NationStates Jolt Archive

"Whenever you're ready...my Lord."

She was dressed in the traditional garb of the neutral angels, with a few modern twists. The old-style black and silver tunic was replaced by a sleeveless black leather trenchcoat, similar to the one she typically wore. The buttons only went down as far as her waist, the rest of which was allowed to hang loose. A slit part way up the back and each side allowed for ease of movement. The coat had a high collar, which was trimmed with thin silver. In fact, the entire coat held the same silver adornment if one looked closely. Armor-like pieces of steel protected the fleshy parts of her wings, and replaced the silver bracers from before, with the addition of spiked plates covering the back of her hands. A strong and ancient sword hung sheathed at her hip. She wore modern black pants and combat boots. More of the strange armor protected her shins, tied around the back with strong lacings.

Gael stood battle-ready, one hand resting lightly on the hilt of her weapon. While summoning the armor, Baker's point of heaven breifly crossed her mind. Could he have been right? No, of course not. She knew that first hand.

Paul pulled his coat tight around him as he walked the streets, he was heading for Sage's apartment and had just passed the library. Keeping himself to himself, he didn't really take notice of anyone around him.

Sage saw Paul up ahead, and jogged up to him, Steve and Philip followed as well. Sage caught up with his friend and began to speak.

"Paul, you need to get off the streets, if you didn't notice the riots everywhere," Sage said. "Its dangerous out here, we are going to my apartment, I will explain everything there."

***

"Beautiful my Queen, just beautiful," Matthius said, he had yet to dawn on his armor. He wanted to leave it as a suprise to everyone.

***

Vinn got on his motorcycle, and drove off down the street. He was heading for the riots, he knew that the three sons of Matthius would be there. The wind tore at his blonde hair and his jet black trench coat. His sunglasses still remained covering his ice cold eyes. On his back his giant bustersword hissed as the wind blew against it. On his sleeveless arm his muscles rippled. He wanted revenge.

"Thank you."

She folded her arms casually, and glanced down, visually examining the scorched hilt of the sabre. The grip was mostly pristene, as well as the fine chain which held it to her sword belt. Rarely did she wear the Armor, and doing so made her anxious and restless.

"When do we strike? I grow impatient.."

Baker, Cara, and Alistor had to step lively to catch up with Sage and his friends. If Baker had not known who Alistor was he would have been surprised that a man of his age could keep up with them. The trio finally caught up and were able to slow down to stay with the group.

"Hey Sage, I think I heard someone else's voice talking to you from outside earlier...who was it?"

"Yeah I was just looking for you and the other," Paul told him.

"Follow us Paul," Sage said, then turned to Baker. "It was Vinn, he's remembered the goodness that is still inside him. He is on our side now, or so I hope he is at least. I sensed the goodness in him flowing freely, but it was also being swallowed up by hatred and revenge, those are not good things to put together. Goodness with hatred."

***

"We will strike this night my love," Matthius said. "Just hold these bitter sweet moments for granted."

Paul just nodded and followed them, he had no idea what was going on.

Well no sense in arguing the point, despite how advantageous it might be to strike while their adversaries were still unprepared. She left Matthius with his thoughts, and wandered off in search of a good vantage point to oversee the preparation of their warriors. Her hand would surely remember the feel of this sword, but perhaps a bit of practice might be wise.

As they were walking, Alistor turned away for a second and wiped a tear forming in his eye. The song had reminded him of what he had given up, what he was still paying for. This time was different, he could feel it. In the song and in the group itself. It was different for him too. There was an old friend involved, and old friend. He put a hand into the lining of his worn cloak and drew out a small leather flask, he had carried it for a long while. It was as he had been told just in case. He wished he would never have to use it more than he had ever wished for anything.
He cleared his throat hoping noone had seen the tear, he was too old and crusty to be seen like that. He turned to Baker and measured him up. He saw no harm in saying anything, and from what he could tell the lad had earned it.
'Yer question, earlier. Aye. He be me. An I wasnae worried lad, dinnae be afeared of that. You'v got the look.' Alistor whisked his stick in front of Bakers eye
'See? Now a normal man, he may flinch, or mebbe even stop the thing, be you? Ye can tell what to block, when tae defend, when tae protect. A rare skill in a warrior. Thats what earned me respect. But if ye want advice from an old man, here it is. Don't put all ye trust in fairytales. Am an old warrior, flesh and blood like ye, put yer trust in friends and when it gets doon tae it' He tapped Bakers sword
'Cold steel. But always th' first before th' other. Remember that.'

"I will Alistor. Baker turned his head to Sage. "Hey Sage. We should be getting close to your apartment soon right?"

"Yeah," Sage said turning the corner, seeing his apartment building just down the street.

The ragtag group finally arrived at Sage's building. They crowded in the elevator up to his apartment and went inside. Baker walked over to the canvas bags full of "supplies" and began rummaging through.

Sage took the bag from Eddie and started looking through it, he saw three swords and then looked at Paul, Philip, and Steve. He tossed them all a sword each, Philip nearly dropped his but he caught hold of it. Steve looked at Philip with confusion.

"There...we won't have to fight...will we?" Steve asked.

"Unfortunately yes you probably will have to," Sage said. He turned and looked out the window over the city. There was a very awkward silence, Sage walked to the window and put his hand on it. "Shit..."

All noise ended, then in the next second a blast echoed throughout every part of the city, the glass in front of Sage shattered, but he stopped it with his powers before anything could happen, but as he looked at his hand glass was buried deep into it.

A red beam shot from the ground into the sky, a small part of the town was engulfed in it. All of the people in the room looked around at one another and then back at the light.

"It has begun," Sage said. "The fighting will soon begin."

***

Flames sprung into the air as black shadowy demons jumped out of the pit into the earthly realm, any human unfortunate to be close enough took off running away. They were chased down and killed.

Soon enough from the pit came a man, dressed in jet black armour that covered his whole body. It was heavy armour, making him appear to be bigger than he really was. Skull shaped knee caps and spiked shoulder blades. A helm rested on his head that had a giant spine running up the front of it straight into the sky about one foot. Around his neck was a black necklace with a green amulet in it. His ice cold eyes gazed out from it. Long silver hair rested over the armour as he looked around, Lord Matthius had begun his assault.

"Kill all you see, leave the boy to me however," He said.

"So can you tell me what the hell is going on?" Paul asked.

"You see that light shooting into the sky?" Sage asked him. "A portal between here and hell is open. Matthius, a demon, is assaulting our world. I can stop him, and you guys need to defend yourself. There was some important information on how to close the portal and save the world but those are just minor details." Sage added with a sly smirk.

"Right," Paul said, that sounded rather weird. "So can we use the usual guns and stuff or do they need something more?"

"Thats what the sword I just gave you is for," Sage said. "Use that, guns will eventually run out of ammo, and there is an entire horde pouring out."

***

A gunshot was fired another human fell to the ground dead, Vera blew the smoke away from the top of his gun and smirked. Dos and Ramma were beside him on their motorcycles as well, just picking off anyone they saw.

"Pitiful wretches," Ramma said. "They go down so easily. Its a wonder we didn't try to do this ages ago."

They heard a noise, another motorcycle was coming around, both turned their heads around and saw Vinn swerve a corner and started in their direction.

"Ah there he is, its about t-" Ramma started to say.

"What's he doing?" Dos asked.

Vinn pulled out his buster sword, and readied it, he came for Ramma and swung, but Ramma pulled out his blade just in time to block it but the force of the attack sent the katana out of his hand. Vinn continued going and turned another corner.

"That bastard! He's betrayed us!" Ramma said. "Chase him! I'll catch up!"

Dos and Vera started their motorcycles and started after him, Ramma drove forward and picked up his blade before pursuing as well.

"An entire horde? Shit thats not good," Paul grimaced. "And I've never wielded a sword in my life."

She flew out of the pit behind Matthuis, pumping her wings slightly to maintain a hovering position above and to the left of him. She smiled darkly, watching the carnage about them. The streets would run red before the end of the hour.

I'm only a thought away if you need me, luv..

She smiled down at Matthius, the beginnings of battle- and blood-lust tinging her smile and the fire in her eyes. Yes, it had been long indeed since last she went on a crusade.

Spreading her wings, she flew low over the advancing line of demons. Out and beyond where others were still uncertain as to the meaning of the light. The very sight of her struck terror among the humans, and soon they began fighting for another reason...escape.

With a laugh marked by sadism, she grabbed the first person she could find, and carried him high into the air. He fought at first, then realizing the height, clung to her arms for life itself.

"Allow me to read you your last rites..."

She entered a dive with him, the crowd below screaming as the winged death drew ever closer. Thirty feet from the ground, she let him go, watching as he slammed into the unfortunate people in his path. And with a bone-chilling laugh, she wheeled back over the crowd, weaving through the buildings, and inciting as much blind terror as possible before selecting another victem.

Vinn twisted the throttle, gaining speed. He was going down a long straight road, for the most part the streets were very clear. He just had to dodge a few cars, he figured in the mass confusion of what was happening not many people would be on the road. He clipped his Buster Sword on the side of the motorcycle but then heard a gunshot, he swerved to the right just in time a bullet flew past the side of his head.

He turned around and looked, Vera and Dos were following, with Ramma just a bit behind him. He grabbed his Buster Sword again and made way for the demon portal.

"Let's have a bit of fun shall we?" He said to himself.

***

Matthius watched as Gael flew about the streets making random attacks on fighting, or fleeing citizens.

"How beautiful she and death are, both of them seem to go right together," Matthius said as he walked slowly forward, with a steady stream of shadowy demons running past him.

There was a wide variety of different demons, but for the most part they were short footsoldiers. Only about 4-5 feet tall. They were completely black with no defining body features, just almost like they were shadows. They had yellow glowing eyes, and long arms that gripped varriety of weapons. Even without weapons they had claws that could do a good amount of damage.

"Actually Sage, they might want to take a few guns with them. I have a Montana militiaman's wet dream right here. So just take whatever you like."

Baker kept going through the bags, taking what he thought might be useful. He grabbed a replacement .35 and put it in his holster along with some grenades. As he looked for another bag he took an uzi and what he found next brought a sly grin to his face. He put the strap for the double barreled 12 gauge over his shoulder.

"We should get going Sage. We're going to need the jewel, and I think we both know where it is..."

"Yes, we both do," Sage said and started for the door, the others followed, and they made their way down the steps. Sage spoke as they went down. "Its on the neck of my hatred and fear itself, it rides piggy back to the failiures of my life. Its exactly where I don't want to be."

Paul just silently listened to them, he was still unsure about what was going on.

Her forearms and bracers were blood-streaked, as was her throat and the side of her face. However, none of it was her own. She flew with an easy grace, slashing randomly at the fleeing crowd. She could almost taste their fear. With demifangs brandished in a hellish grin, she wheeled to the right and took another pass at the crowd, diving like a falcon on prey.

It seemed even the repentists were fleeing before her wrath. Something seemed decidedly ironic about that, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Nearly blinded by the ectacy of battle-rage, she continued her rampage as the first wave of demons reached her position.

Baker scooped up the bags and the book. "We have plenty of weapons and ammo. The longer we wait, the more people will die." He went down the stairs with the others and began packing up his car. Soon they would drive toward the demonic light that marked the site of the battle for earth.

Gael....I will save you...even if it is from yourself...

He examined the group. Save Alistor they all look so young...wait ..."Hey...where's Cara?"

She slipped away a moment before they walked into the building. She knew that they were completely insane; even if they had told her the complete truth the very choice of their arena was completely mad. The apartment building was sturdy, it was held up by solid steel beams just like every other building. However, it wouldn’t take too much well placed explosives to make it collapse. The building was a certifiable death trap.

She’d slipped down a back alley as they were moving into position. She knew they wouldn’t miss her and they definitely wouldn’t have listened to her if she’d told them about the danger. People always got confrontational when she told them they were doing something wrong, and that would just waste unnecessary energy that she could use getting away.

A few minutes later, she paused and took up a position to watch. She saw the apartment building clearly but she was invisible in the shadows. It wasn't the time to say anything but she couldn't help the small ragged sound that she made. None of it made any sense.

Alistor snuck off as they were loading up on weapons, he had never got the hang of guns. Killing was a thing to be respected, not exactly an art unless you were a certain kind of person, but a power that he thought deserved respect. Filling somone with small pellets of metal from a distance did not seem like his idea of doing this.
He got onto the streets, now chaotic with the fleeing people and the demons darting in and out cutting down people with frenzied ferver. He watched these with the light of the unholy fires reflecting in his eyes, tonight it would happen again, and so tonight he had a duty.
He threw off his worn cloak to reveal seemingly new garb, with the emblem of a ragged circle displayed in several places. He reached to a jewelled scabbard at his side, then feeling it empty he sighed with an old ache and pulled out a silvery dagger from a smaller holster on his left. He wieghed it up and then darted forward with a speed that belied his years,.He plunged it into the neck of a demon that had just torn a woman apart layer by layer leaving the wet remains to slide to the floor, and it screeched with agony and suprise that a weapon found here was hurting it. It too slumped to the floor and Alistor whirled round feeling the familiar battle lust build up even though it was dulled slightly after so long, but he froze when he spied a woman who was barely recognisable beneath a layer of gore that she was revelling in. As he watched she tore out another mans innards.
He felt as if his legs would give in to gravity for a second and he almost reused to believe this was his old friend. But it was and he painfully knew it. He tightened his grip on his dagger and threw back his head to shout the ancient code she and him and so many others had taken:
'Angul umberogen, geste amar zieneth-
GAEL!'

Her senses were heightened by battle-rage, but that single voice reached her with a staggering clarity. She seemed to freeze mid-air, face twisted into a snarl as the blood dripped from her hands. She knew this voice, but had not heard it in quite some time. It was an old voice indeed, and one for whom she felt little love. Or so she often told herself.

From among the crowd of hundreds, she spotted him instantly, drawn by the subtle aura is if he stood alone. Blinking suddenly, all the anger fell from her face as she finally recognised him.

"What..what are you doing here?"

Shock was soon replaced by the gnawing hunger for battle, but she pumped her wings slowly, almost hovering above the crowd.

Steve and Philip stood behind Sage, who, suddenly, when no one was looking had conjured to blades and harnesses for them on his back. His outfit had changed as well, he was now wearing a body tight black t-shirt, and brown fingerless gloves. He had on black knee high boots, and green/brown baggy pants. He looked at his two friends then back at Eddie.

"Guns are not tools used to fight pure hatred," He said. "We use swords, and travel on foot, come on guys."

He said and started jogging down the street, with Steve, Philip, and Paul close behind.

Paul jogged behind Sage, wondering what he was letting himself in for. He was worried of course, but it was probably too late to back out anyway.

Her senses were heightened by battle-rage, but that single voice reached her with a staggering clarity. She seemed to freeze mid-air, face twisted into a snarl as the blood dripped from her hands. She knew this voice, but had not heard it in quite some time. It was an old voice indeed, and one for whom she felt little love. Or so she often told herself.

From among the crowd of hundreds, she spotted him instantly, drawn by the subtle aura is if he stood alone. Blinking suddenly, all the anger fell from her face as she finally recognised him.

"What..what are you doing here?"

Shock was soon replaced by the gnawing hunger for battle, but she pumped her wings slowly, almost hovering above the crowd.

Alistor saw her face him and noticed the recognition flow accross her face. At least she remembered him in some way.
'What am ah doin here? Of all places you ask me what am ah doin HERE?' His voice softened
'Have ye forgotten what ye did, all those years ago? Ave seen each council member fall, outlived em by t'ousands of years, and not once did ah blame ye. Cause it needed tae be done. But now yer tellin me ye'v forgotton?'
His voice shook for a moment and he looked down at his weathered hands, then back up to the hovering Gael who still looked in the prime of youth.
'The entire reason am here is ter make sure things happen the way they should. We all decided that, but now yer tellin me that yer the one on the other side now? Of all people the people it coulda been! And the question is mare of what are you doin here?! I thought ye had passed away with the rest of em!' His voice quietened again as he looked her gore covered body over.
'There was ne'er a body ye know. I thought ye wuz gone an I couldnae even give ye a decent funeral.' He tore off the star he had been given by her a long time ago from round his neck and threw it to her.
'Do ye at least remember this? Or is my old friend really dead, and am ah wastin my breath?'

A hundred different questions drifted through her mind, everything was too far away for her to make out details but some things stood out clearly.

The boys on their quest, even as they wove out of sight, she felt a bond with them. The girl knew little of them but she knew where they were. It must have been something in the strange tune; at least she’d taken the copy with her. It bore much for future study.

The Scotsman negotiating with the darkness, even as he yelled words she couldn’t hear she felt the bond with him. She didn’t know and couldn’t guess the meaning but this Alistor was not even quite what he claimed, and even that was a stretch.

The woman flying above, Cara almost recognized her face. That wasn’t why she felt familiar. The girl knew nothing of the angel but yet, she felt some bond, different than the rest. Was it that she felt an attraction towards the obvious darkness or perhaps more that the darkness had an attraction to her?

Cara hardly even thought as she stood up and walked away from her near-perfect hiding spot and began to climb. She moved quickly up the dumpster and onto the outside of a window, then she scrabbled for hand and footholds up to the next window and up towards the top of the apartment.

"You guys go on ahead" Baker said as the four boys ran off "I'll find Cara, we're gonna need her. We'll catch up alright?" He ran down the street scanning any possible place she might have gone to hide from the chaos in this city. He saw the form of a woman on the side of an apartment building.

That's gotta be her Baker thought. "Cara!" he yelled over to her "Cara, could you come down here please?!"

She caught the star, watching him with a carefully guarded expression.

"I thought you had died. Even despite this," she snapped, holding up the star in a clenched fist. "I thought I was the only one left."

She was holding the small medallion tight enough to draw blood, as the tips pricked her palm. The star brought with it a tide of memories. It represented that time so long ago when they fought for the common good, on the council. They had been something resembling enemies when they first met, but over time had become friends. She had been the driving force behind the council, subtly directing their moves, striving for neutrality. Choosing to side with good or evil outright would spell disaster not only for themselves, but for the rest of the primitive and self-interested world. The star represented her gift to him, to thank him for his guidance and loyalty. It represented the gift of immortality. It was the only time she had given it. Shortly after, the council had disbanded, no longer needed as the world began to advance. The council members had become greedy, each trying to push empires in one direction or another for personal gain. She had killed each of them in turn, cutting out the corruption. After a while, she and Alistor had lost touch, and she had assumed her spell had not worked. Seeing him now, in this aged state, it was easy to see that it hadn't worked entirely.

And now she herself had become corrupted. Alone, what did it really matter?

"Have you come to kill me then? To end this? What of Matthius?"

Behind him, she glimpsed the musician from the Jewel attempting to scale the side of a building, and Baker trying to catch the girl's attention. Her eyes flashed darkly at the recognition, but she calmly flickered her gaze back to the old Scot.

In some part of her mind, she probably heard the soldier calling for her but she didn’t show it. She climbed the building with a natural agility that was enhanced by training in gymnastics and climbing that she’d labored through in high school just a few years back. After a few minutes, she’d gotten into a consistent rhythm and she was climbing up each story in under a minute.

It didn’t take her long to reach the roof.

As she stepped onto the center of the roof, she took a deep breath and looked around. She gazed at the sky for a few moments as she reflected on the beauty; it still seemed as untouchable as it was when she stood on the ground. This tower of Babel, like all of the others, never reached its goal.

With a wistful sigh, she pulled out her violin and started to tune in the clear night. She knew philosophizing was not a good idea; she needed to do things that were more important.

She caught the star, watching him with a carefully guarded expression.

"I thought you had died. Even despite this," she snapped, holding up the star in a clenched fist. "I thought I was the only one left."

She was holding the small medallion tight enough to draw blood, as the tips pricked her palm. The star brought with it a tide of memories. It represented that time so long ago when they fought for the common good, on the council. They had been something resembling enemies when they first met, but over time had become friends. She had been the driving force behind the council, subtly directing their moves, striving for neutrality. Choosing to side with good or evil outright would spell disaster not only for themselves, but for the rest of the primitive and self-interested world. The star represented her gift to him, to thank him for his guidance and loyalty. It represented the gift of immortality. It was the only time she had given it. Shortly after, the council had disbanded, no longer needed as the world began to advance. The council members had become greedy, each trying to push empires in one direction or another for personal gain. She had killed each of them in turn, cutting out the corruption. After a while, she and Alistor had lost touch, and she had assumed her spell had not worked. Seeing him now, in this aged state, it was easy to see that it hadn't worked entirely.

And now she herself had become corrupted. Alone, what did it really matter?

"Have you come to kill me then? To end this? What of Matthius?"

Behind him, she glimpsed the musician from the Jewel attempting to scale the side of a building, and Baker trying to catch the girl's attention. Her eyes flashed darkly at the recognition, but she calmly flickered her gaze back to the old Scot.

Alistor noted the flicker of her eyes
'You leave them out of this, I'm yer concern right now. Or rather, you are. What I'm gonna do her depends on ye really, does it not? You see' He said calmly with a cold look
'If ye are the Gael I knew, or know, then you certainly aren't gonnae tak on a few lads and lasses who did ye no harm past a sharp remark. But if ye arent the Gael ah know, well then.' He tightened his grip on the small dagger.
'Then its yer move' He cocked his head sideways at her
'We'el? I aint got all day. Ahm an old man, oh me poor back me bladder me knees ecetera' He grinned darkly

She laughed derisively and seemed to regain that old aura of confidence.

"You mean to challenge me? Forgive me if I fail to be intimidated."

One hand dropped the the hilt of her sword, resting there almost mockingly. It was not meant for him, but she would draw if need be. Nearly every major religion - at least in the old days - portrayed their version of the "angel of death" with a blade of fire, and she was more than willing to comply.

Master, the angel is close... Baker turned to look around and he could see Gael hovering a short distance away. He glanced back up the building. Cara was on the roof and Baker knew that Matthius would be targeting her, just to be safe, and that she was a sitting duck up on the roof. He clenched his hands and doubted what to do. To confront a close friend he had promised to save? Or protect the girl, one of the people needed to save everyone? The moment was fleeting, however. He had already known the answer as he climbed the side of the building.

He eventually reached the roof, climbing at a rushed pace reflecting the urgency of everything. Baker walked up to Cara, "What are you doing up here? It's not safe to be alone."

Sage, Philip, Steve, and Paul saw the enemies. The four of them stood in the middle of the street as hundreds of citizens ran past them. The last person ran close, and Sage saw the army advancing on. A completely unorganized swarm of them were coming closer and closer.

"Ready yourselves," Sage said. "Show no fear."

Steve gulped, Philip shook slightly, but they tried their best to gain confidence.

"Lets save the world," Sage said and then charged forward, Steve and Philip looked at each other, and shook hands before charging as well. They yelled at the top of their lungs, Sage was a good twenty feet in front of them. He met the enemies, one lunged at him, but he sliced his blade splitting it in two.

Two more came after him but he spun around twirling his blades, cut them up. Whenever they were hit they just decentigrated into black goo. Soon many were lunging at him at a time but he kept jumping in the air, ducking, spinning and slashing.

Philip and Steve were about to hit the lines when all noise was sucked away, but then put back with a giant green explosion. It was like an expanding bubble coming from Sage that blew all of the black demons within a twenty foot radius away. It blew at Philip and Sage but didn't do anything to them.

***

Vinn swerved his bike around so he was facing where he came from. He then jerked the throttle and spun out before launching forward. The two other motorcycles came around the corner, and had to swerve away. He spun his around and went for Dos, he swung his blade but it was stopped in mid air. Ramma was right there, his blade outstretched.

Dos smirked and punched forward, hitting Vinn in the chest. He flew off his bike and landed on his back, he stood up and blocked a bullet with his blade just in time. All three sons of Matthius stepped off their motorcycles and surrounded him. He smiled, this was going to be interesting.

Paul forced all fear from his mind as he followed the others into the charge. He was going to have to pull the moves he had seen in films owing to the fact that he had never weilded a sword before. There was always a first time for everything and he hoped it wouldn't be his last for everything.

She laughed derisively and seemed to regain that old aura of confidence.

"You mean to challenge me? Forgive me if I fail to be intimidated."

One hand dropped the the hilt of her sword, resting there almost mockingly. It was not meant for him, but she would draw if need be. Nearly every major religion - at least in the old days - portrayed their version of the "angel of death" with a blade of fire, and she was more than willing to comply.

he saw the flash in her eyes, and realised Gael- or rather the woman he had known long ago, was too far buried to reach. He didn't feel sad exactly, but more angry. Angry that it happened this way in 1000 twists of fate and chance.
'Aye. But on my terms lass.'
He indicated the star she was gripping so hard it was drawing blood
'Covered in a little somthin' ye gave me all that time ago. Just in case ye said, and I think this would count.' He grinned slightly evilly at her as realisation dawned on her face.

For someone who was in perfect control of her expression 110% of the time, she was truly shocked and caught off-guard. She looked down at the star, felt a tingling sensation where it touched her skin. The wave of realization hit with a crushing force, temporarily whiting out her vision in a spell of vertigo. But the riptide which followed was one of raw and undisguised hatred and anger. In a bone-shattering cry of anguish and rage loud enough to be heard for miles, she set on Alistor with blind fury. The transformation would take place soon enough.

She dove on him with ageless speed, shoving him backwards forcefully, and slashing for his throat with her talons.

For someone who was in perfect control of her expression 110% of the time, she was truly shocked and caught off-guard. She looked down at the star, felt a tingling sensation where it touched her skin. The wave of realization hit with a crushing force, temporarily whiting out her vision in a spell of vertigo. But the riptide which followed was one of raw and undisguised hatred and anger. In a bone-shattering cry of anguish and rage loud enough to be heard for miles, she set on Alistor with blind fury. The transformation would take place soon enough.

She dove on him with ageless speed, shoving him backwards forcefully, and slashing for his throat with her talons.

The talons raked over the skin of his throat even as he dove backwards, a small trickle of blood emerged from the cuts, but he carried on in his backwards movement turning round in a full circle a landing a full punch on Gael's temple . This was no time to be a gentleman and so he carried on rising in the punch to place a kick squarely on her chest. He stepped back and wiped the blood from his cut.
'Nae bad fer an old geezer eh?' He smiled mirthlessly and rolled his neck, producing several clicking noises. Although even he would admit this was the curse of age rather than muscle straining against bone.

The punch knocked her to the side, and the kick prevented her from falling. She staggered back a few steps and held her chest a moment, catching her breath. With a throaty growl she straightened and collected herself. A few of the feathers were beginning to fall out, and every inch of her burned.

"You're making a mistake...I will kill you.."

She took up a defensive stance, blinked a few times to clear her vision satisfactorily, and waited for him to make a move. Around them, the crowd was thinning. No one wanted to be close to any of the fighting.

Baker watched the scene of chaos below. He saw Gael dive down to the street, giving off a terrible battle cry while disappearing beyond his view behind a building to probably cause more carnage in this city. His conscience ate at him. Being unable to leave the girl unprotected he could do nothing to stop the death angel's mayhem. Couldn't save her from Matthius or herself...Baker clenched his fist in frustration while Cara continued to ignore him and the suffering of the people below, tuning her violin. He knew the importance of her task but Baker grew more impatient as time went on.

"Dammit...Cara you need to hurry. People are dying down there!"

The punch knocked her to the side, and the kick prevented her from falling. She staggered back a few steps and held her chest a moment, catching her breath. With a throaty growl she straightened and collected herself. A few of the feathers were beginning to fall out, and every inch of her burned.

"You're making a mistake...I will kill you.."

She took up a defensive stance, blinked a few times to clear her vision satisfactorily, and waited for him to make a move. Around them, the crowd was thinning. No one wanted to be close to any of the fighting.

'Ye can try missie, but if ah survived two world wars an' the rise of pop music then a wee demon invasion seems a piece o' cake.' He walked over two where his cloak was lying, keeping an eye on Gael, and took out two unadorned longswords.
'What do ye say tae settlin this the- human way.' He stressed the word and threw her one before taking up the fighting pose taught by thier long dead order.

“Hurry and do what? I’ve already done what they wanted me to do. I played the tune. It’s not like I can do much to stop that.”

She pulled the bow out of its separate case and ran it across the perfectly tuned strings. The violin’s tone was pure and rich with an array of deep overtones that gave it a darker, mysterious sound. Her violin was more important to her than anything else, even her own life was unimportant in comparison. It was strange that she didn’t even know much about the beautiful instrument. She’d been told that no one knew what workshop it came from, but the make seemed to indicate that it was from late seventeenth century Italy. She’d never been able to find any information on an instrument that was similar enough to be constructed by the same artist. It was an enigma but it was her instrument.

"Ya, well that first time was a test of your skill. You need to play again, and you can't do it from up here. You'll have to be near the source. Down there at the portal where those demons are coming from." Baker said pointing down to the street.

"You can't deny what is happening right in front of you anymore. It affects us all. You playing that tune is one of the things needed to put a stop to this invasion. I'll stay with you and protect you, but we are going down there. You can either walk with me or I can drag you kicking and screaming but we're going down there."

“Resorting to threats already? Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be contrary soldier man, but how are you going to make me play if I don’t want to? Or even more interesting, how are you going to climb to the ground holding me in one arm. It might be smarter to actually think through your threats before you make them.”

“Resorting to threats already? Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be contrary soldier man, but how are you going to make me play if I don’t want to? Or even more interesting, how are you going to climb to the ground holding me in one arm. It might be smarter to actually think through your threats before you make them.”

What an arrogant, selfish kid. Only interested in what serves her. A pretty jaded view for someone so young...Baker thought.

"Maybe I wouldn't have to speak so harshly to you, Missy, if you would drop the arrogant attitude and help do what needs to be done. Besides, who's making threats? I'm simply stating a fact. That you're coming down to the street with me. That is at least if you have any brain cells alive in there. I mean, it would be pretty stupid to not go with the ex-marine who can keep the demons off of you and instead decide to stay on the roof of a building where the mob or demons could easily surround you and rip you to shreds...."

He walked over to the door to the roof and opened it. Stairs led all the way down to the bottom floor and the street below. "Now. Come down with me and help stop this. You could probably try to run and hide if you really wanted. Make no mistake though, this thing will spread, and the hordes will devour all, including you. It would only be a matter of time until they found all the hiding spots and covered the globe. So please, if you don't care about anyone else, at least come with me for you own sense of self-preservation."

'Ye can try missie, but if ah survived two world wars an' the rise of pop music then a wee demon invasion seems a piece o' cake.' He walked over two where his cloak was lying, keeping an eye on Gael, and took out two unadorned longswords.
'What do ye say tae settlin this the- human way.' He stressed the word and threw her one before taking up the fighting pose taught by thier long dead order.
She was visibly irked by the comment, and half-snarled in response. Catching the blade in one hand, she spun it around her wrist to kill the momentum before bringing up her other hand to the hilt. She took up a defensive stance with the big hand-and-a-half sword, looking almost like a Japanese style with her positioning. She braced on her forward leg, both wrists holding the hilt beside and above her head. The blade slanted ahead and downward, as if pointing at her opponent's feet.

"I'm not human yet, Old One."

She smiled darkly, but with a deadly seriousness in her eyes. Behind her, the feathers continued to drop slowly, intermingled with blood from the fleshy part of the wing.

She sighed softly at his naïveté and self-righteous attitude. Like a typical soldier, he thought that he was appointed by some god to save the world. He hadn't learned enough yet to know that violence, guns and swords didn’t solve every problem.

She gently pulled her bow across the strings and then chose a random piece from one of her sets. It was a hornpipe called “The Rights of Man.” The tune was often played in a minor key but the version she’d learned was the original tune written in Dorian mode. She kept the tempo slower then when she played it in a set, she preferred the tempo that the dance was written for anyway. She finished up without any extra flair and packed her fiddle before turning to the soldier again.

“I’m willing to go now.”

"Glad you came to your senses..." said Baker as they walked down several flights of stairs, satisfied that he had been able to appeal to her. Still, someone so young that cared so little about just about anything struck at his curiosity. He gave it a little thought as they continued down, eventually reaching the first floor, and exiting the building.

As they traveled toward their goal, he casually asked "So...how did you become so jaded about the way the world works?"

The duo stayed to the back alleys, or hid behind whatever they could as they moved toward the portal. They had been lucky so far, avoiding any direct contact with demons. Baker knew that the death angel, Gael, stood between them and the portal. Part of him looked forward to the meeting though. It was another chance to fulfill his promise, to do what he had gone into the bowels of hell for yet failed at, to save her. However, he was also worried about the added risk for Cara, whom he had also taken the responsibility of guarding. Unfortunately it was the only road that led to the portal. He decided it would be best to try and avoid being noticed as they moved stealthily toward the site of the duel, hopefully not needing to stop and fight on their way to the portal.

She was visibly irked by the comment, and half-snarled in response. Catching the blade in one hand, she spun it around her wrist to kill the momentum before bringing up her other hand to the hilt. She took up a defensive stance with the big hand-and-a-half sword, looking almost like a Japanese style with her positioning. She braced on her forward leg, both wrists holding the hilt beside and above her head. The blade slanted ahead and downward, as if pointing at her opponent's feet.

"I'm not human yet, Old One."

She smiled darkly, but with a deadly seriousness in her eyes. Behind her, the feathers continued to drop slowly, intermingled with blood from the fleshy part of the wing.

'Aye, so ah'll go easy on ye fer a while then.' He knelt down and buried the very tip of his sword balanced the sword in the earth. He grasped the hilt with both hands and pressed his forehead to the hilt as was the traditional salute to a fellow member, but then as he got up he spat on the marked earth and raised his sword to level with her. He darted forward in deference to his seemingly wiry frame and and made a feint to the left, then made a lighting horizontal slice with the sword, half expecting it to be turned aside, almost testing her as he knew she could match it.

"Glad you came to your senses..."

"So...how did you become so jaded about the way the world works?"


“It’s just the way I am.” She was not going to expose her past to him or anyone else. At least he was proficient at finding his way around the city. She knew that he probably had military training that would help him in urban situations, but it still was impressive. Not that he didn’t walk straight into a few dead ends that she could have told him were coming if he didn’t insist on leading. The assumption that he knew best where to go was quite irritating. "Just lead on."

“It’s just the way I am.” She was not going to expose her past to him or anyone else. At least he was proficient at finding his way around the city. She knew that he probably had military training that would help him in urban situations, but it still was impressive. Not that he didn’t walk straight into a few dead ends that she could have told him were coming if he didn’t insist on leading. The assumption that he knew best where to go was quite irritating. "Just lead on."

"You're the native, you could give directions you know. It's better if I stay at point though...". Baker quickened his pace and Cara followed. They would have to travel faster if they were going to get to the portal before the whole area was overrun.

He thought about her earlier response, realizing her evasiveness and how unwilling she was to open up. He dispelled all these thoughts from his mind as they approached where Gael was though. They'd have to avoid her detection on their way to the portal.

They both took great care to remain silent and hidden as the two crept alongside a building. Several floors above them a rather large stone balcony that had been damaged earlier finally gave. Baker heard the rumble from above. Instincts kicking in, he reacted without even looking up to see what it was, and it saved both their lives. He grabbed Cara and dashed ahead, not having time to bother with cover. The force of the balcony's impact forced them down. He held Cara in front of him as they went down, putting his back between her and any flying debris. After a couple seconds he got up and briefly examined Cara and himself. "You alright Cara?"

Miraculously they had both emerged unscathed save for a few scrapes and bruises. He scanned the area around and only then realized the new danger he had stepped into. Gael and Alistor were engaged in combat no more than twenty feet away. "Uh crap...frying pan, fire and all that eh kid?"

She turned her wrists to the point was vertical to the ground, effectively stopping his blade. Twisting the sword back towards his blade, she circled around and over his. The motion would trap his weapon and send the point wildly off-target while she thrusted for his chest.

Behind him, she spotted motion at the edge of the thinning crowd. In the quick glance, she thought she saw Baker, but she could not afford to keep her eye off her opponent long enough to determine this for certain.

"Cara, stay here okay?" Baker had to act fast. "Gael, stop this now!" he dashed toward her, unsheathing his sword as he went. Closing the distance in seconds that seemed an eternity he inwardly hoped he wouldn't have to use it.

She turned her wrists to the point was vertical to the ground, effectively stopping his blade. Twisting the sword back towards his blade, she circled around and over his. The motion would trap his weapon and send the point wildly off-target while she thrusted for his chest.

Behind him, she spotted motion at the edge of the thinning crowd. In the quick glance, she thought she saw Baker, but she could not afford to keep her eye off her opponent long enough to determine this for certain.

Alistor saw the sword point thrusting towards his chest with cold dread, the world seemed to move slower for him than outside his area of being. He threw his right hand off the hilt of his sword and drew the dagger he had been using earlier with the speed that would save or end his life then forced it upwards, pushing the swords thrust up and over the mark, only giving him a deep cut on his shoulder. He moved forwards with his arms crossed against his body and drew his head back before dealing a headbutt squarely on her nose. He heard somthing crack and he wondered if it was her nose or his forehead.
He heard a noise and saw Baker running accross the road towards them with his old sword unsheathed.
'No lad! Ave got somthin tae do here, me, nae anybody else.' But after that he looked at Baker for a second. His eyes said
And after I lose, you'll have to take her down

Baker stopped dead in his tracks. Desperately wanting to prevent any more bloodshed but out of a sense of kinship, of comraderie, felt obligated to let Alistor finish it his way. The look in the old man's eyes told him the probable outcome. That Gael would defeat him.

"Gael..if there is any of 'you' left in there..don't do this...please...he was your friend, and I don't want to have to fight you"

She fell back a few steps and grabbed her face with her weak hand. The strong arm gripped the sword firmly, though the point dragged in her inattention. Dimly, she heard Baker's voice, though she was half crazed with fury. Her wings burned, wisps of smoke curled towards the sky as feathers continued to thin. They were bare to the bone along the outermost parts.

Her eyes stung with hot tears, the result of her injury more than the actual acknowledgement of pain. She snarled through it all, teeth stained red with the blood which freely flowed. Beyond the point of all reasoning, she drew her legendary sword, though the fire was extinguished with her humanity. A scorched yet perfectly balanced blade was all that remained. She crossed both weapons at the forte, and sliced outward. One blade clashed against Alistor's sword, while the other aimed cleanly for his collar bone in her forward lunge.

Bumpin the thread

She fell back a few steps and grabbed her face with her weak hand. The strong arm gripped the sword firmly, though the point dragged in her inattention. Dimly, she heard Baker's voice, though she was half crazed with fury. Her wings burned, wisps of smoke curled towards the sky as feathers continued to thin. They were bare to the bone along the outermost parts.

Her eyes stung with hot tears, the result of her injury more than the actual acknowledgement of pain. She snarled through it all, teeth stained red with the blood which freely flowed. Beyond the point of all reasoning, she drew her legendary sword, though the fire was extinguished with her humanity. A scorched yet perfectly balanced blade was all that remained. She crossed both weapons at the forte, and sliced outward. One blade clashed against Alistor's sword, while the other aimed cleanly for his collar bone in her forward lunge.

Alistor's blood ran cold as he saw Gael draw a long burning sword. He remembered that sword from an age ago, but back then it had glowed with the purity seals Gael was skilled at. Now it looked like a scarred stump compared what it used to be, but he still instinctivly felt its power radiate from it.
Gael lept forward and swung both blades at him, the legendary sword clanged against his, the force of it disarmed him and sent his blade skidding along the ground. The other one of Gaels blades swung towards him unimpended, so he brought up his right arm and blocked the swing with his forearm. Usually the force of the blow would have severed his arm, but the cloth fell away from his arm to reveal a blade and arm guard forged in the same style as Gael's. Even so he had heard a crack on the impact, and arm felt numb after the shock, so he tossed his dagger to his other hand and ducked under Gaels guard desperately aiming for the major vessels carrying blood to the arm.

She smirked catching sight of the bracer. So the old dog still had a few tricks.. She spotted the dagger almost too late, and dashed back a step to gain time. Bringing the blades together, she tried to catch the dagger between the hilts and guide it outside and off-target. He matched her retreat, as expected, which caused her little diversion attempt not to work the way it was intended. The point dragged across her arm before she could extend enough to gain clearance. Furiously, she turned one wrist and made a back-handing motion, sending the hand guard and tang button for his face.

She smirked catching sight of the bracer. So the old dog still had a few tricks.. She spotted the dagger almost too late, and dashed back a step to gain time. Bringing the blades together, she tried to catch the dagger between the hilts and guide it outside and off-target. He matched her retreat, as expected, which caused her little diversion attempt not to work the way it was intended. The point dragged across her arm before she could extend enough to gain clearance. Furiously, she turned one wrist and made a back-handing motion, sending the hand guard and tang button for his face.

Alistor was caught by the blow and sent flying backwards. He span three times before landing, winded. He felt a sharp pain in his leg, sharper than a wound Gael could have caused surely......he looked down and with cold dread saw the hilt of his dagger sticking out of his thigh. He must have landed on it after Gaels backhand. He squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the dagger, and pulled it out with a sickening noise. Gritting his teeth, he lifted hiself with one hand before Gael could finish him on the floor, if he failed then it would be standing up. He balanced his blade in his hand and cast it towards Gael with a sideways flick of his hand, with his leg he was in no state to attack her with it again any other way.

The knife lodged itself in her left shoulder, though she was too far consumed by battle rage to notice. She advanced on her enemy, no longer making the distinction between past friend and present foe. She kicked him in the chest, then let her heel fall to the wound in his leg, grinding into it mercilessly.

"You killed them...You let them die...and I was nothing but your weapon!"

With a feral growl and blind rage, she swung the blade in her right hand up over her head, slicing at him with a downward arc.

The knife lodged itself in her left shoulder, though she was too far consumed by battle rage to notice. She advanced on her enemy, no longer making the distinction between past friend and present foe. She kicked him in the chest, then let her heel fall to the wound in his leg, grinding into it mercilessly.

"You killed them...You let them die...and I was nothing but your weapon!"

With a feral growl and blind rage, she swung the blade in her right hand up over her head, slicing at him with a downward arc.

He saw the blade plunge towards his chest, he tried to twist aside, but her foot on his leg ground hard and white hot pain exploded again in it. Everything moved slower for him for not the first time today, but this time he watched the blade sink into his chest. He arched his back as the metal was sunk into his ribcage mercilessly, and looked up at Gaels face as she forced her weapon downwards.
He saw nothing but the blind desire to end him painfully and fast.
The sword was wrenched out of his flesh and he laid there hearing his own breathing slow. But even after the feeling of the cold steel being forced into him, nothing hurt as acutely as Gael's expression as it was done. Alistor, last- almost last of the circle, struggled to keep his eyes open after a century of sleepless nights, he reached up towards Gael and put a hand on hers
Gael- take, take it home lass...... He weakly tried to pull somthing out of his pocket as the cold began to crawl up his fingers
'Nae been there fer a while, wonner if th' still remember me....' He mumbled

The wrath had reached it's pinnacle, and now began to recede with the harrowing realization of her current position. And in its absense, everything it had replaced flowed back into her. Her back was soaked with blood, now from the dagger as well as from the destruction of her wings. Nothing was left but fragile bones sticking out of her shoulderblades, hung with a stubborn feather or two which refused to accept the inevitable. Seeing Alistor, she dropped her weapons and sank to one knee. Her eyes watered slightly from the riot of emotions and she held his hand lightly, patiently waiting for him to find the object in his pocket.

The wrath had reached it's pinnacle, and now began to recede with the harrowing realization of her current position. And in its absense, everything it had replaced flowed back into her. Her back was soaked with blood, now from the dagger as well as from the destruction of her wings. Nothing was left but fragile bones sticking out of her shoulderblades, hung with a stubborn feather or two which refused to accept the inevitable. Seeing Alistor, she dropped her weapons and sank to one knee. Her eyes watered slightly from the riot of emotions and she held his hand lightly, patiently waiting for him to find the object in his pocket.

Eventually he pulled the object with great effort from his pocket lining. It was a tarnished coin, one that you might see in a museum on display exept for the fact that Alistor has carried it around for thousands of years.
'Send it back- to the mountians lass. Probly wonnerin where it went by now' He began to laugh but the effort sent white hot lances of agony though his chest. He reached up a hand and touched her face with a fingertip. He paused and looked into her eyes with his fading vision.
'Aye, there's somthin left' He said softly. With a grunt he slowly arched his head back to shout
'Dinnae put yer trust in fairytales rememmer lad? Ah'v seen both. Fer too long-'
His breathing slowed more and he leant back with his now extinguished vision. He finally felt tired enough to rest, and so after more than 3000 years, he layed back and closed his eyes. He layed there in the rain with the water running a slightly red shade like all the other men mown down by the demons, with no idication of wht he had done in his lifetime, no markings for his years besides leathery skin and his wiry frame.
And he got to dream

Sage, Philip, Paul, and Steve made their way through the enemy lines. Sage was taking the lead while the other three followed in pursuit picking off any stragglers. Sage swung across catching a demon and slicing it in half. He uppercutted but his swing was blocked, with twisted his wrist so the enemies sword slid off then he jabbed forward.

So far it had been so good, the enemies seem to have been coming and coming without end though. Philip and Steve were growing tired but they knew as long as they had Sage around they'd be fine. Steve jumped backwards as an enemy swung at him, and while the opponent was busy Philip rushed forward and sliced its head off.

They heard a crackle and turned to see Sage had cast a spell of lightning, killing off around ten enemies. Sage kept pushing on forward, calling sometimes back to the others to make sure they were alright. An enemy struck down at him, but he grabbed it at its wrists, then jabbed forward. He heard someone shout something and he spun around.

Philip and Paul was swinging away at a rather large group of demons that had appeared behind them while Steve was locked in a duel with one. The enemy Steve was fighting was too tough for him, Sage charged forward and leaped. He tackled the enemy then brought his sword down on it. He looked up at all the enemies that were flanking them, he closed his eyes and then a strong wind pushed against all of them.

The demons started sliding backwards against the wind, but it seemed to avoid Philip, Steve, Paul, and Sage. Soon the demons were lifted off the ground and hurled through the air. Sage then turned back forward to see a demon flying straight at him. He stuck out his hand and the wind stopped, the demon landed just a few feet away but then immediately got back up.

It charged at him and swung, he parried then swung and cut it across the shoulder. He turned back to make sure everyone else was alright, they were fine, but when he looked back forward he saw something. A winged beast, a human body with giant bat wings was diving down at them. The beast had the head of a lion, and the teeth of a snake. In its hand was a giant spear.

It dove at Sage and swung but he blocked it with his sword, however the pure force of the attack knocked him off his feet backwards. The demon slowed to a stop behind him, and landed on the ground. Philip, Steve, and Paul all backed away from it as it approached Sage who was getting to his feet slowly.

He didn't even fully stand up when an invisible force tripped him, he tried to get up again but the demon pushed him back down with its foot. It kept one foot on him to keep him pinned while with his hands he rose the spear into the air. It drove the spear down and it peirced Sage. It did not cause him any physical pain, but his mind became a fireworks display of pain and light.

Before their very eyes, Sage dissapeared right in front of them. The three boys stood there staring, the demon then turned and looked at them, and snorted, then took off into the air. They didn't even have time to speak before the shouts of enemies reminded them that if they didn't fight, they'd die.

"Shit," Paul swore before he was forced to once again fight for his life. He knew that he had to keep himself from wondering where Sage had gone and cencentrate on fighting.

Baker clenched his fist in frustration and anger. At Gael for killing Alistor, and at himself for letting it happen, even though it had been at the old man's request. "Is Alistor's life enough Gael? What about the rest of the people in this city!? When will you see this madness for what it is and stop?!"

And so they had come full circle, her and Alistor. She knelt beside his lifeless form, grief flooding out all other sensations. The pain from her wounds and mortal exhaustion ebbed away, and she was left with nothing but the scent of the sea. Baker's words hit her like a riptide, pulling her from the traditional celebration of loss, even if it was only in her mind. Numbly, she opened her eyes once more, that enigmatic seafoam hue now flat and dull. Fingering the coin, she hesitantly tucked it away into her pocket, her fingers breifly brushing the coin she had found earler. The realization struck her suddenly, electrifying her senses.

I'll take it there...if I survive this.

Grief slowly gave way to anger. Anger at no one and nothing in particular, just raw unbridled anger far more intense than any battle rage. She stood slowly, lifting her legendary sword and stalked with singleminded ferocity towards the center of the fighting. Anything unfortunate enough to find itself in her path was cut down, regardless of whether it be demon, human or something else all together.

Sage reappeared somewhere that he couldn't quite put his tounge on as to where it was. He sat up, finding himself quite alone, he looked around and saw the edges of the platform he was on, then nothingess. Up above was the sky, which was extremely dark. Smoke rose into the air in the distance, and shouts were heard easily. He crawled over to the edge and looked down, he found he was on top of a tall skyscraper, possibly one of the highest in the entire city. He managed to stand up, and looked around.

All around below the building were the armies of hell, marching on towards the untaken lands. Humans would be slaughtered in the fest. The demons all lined up in ranks, weapons in hand. There were so many of them, how could he ever hoped to beat them?

"Quite impressive isn't it?" A loud, but cold voice cut through the air behind him. He spun around to see Matthius land on the roof as well, with giant bat wings that folded after he landed. "Quite impressive if I do say so myself. I am sure that by now what little hope you had is gone."

Sage glanced back down at the armies, and continued to stare as he spoke. "To give up hope in your cause is to forfeit your very own life. I could give up my hope, just abandon all my friends. But then..."

He looked back up at Matthius and finished his sentence. "But then I'd be no better than you."

Matthius gave a slight laugh. "Trying to intimidate me? Or possibly trying to make me angry? Tell me friend, do you wish to fight me?"

"I wish to fight no one but myself, that's all this comes out to be, doesn't it? One big powerstruggle with myself over my own sanity. This is what you want, isn't it? You just want me to give up, to admit defeat."

"That's what it was in the beginning yes I admit," Matthius said. "All I wanted was you, I wanted to break your mind. But now..."

He spread his arms motioning to all around him. "Now I've got a lust for power, this is what I've wanted for so long. Now it's in my grasp."

"Ah yes," Sage said. "Now I remember, I remember what they told me. You were banished from the order because you desired power, you gave into humanly needs. You wanted power, control, things that the order considered to be signs of weakness. You were weak, you still are weak."

"You foolish little boy!" Matthius called out with a laugh and a smile. "You're still trying to anger me. What benefit will it give you?"

"Always keep your enemy in check Matthius," Sage said. "Surely you don't figure I've already got my plan of escape memorized?"

As usual, Cara didn’t stick around when she knew she would be safer moving. As soon as the soldier charged to meet the angel of death, Cara darted down another alley to escape. It wasn’t as if she would have been able to help him or the Irishman, she wasn’t a fighter in any way. She knew that it was best for her to leave, to escape and to let the soldiers fight their own battle.

It took her a long time to maneuver her way through the back alleys, but she was comfortable with the territory. She’d lived in the city for almost ten years and for the past two she’d spent all her time on the streets busking for a living. Two years on the streets was long enough to learn a hundred escape routes and the way around nearly every alley in the area. It wasn’t even a challenge finding routes around the creatures that were wrecking everything. She might have even felt proud of her ability to evade them if she had any idea what she was doing, but as it was she was just confused. Nothing fit together logically; some of what was happening wasn’t even physically possible. The creatures were coming out of nowhere and there didn’t seem to be any end of them. That wasn’t possible, it couldn’t happen. A tall one came right around the corner about twenty meters from where she was standing and she dashed down another alley. It couldn’t happen, but it was happening.

She quickly ran over her options: she could run to her apartment, she could run away from the demons and just get out of the city entirely or she could walk right into the heart of all the problems and go the direction that Eddie had been leading her. Her apartment was nearby and was almost definitely within the range of the demons, so it probably wasn’t a good idea. The demons couldn’t catch her if she just started running as far as she could from the epicenter but she would feel like she was abandoning people. Eddie had said she could help, but he and Sage were asking her to commit suicide. She had no family, no friends, and no money so she really had nothing to lose, but she also had a survival instinct that wouldn’t let her do anything stupid. She didn’t like the concept of throwing her life away so as always she decided to run.

It only took her a few minutes to run into the crucial flaw in her plan. The demons were expanding in a circular motion outwards and they were thickest on the outside. It would be nearly impossible to break through the guarded line that they formed. On the other side of the line, the police and a few early response military vehicles were firing at the advancing monstrosities, but their situation didn’t look good until reinforcements arrived. The demons were still gaining ground.

She didn’t exactly have much choice left, the only place she could go safely was further in. She knew about where Eddy had been taking her and she thought that she could find her way without much difficulty. She was right, it didn’t take long for her to find about where the epicenter was, but all she saw were demons and not anyone else for her to meet. From her hiding hole, it looked completely overrun. What was she supposed to do?

Before she could even make up her mind she heard a motorcycle’s engine revved up far to fast and a cry from a human voice. She turned in her place and saw the big man who’d called himself Vinn flip off his bike as the three silver-haired stooges from before popped around the corner and shot at him. He looked like he was still okay so they must have missed. He probably wasn’t going to last long in any case, three on one wasn’t exactly fair odds. The three men circled around for a minute before one of them slowed and sniffed. He yelled something that she couldn’t quite understand as Vinn charged forward. The three of them easily blocked him and counter-attacked, but he managed to block their assaults somehow. Then the same one yelled something else and ran towards where she was hiding. Intellectually she knew that he couldn’t have seen her; it wasn’t possible, but her survival instinct surpassed her intellect with ease and she slipped out the back and started to run. This time it seemed that her survival instinct was working against itself. As she slipped out the head of silver hair switched back from something it was examining and saw her as she slipped out. She had no way to know what had happened but somehow she knew that she had to run, so she sprinted away as fast as she could.

A few minutes later, she slipped into a store. She was safe, if he had been following her before she’d lost him. Cara carefully looked around, she’d been in too much of a hurry to look at her surroundings carefully before, but she knew the place. It had been the car shop her parents used to stop at before they’d died in the car crash. She’d spent a while here before that, her parents always thought it was perfectly fair to just drop her off in a dangerous shop and let her socialize with the kids ‘Uncle John’ let run around. Now the store was just wreckage, it was missing one wall from some kind of explosion and bits of machinery and oil covered the floor.

She stopped; she had heard something move behind the counter. Had someone survived the initial attack and hidden out of sight? She walked carefully around the counter and looked closely, in front of her was a corpse that was nearly unrecognizable as human. It’s internal organs were spread over the entire area. The movement had come from little larvae that were like giant blood covered maggots; they were squirming around and devouring what was left of the corpse. She couldn’t hold back, she vomited all over the floor and kept throwing up until nothing was coming up and even then she couldn’t stop.

She was so incapacitated that she didn’t even hear the motorcycle come through a gaping hole in the wall behind her. “I knew it. You were the girl with Sage and his friends, you’re coming with me.” The silver haired man darted his motorcycle forward and darted to where her eyes were transfixed. “Oh, are these your pets?” He laughed mercilessly and drove his motorcycle on top of the remnants of the corpse. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they don’t hurt you.” He laughed again and revved his engine before burning out on the body and flinging pieces of it and the maggots onto the girl standing right in front of him. The pieces of human organs and blood along with bits of demon larvae forced her out of her reverie. She turned away and ran from the creature that was in front of her, a motorcycle may be faster but it wasn’t maneuverable enough to easily move around a small store; she had plenty of time to grab a few things off the shelf and run out through the same hole in the wall that the motorcyclist had come through. As she ran out the creature on the motorcycle chuckled dryly. “This is going to be fun.” Then he revved his engine and turned to follow.

Cara knew that there was no way she could possibly outrun a motorcycle, and he was too close behind her to find a hiding place. Her pursuer knew it too and he quickly came out behind her; she was completely out of options. They were on a wide street; she couldn’t run down a narrow series of alleys where she may have been able to lose him. He laughed as he drove the motorcycle toward her and she turned to run. Unfortunately she was paying to much attention to him and not enough to the ground beneath her, she tripped on an empty pop can and tumbled to the ground. The demon swerved to avoid her; he didn’t want her dead, yet. Cara swung her arm and the large bottle of oil she’d stolen from the shop as he narrowly avoided her. Since he’d been moving too fast and trying to turn the motorcycle slid out of control and crashed over the curb. The silver-haired freak jumped off it easily. “Did you think it would be that easy?”

Cara didn’t stop to answer; she stood up and started running. She didn’t worry about looking behind her; she needed a place to hide, quickly. As soon as she judged that he was out of hearing range she dived into an open dumpster and buried herself in the trash.

“Come on girl, did you really think that you could hide from Ramma? Or are you really just where you belong?” He climbed on the edge of the dumpster and looked down. “Are you going to come up, or do I have to go in there after you?”

“I’ll get out.” She was trapped and she was out of choices. She slowly unburied herself, trying to delay the inevitable. As soon as her arm was out Ramma grabbed it and helped to lift her out. She let him help until she was far enough out to move and then she put her other arm up into his face and fired her pepper spray straight into his face. Ramma screamed in fury and clutched his face in pain and he let go of her arm. She used the moment to her advantage and she pushed him into the dumpster before jumping down and slamming the lid shut. Intellectually she knew that it would hold him indefinitely, if he were a normal person the pepper spray alone would completely incapacitate him.

She ran anyway.

* * *

It didn’t take long for Ramma to heal; almost nothing could damage him for long. He broke the sealed metal lid off the dumpster like it wasn’t even there and then he jumped out and sniffed the ground, he’d had enough of her distinctive scent that he could trace her anywhere she went.

He would catch her and she would cry out to him and pray to die. He would break her, destroy her soul and then give her to Matthius for questioning.

Shit Eddie thought as Gael ran off. He would have tried to stop her but he had to find a way to stop the invasion.

You couldn't have done anything master, she has chosen her fate. We still have a job to do

I know sword "Cara, we need to get moving..." Baker said as he turned around. Only to find her gone. Probably for awhile now. Shit

Wow master, you don't seem to have any luck with the ladies. They never seem to stick around the sword quipped

First, this is no time for jokes. Second, shut up. Third, you must have sensed her fleeing why the hell didn't you tell me?!

Honestly master...I was paying more attention to the battle as you were.

Forget it...what's the current situation. Where is everyone else?

I've detected a couple powerful demonic entities are near the opening, their powers are flaring, meaning they must be fighting a powerful opponent, I believe it is the former servant of Mattheus, Vinn. The most powerful demonic aura, most likely Mattheus, is currently alongside another powerful entity, probably Sage in the downtown area...high up...on a building I would guess. Shall we seek out the girl, Mattheus, or the opening?

If Cara doesn't want to be found chances are we won't find her in her home city. We'd just waste time for now. We could go help Sage against Mattheus, and he does have the gem we need to stop the invasion...but we're going to need all the help we can get...and Vinn is fighting those demons at the epicenter of all this, alone. Alright slight change in plans. We go toward the opening like before, we bail out anyone resisting the demons that we can before they get killed, that includes Sage's friends if they're near there by now as well as Vinn. We regroup, cause some ruckus among the demons, maybe stall the works for a bit, and then we go to help Sage. Hopefully Sage can hold out long enough on his own. Sound like a plan?

The sword agreed and Baker rushed down the back alleys leading toward the opening, toward the epicenter of this chaos. Within a few minutes he had come upon the outskirts of a group of demons, and it looked like a serious fight was occuring behind them. Eddie rushed to help whoever it was.

(OOC: You don't need to keep saying 'this will be deleted...etc." :p I've figured by now that's what'll happen ;) .)

"Steve! Steve! Duck!" Philip shouted and Steve did, a sword flew overhead, just missing him. He stood back up and stabbed backwards, just like in all the movies. He gave Philip a satisfying smile, but Philip wasn't smiling back. He looked over his shoulder to see he had missed the demon entirely. The demon looked at the blade and then at Steve, it was about to swing again but Steve had jabbed it off to the side, slicing it at the gut.

Philip turned around to see two more demons running at him, he swung, and one demon parried. While they were in their lock the other demon ran up to him to stab him with a spear, he jumped back away. The two demons regrouped, then slowly walked for him. He looked at the ground, and bent down picking up a slightly big chunk of asphault. He hurled it through that air at it collided with one of the demon's foreheads. The demon fell over backwards in pain but the other continued at him.

He charged and swung, knocking its blade to the side. He kicked upwards, hitting the demon between the leg. The metal cup part of the armour bruised his leg making him let out a grunt of pain. Before the demon could do anything else he stabbed his sword forward, killing it. He looked at the other on the ground and saw it was started to get up. He gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands and uppercutted, taking the head off of the foul beast. He heard a shout and turned around, seeing Eddie Baker coming to their rescue.

***

Ramma had gone off, but why? Vinn didn't have much time to think about it, Dos and Vera had dismounted their motorcycles and were now ready for a fight. Each members of this trio was using their own special weapons. Vinn; his buster sword, Dos; his fists, Vera; his demonic pistol. They all stood in a triangle, Vera and Dos glaring at Vinn, Vinn glaring at Vera and Dos.

Vinn charged forward, and Vera aimed his gun and fired, Vinn ducked and the bullet whizzed past. Vera fired two more times, Vinn blocked one with his sword, and dodged the other. He finally got close to Vera and swung, his blade hit the sword, which acted as a sheild. With one arm Vera held his gun and moved it about keeping Vinn from breaking their lock. Dos ran up behind Vinn and swung, but Vinn already knew he was there. He pivotted his arm blocked the swing. Dos attacked him several more times and each time Vinn blocked him with his left hand while his right hand held onto the sword.

He then came up with an idea. Dos charged forward, and Vinn let go of the buster sword. Vera was putting all his might into it, so he stumbled forward when Vinn let go. Vinn put his hands on both Dos's and Vera's heads and jumped in the air, making sure to push the two towards each other. He flew seven feet up, and the two demon brothers smashed into each other. Vinn landed back on the ground, and grabbed his buster sword, swinging at them once again.

***

Sage lay on the ground now, small streams of smoke slowly rose off his jacket. He was curled up into a little ball on top of the roof, he looked at Matthius who seemed to be enjoying this.

"Now you know how you should not act around me," Matthius said. "For I do not like hearing the news that you have an 'escape plan'."

He stuck out his arm and electricity jumped from his fingertips to Sage's body again. He moved his arm up, and Sage raised off the ground. Matthius grimaced during this.

"Come boy! Do you not have powers of your own!?" He shouted. "Why aren't you defending yourself against me? Or would you rather see me destroy your friends, one by one?"

Sage raised higher and higher into the air, and then suddenly, the in a bright flash of light the lightning stopped. Sage seemed to hover in the air still, but this time it was his own doing. He looked down at Matthius, and smirked. "Alright Matthius, you want me to fight back? Well let's fight back."

And with that he flew forward, fist at the ready.

The consiesness of Alistor floated in a void of darkness- although, floating was perhaps the wrong word, and so was darkness. There was just nothing. Nothing to denote time or place. But after a while, the consiesness heard a voice, or rather sensed it.
'Awaken warrior' It said amused
'Your time has not yet come. If it ever will.'

'I have served my duty, and my purpouse. I am done' The consiesness replied in the same manner, the sound coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
'You are done? here and now you declare you are DONE? To the ones who have watched over your apelike race since it fell out of the trees, to the ones who watched them worship other false images and themselves, to the ones who NEVER ASKED for anything in return. Not even peace. For our peace would be thier undoing.'
Alistors being pondered over these words for what seemed an eternity

'But I am- tired'
'Then you will find strength anew.'
Another eternity past

'What must I do?'

'Your duty'
Senses flooded into existance to Alistor, blinding light, deafening sound and red hot needles over his skin. He let the feeling reassert itself, and -it- stood up unsteadily. It knew it had somthing to do, but what?
An image flashed in his mind.
'Ah, yes'

Cara ran as fast as she could; she didn’t think about the direction she was going or even why she was running but she just kept going. A little ways behind her Ramma followed as quickly as he could, but even though it wasn’t hard to pick out the girl’s that little time was slowing him down. He still thought he was gaining on her, but it was far too slowly to catch her before she wore down. He didn’t want to wait until she was too tired to keep running to catch her. That would be far too easy.

She also knew that she couldn’t keep running forever, so she angled her path a little bit more to the West and started heading towards her apartment building. Unfortunately, it was well within the circle of demons, but she had a few things that might help protect her there.

When she got to the complex, she ran straight to the stairs; she knew that even if the elevators were working they would essentially be a deathtrap. It was better to use the stairs, no matter how tired she was from running for miles.

She shouldn’t have thought about that; the moment she touched on her exhaustion she felt it flow through her body. Her stomach ached from dry retching, her legs were tremendously sore and she had bruises everywhere from her encounter with the pavement. Besides all that, her lungs were burning and she could hardly take in air; by the time she reached the top of the stairs, she doubted she could run anywhere.

Her room was undamaged as was most of the apartment complex. The demons had apparently skipped over the buildings in order to move on to more important targets. That was fine with her. Apparently, the other tenants hadn’t stayed around once they heard about the creatures; the building seemed completely empty of humans or demons, besides her, of course. That was comforting, she wasn’t exactly close to anyone else in the complex but she thought that they’d probably made it to safety. The creatures weren’t advancing so fast that they couldn’t be outrun.

She shook her head and tried to concentrate on what she was doing. Everyone else might have made it out but she was still in a spot of trouble. She walked over to her bed, reached underneath and pulled out the two cases she kept there. Then she took off her necklace and used a different hidden key on each of the boxes. She pulled all the remaining money out of the wooden box and shoved it into her pocket; there was only a few dollars left. She closed the wooden case and locked it again, even though it was empty. Then she pulled a large silver crucifix out of the fancy case; besides her violin it was the most valuable thing that she owned. It had been a gift from one of her Aunts when her parents died. Just like all the other relatives, she’d offered to take her in because of the violin, but Cara had been too stubborn. Her parents had left her with nothing and all her relatives thought that her violin would bring them enough money to live in idleness for the rest of their lives. It was her violin and they couldn’t have it; she’d managed to defend her right to it and her own independence in court, but the fight added to the debt her parents had left her and she’d lost her parents property, their cars and every last remaining cent.

“This is no time for self pity, Cara. You don’t know what’s going to come through that door.” She looked back at the crucifix in her hand and sighed again, the Aunt had been decent enough to give it to her even after the court battles. That said something, even though she would have preferred enough money to cancel some of the debts. Looking over the crucifix she felt a stab of guilt, she hadn’t attended Mass for a long time and she might not have the chance to ever attend again. Surely, God could forgive her a few services because she was struggling to survive. Sunday morning was a great time to earn a few dollars and late Saturday night was even better. She hadn’t had time to go to those services.

“Prayer isn’t about to help you now.” Ramma stood nonchalantly in the doorway to her room. He was holding a short curved sword in his left arm. “Nothing can help you now, girl.”

Cara silently cursed herself for her sluggishness and her inattentiveness. If she’d been concentrating on the present and not the past she could have easily heard him down the hallway. “What do you want?”

“You.” Ramma stared at her with a ferocious intensity, Cara couldn’t tell if it the look was one of hatred, of lust or something else. “You were with the boy Sage and his recruits. He must need you for something, and we can’t let him have anything he needs.” Ramma licked his lips slowly. “But you had to go and make it personal, Mace in the face wasn’t exactly the highlight of my evening.”

There wasn’t anywhere for her to go, he was standing in front of the only door. She had a window, but she was on the ninth floor and she didn’t have the strength to climb down. She didn’t think she did, anyway, but she had to try.

She dashed back a few feet and rushed to the window, picking up a stool along the way. As soon as she reached the window, she swung the stool and bashed it out. It was a clear path down the side of the building, but there were other window sills to use as steps. She started to climb out with a renewed sense of hope when she let out a sudden scream.

Ramma had seen all along what she was trying, and he was easily able to move faster. Right after she had reached the window, he had arrived behind her, but he waited for her to find a glimpse of hope before he crushed it. Just when she thought she was home free he made a single slice with his katana. He slit a deep gash down the back of her right leg, from just below the knee all the way down to the ankle. “Oh, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid running ‘s out of the picture. You’ll just have to stay here with me.”

Cara didn’t hear a word he said as she collapsed to the ground. There was no way she could possibly run now. There was no way she could even think with the pain in her leg, she was hardly even managing to stay conscious. Somehow, however, she managed to use the stool she’d brought with her to replace her worthless leg and she pulled herself up. Then she grabbed for her canister of pepper spray again and pulled the trigger right at Ramma’s face. Ramma just laughed and swung his bloody sword in the path. The stream just followed the sword and didn’t even make him wince.

“You’re one stubborn bitch, you know that? But your old tricks only work once on me. You’re coming with me one way or another.” Ramma kept standing where he stood, looking the girl over as if he was bored with her.

Cara still didn’t know what she was doing but she used the chair to edge around the creature and towards the door. Ramma just stood and turned as she crawled around him. He wasn’t afraid that she was going to escape. “If you set one foot outside that door I’ll have to cut up your other leg too, and while it would be fun you’d probably lose consciousness and neither of us want that.” Cara paused at the threshold and turned back to the silver-haired being in her little apartment. She looked at him with as much malice as she could manage and began to unfasten her violin case.

Ramma looked slightly curious before he got the picture. “So that’s what Sage needed you for, Matthius will be very happy that I’ve apprehended you.” Cara ignored him as the locks on her case unclicked; the violin was still fastened by straps so it wouldn’t be damaged, but she had what she needed. She slid towards the demon with the stool and he looked down at her with humor. “Are you going to beg for mercy, offer me your services and hope that I’ll spare your life? You can’t offer me anything that I can’t already take.”

His words didn’t mean anything to her; her entire mind and all her remaining strength were focused on one thing. She’d gotten close enough, now she was easily within the reach of his sword but she could play her final trick.

She whipped her poncho out of the violin case and threw it into Ramma’s face, the move was worthless in itself but she followed up by pulling together the last bit of push from her good leg and launching herself at his stomach, stool first. Ramma grunted at the impact and swung his sword; it caught her in the side and made a deep cut but it didn’t stop her objective. She’d used her mass to force him out the window, where she’d hoped he’d fall all nine stories and die on the pavement. He did fall out through the window, but he was too agile to fall. He caught the windowsill and immediately started pulling himself up. Cara leaned forward and picked the crucifix off the floor where it had fallen in their crash then she pulled it above the demon’s head and shoved it deep into his eye. Ramma screamed furiously as the damage and the pain forced him to let go so that he fell down nine stories onto the pavement.

Cara bent forward, still clutching the bloody crucifix. Most of Jesus’ body was covered in blood; an entire eight centimeters had gone into Ramma’s head. She looked at the thing and the detailed hole in the figure’s side and then looked down at the gash just above her own waist and smiled wryly at the joke. “Thanks Jesus, you really helped me out this time.”

Sage and Matthius stood on top the building, both pacing in a circle. They eyed one another, they both blinked now and then but they never took their eyes off their opponent. Matthius then dug his right foot into a firm place, crunching dirt below his black armor boot. He then looked over himself, with his massive armor on. He raised his finger, and snapped it, all his armor disappeared and he was now wearing skintight black clothing, with a belt and a black trench coat overtop.

“I find heavy armor reduces my full ability,” Matthius said. “And I am sure friend, that you would not wish to fight me when I’m not at my full potential.”

“Oh of course not,” Sage said smirking. He then looked at what he was wearing; he had on baggy cargo pants, with big skater shoes. He had a dirt brown jacket on overtop his ReBel shirt. Not the kind of clothing you’d expect at a time like this, but it was what he had on previously.

As he was thinking he just barely had enough time to see Matthius fly at him, Matthius jabbed his fist forward, and Sage grabbed onto it. He swung Matthius up, sending him in spirals towards the sky. Matthius halted himself, and floated up there, before descending back down. When he was five feet away his feet when into a furry of kicks, and Sage jumped out of the way. He landed on the ground, and then used his energy from his land to jump in the air, flying over Sage’s head, avoiding his swing at the same time.

He landed on the other side of Sage and punched, Sage spun around and blocked, Matthius went at him with the left, and Sage blocked. He threw a punch at Sage’s stomach, and Sage blocked it with his left arm, while with his right he swung across, hitting Matthius right across the face. The demon stumbled backwards, but regained his balance, and attacked at Sage with great speed. They had their turns of playing offense and defense and sometimes both at the same time with each other for a little while.

Matthius jetted his hand forward at Sage’s stomach, and Sage jumped back. Matthius’s fist was just less than half an inch. Sage raised his head and smirked, but then heard a noise. He looked back down and saw blue oily energy fire from Matthius’s palm into his stomach. He energy hit him with great force, but he had managed to shield himself so it wouldn’t cause him any physical harm. However the force of it sent him flying backwards to the edge of the roof.

Matthius stuck his arm out at head’s height, and fired another shot. Sage was ready this time and countered it with an orange flame colored spell. The two spells met in the middle, fusing together with each other for a moment before falling to the ground in a deformed iron sphere. Matthius was watching it with caution as they fused so Sage shot another orange spell. Matthius saw it, and spun to the side, it flew past him and then he aimed his hand and fired.

The spell flew for Sage who stuck out his palm and deflected it. The spell shot into the air and eventually disappeared. Matthius then lowered his arm.

“Impressive friend,” he said. “You seem to be starting to understand your full potential. It’s a shame we are against each other.”

“And what is my full potential?” Sage asked.

“The power to control everything,” Matthius said. “You could have been the ruler of it all if you would have let me continue your training. Think about it boy, everyone would have worshipped you, they’d have done anything for you…”

Sage started to lower his arms, he wasn’t quite sure if it was hypnotics, or if he actually desired power that badly.

“They would have died for you boy,” Matthius finished.

“They’d have…worshipped me?” Sage asked.

“Like a God boy, like a God,” Matthius said.

Sage looked down at the ground, but then heard a noise that brought him back to reality. He was about to scream liar when he saw the teal wave of energy soar at him. It hit him and knocked him off his feet, he flew backwards, off the edge of the building. He fell down, down, but stopped himself halfway. He flew there in the air, looking up as Matthius stepped off the edge of the building and stood on thin air as if it was ground.

“You could have had it all! Everything around you, but no, you chose a different path!” Matthius shouted. “Tell me, why did you chose that path? For anything in particular? Truth? Did you love someone else?”

“You want me to tell you why I chose this path?” Sage asked. “Its because this was the right path, this was the righteous path. If I chose your path I would have ruled all yes, but in reality you’d have controlled me. I chose this path because I wanted my own free will, I chose this path because I wanted freedom.”

“Then you shall have it,” Matthius said quietly. “You shall have death! The final freedom!”

Without warning Matthius was dropping through the air at high speeds, his fist stuck out slammed right into Sage’s chest and shot him downwards. He didn’t have anytime to react, before he knew it he slammed right into the ground. A shockwave went through the asphalt of the road, cracking it and sending dirt into the air. He was in his own miniature crater, nearly blacking out.

It took everything she had to stay conscious, both her leg and her side were virtually pouring out blood. She had a needle and some thick thread, but it wasn’t sterile and she knew that she couldn’t even pick it up in her present state. She needed an easier way to stop the bleeding. She struggled along the floor to her closet and opened it; she had an idea. The closet was nearly bare, so it only took her a moment to rummage through and find the bottle she needed. She carefully fumbled with the lid, she had a very hard time even turning it the little bit she needed; it seemed to take forever to get it but she eventually managed to do it. Then came the hard part. She started with her side by holding the cut skin together. Even though she was prepared for it she couldn’t help letting a small scream escape at the additional pain and by calling attention to it she felt the wound much more obviously. It didn’t matter; she forced herself to keep hold of the skin and she poured the industrial strength superglue over the wound. She moved her bloody fingers slightly ahead of the superglue and gave it a moment to dry before moving on. It worked surprisingly well. After she was finished, she started on her leg. It was harder to work with as it was harder for her to reach, but she managed. The cut was longer as well, but it was much less painful to work with for some reason.

She finished a few minutes later and collapsed on the floor with exhaustion. She just lay there for a few minutes before she forced herself to move again. She knew she didn’t have much chance of survival herself, but at least she could protect something. She crawled over to her bed and pulled out a third case, a safe box. It was big and heavy but it was flat enough to fit under her bed. The safe had cost her more than almost anything else in the apartment had. It had three locks on it; one was just like her other cases and required a hidden key from her necklace, the other two required standard keys that she kept in her purse. She unlocked it in a few seconds and looked down at the cushioned, dehumidified, hollow space that would fit her violin perfectly and protect it from anything. The case on her back was already hanging open, all she had to do was unfasten the straps and lay the violin carefully inside the safe.

She only had one thing left to do. She had to leave the room so that anyone who was still chasing her would ignore the case; nothing else was important. She slowly worked her way back to the door but she picked up another stool along the way to replace the one she had broken. She knew that this time she didn’t have a chance of making it down the stairs, so she tried the elevator. To her surprise, it worked. She hit the button and the elevator took her to the ground floor safely. From their she struggled out the door and back into the alleys. She was very careful on her leg, but she still wished she’d set it. She knew there wasn’t a break, but she was afraid she was going to rip the skin and start it bleeding again. She really didn’t want to use the superglue again.

She’d made it about a hundred meters into the alleys before she ran into the first serious problem. A pair of heavyset minotaurs came around the corner in front of her and saw her. They didn’t advance on her once they’d seen her, they just stood their and blocked the exit. She did the predictable thing and turned around to back track. She’d almost made it out of the narrow strip when two lightning fast reptilian things darted in to block that entrance. The taller one flicked its tail into her chest and she heard several painful cracks as she fell backwards. Several of her ribs were clearly broken, but she didn’t feel it. She’d gone beyond pain, even the fact that she had no escape didn’t bother her. She just lay there and thought, if they were waiting for her something else was definitely coming. She didn’t have much time left.

With no recourse left she did the final thing she could, she cleared her throat and started to whisper a prayer that she remembered from years ago.

“Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.”

It was even harder than she thought it would be. She couldn’t help breaking coughing fits almost every verse, but she was determined to finish.

“Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit illa benedicta,
mater Unigeniti!

Quae maerebat et dolebat,
pia Mater, dum videbat
nati poenas inclyti.”

Her mouth filled with blood, she knew the taste. Her ribs must have punctured something when they had been broken. Just what she needed.

“Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?

Quis non posset contristari
Christi Matrem contemplari,
dolentem cum Filio?

Pro peccatis suae gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis,
et flagellis subditum.”

“You are going to suffer, more than you ever imagined possible. You can’t even imagine what you’re going to go through. I’m going to cut you, bled you…” Ramma was shouting from a distance, his voice wasn’t getting closer fast. She must have hurt him enough that he was limping. That was reassuring, but her time was running out in any case.

“Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
in amando Christum Deum
ut sibi complaceam.

Sancta Mater, istud agas,
crucifixi fige plagas
cordi meo valide.

Tui Nati vulnerati,
tam dignati pro me pati,
poenas mecum divide.

Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
passionis fac consortem,
et plagas recolere.

Fac me plagis vulnerari,
fac me Cruce inebriari,
et cruore Filii.

Quando corpus morietur,
fac, ut animae donetur
paradisi…”

A coughing fit ran through her and then there was too much blood in her mouth to finish. Her head was so light that it felt like she was floating above the world. Nothing could touch her or hurt her. That was how she knew that she wasn’t going to last much longer. Even worse, she could hear that Ramma was almost on top of her. She spared one glance in his direction and was greatly amused that he was almost as bloody as she was; his right leg was bent at an odd angle and blood was trickling from his left eye socket but none of that mattered. She spat the blood on the ground and started speaking once again, but instead of the quiet whisper that she had used before, she did her best to shout. It was a weak approximation but she knew that he could hear it and that was what was important. “Gloria.”

That was enough, she was finished and she knew it. There was no use fighting unconsciousness now so she let herself slip away, finally. Her lest prayer was that she’d never wake again; she really didn’t want Ramma to have her.

* * *

Back in her apartment, the safe box sat under her bed. It would protect whatever was in it no matter what.

Except, there was nothing in it.

Matthius dove at Sage with a spear in his hands. The spearhead was aimed right at Sage's chest, Sage didnt move, he just watched it come. The demon dove at him like a hawk bombing its prey. Matthius's smile was wide and his eyes glowing brightly. He was ten feet away, five feet...

Then Sage dissapeared.

Matthius didn't have time to slow down, he slammed into the ground, snapping the spear like a toothpick. His knees buckled and he slammed full force into the ground. Several demons stood around waiting, but he didn't move. They looked around at each other, then Matthius's body caught flames and disappeared.

They looked around at each other even more in fear, but then they heard a voice from a rooftop. "Find Cornellis!"

It was Matthius, he was standing on top a skyscraper, perfectly fine.

***

Sage reappared next to Cara, at the ready. The demon Ramma stood back, but then smirked. He was using his katana as a cane, and had a distinct red and black patch of what seemed to be melted skin around one eye socket. With his one eye he looked at Sage, and spit on the ground in front of him.

"Move away so I may finish my prey."

"Do you know who you speak to?" Sage asked.

"A wizard, a young wizard. One I care not for, move along boy, you are nothing," Ramma said. "You are a fool, Sage Cornellis, the fool. Do you think you can really stand up against the powers of hell? Do you?"

"I've made it this far, I'm not turning back now."

"Don't you see it boy? You cannot win, my father; Matthius is a part of you. You cannot kill him, he has stolen and given so much to your life! You and him are almost the same body!"

Sage shook his head, and got in a position to fight. "Come demon, lets see if you have what it takes to back up your words."

"Shall we make a deal?" Ramma asked. "Me and you duel, if I win, I get to kill you and the girl. If you win, you get to kill me, and you are granted safe passage to Matthius."

"Why would I want to go back to him?" Sage asked mockingly. "He is the one I am trying to run away from."

"Because, he still has something you want," Ramma said. "Now, at the ready boy."

Before Sage knew what was happening, both of them were wielding Katanas, and Ramma was ready to fight.

Her progress was steady as she cut through anything and everything before her with unbridled ferocity. The dagger was still lodged in her shoulder. If she removed it, she would risk bleeding to death in this mortal form. However it had stopped hurting long ago, now. She was numb to it all. With that deathblow, all connections to everything she had known were forever severed. There was only one thing now she could feel, and she would cling to it for sustinance.

Some part of her recognized Philip and Steve as she advanced on them with a purposeful stride, but that did not stop her impartial attack. One quickly spun out of the way, and in doing so lost the focus of her attention. The other would move or die. It no longer mattered. She continued attacking with singleminded ferocity until her path was clear, leading her ever closer to the epicenter of the battle.

Baker slashed through another pair of demons like butter. They were unable to stand against the might of his sword or the skill with which he wielded it. He approached Philip and Steve just as Gael was getting ready to strike at them. He managed to block her swing at Philip (hope you don't mind Techon). Baker's sword of legend provided an even rival to Gael's fiery blade even when fully powered, and Baker's own training allowed him to hold his own against her as an angel. Now that she was a mortal, wounded and battered, and her sword was unpowered he would be able to block her swings with ease. He roughly pushed back her blade and seeing an opening struck at her face with a very hard left hook.

She rolled to the right, away from the punch and snarled ferally. Viciously she shoved him back by the shoulders, half-blind with madness and battle rage.

"Stay out of my way!"

The cry was fierce and scarecly human despite her current condition. Having assured some distance between them, she turned once more and took up a forceful stride towards her final destination.

The figure walked unsteadily in the darkness of a building. It had been pulled from the place it wanted to be, and it didn't feel quite right. It had been given a blade- the figure hefted a longsword in its palm -and somthing to do, but what.....
It emerged from the alley blinking in the light. But the light....it was.....wrong. Fire. That was what it was, not sunlight. And there were things scurrying by. He peered at one and a recollection returned to him. It was them! They were the reason he had been wrenched back! He flexed his new body only covered by a worn pair of trousers, there were fresh scars on his shoulders but they were fast dissapearing at a rate that seemed unreal.
Alistor threw back his head and forced a enraged cry from his new unfamiliar throat, then launched himself off a wall towards and over one of the demon beasts. He pinioned in the air bringing his blade around in a glittering arc, and almost severed one side of the creature from the other down the middle.
As he felt the life of the demon bubble away he felt the old feeling of battle return, it was the only thing he could recall, and so he would follow its call.

Baker wanted to follow her. To try and stop her from what he suspected she was trying to do. Finding Matthius, which would accomplish nothing but get herself killed in her weakened state. However, he couldn't leave these boys behind now. He turned to address them.

"Alright guys, I need you to follow me. Stay close and you'll stay safe." Baker then started running toward where the sword had detected the powerful battle most likely involving Vinn, setting a pace that the boys could follow. Quickly cutting down any demons that got in their way. Within minutes they approached the scene of the fight.

She continued on her methodical way with single-minded determination and ferocity, blind to everthing but the sense of that distant but ever-nearing presence. She was numb...utterly numb and moving through the sheer will of her subconscious. She slashed her way through the onslaught of demons, though at this point, most had the sense of mind to make way. Her gaze was fixed on that distant spot where she could feel him. And reaching out with her mind, she beckoned..

Matthius..

Matthius

He heard his name being called, it had come from the Queen. He turned his head from the building he was atop, his eyes narrow. His mouth was tight, and his sword in hand. Sage had dissapeared from his sight for the moment. He called out.

My Queen, I am here

***

Sage and Ramma walked in their circle, both with their swords at the ready. Sage's fingers spun the hilt around in his hand, but Ramma's boy (except his legs) was quite still. They then stopped walking in their circle, without notice Ramma charged at Sage, and Sage charged at him. They both got five feet from each other, when they jumped.

They flew high into the air, slashing at each other, but blocking every attack. They started coming back down, and Sage landed first, he ducked down as Ramma had swung at his head right once he landed. He then jumped in the air, and did a flip over Ramma, he was about to land on the otherside when he felt Ramma's foot meet his chest. He flew back and landed hard on the ground, sliding a little. He shook his head then saw Ramma flying down towards him, sword pointing down.

Sage rolled out of the way, just in time, Ramma landed and his sword dug through the ground, but he pulled it back out. He didn't have much time before Sage's leg had swung around and hit the back of his knee, knocking him over backwards. Sage jumped to his feet and swung at Ramma who rolled out of the way then got up. The two charged at each other and exchanged a share of attacks and blocks.

Ramma stabbed forward and Sage jumped out of the way, he looked at the blade that had just narrowly missed his gut, and then looked at Ramma. Then he remembered it, the blind spot, his blind eye. He brought his elbow around and hit the demon square on the temple with it. Ramma shouted in pain and fell to the ground, he was about to get up when he noticed Sage's palm pointing at him. A blue energy emited from the air in front of his palm, and then he released a wave of blue electricity. Ramma was blown back by the attack, and smashed into a wall.

Sage walked up to his body, his clothes had smoke rising from them, and they seemed to have fused to him in spots. Sage raised his sword, and looked Ramma straight in his good eye. He then swung and beheaded the demon.

She smiled slightly, pleased that despite her current form, she still shared a connection with him. The adrenaline was beginning to fade, and in it's place came pain. She pushed it aside, forcing herself to focus on the matter at hand.

Pain is temporary. Pain is weakness leaving the body.

She forced herself to repeat the old adage until her shoulder stopped burning. Ahead, she saw the building, and atop it a dark figure. Sheathing her sword, she jumped up and used her good arm to catch hold of a fire escape. Swinging her body, she managed to pull herself up and began the long climb to the top.

I'm coming..

The city was near in flames, demons spread everywhere. Matthius looked at the portal to see the black clouds spread out. It appeared like black smoke, but smoke didn't have thousands of eyes. Damned spirits were arising, to complete the final task of the invasion. Matthius looked down, and sawn his battle damaged queen ascending the stairs. He walked to the side and watched her crawl up. Subconsciously his hand was on the hilt of his sword as he called down to her.

"Quick my Queen, what happened?"

***

Sage turned around to look at Cara. He looked over her to make sure that she was ok, she looked beaten but she wasn't in any danger. He asked her to make sure though.

"Are you alright?" He asked her and looked out the window into the ruined city. "We need to get out of here quick. I hope you still have your violin."

***

Vinn landed on his back and shouted in pain. He looked up and saw Dos flying through the air, fist in the air ready for when he pounced upon him. He dropped through the air at Vinn, but Vinn had just enough strength. He jetted out his legs and his Dos right in the chest, Vinn heard a gratifying crunch as he was sure a few ribs broke. Dos fell over backwards onto the ground and Vinn managed to get up.

He was badly beaten, bruised, and cut. He had a bullet wound in his leg. He turned and saw Vera aiming his gun. He started for his sword, but he heard the shot. He then felt the pain in his chest. His arm flew up to the wound as he tumbled to the ground. He reached out the his right arm, and grabbed the blade. He heard another shot and spun his blade. Out of pure chance the bullet reflected off the blade. It soared through the air in a mad craze right back to where it was fired from. Vinn heard a sickening noise as he turned around and saw Vera fall over backwards, with a bleeding hole in his head.

Vinn stumbled to get up, and wondered if it was an act of pure chance. Or, was it a miracle? Is there even a difference between the two of them? He didn't have time to think about that right now, hell he didn't have time to think about it at all in this lifetime. He turned around, swinging his blade with all his body. The blade cut through the air, and struck down Dos. The three sons of Matthius were defeated.

Vinn fell to the ground, just still barely alive.

***

"Look! There he is!" Philip shouted as he, Steve, Baker, and Paul ran down the streets towards the man lying on the ground.

Paul looked up as they ran down the street. He ached, he was covered in cuts and bruises from the fight and still didn't really understand what was going on. When Philip shouted, he could see the man lying on the ground, he needed help.

"A..listor.." she managed to stammer, pulling herself up the last 10 feet by sheer will alone. This mortal body was starting to give out on her.

"Where's Sage?" she questioned with a venom in her tone which belied her weakened and fading state.

She took a handful of his sleeve to pull herself to a standing position, still favoring the injured shoulder. She positively seethed... yet there was a dullness in her eyes which was utterly foreign.

"We must kill him, and end this."

"A..listor.." she managed to stammer, pulling herself up the last 10 feet by sheer will alone. This mortal body was starting to give out on her.

"Where's Sage?" she questioned with a venom in her tone which belied her weakened and fading state.

She took a handful of his sleeve to pull herself to a standing position, still favoring the injured shoulder. She positively seethed... yet there was a dullness in her eyes which was utterly foreign.

"We must kill him, and end this."
"Then let us go to him," Matthius said and waved his arm, and within less than a second they dissapeared from where they were.

"A..listor.." she managed to stammer, pulling herself up the last 10 feet by sheer will alone. This mortal body was starting to give out on her.

"Where's Sage?" she questioned with a venom in her tone which belied her weakened and fading state.

She took a handful of his sleeve to pull herself to a standing position, still favoring the injured shoulder. She positively seethed... yet there was a dullness in her eyes which was utterly foreign.

"We must kill him, and end this."

There was a roar that echoed around the streets below and a figure swinging a longsword left and right, biting into demons like a hot knife through butter. Its hair was matted and slick with sweat as the owner continued to simply kill with a singleminded ferocity. It looked up and spotted the pair crawling up the steps and growled under his breath. He plunged his sword into the chest of another challenge before running and letting his own momentum wrench it free. It ran the pair and it stood there breathing heavily. One was familiar, a face he knew he should remember, but the other.......
The face brought back mixed emotions. A beginning and and end all at once. He tilted his head as he tried to work out the face.
'.....Gael' A younger Alistor's voice spoke her name for the first time.

Then they dissapeared.
He looked around wildley, confused. This was not supposed to happen, what was going on? The only two things he recognised as being things not to fear, hate, or both had just vanished

Everything was spinning uncontrollably. She wondered for a moment if she’d been drugged before things started to come back to her. That would have proved to her that she had been drugged if she hadn’t started recovering her vision.

A few meters away was the corpse of the guy she remembered chasing her. His face was staring towards her and it was pretty badly mutilated. His hollow eye stared at her and she wasn’t sure whether to be proud of stopping him or afraid that she could act so uncontrollably.

"Are you alright?" The boy, Sage, looked down at her as she struggled to her knees. "We need to get out of here quick. I hope you still have your violin."

She swallowed deeply and felt the warm blood flow down her throat. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She swallowed and continued. “I’m afraid I lost my violin running from Michael Jackson there.” She pointed towards the Ramma's corpse and swallowed again. “I can probably run get it and be back in a few minutes.”

"Go then," Sage said. "Quickly, then return here. I shall be waiting for you while you do so. Be safe, don't let anything see you."

He watched her go, and then he went and sat on a couch. He turned and looked at Ramma's deceased body, the only imporant figure from hell he had managed to beat so far. What more hope did he have for their fight and struggle? Even if he was to kill Matthius, the attack would continue on. The only way they could win this battle was to close the portal. He walked over to the window and looked out. The portal was in the distance, the thickest cloud of smoke rising from it into the sky. The firey orange color at ground level. It was like a volcano, throwing all it had at the city.

No... that isn't smoke. The damned had arrived.

He turned away, and walked out of the room he was in. He walked into another room, and saw a dresser. He went up to it, and looked over the pictures on top of the dresser. A family of three, a blonde haired woman, her brown haired husband, both their hands on the shoulders of a blonde haired seven year boy. A tear ran down Sage's cheek, look at their faces. The smiles that you only see in a happy family. What ill fate has reached them this day? What sort of misfortune has been brought upon their happiness?

He looked away, and sat upon the bed. Burrying his head in his hands.

***

Matthius and Gael reconstructed in the room. Matthius looked all around, out through the window he could see the destruction from a distance. The glory of it all, the honor of war. The making or breaking of any living form. This was the glory day he had awaited for, this was the day he could make his mark. He had accomplished what even Satan could only wish for. An actual attack on the world. He smiled in his own strength. Sometime respect and power can only come from fear. He thought of the families, all the lives that live in this city. They fear him now, and that itself makes him the victor already.

But then saw what was beside the window. A body, beheaded and badly burnt. He walked over to it, and realized who it was. His son Ramma. He shook his head and muttered.

"No..."

But he soon realized his fear was correct. This was his son, now deceased, at the hand of Sage. Where were his other two? Where they dead as well? What horror had he brought upon them? What pain had he caused them.

He backed away from his son's body, and heard a noise down the hallway. His sadness turned to hatred. He knew who was in that room, he turned himself so he faced the room and his muscles flexed.

***

Sage looked back up, and saw the family once again. All of them smiling still, memories of the past. But then he noticed something else. The picture was shaking, the entire dresser was shaking. He started to get up, and noticed the entire room shaking. He was about to turn around, when suddenly the wall behind erupted in flame and dust. He was blown off his feet, flying through the air he hit the dresser. The entire wall had been blown out behind him. He looked through the dust and smoke, and saw Matthius walk through, a sword in one hand...

She felt her head spin as their surroundings changed. Her vision blurred, but she fought it, willed it back into focus. She followed Matthius' gaze out to the volcano of pure evil in the distance. It didn't seem right. What could this accomplish? Matthius would succeed of course, but there would be nothing living left to rule. This would lead only to a holy war, for heaven would surely fight for the souls of all those who would die. And then what? There would be nothing left. But his line of sight had changed. To Ramma, that treacherous son of his who lie unmistakably dead.

"Matthius," she began, her voice weak with his sorrow.

She lay a comforting hand on his shoulder as if trying to steal away his pain, but sorrow swiftly shifted to rage and he walked away after his son's murderer. Sage. Gael fell to her hands and knees with a shudder of pain. Her strength was fading. Through will alone, she forced herself upright once more, and slowly followed her King.

“Sure, I’ll go do that.”

She managed to drag her leg gracefully enough to make it look like it was only a bad limp, but once she rounded the corner she collapsed onto the ground. She knew she couldn't move another step.

You can’t do it.

“Of course I can. I can walk a half-mile and climb twelve flights of stairs with one leg, unnatural blood loss and a punctured lung. Everybody should be able to do that.”

Ease up on the sarcasm, it really isn’t going to help. Just relax and think through your options.

“What options? I can die here or I can die a few feet down the road. Nothing I have done has ever mattered.”

So you think. Why don’t you just go play for the boy?

“Even for a delusion you are pretty dense. I left the violin in the apartment.”

Girl, you are the dense one. Does that pack on your back feel empty? Did you really think I had abandoned you?

“Wait, so you are my subconscious’ representation of a violin? Okay, I need two types of doctors.”

Just shut up. Does it ever surprise you that you’ve always been alone? It really shouldn’t.

“Oh, I’m hurt. If I wasn’t dying I think I’d cry.”

Do you want to help or are you just going to lay there and die without doing any good?

“As if I could play in my current condition.”

I can help you, just pull me out and we can walk back and finish all this.

“Lo, and the violin healed all her wounds, praise God.”

I wish.

“Fine, I’ll try.” She slowly threw her arm back and pulled the strapped case off her back. The violin was right inside it, just as if she’d never left it in the safe. She sighed as she tuned, it probably wouldn’t survive this night any more than she would.

A minute later, it was tuned and she’d tightened her bow. She left the music and the case on the road and stood up. She felt a slight tingle in her leg as she walked back toward Sage. She could walk again, for a little while.

As she walked, she played the tune. It was the same tune as before, but the meaning was no longer outside of her directed toward moving others but she used it to express herself. Her years of childhood and traveling all over the system playing at concerts for her parents, her youth where she isolated herself from everyone because she was so obviously better than they were, and her life after her parents died in the car crash and left her debts that were more than she could ever earn. She put it all into every movement of the bow as she drew out the old melody. Slowly that melody changed and grew, she felt herself draining into it, giving the last remaining bit of her soul to the music as she played on and on.

“Sure, I’ll go do that.”

She managed to drag her leg gracefully enough to make it look like it was only a bad limp, but once she rounded the corner she collapsed onto the ground. She knew she couldn't move another step.

You can’t do it.

“Of course I can. I can walk a half-mile and climb twelve flights of stairs with one leg, unnatural blood loss and a punctured lung. Everybody should be able to do that.”

Ease up on the sarcasm, it really isn’t going to help. Just relax and think through your options.

“What options? I can die here or I can die a few feet down the road. Nothing I have done has ever mattered.”

So you think. Why don’t you just go play for the boy?

“Even for a delusion you are pretty dense. I left the violin in the apartment.”

Girl, you are the dense one. Does that pack on your back feel empty? Did you really think I had abandoned you?

“Wait, so you are my subconscious’ representation of a violin? Okay, I need two types of doctors.”

Just shut up. Does it ever surprise you that you’ve always been alone? It really shouldn’t.

“Oh, I’m hurt. If I wasn’t dying I think I’d cry.”

Do you want to help or are you just going to lay there and die without doing any good?

“As if I could play in my current condition.”

I can help you, just pull me out and we can walk back and finish all this.

“Lo, and the violin healed all her wounds, praise God.”

I wish.

“Fine, I’ll try.” She slowly threw her arm back and pulled the strapped case off her back. The violin was right inside it, just as if she’d never left it in the safe. She sighed as she tuned, it probably wouldn’t survive this night any more than she would.

A minute later, it was tuned and she’d tightened her bow. She left the music and the case on the road and stood up. She felt a slight tingle in her leg as she walked back toward Sage. She could walk again, for a little while.

As she walked, she played the tune. It was the same tune as before, but the meaning was no longer outside of her directed toward moving others but she used it to express herself. Her years of childhood and traveling all over the system playing at concerts for her parents, her youth where she isolated herself from everyone because she was so obviously better than they were, and her life after her parents died in the car crash and left her debts that were more than she could ever earn. She put it all into every movement of the bow as she drew out the old melody. Slowly that melody changed and grew, she felt herself draining into it, giving the last remaining bit of her soul to the music as she played on and on.

He cocked his head sideways as a thin noise reached him, penetrating the fanfare of battle below. He knew that instrument from somwhere....oh why was everything so hard to remember? He raged at his own mind for a moment before going to look for the music. He ran through dark shadowed alleys and streets lightly with his feet hardley touching the ground, the music drawing him ever onwards to what he hoped were answers to his questions.
When he turned the last corner he saw a girl playing a violin so intently, with such singlemindedness. It was like watching to most practiced swordsman in an instrumental from. Precise and dedicated, but with so many undertones.....he could have lost himself in the twisting notes and bars. But he heard somthing in the music that made him look at the girls leg. It was obviously bleeding, and now he saw it she was quite beaten up. He furtivley shuffled closer to her hoping not to suddenly suprise her out of her music
'Hurt?' He asked quietly and indicated her leg

She kept playing as long as she could. She couldn’t see anything, she couldn’t respond to anything, she couldn’t even feel her body. All she could feel was each note leaving her as it took a piece of her away with it. She was draining herself with each note, she was literally pouring out her soul with every note.

After the song was done she crumpled to the ground. Everything seemed perfectly clear, she could see everything, she remembered every note, every affect. The violin was so close to her. She could feel how warm it seemed as she curled her arms around it. The link between them from the song was still strong, but now the violin was the stronger partner and it pulled out to her, calling like a siren, irresistible.

Her body lay there, still clutching the violin gently to her chest as if she was trying to protect it.

She kept playing as long as she could. She couldn’t see anything, she couldn’t respond to anything, she couldn’t even feel her body. All she could feel was each note leaving her as it took a piece of her away with it. She was draining herself with each note, she was literally pouring out her soul with every note.

After the song was done she crumpled to the ground. Everything seemed perfectly clear, she could see everything, she remembered every note, every affect. The violin was so close to her. She could feel how warm it seemed as she curled her arms around it. The link between them from the song was still strong, but now the violin was the stronger partner and it pulled out to her, calling like a siren, irresistible.

Her body lay there, still clutching the violin gently to her chest as if she was trying to protect it.

He saw the small body crumple to the ground...so fragile...why had this happened? He hesitantly reached towards the form of the girl but pulled his hand back sadly. He didn't want to know this, why was he here in a place where things were only taken away, where flames burned low before thier time. He let a keen of greif escape his throat crying out for all the people he no longer knew. He stood up dejectedly and turned to face a snarling demon that had crept up behind him as he was kneeling by the girls body. He stood there accepting the demons prescense, and not resisting when it landed a blow on him the send him back a few metres before landing heavily. He simply stood up to be hit again, since he couldn't see any reason to fight back. What was there to fight for? He never made a move to stop his assailent, even as his limbs were numbed by the battering his body was recieving. Eventually he collapsed to the floor with his legs unable to support him, and watched on as the demon leant over him, grinning in victory.

Matthius threw Gael's hand off his shoulder and walked straight up to Sage. He reached down and grabbed Sage's throat, lifting him off the ground. He held Sage up in the air, choking him. Sage grabbed onto his wrist in an attempt to keep himself elevated.

"I've waited for too long," Matthius said. "Too many long years in you. Too many centuries in hell, this is where it ends for you Sage. You've seen the saga through, and this is where you end."

He pulled out his sword, and prepared to stab it through Sage's skull. Sage looked straight down the blade, and heard something. A faint violin was heard, and his eyes grew wide. The blade in Matthius's hand started to vibrate to the pitches.

"What's happening?" Matthius asked in slight suprise.

"You're right Matthius, it is over," Sage said, and his arm shot forward, ripping the amulet off Matthius's neck. In the next second, he looked at Gael, and made eye contact with her. He smirked at her and winked, and then he dissapeared. In that same second, Matthius had stabbed his sword forward, but all it hit was the Sage shaped cloud of smoke left in his wake. Matthius stood their in his positioned for a moment, and then closed his fist, destroying the smoke clouds neck.

He dropped his sword to the ground, and raised his hand to his forhead. He started breathing heavily, and he bit his lip. He turned back and looked at his Queen. He started to get up, and his sight caught hold of Ramma's body. He searched for signs of his other two sons, but found none.

"Sagaem Cornelli! You might have beaten me, but I will make sure you will burn in hell!" He shouted and ran for the window, destroying the wall he jumped out of the building. His bat wings spread, and he took flight.

***

Philip, Steve, Paul, and Baker made their way up to Vinn. Philip fell at his side, and looked over him. He then looked at his face, Vinn was just barely alive. In one hand was his sword, and his other, he was reaching up. Philip looked at his hand, and then took it in his.

"My time here is up," Vinn said. "Its over for me. I've done my best to try to stop this all. To think, here I am, holding the hand of a stranger. You wonder why I hold your hand."

"Yes, I will admit, I do," Philip said.

"Because I want to die, feeling the skin of a pure human, of a human who never took the path that I did. I want you to tell Sage, that I'm sorry for my crimes. I hope he can forgive me, I hope I can still show I am human... what is your name?"

"Philip, Philip Hirzel," Philip said.

"Goodbye, Philip..." Vinn said, and his eyes slowly closed for his final resting.

***

Sage appeared in mid air, and dropped to the ground. Ten feet from Cara and Allistor. He got to his knees, and held onto the amulet tightly. As she played the final notes of the song, he whispered something, and the amulet glew green. He held it high in the air, and it continued to illuminate. He then snapped his fingers, and it dissapeared.

It appeared back over the portal to hell, and began falling downwards into it. After it passed through, there was a bright white explosion of light. Like a vacuum it started to suck all the demons back in. The clouds of damned souls formed into a tornado vortex, spinning downards. They had done it, they closed the portal. It would soon be all over.

Sage saw Cara collapse, and crawled on his hands and knees over to her. He was covered in dirt and cuts. His biggest injury was a slice on his arm, his sleeve was blood soaked, but it wasn't life threatening. His eyes were red, and tears were still running down his dirt covered face. He put his hand on Cara, and dropped his head.

"How many lives must I take in order to save others?" He asked himself. He then looked up to the sky, and clenched his teeth. He then shouted upwards at the sky, the sun just a light behind a tarp of darkness. "Why must I be so damned! If I am given these powers to save, why cannot I not! Why must lives die for this cause!"

He stood up, and his arm shot towards the sky, pointing. "You! All of you, the Order, the Balance. God...! God! Why have you chosen me to do this? Why must I, so weak, be the one to save this world of yours! I am not perfect like you!"

He grabbed onto his temples, and dropped his head. "You chose me of all people, you chose me to do this job of yours. I was the one who brought Matthius's wrath here...I... my..job.. Its my job? God! Why have you not let me know! It was my job, I've started this! Not you! Oh God, I'm not the chosen! I'm not the savior!"

He backed away from Cara. "Are they...are they all dieing for no purpose then? Could this all have been prevented or was it meant to be? Cara..."

He ran up to her, dropped to his knees beside her. He ripped of his glove, and put his hand on her forhead. "If this is my job, my duty, then I will do all I must to finish its goals..."

He closed his eyes, and his body shook violently for a split second, as if he was eletricuted. Energy flowed down from him, and went through his fingers, into Cara. Slowly her wounds started to close and heal. Life was being brought back into her. Five minutes had passed, Sage started to open his eyes, and then the healing was done. In a violent feedback, blue energy shot back and knocked Sage onto his back. As he looked up, he saw a black figure descending. It landed beside, and quickly grabbed onto his arms. Matthius flapped his wings again, and lifted Sage off the ground.

The two of them flew through the air away from the others.

"Matthius!"

She felt more human at this moment than she ever thought possible, watching him leave in a murderous frenzy. Rushing forward, her hands caught the windowsill but she slowly pulled back, resting against the wall in the empty room.

Please stop this... I don't want you to die and leave me here..

With stunning clarity the answer struck her. It all seemed so demonically simple. Why had she not realized it before? Will and purpose were enough to guide her now, to lend temporary strength. She closed her eyes and murmured a prayer to herself. Opening them again, she was like a different woman, one who had cast off the chains of despair. She was living on borrowed time now. And without weakness or weariness to hinder her, she stalked methodically after Sage and Matthius. Their scents and signatures were strong. In the street below, she began to run.

Matthius flew high, and dropped Sage on top of a skyscraper. Sage started to get up, but Matthius landed right on top of him. Sage tried to get up, but Matthius was too much, he wasn't strong enough. For the seemingly infinite time in the last few hours, he wasn't strong enough. He could meet the standards he had made for himself. He looked up at Matthius, who's eyes were ablaze. Both of them lost so much, possibly the only one who felt the same was as him was his own enemy. He continued to try to get up to no avail.

Matthius pressed down harder with his foot. "We've both lost Sage. You beat me, but I'm beating you. We always were the exact same, you do know that right?"

Before Sage could answer, Matthius lowered his hand, and pointed his fingers at Sage. Energy ran down to his finger tips, and lightning shot and his Sage. Matthius stepped off him, and continued to eletricute Sage. Sage's endless screams filled the air along with all the other noise from the damned spirits. Sage couldn't find the strength, he just couldn't find the strength. But as he rolled in a spasm of frenzy, he saw something, in the sky, there was a brief hole in the cloud of damned spirits, and he saw the sun, and...birds. There was still good out there... Many might have died here, but there were many more out there...

Matthius's sneer turned into a grin. But then his eyes narrowed as he saw Sage start to gain more control. The lightning didn't have as much of an effect, Sage slowly began to stand up. Matthius dubbled the amount of energy, but it didn't affect Sage. Sage stood all the way up, looking at the ground, his eyes raised and made contact with Matthius's, and then he raised his head. He crossed crossed his arms so his fists touched his opposite shoulders, then he flung his arms out at full length. The lightning exploded off him all over, knocking Matthius back.

Matthius hit the ground, and what little joy he had turned back into a mad rage. He looked up with wide eyes at Sage, and stood up. He threw his arm madly and a red spell shot out of it, Sage shot a blue spell, and the two collided in the middle. Sage's spell seem to be alive and was seemingly eating off the energy of Matthius's spell. Sage raised his palm and fired a turquoise spell at Matthius, it was just feet away when he threw his arm, and hit the spell with the back of his hand, sending it flying off to the side like an arrow.

Matthius shouted with all his might, his voice echoed all around. A part of the cloud of damned spirits broke off, and started circling the building. They were now in a tight vortex of darkness. Matthius's rage brought him to the brink of insanity, his sneer turned back into a giant grin. Sage's hair was tossled all around, he grabbed onto his jacket, and pulled it off quickly, he didn't need it anymore. He stood there looking at Matthius. Waiting for him to do his next move, but the next move was coming from above. A wave of spirits descended on him without his knowledge, but right at the last second he heard them, and cast a holy shield around himself. The spirits just bounced off the protective bubble around him, doing him no harm. He looked back at Matthius, but he wasn't there anymore. He looked up to see a blazing fireball flying at him, he brought his hands up in defense and the fireball exploded right in front of him. It badly burnt his arms and burnt his face a little, but other than that he was unhurt. He shot a spell up at Matthius, but Matthius blocked it.

Matthius dived down at Sage, but Sage crossed his arms again, then shot them to their full length again. A burning X flew through the air and hit Matthius, sending him falling back down onto the roof. He felt immense pain flow through him, and he looked at his stomach and chest to see massive gashes, and red blood flowing out of them. He then looked at his hands and arms to see they were burnt, and his face hurt as well. He also looked at his left wing to see it seered off right above his shoulder, smoke rose from the stub of bone that was once a mighty bat wing. He looked at Sage, and shot another spell. Sage blocked it and shot one at him, and Matthius deflected it. Sage then charged up a spell, and fired it, a wave of a tuquoise liquid looking spell through at Matthius, it hit him and overwhelmed him. It pushed him back to the edge of the building, in the spots where the spell had hit him was now frost.

He raised his hand in the air, and in a flash of light a spear appeared in his hand. He threw it quickly, and in the darkness from the vortex, it seemed to dissapear. Sage knew it was coming for him, but did not know where from. He looked through the hazy darkness, then saw it, time seemed to slow down, but he saw the eyes of a spirit open up, pupil-less yellow distant eyes. The spirit broke away, and the spear hit Sage, right in the chest. He fell over backwards, screaming in pain. Blood gushed from his wound. He closed his eyes for what seemed an eternity, but when he opened his eyes, he saw the cloud of damned spirits was a lot less thick. Sunlight was shining down on him almost brilliantly now. He looked up at Matthius, to see the demon holding his hand over his bleeding chest.

Sage pulled the spear out of him, and brought his hand over his wound. He stood up, barely any energy left in him. He could feel his life force leaving, but he held onto it as much as he could. He knew what he had to do now, but he had to wait for Gael to arrive...

Gael reflexively extended wings which no longer existed. Through fury and will alone, she seemed to rise, carried by the breath of God to end this reign of death and destruction, though whether or not this was merely a hallucination of her fading mind, she would never know. As it was, she barely seemed to register any movement at all. All sense of logic failed her, turning inward to sustain her failing body.

Somehow, she found herself on the roof with Sage and Matthius, though the mystery of her arrival was the farthest thing from her mind. All that mattered was that she was here. Matthius, her battle-scarred King fought on nobly, the very picture of determination.

With a feral growl, she lunged at Sage, saddened by what must be done. Her gaze locked onto his pain-dulled eyes, conveying her intentions...

Sage turned and looked at Gael, he shook his head as she flew towards her at incredibly fast speeds.

"I'm sorry Gael..." He said, a tear flowing down his face, and he raised the spear. With her speed, there was no chance of her slowing down, and the spear was aimed right at her chest.

He pulled the spear at the last moment, almost too late for her to react. But her plan hinged on not dying. Yet. With lightening reflexes, she grabbed the shaft of the spear, spinning out of the way and trying to wrench it from his grasp. In her twisting motion, she placed a well-aimed kick for his head.

Come Matthius... come and see your glory unfold..

Her boot met with Sage's head, and he was knocked off his feet. Matthius grabbed at his own temple, but then took his hand off. Sage lay on the ground, and started to try to get up, blood was dripping down from his head where he was kicked. He eventually stood up, and grabbed at his belt. He pulled out his sword, and looked at Matthius.

"You were always right Matthius. I could never win. You were right in so many ways in fact. You also said how alike we were, you're right. We are exactly alike."

He lifted the sword, and cut the top of his right hand. Matthius's left hand dove at his right hand as if it was hurt.

"We always shared a bond Matthius, ever since the beginning. You were intwined into the world through one thing, and one thing along. My life, my life was what kept you here. You never realized it though. I could never beat you, because the only way I could beat you, was to die. However, one thing you never realized, is, you could never win either."

He raised the sword, and Matthius started running for him. He stuck out his arm, and Sage did the same, and then brought the sword down. He took his own arm clean off, and screamed in pain. Sage fell too his knees, and his hand went up to his bleeding stump. He looked up at Matthius, and a bright light shot out on Matthius's arm, and it fell off without warning.

"You are...a...parasite to this...this world," Sage stuttered out in his pain. "There is only..only o-one way to...to...to get rid of a parasite..."

He grabbed the sword, and picked it up. "Cut off its connection...."

Matthius shook his head, his eyes were actually for once wide with fear. Sage could have sworn he saw a tear drip down his enemies face, but that did not matter anymore. It was all over, it had to be ended once and for all.

Sage lifted the sword higher, and put the tip towards his chest.

"NO!" Matthius shouted, but Sage didn't listen. Sage instead turned his head towards Gael, and nodded. Tears were running down his face for sure. He took a deep breath, then stabbed the sword down. It went through his chest, and came out his back. Blood seeped down the blade, and Sage fell forward, keeping himself up with his one hand. He looked up at Matthius, to see a bright light shining out from his chest. Matthius arched his back in pain, screaming.

"Its over Matthius...we've...both...l-l-lost..." Sage said. "We..both...failed..."

And with that, Sage Cornellis fell forward onto the ground. Deceased. Matthius continued to scream, and he looked as his palm. It caught fire, and started rushing towards his head. His entire body started catching fire, turning him to ash. The flames ran up his legs, and arm, and up his torso. It reached his head, and silenced his scream. There was then a ear-splitting scream, and the flames exploded in energy, and then dissipated.

The damned spirits had all gone back through the portal, and the sun shone down upon the battle torn city. Smoke rose into the air from everywhere, but for once in a long while, it seemed at peace. The war was over, the pain, the struggle.

Sage's strife was now finally over. As his body lay there motionless upon the top of the roof, the sun shining brilliantly upon him. It was all finally over.

OOC: I feel a few things, the last few, need to be cleaned up.

As Alistor watched, the demon infront of him crumbled to nothing but insubstantial mist. Whatever it had been planning to do to Alistor it now scrabbled at him with claws that were fast fading, but it couldn't reach him now.
He stepped up from the ground and stared at the new dawn rising in a glittering arc of gold across the horison. It was always all the more beautiful after the nights of true darkness.
He streched his new arms welcoming the way the sun warmed his skin and the way his bones did not click with every movement, but no...it was not quite done. Not this time. This time was different. After a while of searching amongst the bodies and streets slick with blood, demon and mortal, he finally found himself in a place he knew had been important. There was the corpse of the martre, the gate sealer. There was the corpse of the depoiler, the wound. And there, there was.....
'Hello Gael'
And things came to a final and much larger circle than they could have imagined, ready for a new day, and perhaps a new night. But it is better to light a candle in the night than curse the darkness.