"...damn it, fine." Ash growled.

The two quickly made their way outside, where Lindsay rushed to greet them, but Ash spoke up before he could say anything.

"I'm fine. Head back home." he told him. "Erica says she's gonna crash soon, needs to help Kiah. I'll take her there, then take them both to the Unit for medical treatment and recovery." he explained. "I'll give more details when I'M back home." he added.

"...all right." Lindsay conceded. "See you later, Erica." he said to the young woman.

"Bye." Erica replied bluntly.

"..." Lindsay was then silent, before stepping back and disappearing in a burst of red flames.

"All right." Ash said to her. "Let's go." he finished, as he gently grabbed her elbow, avoiding her hands purposefully, and the two disappeared in a burst of black flames, appearing in Sydney's home, just outside the door to the room Kiah was in.

"If she's home, she'll come find us." Ash told her.

"I'll head in first and quell that rune."

"Christ almighty." he muttered to himself as he shut the door behind him, so the rune wouldn't escape. He could see it bouncing all around, desperate to spread out as far as it could go.

But it then seemed to 'latch onto him' when it found a 'target'.

He responded to this by putting out a tiny rune that surrounded his feet, keeping Kiah's at bay, and looked at the woman that was causing the rune.

"..." he was silent, about to say something, but realised that it would probably be met with snark and anger. So, he merely decided to focus everything he had into his own rune, and pulsed it out as strong as he could.

Thankfully, Sydney's mirror room contained it, but it absolutely obliterated Kiah's rune.

"You good?" he asked her. "If so, got someone here that'll stop this crap from happening." he told her.

"Thankfully, that won't be needed." he told her, stepping to the door and knocking on it loudly.

"COME IN!" he yelled to Erica.

"And don't shut the door behind you!" he stressed, before making his way back over towards Kiah.

Once he was standing behind her, he put out a rune that spread out around the both of them, but its sole purpose was to stop Kiah's rune from lashing out AGAIN, as he knew how quick it was to do so.

Once Erica was close enough to touch Kiah, he would release his rune.

"Oh yeah, to speed this up, because she asked me, where was the place you were last touched with someone's hands, before you starting acting like this?" he asked her, aiming to speed up this process. For Erica's sake, mostly.

As soon as he felt that Kiah's rune wasn't fighting his, he dropped his own and took a step back. As he did, he crossed his arms over his chest, sighed, and shook his head, looking around.

"Wonder place, this area..." he mumbled.

"Anyway, glad THIS went quickly." he said. "Kiah, that rune was REALLY something else." he told her. "Gonna need to let Mom know about it." he went on, referring to Rowena.

"And you may need some additional help controlling it." he continued.

"Anyway, how y'feeling now?" he asked.

"More stable?"

"...okay, fair." Ash admitted.

"I can understand that." he said.

"Well, Erica, I suppose we should be getting YOU back to the Unit, so you can continue your recovery." he told Erica. "And get your HANDS looked at, too..." he mumbled further.

"Kiah, is there anything we can do for you right now?" he then asked his cousin.

"Any food or anything brought to you?"

Ash looked to Erica for a moment, sighed, and looked back to Kiah.

"Hour. Hard. Got it." he said.

"Come on, Erica." he told the other woman. "We should go." he said.

"Get you back to the Unit where you can properly crash and get treated." he went on.

He was then silent, shaking his head.

"...and figure out what to do about Vanessa, going forward." he then growled.

"Yeah." Ash replied.

"I'll use my mana to get us directly to the medbay there." he told her.

"And Kiah, I'll make sure Sydney knows what's up here." he then said to Kiah. "We'll leave the door open, obviously, and make sure it won't shut and trap you in here." he went on.

"Want me to tell Ilias that you'll be fine?" he asked.

Ash and Erica nodded to her, and the two then left the room, making sure the door was left open. Once they were out of the confines of the place, the two disappeared in a burst of black flames, appearing in the medbay, in the room used for emergency transport/teleport.

When they walked, out, they saw Nate and Angela talking to each other, and when the two had noticed their return, Ash raised a hand.

"Relax." he said.

"Don't go and flip out, just take care of Erica." he told them, as he and Erica closed the distance.

"And check her hands." he then stated. "Burns to tend to."

Nate looked to Angela, nodded, and then he and Erica headed off so he could take care of her, patch her up, and heal her palms. As Ash watched them go, he sighed and looked back towards Angela.

"She's ready to collapse. Told me so, herself." he told her.

"Hence why she wanted to get to everyone that her copy had gotten to before that happened." he went on.

"And I'm willing to bet the instances of her disappearing from her hospital room will... pretty much all but cease now." he then added.

"But yeah... I'm fine. Just... was under a LOT of stress trying to keep my rune in check. Much like Kiah was." he continued. "Difference being she... well... don't expect her to be at full power for a little bit."

"I'll tell her that when I go see her next." Ash replied.

"But I need to tell Ilias so he doesn't worry himself sick, and then tell Agent Sharp so he knows what the hell is happening." he reasoned.

"And yeah... she should be more cooperative now." he re-stated.

"Should be. Depends." he sighed.

"Regardless... Vanessa Encrae's gone too far now." he growled.

"I swear it's coming to a head, and something's gotta give. And SOON."