Dishonored: The Ties That Bind

Chapter 22

   "....it's you." Billy said with awe. "Wh...what the fuck are you doing here? You almost got yourself- hey, don't look at that, okay? Look at me, Elaine. Me. Why are you here?"
She shook herself out of a sudden stupor brought on by nausea and shock, then took a step towards him. "There's no time," she snapped at him, "we've got to get near that mill, there's people who are trying to catch the others blindside."
Billy froze, then thawed just as quickly and nodded, pulling his knives back out from his belt and gripping them tightly.
   "Follow me." He said as he turned. "And stay close."
Blinking for advantage of speed, she followed Billy's path as best as she was able to do under the circumstances but that was tough. It constantly changed, both of them having to make sudden, darting alterations as the savage fighting continued to surge all around them, seemingly in every direction at once. It was tricky to predict where the people were going to end up, and more than once a split-second jump was needed in order to clear a body that fell to the floor right in front of them.
Eventually, however, they started to leave the main body of the fight behind and gain more room to move as well as far better footing. Elaine soon caught sight of Corvo and Daud, who were trapped inside a circle of at least a dozen Hatters and unable to defend all directions for very long.

She streaked ahead of Billy at that point, reaching the circle that was only ten feet ahead of her now, and she turned to grab Billy's hand. "Help me jump." She said to him.
   "...what? Why?"
   "Just fucking jump!"
They both jumped, and Corvo and Daud stared as a shimmering, blinking mass shot into the air above the circle, crossed over to where they were, then yelled as half of it landed on top of them.
The other half managed a landing with stumbling feet, which turned out to be Elaine, to their surprise, and they all looked up as her arms shot out in front of her and created an enormous, fiery green circle to spread out and slam into the Hatters.
That nimbus was very unforgiving, instantly lethal to all twelve of them, and most were melted on the spot. Three weren't, however, and despite their screams being just as short-lived as their comrades were, they still echoed horribly.
Elaine then sank to her knees and landed on the grass, suddenly so tired that she could hardly breathe, and then the others were there, Corvo propping her upright as best he could while Daud attempted to drip some of his blue elixir into her open mouth after removing her mask and laying it on the ground.
She coughed at first, a drop sliding down and into her windpipe by accident, then she remembered to swallow and started to take some of it into her system, the cool menthol shocking her mind awake from the almost zombie-like state she'd fallen into.

Dimly, she heard voices around her starting to come back into focus, first sounding like they were underwater and then gaining clarity as she took more and more of the elixir in.
   "...she thinking?" Corvo was briefly heard to say.
   "You'd be dead if it weren't for her." Billy's voice then added.
A period of silence then followed, and everything went black for barely half a second before her vision returned and she was looking directly at Corvo, whose face held a concerned smile.
   "She's back." He said, part of that concern lessening. "Hey, can you hear me now? You passed out for a few seconds. Stay still."
Corvo then looked around him; Daud was watching for any approaching threats from the left side of him and Elaine, while Billy was looking after the right and a couple of nearby assassins were also helping to cover their position. Safe...or as safe as they were likely to ever get, for the time being.
He then returned his eyes to Elaine, who he was still cradling in his arms as he sat on the grass with her. She definitely looked more 'all there' now than before, so reasoned that the elixir was starting to do its job. Maybe she needed more? He decided to assume that she did; what she'd done with her magic had taken a lot of strength, an amount he couldn't hope to guess at.
He got one of his own bottles out of part of his belt, pulling the cork out with his teeth before holding it in front of her. "Take this." He said gently. "You may still need some."
She had no mind to argue with, so she reached out a hand for the bottle and worked her way through it haltingly, tossing it once it was empty and feeling shivery at the fake chill it produced.