Lydia put a hand over her gaping mouth after a silent gasp caused by the sight  of her brother buried under mounds of chains and straps on the large pivoting table, with only his head exposed. She walked slowly over to Corbin, as if in a daze, taking in the sight with teary eyes. Sara stayed near the door, observing the room and noticing the security cameras and motion sensors which had surely alerted someone within the facility of their presence. Lydia was busy tracing out the IV tube that wiggled through the bonds to reach a bare spot on Corbin's wrist when Sara called out to her.

    "Lydia, we don't have much time. This room is under constant surveillance."

    Lydia broke away from her disheartened gaze at Corbin long enough to turn toward Sara with an adjustment to her plan. "Close the door."

    "But I won't be able to reopen it from in here," Sara warned.

    "That doesn't matter now, closing the door will buy us some time," Lydia explained.

    Sara nodded, then turned around to put all her weight into the massive door. She pushed with only a small amount of her deceiving strength until the door was closed and the electronic locks clasped it in place, sealing them inside an inescapable room. She began to wander around the room, examining it from all angles as Lydia returned to Corbin.

    Lydia was lost for a moment as she observed Corbin's peacefully resting face. She pushed back the despair that his trapped and idle state brought to her. "Corbin!" she called, hoping to rouse him, but nothing changed.

    "Corbin!" she called again, affectionately brushing his heavy black bangs from his forehead, hoping that the sound of her voice along with her soft touch would be enough, but still, nothing changed. He was lifeless.

    Lydia stroked his cheek with the back side of her hand, then bowed her head in concentration as she tried desperately to reach inside him with her gift. Though she felt the overwhelming presence of his physical form since he was so near, she could not find his thoughts, his mind, his consciousness. It was as if the body strapped to the table was only a shell. 

    By the time Lydia abandoned her attempt and raised her head with a trembling bottom lip that couldn't hold back a trickle of tears from each eye, Sara had made her way around the room. She walked up behind Lydia with a report.

    "The walls of this room are made of concrete, and are several feet thick, as is the ceiling. There's no way out," she explained calmly.

    Lydia wiped her eyes and cheeks to clear the tears when she looked back at Sara, who began a sweeping glance of Corbin's bonds. "I won't be able to break those," Sara confirmed with a small frown.

    Unconcerned with anything but her brother, Lydia snivelled to hold back the next round of tears before she said,"I can't reach him Sara, he's...he's not here."

    Sara noticed the tube running up to the IV, then stated the obvious. "He appears to be heavily sedated."

    Lydia looked back upon Corbin's calm face, remembering his boyish smile that so often brightened her day, and the way his sincere purple eyes seemed to glimmer happily when he greeted her in the mornings before driving her to the academy, or when she caught him staring at Gale and Shade without them knowing. Then she darted her eyes to the chains and straps that threatened to take all that away, and she got angry.

    She bowed her head again, closing her eyes tightly in focus as Sara stood behind her and watched patiently. Pushing her gift harder than she ever had, Lydia forced her way through the empty void where she normally felt Corbin's mind, going farther than she had ever dared.

    Sara's attention was summoned to the door when she heard a stampede of footsteps rushing their way among the sound of frantic voices which began to fill the corridor outside the room. Soon, thuds and clanks sounded against the door as those on the outside struggled to get in. She looked back at Lydia, who seemed unaffected by the commotion as she stood like a statue with a bowed head beside the pivoting table.

    The emptiness inside Corbin's mind was like the darkness of night, only darker. Lydia called out for her brother, pushing more of herself into the effort than she ever thought she could. She wandered further into the dark, calling out all the more until she felt herself weakening from the strain. Finally, a tiny glow appeared near her, and when she once again called out Corbin's name it began to grow until it illuminated the darkness around her and she felt the welcome presence of her brother.

    Lydia, where are we?

    We're in your mind, in your thoughts.

    But why? I feel so...confused, so weak.

    That's because you're being sedated with some kind of powerful drug.

    Drug? Sedated? But...

    Please listen Corbin, we don't have much time and I'm loosing my strength.

    What are you talking about?

    It's Jarell, he's taken us and is keeping us in some kind of...lab or something.

    Jarell? That can't be, we...

    Please Corbin, it's him, I just know it. We're in danger.

    Lydia's mention of danger caused the glow around her to take on a deep purple hue as it expanded.

    Where are you Lydia?

    I'm right beside you, but people are coming to take me away, people who want to hurt us and our family.

    Hurt us? Our family?

    Yes. Please Corbin, you have to fight this drug. I'm getting to weak to stay, I'm loosing my hold. I...I...

    Lydia? Lydia? Lydia!!!

    Lydia fell limply back from the table into Sara's unexpecting arms. She was completely drained and unconscious. The commotion outside the door was growing busier and more restless by the second. In the midst of all the clamorous voices Sara heard someone announce that Jarell was on his way. She stood there, holding up Lydia's collapsed form, unsure of what to do. Then she noticed a twitch on Corbin's face, then another.

    Sara watched as Corbin's eyes snapped open with a strong purple glow and his head rolled on the table to look toward her with a straining grimace. His turbulent expression seemed to calm a little when he saw Lydia, but then he gnashed his teeth in anger at the sight of her limp body resting helplessly in Sara's arms. The chains and straps wrapped around Corbin's body began to creak and moan from the pressure pushing against them from the bulky, beastly form of the Protector that was emerging under them.

    Sara sensed that something potentially dangerous was happening, so she pulled Lydia away from the table, watching in awe as she witnessed Corbin's exposed head grow into the large, wolf-like head of the Protector. No semblance of Corbin remained except for the eyes, which were now blazing. He tried to rise from the table, but the bonds were tighter than ever, being stressed to their limits over the increased mass of his alternate form. With an agitated growl, he thrust himself up, ripping free from the chains and straps as they were separated in the middle as if cut all at once by a powerful saw.

    Corbin swung his legs around, then hopped off the table. With his towering, black-pelted body suddenly making the room seem much smaller, he turned a pointed ear to the commotion outside the door, but quickly eyed Sara carefully; noticing with his greatly enhanced senses that she wasn't quite normal, but his true concern was discovering her intentions for his little sister, who was helplessly collected in her arms. He took a cautious step toward Sara, who stared up wondrously at his looming form.

    "Lydia said you could get us out of here," Sara explained openly. "The people here want to harm us," she added.

    Corbin cocked his head as he considered her words, then a hard thud against the door made both him and Sara turn their attention to those trying to penetrate the massive steel door. Corbin snorted angrily through his snout, then threw his arms back and raised his head with a ferocious roar that made those outside the room pause, and think twice about continuing with their ominous reasons for wanting the door opened.

    With a sweeping turn, Corbin examined the room, then he grabbed the large pivoting table with the dangling, severed chains and straps still clinging to it and snatched it loose from the bolts which held it to the floor. Easily tossing the weighty table to the side, where it collided harshly with an unyielding concrete wall, he marched to the back of the room where he clenched his mighty fists as he stared at the solid wall.

    He cocked a fist, then pounded the concrete wall with a thunderous blow that shook the room, causing a jagged crack to appear in the wall. Again he struck the wall, then again and again, until the wall surrendered to his blows with falling chunks of concrete. Sara watched at a safe distance away from the falling debris as he used his fists to pound out a tunnel through the wall which was more than big enough for them to escape through. She waited until the quaking from Corbin's effort stopped, then she scooped Lydia up into her arms and carried her safely through the fist-hewn tunnel to a densely wooded area just outside the facility, where Corbin's beastly form waited with heaving breaths under the moonlight.

    He shook himself to rid his thick coat of the concrete dust and crumbs which covered him like a powder, then he brushed off his shoulders as well. Approaching Sara, he knelt down with his arms out, motioning with his head for her to relinquish care of Lydia over to him. She nodded her understanding, easing the motionless body in her arms into Corbin's waiting hands. He rose, cradling Lydia as he looked at her with brotherly concern. She shifted languidly in his sure hold, opening her eyes weakly and just long enough to smile faintly at his beastly visage before fading out again.

    Corbin turned toward the unfamiliar forest before them, then he looked back at Sara and motioned with a directional nod for her to follow. Together they began a speedy trek through the forest in the direction Corbin hoped would lead them to Allender Manor.