A/N: Looking back, I realized that all the chapters save the first have been short and mostly consist of people standing around talking. By way of recompense, here's a lengthy chapter featuring people beating the snot out of each other, stuff blowing up, and a musical number. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious, or the Aeneid, or "All the Pretty Horses", or…much of anything, really.

Tros Anchisiade, facilis descensus Averno;
Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est…

-Virgil, Aeneid VI.126-129

The group of seven stood before the entrance to a tunnel at the foot of a little hill not far from the ancient town of Herculaneum. This, Kotna had indicated, was the fastest route to the Choti's forward base. The purple-skinned soldier was only barely able to walk; he had one arm over André's shoulders, the other over Beck's, for support. Still, he seemed to be in good spirits; Jade had gathered from their telepathic exchanges that he was very hopeful the Argonauts' aid could tip the scales in the civil war now raging beneath the surface of the earth.

"You guys ready?" Jade asked.

"No," said Robbie.

"Nope," chimed in Tori.

"Not even close," Trina added.

"…Yeah, me neither. But we're gonna have to go in sometime. Robbie, lead the way."

"I knew you were going to say that," the frizzy-haired boy grumbled. He descended into the dark, the others, bearing torches, behind him.

They went down for what seemed like hours, through increasingly narrow passages, until the tunnel finally opened up into a vast cavern. In the total darkness, their puny flames managed only to light the way immediately in front of them.

So what do we do now? Jade asked Kotna.

I have no idea. We should have reached the base by now-

Light blazed through the cave from globes on the ceiling high above. The little company could see clearly now – and they bristled at the sight.

There was a single exit, at the cavern's far end. Between it and them, rows and rows of Choti soldiers stood waiting, blades drawn.

"Guys? I think it's a trap," murmured Trina.

"Thank you, Catherine Obvious!" her sister yelled.

"For the last time, Vega, it's Captain!" Jade turned to Kotna. Why did you deceive us?

I did not deceive you! The Choti cried in his native tongue, both mentally and aloud, and Jade was certain, however improbable it might be, that he believed what he said.

Still, the evidence of their eyes could not be denied. The Choti army had been waiting for them.

Tactical retreat, she signaled mentally to her friends. They dropped their torches and rushed in a body back the way they had come.

It was fortunate, perhaps, that Trina, having brought up the rear of their little party as they advanced, was now the leader; for Jade very much doubted that any of the rest of them would have survived what happened to her now. As the elder Vega tried to pass through the cavern mouth into the narrow passage from which they had emerged, a force-field crackled into life. Untold amounts of electricity ran through her body, blasting her backward into the cavern nearly twenty yards.

"Trina! Are you all right?" Tori cried.

"Yeah, I…*cough*…I think so…but we're not…*cough*…not getting out that way, that's for damn sure."

"Then I guess we'll have to fight," said Jade.

As her friends formed a line of battle, she assessed the enemy. There were at least a hundred infantry, divided into platoons of ten commanded by subordinate officers (of Kotna's rank, or slightly higher) who answered to three generals mounted at the rear. The foot-soldiers were supported by monstrous, tiger-like creatures that, Kotna had informed Jade, were called Drakel. They roamed about on six muscular legs, gnashing phenomenally long teeth.

Jade's hand went to her sword. Tori, noticing, immediately gave her a warning look.

God, Vega's so annoying…but she does have a point. I can do more good as a general than a foot soldier right now.

She concentrated, forming a telepathic link with her six friends, and swiftly sketched a battle plan in their minds. Trina, Beck – you're our heaviest hitters; take on the Drakel. Tori, Robbie, André – slow down the infantry, but try to avoid using lethal force if at all possible. Cat – attack the commanders.

Trina needed no encouragement to charge into the fray. It was almost funny to see the 5'5'' girl colliding head on with the enormous, rearing beasts – and driving them back. Much as Jade disliked the elder Vega, she couldn't help but admire the skill with which she moved, striking with elbows, knees, even head-butts.

Still, there were too many for her to handle alone – and that was where Beck came in. He had been practicing his shape-shifting constantly, and it paid off now: with a single thought, he transformed himself into a form capable of facing the monsters on equal terms – a woolly mammoth. A Drakel leaped, striking with its claws at his neck; he caught it in his tusks and hurled it across the cavern.

Meanwhile, Tori was already in motion. From her point of view, the Choti soldiers were effectively standing still, and she could strike them down however she pleased, but she still exercised great care. Although she was wielding only a short wooden staff, her every motion carried so much momentum that it might as well have been a crowbar, and she had no desire to bludgeon anyone's brains out. Instead, with almost surgical precision, she tapped the backs of her opponents' knees, knocking their feet out from under them, or struck their shoulder-blades, hurling them forward.

At such close quarters, André's sonic cry would almost certainly have been fatal, so he relied instead on his fists, feet, and staff. Despite having the least combat training of any of the group, he was holding his own; Jade was proud of him. Of course, he was helped immensely by the presence of Robbie, whose uncanny sense of balance permitted him to leap about like a bouncing ball, striking his opponents from every conceivable angle; slightly built he might have been, but his phenomenal agility – not to mention his ability to hear and smell his opponents even when they were not yet in sight – more than made up for it.

Cat, on the other hand, had yet to move.

Did you hear me? Jade thought at her. Fly over the ranks and take down their commanders in the rear. Without anyone to direct them, they'll lose cohesion.

By 'take down', do you mean…kill? Cat gulped.

Only if you have to.

The small redhead extended her talons and looked at them warily. I'm afraid of what I might do to them. I don't want to lose control and cut them to ribbons.

Jade was desperate. Thinking quickly, she seized a nearby Choti and held him in an iron grip, then opened a pathway into his mind and linked it to Cat's. Look. Hear. Feel what they're going through.

The two girls' minds were flooded with the unfortunate soldier's terror, his complete lack of control over his actions, his sheer helplessness.

Do you see, Cat? We have to stop this. As quickly as possible. And only you can do that.

It took Cat a moment to recover from the shock of the images to which she'd been exposed. Finally she nodded. You're right. They're suffering – and I don't want anybody to suffer.

She lifted off, skimming along the cavern's ceiling over the melee below. At last she reached the rear entrance to the cavern, where the three Choti generals sat on their mounts, watching the fight with undisguised pleasure and occasionally motioning their subordinates to deploy fresh platoons.

Cat dived, so swiftly that her targets never knew what hit them. Her lethal talons never came into play; instead, she beat the commanders over the head with her mighty wings, stunning them and sending them toppling from their steeds. Their bodyguards hefted javelins and hurled them at the winged girl, but she eluded their every attempt without difficulty, and the spear-tips collided harmlessly with the rock wall behind her.

As Jade had predicted, the Choti army fell into confusion. The subordinate officers looked to one another for orders; their troops were giving way. I think we've done it!

A fresh wave of soldiers poured into the cavern. Fifteen Drakel followed on their heels.

Why do I keep tempting fate like that?

"Jesus, is there any end to these guys?" André cried. He and Robbie were beginning to weary. Tori, too, was slowing down perceptibly, forcing her to swing harder and harder to make her blows felt.

Beck was almost at his time limit. His great bulk began to shimmer and waver as he could no longer maintain his form. Trina realized this and increased the force of her blows, hoping to finish the fight before Beck gave out entirely, but every time she successfully downed a Drakel, another took its place and lashed out at her with fresh fury. Cat returned to the fray and slashed the beasts' backs with her own claws, but they were incredibly resilient, and refused to succumb.

Jade could no longer stand by and watch. She unsheathed her sword and, with a terrible cry, rushed in, hacking and slashing with abandon. In her frenzy, she completely forgot Kotna.

The young Choti's wounds were aching terribly, and he wanted only to rest. As he shut his eyes, however, a searing throb tore through his mind, blotting out all conscious thought. It was as though his brain were trying to rip open his skull and escape. He screamed, but in the tumult no one heard save Robbie, who was too busy fighting for his life to take much notice.

Azlon-Rath's voice echoed in his skull. Time for you to do your job, grub.

Suddenly the dam on his memories was broken, and he recalled the meeting in the throne room. But I…I led them into a trap, just as His Magnificence wished. My task is already done.

You only obeyed my command because I suppressed your memories. At your core you are a traitor, third subaltern Kotna – a fool, and a weakling. How ironic, then, that you will be the instrument of the ape-things' destruction.

I don't want to…

As the High Chancellor's telepathic command triggered the latent biochemical alterations he had made to Kotna, the Choti's body began to change. His chest expanded. His jaws widened and new rows of teeth emerged, causing him agonizing pain. The muscles of his arms and legs swelled to grotesque proportions. The very structure of his bones was altered, hardened to solid steel. At the same time, his cerebral cortex began to shrink, swiftly dwindling away to almost nothing. No longer a sentient being, he was a muscle-bound, raving monster.

Even as she parried one enemy's blow and stabbed another in the chest, Jade sensed telepathically her new friend's distress. As soon as she had beaten off all her nearby foes, she turned to check on him – and gaped in horror. "What did they do to you?"

He made no answer except a hideous barking. Foam dripped from the corners of his mouth.

He's going to kill us all, Jade realized. Turned into a living weapon, against his will.

Their High Chancellor really doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself, does he?

Her thought was immediately proven true, as the thing that had been Kotna lashed out wildly, making no discrimination between friend and foe. It struck the heads clean off two unfortunate Choti, then backhanded André, sending him sprawling. Robbie launched a desperate leaping attack, landed on the creature's shoulders, and struck at his neck, but was immediately thrown off as the creature began to buck like a bull.

Tori, though all but exhausted now, charged. She landed three staff blows square to the creature's solar plexus, but to no effect. It raised a mighty fist to crush her skull.

"Hey! Ugly! Over here!" Jade screamed.

She very much doubted that the thing could understand her words, but it seemed to sense the provocative intent behind them, and, ignoring Tori, advanced on Jade instead.

The Goth was terrified out of her wits, but she had no intention of backing down. With her computer-like mind, she scanned the thing for weaknesses. The center of its chest is soft – no bony plate to deflect a blow. That's where I should strike. She leveled her blade.

"Jade, don't! Don't kill it!" cried Robbie, who still lay half-dazed on the floor.

"I don't want to, but I don't have a choice!"

"No! You don't understand! I can see into his chest – there's a concealed explosive! If you stab him, the whole cavern will go up!"

"Shit," she muttered. Azlon-Rath had outmaneuvered her with all the skill of a chess grandmaster. If she did nothing, the Kotna-thing would slaughter every living creature within its reach, including her and her friends; if she struck, death for them all was every bit as certain.

There was only one option left: try to talk this rampaging beast down.

Or maybe sing it down…

"Hey, André! Know any good lullabies?"

"Um, yeah, I guess…but I don't have my lyre! Or my keyboard!"

"You'll be fine. Cat and…" She swallowed her distaste. "…Cat and Vega will sing with you."

"What about you?"

"I'm thinking you may need a power boost to get through to him, so I'll generate a telepathic carrier wave to back you up. Understood?"

"No, not really, but I'll trust you." André grinned.

He began to croon, in a voice pure and gentle:

Hush my boy, don't you cry,

Go to sleep you little baby;

When you wake, you shall have

All the pretty little horses…

Cat and Tori harmonized, giving André additional confidence and making his song ever more effective. Jade herself had to fight off the urge to sleep.

The beast thrashed about and howled, fighting the soporific effects of André's lullaby. Rousing herself, Jade focused all her psychic energies and slowly chipped away at the defenses surrounding what was left of Kotna's mind.

Unfortunately, the remaining Choti officers had no intention of letting this process proceed smoothly. They gave a battle cry and launched a renewed attack.

Robbie fought back valiantly, but he was at the end of his rope. Beck, after swatting away a few opponents in his failing mammoth form, returned to his human shape and collapsed, utterly exhausted. If André was to have the time necessary to succeed, it was all up to Trina.

The mighty girl struck down the first rank of soldiers like bowling pins. The reserves moved up to take their place, dogpiling on her, punching, kicking, and stabbing. Their blades couldn't penetrate her skin, and their individual blows could do her virtually no harm, but their cumulative weight was beginning to exact its toll.

A black and bay,

A brown and gray,

And a coach-and-six o' little horses…

The Kotna-thing's rage faded. Its mouth ceased to foam, and its violent gestures lapsed into a rhythmic swaying from side to side.

Suddenly, Jade, still in telepathic contact, gasped. She could swear she had felt something of Kotna's own mind – still, somehow, intact, despite the horrific transformation he had been forced to endure. André's magic music had somehow pulled it out of the chaos that had previously swirled in the Choti's shrunken brain. And that remnant of a mind was sending out one word, a command, endlessly, relentlessly:

Go.

We can't, Jade responded. There's no way out.

Go. I help. I stop them. You go. Go now.

How can you possibly…

Slowly, with measured step, the Kotna-thing advanced toward the entrance.

Stop! Jade cried silently. You'll be killed!

I can last…long enough…you go…

It – no, he – stepped into the force-field. It crackled madly, its energies tearing through his powerful body, but he didn't even flinch. Jade realized that the field was weakening as Kotna sapped its strength.

"Everybody out!" she yelled. With one last supreme effort, Trina kicked away six of the Choti atop her, extricated herself from the dogpile, and fled. On the way, she scooped up the weary Robbie and Beck, holding them under her arms like sacks of grain. André, Cat, and Tori (moving at normal speed now, due to her extreme exhaustion) followed. They passed through the failing barrier on either side of Kotna, feeling nothing except a tingling.

Jade, bringing up the rear, turned and looked back. "Follow us, Kotna!"

No. You go. I stay. I keep you safe.

His flesh was visibly cracking, his bones yielding and snapping.

But you'll be…

GO!

"Thank you," she whispered aloud, and followed her friends.

Just as they reached the daylight, a tremendous roar echoed through the tunnel. Kotna's death had activated the explosive implanted in his chest. Rocks and dirt collapsed in on themselves, sealing the entrance.

"He sacrificed himself…for us," panted Trina. "Why?"

"Because, even if he wasn't human," said Jade, tears in her eyes, "he was a good man."

/

They drank wine again that evening, but not in celebration – instead, they sought desperately to numb their pain. No one said a word in the swiftly gathering darkness.

Finally, Robbie, unable to bear the awkward silence, flicked on his PearPad and checked CNN. "Guys, it looks like the tremors have stopped in Italy, at least for now. Actually, most of the world is reporting a drop in seismic activity. The only exception is…"

He looked up, alarmed. "Southern California."

"Oh, God," said Jade, as all the color drained from her face. "This…all this was just a feint. Azlon-Rath wanted to draw us here so that he could attack Los Angeles without any opposition. Guys, we have to get home. Now."

"And how exactly do you suggest we do that?" snapped Tori, whom battle fatigue had made uncharacteristically irritable. "All the flights out of Naples have been cancelled. It's going to be a while before I can run at full speed again, and Cat can't go alone."

A voice came from the darkness. "Perhaps I can be of help."

"Who's there?" Jade yelled. "Dammit, Robbie, why didn't you warn us that someone was coming?"

"I didn't see or hear anyone!" the frizzy-haired boy cried.

A twelve-foot-tall, glowing shape appeared before them. "You need not blame your friend, my daughter. No mortal, no matter how keen his senses, can detect my presence until I wish him to do so."

Jade gasped.

"Athena?"