"What? Oh, I don't know. Until I can get Sapphire back your friend will have to take second place." Steel replied with a sigh.
The bang of a door slamming somewhere upstairs drew both their attentions, Steel ran up the stairs until he was on the landing of the third floor with Lisa hot on his heels. At the far end was a door swaying gently in an unfelt breeze. Was it another trap, one designed to capture him and to remove him as a threat in the same way that it had done to Sapphire?
Inching his way down the corridor with it's muted green walls and forlorn atmosphere Lisa quietly observed him as she clutched at the corner of the wall. Steel reached the door unscathed, he cautiously reached out a hand to steady the door but before he touched it the door froze, unmoving. A sound behind him made him spin around ready to confront the source. The door opposite him opened and a lithe woman with short white hair, a pale complexion and dressed in a white blouse and loose white trousers stared back at him for a moment. Her eyes were almost translucent with only a hint of white in them.
"Diamond, what are you doing here?" The shock of seeing her was evident on his face
"I've come to help you Steel, I would have thought that was obvious." Diamond's voice was hard. By the way, where's Sapphire?"
Steel glared at her, the anger obvious on his face. Diamond watched him and thought to herself 'Seems the rumors are true then.' But saying "What have you found out so far?"
"Sapphire brought back the image of an old painter downstairs outside one of the doors. I believe that is where the time-break occurred, Sapphire was pulled into the room."
"Really?" Diamond sounded genuinely interested "Did you manage to see what was inside?" before Steel could answer Lisa, who had been making her way towards the pair spoke.
"I did, there were paintings everywhere, on the walls and furniture, then the door slammed shut."
Diamond ignored her concentrating instead on Steel "The walls and furniture were depicting various scenes from the past hundred years. Each was of a major event, their Great War was one that I noticed."
"I thought you noticed everything." She replied coolly
Steel turned and walked to the top of the stairs, he glanced at Diamond "I'll show you". The elemental shrugged and accompanied him back to the door of Graham's room, Lisa joined the pair but remained at a distance. When they reached the door she stayed on the stairs trying to watch them from a safe position.
In the darkness of the corridor Diamond appeared to shimmer and no matter how Lisa looked at her she was positive that she could see a glass like crust on her skin and clothes. Diamond stared at the door then at Steel "Now what?" she questioned as he stood thinking.
"I want you to cut Time to when the door was open, I'll do the rest." He explained vaguely.
"Sapphire is the one that takes Time back not me. I can only alter what I've seen and I wasn't here when she was taken." Diamond put in, pointing out the flaw in his plan.
"No but I was. Take the scene from my mind and use that" He ordered
"Do you have _any_ idea how dangerous that would be? Each person's interpretation of a scene differs in someway from the actual events. Cutting is a precise art Steel. I can't just use a memory, it is too unstable and volatile." Diamond exploded at him.
"My memories are precise enough." He shot back "Or do you want Sapphire to remain in there forever."
"Of course I don't it's just that..."
"Then we do it my way. I'm not asking you to come with me. I just want you to make sure that door is open." He added forcefully
"And what will you do then?" she inquired, despite herself and her training Steel's idea appealed to her. Just thinking about the challenge of Cutting from a memory was making her grow impatient but she tried as much as she could to control her excitement. It was only then that she realised Steel was no longer at the door, quickly glancing around she spied him walking over to the young girl. 'Better to let him do his thing, while I get ready to do mine.' she thought.
Lisa watched warily as Steel approached her "Ms Dominique, Lisa." He began then paused as though unsure how to continue "I am going to need your help to get Sapphire back. Diamond will be busy, and I'll be unable to touch Sapphire so I want you to pull her free when you see her. Will you help us?"
She looked up into his hard grey eyes and so that he was genuinely asking for her help. There were no heavy handed demands, just a very real concern for his companion. "Yeah sure, so I just grab her when I see her right?" she asked as she rose from the stairs.
"When I tell you to, yes." He replied correcting her as he strode towards the kitchen. Lisa walked over to where Diamond stood, seeing the girl come closer she glanced around for Steel but saw him heading towards the back of the house. Diamond gave a sigh of resignation she doubted she'd ever know what was going on in Steel's head, how Sapphire put up with him was a mystery to her.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" the girl's voice distracted her from her thoughts and she glared down at the human angrily "I very much doubt it." she sneered, "Not unless you happen to have a diamond handy."
Lisa held up her left hand and triumphantly held up a ring on her finger, Diamond glanced first at the ring and then at her "How's that?" Lisa asked sweetly
"It'll do." She admitted grudgingly as she held out her hand for it, Lisa wriggled the ring from her finger and handed it to Diamond. The elemental pressed the object into the palm of her hand and rolled it between both hands, then handed back the ring minus the gem. She continued to manipulate the small gemstone in her hands until she opened them and revealed a long, needle thin scalpel like blade.
"Where has Steel got to? If he wants me to pull that scene from his head he has to be here for me to do it." she muttered.
A hissing, cracking noise made both women turn their heads and to their surprise they saw Steel approaching them, a layer of frost and ice coating his suit and flesh. "Get out of the way" he hissed angrily at them as he walked towards the door.
"What the hell have you done Steel? I've still got to get that image from your head. How can I do it when you're like this?" Diamond complained.
"Just do it Diamond, you won't shatter. You're tough enough to withstand it." he argued
"Simply because I can do it doesn't mean that I want to do it, Steel. You never mentioned anything about this in your plan."
"DO IT." His voice took on a thunderous tone as he spoke, Diamond gave him a skeptical look but laid her left hand against his head while in her right she held the diamond blade. The scenes in Steel's head began to blur with those in her own until she began to see events through Steel's eyes. Lisa stared on in wonder as Diamond's hand appeared to meld with the back of Steel's head. Suddenly the blade in her hand flashed and glittered in the light leaving sparkling trails of white light behind it and everything around her looked as though it had stopped. All that was moving was the scene at the door, Time was playing out the same scene again for them. Sapphire was standing before it again with her hand reaching out, the blackness was creeping out under the bottom of the door, then the door swung open and revealed the interior.
"Steel, I can't handle this for much longer. There is too much strain, it's fighting against me." Diamond screwed up her face in distress as the first of the chills began to permeate her body. Steel waited until the door was fully open and he had a decent view of the room before he reached forward and thrust his hands against both the doorframe and the walls, freezing both solid. Everything within the room halted "Now," he hissed at Lisa, who was momentarily dazed by what she was seeing. Shaking the amazement off the young woman darted into the room, "Touch nothing except Sapphire" Steel's voice warned. Spying the other woman in the room Lisa swiftly made her way over and dragged her back out into the corridor.
"I'm gonna have to let it go Steel, I can't hold it any longer." Diamond gave a cry of exertion and pain and the old scene dropped into a new place in Time. The door remained open as the two agents body temperatures rapidly returned to it's natural levels. Steel collapsed to the floor drained while Diamond slumped back against the wall and slid to the floor in a mixture of agony and exhaustion. Sapphire still lay unconscious on the ground, a thin layer of ice covered her body.
Lisa looked at the three of them and then at the open door, and saw that the interior was now an inky darkness that was slowly growing from the centre of the room. 'I've got to get them out of here' she thought hurriedly reaching out to pull Sapphire clear first. She snapped back her hand as she felt the intense coldness emanating from her body, looking at them Lisa saw that they were all giving off wisps of white smoke as their cold bodies met with the warmer air. A soft groan caught her attention and she saw that Diamond was stirring slowly, scuttling over to her but making sure she was facing and could see the door all the time, Lisa remarked quickly "Don't pull your hand, it's still in Steel's head." Diamond heard her and slowly moved so as to take in the scene, her hand was indeed still buried in the back of Steel's head.
"Is Sapphire safe?" she whispered, her teeth chattering with the cold. Lisa nodded "Good. Just need to rest for a moment and get my strength back."
"But the door's still open." Lisa reminded her urgently
"Open but frozen, it isn't so much of a problem right now." Diamond responded
Inside Graham's room the blackness still grew, although at a crawling pace. It grew inch by inch, fighting the freezing effects of the cold. Stretching out a fragment of its essence it touched one of the paintings, which glowed with an eerie harsh light. Then all of a sudden a figure in the painting flared with a silver light and was disappeared from the picture appearing on the inside of the doorway.
The hairs on the back of Lisa's neck stood up on end, and expecting the worst she spun around only to be confronted by a man in a darkly coloured costume of blue with a white cross emblazoned on the chest. A blue cape hung down his back, while on his head was a wide brimmed beige hat with a feather thrust into one side. In one hand the man carried a sword, in the other was a ancient mahogany flintlock pistol aimed directly at her.