Pulling Together
Patty
Patty ran her fingers through her hair as she continued her search for
Kait. Most everyone else had been sent to the Studio to meet with Jen.
Liagala didn't really want to leave Eddie, but he needed his rest anyway so
she was getting things organized down there.
Suddenly the fire alarm sounded. **Jeez! What else can go wrong?**
Patty jogged to the main entrance of the Tower where a bunch of people were
milling around. "What's going on now?" She saw Jen rush in and immediately
run out. Patty followed Jen and was soon joined by Lia and Liagala. She was
feeling pretty useless as the three women worked together to channel out the
fire.
They had the fire pretty much under control when Lia gave out a shriek
and fell to her knees. She muttered, " Damn Bond.... Well, at least the
fire's out." And she promptly passed out. Patty turned Lia gently over on
the floor and made sure she was still breathing. "We should get a Healer to
check her out. Having a bond severed like that has got to be bad." Patty
gently brushed a strand of hair off Lia's forehead as Liagala lifted her with
air. "I'll take her to the infirmary. I can check on Eddie while I'm down
there." Jen waved her off. Patty looked up at Jen from where she was
sitting. For a moment she just sat there and shook her head. "Jen, we need
to pull everyone together. We've got to formulate some kind of plan." She
held her hands out in front of her in a helpless gesture. "Just what the hell
is going on?"
Jen came over and put a hand on Patty's shoulder. "Right now, let's get
everyone together like we planned. Whatever we do is going to affect
everyone, so we need to do this together." Patty got up off the floor.
"Okay, I'll try to find Kait. Why don't you see if Hap's in his Hole?" The
women split up in an effort to get everyone together.

(Lia)
Lia woke gently in the Infirmary, gazing about the small room that once
housed the school nurse, and a few beds for the sick... She tried to sit up,
before she realized that something was wrong.. very very wrong.... Ilyena was
screaming.... no no.. she was cheering.... * Illy.. what is it.. what's making
you so happy..?*
* The filth within you is gone gone gone.... * She chanted like a madwoman
* Illy.. what are you....* Then it hit her.. She couldn't feel the darkness
of Pertho's mind pushing against the wall of her mind... She reached, but he
wasn't there... Falling back on the bed, she let herself go.. silver tears
streaking her face... " I never really realized what it was like to lose it,
rather than let it go.... Oh Light... no wonder Haplo hates me so much..
this is Terrible.... "
There were shouts, callings, alarms, noise.. everywhere, but still it
seemed, calm.... hectic, but.. no danger.... at least not at the moment...
She got up and tried walking... there was pain, but it wasn't bad, apparantly
she'd burnt her hand and face in the mess as well.. " Can't be bothered with
that now... There's work to be done... " She walked out, ignoring some
Nila's cries to rest, and searched for anyone... Haplo to apologize, Jen,
Liagala, Patty, Lissy, anyone.. anyone at all...

Eddie
Stumbling through the halls, Eddie heard a brief outcry about a fire,
but it was quickly quelled. A few minutes later, Eddie heard footsteps coming
down the hall. Eddie slipped into a side hallway and looked out. A few seconds
later, Liagala walked by, supporting Lia. Hoping Lia was all right, Eddie went
back into the hallway and continued on his way. He was going to have to tell
Dav that he was the one who cracked him on the head sooner or later. First,
though, he needed to find out why in the Nine Hells his wound hadn't been
completely Healed. From what he knew, the only wound that had EVER been un-
Healable was the one that the histories said Rand al"Thor, the Dragon Reborn
received in his fight against the Forsaken Ishamael above Falme. Not wanting
to follow that line of thought, Eddie made his way to the library, trying to
avoid detection. Along the way, he had to duck into rooms twice, but he could
feel his strength ebbing, and knew he was in trouble. Suddenly, a lance of pain
fired out of his side and crumbled him to the ground. He rolled into a ball and
just screamed, the pain burning white hot. He could feel Liagala getting frantic
again, and wished the Bond didn't convey this part of him to her. He regretted
causing her pain in any form. Gradually, the pain subsided, and Eddie tried to
think. Why the hell is it getting WORSE? I thought they had at least partially
Healed it. I'm not doing anything THAT strenuous. What is happening to me?
Drawing on all his mental strength, Eddie pulled himself to his knees, and
vomited. Knowing he was losing it, Eddie tried to stand, intending to get back
to the ICU. Gods be damned, I'm in BAD shape. He was up on one knee when another
lance of pain shot through his body. Screaming, Eddie heard a voice in his mind
that wasn't his. So nice of you to give me a place to stay, human. Thank you.
The voice was so...alien, and malevolent that Eddie shuddered just at the sound of it.
The pain continued, and finally Eddie could stand it no longer and
blessedly let his mind slip away. He crumpled to the floor, and knew no more.
In the infirmary, Liagala had found Eddie's bed empty and started cursing
"wool-headed" men in general, and HER "wool-headed" and "stubborn" man in particular.
Feeling at the Bond, she could feel him somewhere, and he was still in pain. What
is that man doing? He's gonna kill himself. Then, she felt the lance of pain
cloud his mind, but she was unhurt. What the...? she thought. Pain that intense
should have put me on the floor. What is going on? First his wound wouldn't Heal
completely, and now he's feeling pain, but I'm not. Knowing this was bigger than
either of them, Liagala went looking for Eddie.
Eddie woke up still in the same hallway, but with one big thing missing.
The pain. It was completely gone. He felt as though he had been resting for
days. He felt...wonderful. Marveling at this turn of events, Eddie felt his side.
Nothing! I can't feel ANY pain. What the hell happened? He got to his feet gingerly,
still expecting pain with his every movement. But there was...nothing. Smiling,
still confused as hell, Eddie looked up as Liagala rounded the corner, an extremely
reproving look on her face.
"What the heck do you think you're doing? There is absolutely no reason
you should be out of bed. Now don't make me drag you back there," she fumed.
"But, Lia, it's...gone. The pain. The wound. Everything. I feel
fantastic."
Trying to cover her discomfort at this, she tried to put on an encouraging
face. "Well...good, Eddie. But let me see." She came forward to examine his
wound.
"No, it's NOT good. It's not good at ALL. Lia, I was in terrible shape.
I just passed out from the pain, yet now, a few minutes later, I wake up, and
I'm fine?!? I don't buy it. Something is terribly wrong."
"I know," she said quietly.

Sredny
Sredny pured through the datastreams, slinging past checkpoints thanks
to stolen or hacked access codes, dancing past electronsurge cannons. He
finally just caught a ride on a urgent file, and surfed through. Then came
the challenge. The blue net, appearing to him as blue wire, thinner than
fishing line, stretched across the stream. He ran a program that rendered him
indetectable, then hitched another ride for the rest of the trip. Once again
the computer screen, always a step behind him, was flying with information. He
entered the network, and began to make for the records section. All in detail
recordw would be kept in the mistress of novices databanks, it had information
on all novices and Accepted that had ever been through, for research purposes,
information on defeating similar blocks, etc.
He waited till the cable opened to accept some information, then he
surged along behind it. Finally he was there. He checked the clock, he'd been
at this for seven hours so far, Lovely. He began to run through the databases,
pulling up the required information, he got the lists of everyone else in the
Purple Tower, and the novices and accepted supposedly burned and stilled in
the attack. He glanced at the clock again, and smiled, now that he was in the
system and wasn't having to bypass things left and right, only a minute had
passed. He had all the information he needed, he backed out and could be gone
when the portal opened again, in a couple hours. Boring, plus he wasn't sure
how long the electric charge would last. Putting the files on an auto-send
with a couple nasty tricks and track erasers, he slid over to the Amyrilians
secret database. He smiled, and began to crack passwords. After 5 seconds, he
had done it all, and was headed in.
He idly began to surf through, looking for information on the plots,
when he stumbled across his file. Grinning, he searched in, and realized they
were still racing about his escape act. They might never have known had he not
spray painted it green and wrote in red "Sredny was Here". A picture of that
was in the file.Suddenly something caught his eye. The location of his stuff.
He grinned, and turned to slide out, when walls and alrms clamped down around
him. Cursing, Sredny shot out the one way that had not been blocked. .
.straight into the Amyrilian's study. And with 40 warders, 30 aes sedai, the
keeper and Amyrilian herself.
"Welcome. Ready to renew your stay?" asked the keeper.
Sredny felt like hell, but the very thought of it gave him a whole new
energy. Leaping up he kicked two warders on his way past, felt his skin go
chill as the AS forgot what he was, and grabbed the keeper by the throat.
"Listen you sniveling frog fornicator, I was killing AS when your great-great-
great-great to the umpteenth power grandma was trying to set fire to sticks. I
will never be caged again! Do you here me? Never! Never!" screaming, he threw
her down and began to run through the halls. He heard the calls after him.
Occcasionaly he had to stop to fight a warder, but being a gholam, they were
really no match. He was careful to leave them all breaving, if just barely,
some dim part of his mind knew that if he ever killed again he might not be
able to keep from slipping back into. . .what he had been.
Instinct tugged at him, and he obeyed it, going through a door,
setting off a trap that sent him cold, and a beam of balefire shot throughhim.
"Shit. That stings." grumbling he reformed the taken away area, even
balefire couldn't kill him completely, but it took a heck of alot out of him.
He was running low on energy, but there they stood. He smiled, and grabbed the
black trenchcoat. He had once figured out just what was done in the making of
Mydraal cloaks, one of a thousands secrets time had stolen from him, but he
had reversed it in the making of this cloak, and it now spread out behind him
or to the side in even the slightest wind, it also seemed to unfold when it
did so, becoming longer then it had been.
First however he put on the holsters with their contents. Two 9mm
Beretta's, but a special set. He had actually won them fair and square, in a
contest. They were golden variants on the 92/96G series, with the special
feature that they were golden alloy, slick sided, and engraved with a dragon.
It twirled around the grip and up the barrel, ending with at the end of the
muzzle. The dragons were the signs of master gunmen. One gun bore the name Lew
Therin Telamon engraved on the hilt, the other Rand al'Thor. He smiled at
them, then eased them back into the holsters, which were at the small of his
back. He has started wearing them there to give human opponents half a chance,
and, he had to admit, for the stylistic flare. It was not as if there were any
bones there for them to rub against. It had done the humans no good however,
the only beings ever close to matching him in speed were the other gholams and
Haran, none of whom he need worry about now. He slid the coat on, made sure
the extra clips were still in hiding places as well as a few daggers, then
slipped on the shades, still in his pocket where he had left them.
All of this took but a few seconds, then the Warders started
appearing. He slipped the guns out, and began taking out the warders. He still
did not kill, but a bullet in one leg, or for the really persitant ones both,
would take almost all of them off their feet. Shots rang through the tower.
Still, despite being a master gunman, he was still being pursued by Warders,
some of whom had given up on the tradtional sword, and were bringing out their
own firearms. And AS were catching up now as well. Cursing again he did
something else he had sworn never to do again. He shadow-walked.
During his first couple hundred years in the void between Gates, he had
worked on figuring out the Mydraal ability in the hopes that it might get him
out. eventually he learned it, though he could not explain it to anyone else,
but it had not saved him. He stepped out of the shadows at the purple tower,
only to see smoke, he scanned quickly through the activity and realized the
falmes were now out, most of the action was healing people and pulling any
that had died from the wreckage. He slipped the guns back in place and walked
wearily to wear his room was. Or was supposed to be. Now it was simply char.
Sighing, he collapsed against a tree stump, intending to heal, and sleep.

Jami
Jami didn't know who wasn't dead...arrested...or somewhere really mean and
nasty.....so she ran and ran though the lions(blues)...and tigers
(reds)....and bears (other ajahs)...(Oh my!)........feeling like an utter fool...
but, then...that's ok, if it's for the Purple Tower, she thought, smiling....
She ran to Haplo's hole.....but she got caught.
"Excuse me, young lady!" Some Red chic..or maybe it was a guy....started to
scold her..and was about to arrest...but, hey...if the whole PT is gonna break
the law...she slapped the lady in the face, and ran off...the Red lady put her in the
Air...drat her.....so, Jami tried to think of the easiest way to get out of her grasp...
"I'm diseased.....I have some sort of measles! Promise!" Stupid as it may
sound...it worked for a half a minute...confused, the Red let her guard down...and Jami
ran again...as fast as she ever had in her life....finally she reached Haplo's Hole...
but, forgot what she was supposed to say.........
She saw he was vey sad about something or another.....she said, "Um, Mom needs
you...but, I forgot for what..it's really important! I'm sorry bout..whatever you're
gloomy of, but couldya help?"