a government that justifies the slaughter of innocent people simply because they were born different!" Jael didn't realize when his fists came up, but by the end of his tirade he was bristling with suppressed fury.

Leocadia didn't look ruffled in the slightest. Her eyes were serious, but she was smiling faintly. "Conviction and anger are hard to break, but easy enough to turn to what I want. Devenki said something similar before he joined. He truly believes now that he is doing right, that by eliminating so called 'wild' magic users like you he is doing society a favor. Senka at least has no pretentions to righteousness. His magic cost him a good life in a wealthy family and he blames the whole of the world for it. He fights with us because he would rather watch the world burn than see anyone enjoying what he can no longer have. He seeks only to destroy and in so doing claw his way as high up as he can, hoping to buy back things that can never be gained through power or money. I think they are both fools, but their convictions and anger give them strength, and for that I will suffer fools.

"I have taken your measure, and for now that is enough. This meeting was not planned, but the next one will be. And it shall end one of three ways: with you joining us willingly, unwillingly being taken, or dead."

Before Jael or Ari could even think of a response to that Leocadia made a fluttering gesture with her hand. Almost instantly Senka flickered into sight directly behind her. Only his dark eye was opened. Jael imediately tensed for a fight despite Leocadia's assertions. She simply smirked as Senka laid a hand on her shoulder and closed his eye. They both faded into nothing. Jael looked around the corridor anxiously for a few seconds before letting himself believe they were truly gone.

"I don't trust it." Ari muttered as he too looked around. Jael simply nodded. Senka's magic had him on edge, but not a little curious as well. It was clear that Leocadia had signaled for him to come and get her, but how had he seen the signal? Was he really still there just invisible? Jael somehow didn't think so. He remembered the way Ari's fists had gone right through where Senka's head had been. Jael supposed he would never find out.

Ari's hand on his arm startled him out of his thoughts. Then it was as if Senka had teleported away all the adrenaline that had kept him fighting for so long. Suddenly he felt every bruise and scrape, every inch of his burned shoulder, and every muscle screaming at him to just sit down. Ari looked like he felt no better. His whole left arm was bloody and the bandage over the gun shot wound had been torn away during the fight. Jael remembered he's been hit on that shoulder by Senka as well. It seemed like they were both down an arm for the moment.

"Are you alright?" Ari looked terrible, but still always worried about his brother first.

"About as good as you by the looks of it." Jael didn't even try to smile. He was still filled with too much dull anger. Then Ari swayed and ended up leaning against him. Jael braced himself, but realized quickly he couldn't hold them both up in the shape he was in. They both ended up half falling, half sitting on the damp concrete. Jael's anger melted away, and he would have laughed at the image of them being so clumsy if he didn't hurt so bad. Then he noticed Ari's arm was still bleeding. "Hey, give me that arm."

For once Ari didn't put up any fight about it and simly let Jael patch him up. The gun shot wound on Ari's elbow was healing fine, it turned out all the blood was from a fresh cut on the inside of his bicep. Jael raised an eyebrow in question even as he used the remains of Ari's sleeve as a rough bandage. "I didn't think ice could be that sharp." Ari said, completely deadpan. Jael gave him an incredulous look and he continued rather more sheepishly. "I guess I should have remembered that."

"We need to find Caster and the others." Ari said finally after Jael was done with his arm. "We need to get back."

"I really don't think I can move right now." Jael pulled his knees up to his chest so his head had something to lean on. He wondered strangely if Leocadia had used Senka's magic for her exit for dramatic effect or so she didn't have to walk. He heard a dull thump next to him and turned his head sluggishly. Ari had flopped back so he was laying on the ground and was staring tiredly at the ceiling.

"Yeah...so we'll rest a bit, and then go."

"Ok."

Jael slowly let himself fall onto his back as well. He hissed sharply as his shoulder hit the concrete, but after the initial pain the cold damp actually felt almost good against the burn.

"Wha' is it?" Ari's voice was slurred like he was almost asleep, but he still sounded half panicked at the pained noise.

"Just my shoulder." Jael managed to grind out a response.

"Oh. Is it bad? I can't really see..."

Jael did laugh at that, just a little. He turned his head to look at his brother. Ari was clearly only a few breaths away from being asleep. "I can't really see it either, but it sure as hell hurts."

Ari just sort of half nodded and turned his eyes back up to the rafters above. After a few moments his eyes drifted closed. Jael eased himself onto his side so he was facing his brother. Ari was still except for the small motion of his breathing.

"Ari?"

No answer. Jael reached as far as he could without causing more pain in his burned shoulder, but he couldn't quite reach his brother. Before he even realized it, his eyes had slid closed too.