Hey guys! It's been forever right? I'll be honest with you guys. I actually almost forgot all about this thing. Sorry. But I promise I'll finish it within the year. Swear. I have a lot more time for writing than I did before.

Kitty

"He did what!"

"Tore apart the upper floors of the Tower, the ceilings which also happen to be floors came crashing down. The Tower itself is mostly intact but an impenetrable nexus covers it. All the entrances are sealed with no chance of entry both physical and magical means. All communication from the Tower through scrying or radio has failed." quoted a terrified junior secretary

"It seems we've lost the Tower." said a young minister named Andrew Norman

"It's too soon to be sure Norman" said a calm Thomas Crawley "I seem to recall that the Nexus and Seals were a failsafe placed by us ourselves if the Tower were ever to have a risk of escape."

"I agree." said Miranda Wells, an elderly non-magician minister, "Despite this setback I see no way for our captives to escape. Obviously we still have agents inside or the defenses would not have triggered."

"Oh I know they won't escape." Andrew Norman said lazily "I merely said that we lost the Tower."

"Let's consider this. The Tower is where we keep our most dangerous enemies, even if it has been neglected all the while. Our enemies have proved powerful enough to pierce through the Tower's defenses they are quite capable of escaping. I believe they have chosen to remain in the Tower for a reason. Our enemy has declared war on us. What better base than our own strongest prison?"

"Bartimaeus is still in that prison." Kitty said calmly "Even if what you say is true our enemies are still not fighting back. That could only mean that the Tower is still being fought over."

"And you're confident your spirit can hold it?"

Kitty tilted her head calmly.

"He's Bartimaeus." As if that answered everything.

And it did.

Nathaniel/Landon

"Is your life normally this chaotic?" Landon asked his internal counterpart.

"Afraid so." Nathaniel responded wistfully "Yours?"

"Shockingly no. For the first year I guess it was pretty exciting but looking back all we did was raid museums and beat-up washed up gang leaders. Then I was an orphanage worker and that occupation though noble, lacks the opportunity for wild adventures."

Landon, who now controlled the body walked up to his unconscious friends. He couldn't believe that both the twins were captured so easily. They were very well known and feared back in the day. Had all these years really made them weak? On the other hand were they really as strong as they had led themselves to believe? The Resistance established by Sean was notorious but it rose in power when the government class was at it's weakest. It was rare for them to fight against anything powerful and when it did happen it was usually all of the strongest fighters against one afrit and that took them hours to win. Against real threats like this all of them were way out of their depth. How could he protect his friends like this?

At the same time Nathaniel used his aura to send a message to Elise to come pick up his unconscious comrades.

Ever since combining Nathaniel and Landon noticed various subtle yet unsettling changes to the way their minds worked. Having two minds meant they could multitask easily, occupying several endeavors while maintaining absolute focus. It was similar to when Nathaniel and Bartimaeus joined bodies but it was less intrusive and more natural. Both minds knew what each one was tasked and was planning to do. Two seperate very different yet similar minds coming together would allow a single body to perform quicker and more decisive actions. A debate at the speed of thought would result in perfectly coordinated actions.

So as the duo was slowly being surrounded by two golem demons taking the forms of stout bull uttuku with bloodred eyes and huge shining scythes, a plan was devised. While Nathaniel blared his aura to signal to Elise their location for backup and analyzed the area, Landon fingered a long dagger while hovering protectively over his unconscious friends.

The bull men grunted angrily. They covered both possible areas for any possible escape. The uttuku golems were skilled in these type of attacks. They knew it was two-on-one where they could easily overwhelm a single opponent that was also trying to protect his friends.

They charged, scythes out, trapping their prey into a bladed circle. As the bull uttuku closed in Nathaniel and Landon acted. Drawing the dagger, Landon raised their left arm parallel to the ground facing the bull golem to left while Nathaniel cast a Shield to protect the twins while beginning a spell chant. As the beasts closed in the left arm that carried the dagger tossed the weapon lightly into the air as the right arm touched the ground and carried its owner upward to a handstand while scorching the wooded stage with an Inferno spell. The left arm now free, Nathaniel used it to send a Flux towards the second golem below the chin where it's scroll was located while the legs were used to kick the coming golem. Performing a somersault and kicking off the ground Landon maneuvered them on top of the second golem still reeling from the blast. Damaging the scroll would not kill it forever as Landon had learned before so Nathaniel devised a plan that if done right, might stop the golem spirit from regenerating. Nathaniel took the golem's eye and grabbed the falling knife and threw it at the first golem. At that same instant Landon launcher their body towards the golem that had been struck by the knife and took the eye as well. Nathaniel had by then finished the spell cupped both eyes in his hands.

Orange light spewed from cracks of the fingered prison that held the eyes. When the duo opened their shared hands it showed the eyes trapped in luminescent ribbons inscribed with the thirteen locking symbols used by Ancient Prague to completely control golems. The Golem's Eyes pulsed rapidly, the spell would only hold the golems' revival in check for as long as the mind of a competent magician maintained focus and control on the spell. A powerful magician could block up to ten golems but would leave the magician restricted to anything else. Nathaniel was no ordinary magician, no other magician had two minds.

"They have a weakness." Landon, for it could only be Landon, said to the various police officers and spirits that came flooding in at that very moment.

Sean

Marcus was running late. It had been twelve hours since they had split up. Marcus went off to gather information from the vast underground network of crime family informants. It should not be taking this long.

To be fair, back in the days of the Resistance Marcus was known to take hours if not days to complete his assignments. Marcus' gift for stealth was incredible. His ability was perhaps the most unique Sean had ever seen, besides his and Renee's. Marcus had the ability to completely vanish from all planes, not even his aura would be present in barren locations. His gift was so strong not even Elise could detect him. Sadly this ability caused Marcus to get cocky and make rookie mistakes. Marcus would charge in recklessly without thinking causing problems and damage to others.

So Sean was understandably nervous. Half a day had passed since Marcus told him to wait and hide in the damp motel room that Marcus had bought him. Three times Sean considered leaving but he couldn't risk it. Marcus was the key to get the puzzle piece that would be instrumental to saving them all. If he had missed Marcus then there would be no guarantee that he could find other means to investigate. Marcus had instructed Sean to leave if anyone came looking for him in the motel room. But 12 hours had passed and with each passing minute Sean doubted Marcus' return.

It had been days since the experiment began and Sean's wrists began to bleed from the cuts made by the rusted iron manacles.

"Who are you?" his voice said to the shadowy figures

"The question is, who are you?" A cheerful and flamboyant voice echoed, "Sean Williams, abandoned by his parents, sold to the government as a potential apprentice. Your master experimented on you and your unusual ability. However one day a raid took place and your master was killed and you were freed. Freed to wander the streets and seek peace and the solace of knowledge."

"What do you want?"

"Nothing yet, you are my failsafe you see. I'm conducting a plan and that plan is phenomenally risky at best. It could cause utter destruction upon all of the world, of which I have no problem, but it puts me myself at risk. In the event of my demise you must be the countermeasure. As you are now you cannot fix things if they would be broken. We might need to power you up."

As his last words echoed a violent electrical charge burned across Sean's entire body and inhuman scream erupted from his throat.

"Sean wake up!"

Sean awoke from a nightmare memory of his past to find the bruised face of Marcus White.

"What took you so long?" Sean demanded

"It's only been 15 hours" Marcus says casually

Sean groaned, lifting himself up from the bed. He'd been asleep for three whole hours? What's more he was caught of guard by Marcus. This wasn't like him. This time he was lucky it was just Marcus and not an enemy.

"What did you find" Sean said irritated "And it better be worth the wait."

"I was injured to get your precious info, ruffian." Marcus said dramatically "The least you can be is grateful"

Marcus then proceeded to dump the contents of his bag on the floor. Silver daggers of various sizes poured from the bag, many of which were still caked in blood and viscera.

"As with many excellent stories I'll start from the beginning. After we went our separate ways I headed to my trusty bookie to get what I needed to know."

"A bookie?"

"Yeah. He's the go to guy for information on people who've died. He can tell you how, why and who, depending on the deceased in question."

"Why would a bookie be privy to that knowledge?"

"For his bets of course."

"What kind of bets" Sean asked suspiciously

"The underground likes to bet on certain things due to all the boredom and chaos here."

"You bet on who'll die."

"Exactly. The bets vary, sometimes it's as simple as making a bet on when a certain someone will die but other times it ranges from the cause of death to the murder. Hired killers like to bet on the cause of death of their victims in order to get an extra cash flow. Hence all the information, if someone wants to get their winnings they're gonna have to tell about the guy they killed in specific details."

"That's inhuman."

"Call it what you will but it's not so inhuman now that it get's you the information you so desperately desire."

Both men were quiet. A chilling tension wrapped the air. Sean was filled with uncertainty while Marcus was smug despite himself.

"Anyway here's what I learned: They're dead. All of them. Every last member of the previous Resistance, besides Louis, myself, you and your friend are dead. I have a list of the order of their deaths, the causes of death and most likely suspects of who killed them but I don't you're interested in learning them one by one."

"I'm guessing Louis isn't there?"

"Louis isn't stupid enough to let himself be connected to their deaths but Louis is no mastermind either. All of these are murders, which of course is nothing special in our line of work, but every death occurs exactly two days before a raid on one of the bases. Also every single time there are signs of torture before death. Here's another thing though the cause of death varies greatly all victims have showed signs of brain hemorrhage. What this mean's you'll have to figure out yourself though. In my opinion though it appears that Louis didn't just kill them, he needed them for something that caused their death, them dying was just a slight bonus. After that I needed to get Louis' location, that wasn't easy. I dug up a few contacts on people who did work with Louis. It turns out it runs a bit deeper than we thought Louis had been dealing with a magician but not just any magician, supply lines and drop-off points are connected by line to a home in a wealthy government sectored neighborhood."

"Damn it. What's Louis thinking. You don't think it's a coup d'etat?

"Like I said, Louis is no mastermind, if something big is really going on, then there's a bigger puppet master pulling the strings."

"What about those new demons? What did you learn about them?"

"I asked every contact I had, no one knows anything. They don't just attack the Resistance, they shake up unlawful less savory workplaces as well. Other than that they're a complete mystery."

"All that took you twelve hours?"

"It took me six. While I was heading here a large group of kids armed with these silver weapons ambushed me. These kids were nothing like you said Sean's kids were like. You might've tossed them around like they were nothing but these were good. They moved like nothing I've ever seen before. After a while I realized I couldn't beat them so I ran. That turned out to be an even worse idea. They followed me and tracked me all across the city when I ended up in one of my family's territories. It was utter chaos. A gang war across the streets erupted, all I could hear was screaming and explosions. That's when one of those demons popped up. It started killing everything in it's path. Seeing a chance I ran for it and finally I got here."

"You started a gang war?"

"By accident."

"The information you got doesn't help us at all. We don't have names of places we're as lost as we were before!"

"I discovered all I could. You may not have names or places but you have methods and motives. You also know that Louis is willing to kill his friends to get his way. I'd watch over that orphanage if I were you."

"Renee is watching over it, it's safe."

"Either way it makes no difference to me. I got what I could find and I almost got killed for it. It's a pity with everything going on but I think I'll get out of this city while the situation isn't apocalyptic. Oh yeah, my fee please."

"People are dying. Our friends are dead, killed by a man we trusted and you're planning on running away?"

"It's what I'm good at Williams. I'm not the fighting type. You may have this urge to impose your will on others but I just want to live smoothly. Like you said about me before, "Once a criminal, always a criminal." Remember that?"

"Well then, good bye Marcus. I hope we meet again, just so I can tell you that you were wrong."

Nathaniel/Landon

Pandemonium had broken out across the streets as a gang war erupted between what appeared to be Sean's toy soldiers and the crime groups of London. According to reports several of the golem demons had been spotted attacking both sides. This free-for-all had already cost so much lives.

At the same time the Tower had been sealed off from entrance or exit the moment Bartimaeus sent out a distress call from it's prison. Communication was closed off and a small group of the golem demons appeared at the entrance. At first they did nothing but watch the high prison but the moment authorities came a battle ensued.

Elise had used her powers to contact but the duo and Sean. Nathaniel had discovered a method to contain the golems but he even they couldn't be at two places at once also with the twins out cold their group was decreased to half of what it once was. They decided that Landon would go to the Tower while Sean would quell the gang war while Elise was to remain where she was in order to maintain contact with both of them.

"Good luck to both of you." Elise said sadly "I think this is only the beginning."