New chapter, tired as shit, going to bed nothing else to say.

I OWN NOTHING!

ZZZZZ

Chapter 4

New York, USA...

In the not-so-distant future...

Zane looked into the mirror at his once perfect features, features that were now marred with scars and wounds of a battle where the only one he'd ever cared for died, only to still have the world fall to a being more evil than the wildest of nightmares, a being so terrifying that not even the mightiest of gods dares to challenge it, well at least not now, after Zane had screwed up... royally.

" You can't do this." Zane turned to find Clarissa standing behind him. " And what are you going to do Clair? Grab that guy who could stop me? What was his name... ah yes, Bob Mc-doesn't-exist?" Zane smirked as he lowered the drape he used to cover the mirror.

" I can't let you go back in time, not when the stakes are so high." Clary's fists clenched at her side.

Zane on the other hand, didn't seem to notice.

" I don't care what the stakes are Clary," Zane walked over to his desk and poured himself a cup of wine.

" You never cared Zane, no for anyone but yourself." Clary snorted.

" Not for anyone but myself..." Zane repeated under his breath, words that ignited a anger inside him so profound he could taste it, anger that caused him to shatter his wine glass causing Clary to jump.

" You think I don't care for anyone Clary?" Zane stalked towards her his hand bleeding, but he was so completely consumed by rage he didn't even feel it.

Clary didn't back down, she looked Zane dead in the eyes as he stopped barely an inch away from her.

" You have it wrong Clarissa." Zane seethed. " You see I don't give a damn about what happens to me, whether or not my life ends, for all I care my life has ended, the moment when Lily died in my arms!" He shouted, as that one sentence brought back the pain that he tried so hard to burry, " it's not about my own life, it's about them," Zane gestured at the window, at a hellish world that looked like something out a Godzilla movie, a world were humans were nothing more than livestock for demons to devour, " it's their lives I'm trying to save, and that's why I need to do this."

Zane whispered in Clary's ear, then walked past her, or at least he attempted to.

" I meant it when I said I'm not gonna let you do this Zane." Clary flashed in front of Zane with both her hands glowing in light.

" Then you'll just have to die." Zane said sadly, as he felt the familiar grip of his sword filling his hand.

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" Son of a prostituted whore!" Zane cursed as he stubbed his toe against the foot of his bed.

" What?" Jackson asked, poking his head out of the bathroom where he was brushing his teeth.

" Nothing." Zane said as he bent down to nurse his throbbing toe.

" You sure?"

Zane stood up and nodded.

" Yeah."

" Aright, hurry up then we're in the same class, and I don't wanna be late cause you dragged your feet." Jackson started to disappear back into the washroom, but stop and poked his head back out of the room to ask Zane a question.

" By the way, why do you have a stuffed doll of yourself?" Jackson pointed to a doll sitting on Zane's desk, with Zane's trademark smirk of course.

" Oh that? Lily made it for me as a birthday present." Zane put on a golden top with a black rose square in the center of his chest.

" And what did you get her?" Jackson asked.

" Tickets to a sold out show for her favorite band." Zane answered.

" Hmmm, how old are you anyways?"

" 15, you?"

" 15 as well." Jackson answered.

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" Alright students, today we have a new students joining us: Zane Haides, now get to your seats so I can get started with attendance ." Bobby Drake patted Zane on his shoulder.

Zane took a seat behind Jackson who sat with... a squid? Alright now he got what Julian meant yesterday when he said Jackson played with Squidward, though to be honest the kid looks more like Cthulhu minus the wings.

" Hey, I'm Zane." Zane offered the girl he was sitting beside his hand, which she shook.

" Sarah," she blushed then quickly pulled back her hand.

Sarah had pure silver hair, her face was dominated by a pair of deep brown eyes, that were so big they seemed to overwhelm her impish features, but that little flaw seemed to make her seem even more beautiful, she had a slightly tanned skin tone a bit darker than Lily's but still lighter than Zane's.

Zane stopped studying Sarah when he felt someone's gaze on his back, turning in his seat Zane spotted a tall guy who bore a striking resemblance to Sarah standing by the door glaring at Zane, a glare that Zane knew all too well since it was something he used to scare off a few of his sister's boyfriends, a look that was less than friendly, rather it was a look of absolute hatred.

Good job Zane, he thought to himself, only been here for 24 hours and you already made two enemies, you really outdid yourself this time.

" So do you need any help here?"

" Huh?" Zane was so distracted he didn't realize Sarah was speaking to him. " Oh... well nothing so far, thanks for asking though."

Sarah looked disappointed.

Cue more dirty looks from Guy At The Door.

Okay I'm gonna take a wild guess here, Zane glanced wearily at his nemesis, that guy is either Sarah's boyfriend, which would be all kinds of weird given how much they favor each other , or he's her overprotective older brother.

Zane looked back at Sarah and sighed, well only one way to confirm it.

" Actually Sarah, I do have one question."

She perked up immediately.

" Really? What is it?"

" The guy at the door," Zane gestured at the door. " You know him?"

Sarah turned to look at the door, saw the guy, and groaned, kind of like how Lily groans every time Zane scares away one of her boyfriends... huh, strange.

" From that sound I'm guessing you know him?" Zane asked.

She nodded.

" Yeah, that's my overprotective big brother Dante."

Annnnd I was right.

" C'mon guys can we focus up here?" Bobby called as he realized Zane and Sarah's conversation. " Look I know math is awful, and I can't emphasize that enough, but once we finish the lesson you can talk all you want, deal?"

The students agreed.

And Zane liked this guy, enough to make him forget about Sarah's brother.

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Lily looked up as her brother sat down next to her during art class, singing under his breath, something he only did when he was in a particularly good mood.

" Well someone's happy." Lily smiled as Zane sat down next to her.

Zane shrugged.

" Well what can I say dear sister? It's Friday, and I have the last class of the day with my favorite person in the universe."

Lily laughed, one thing she loved about her brother was the fact that he was so open with affection, in fact he's been so open a few people had asked if he was her boyfriend.

Zane smiled back, but his smile faded instantly as he look past her to the back door.

Lily turned to see what made her brother upset and found Noah.

" And to think my day was going well," Zane groaned as Noah approached them. " Hello my eternal hemorrhoid." Zane smirked.

Lily sighed, she thought her brother had solved his issue with Noah during their training five days ago, but apparently not.

" Well if it makes you feel any better... I'm not fond of spending time with an atheist either." Noah spat.

Zane raised one perfectly formed brow.

" How's that supposed to make me feel better? Honestly I know that bible crap was dumb, but I didn't think it was dumb enough to lower the I.Q. of whoever's reading it."

Rage clouded Noah's eyes and just was he was about to tackle Zane Lily intervened.

" Okay, Noah how about you and my brother settle your problems in a more civilized way?" Lily all but jumped in between Noah.

Noah calmed down a little seeing Lily's tiny 5'4 height.

" Alright what do you propose?" He asked.

Zane's eyes lit up with a light that told Lily that he was ready for anything.

Lily licked her lips before saying anything.

" Well this is art class right?"

" Right," Zane nodded.

" Alright, how about you both do a painting during class and have it judged at the end of the period? And whoever wins, wins this argument." Lily proposed.

" Fine with me, but who's gonna be the judge?" Noah asked calming down enough to sit down in a seat, and Lily quickly sat down between him and Zane... just in case.

" I'll ask the teacher." Lily said, then scratched her head. " By the way, who'd the teacher?"

" Peter R." Noah answered.

" Who's... oh." Zane began to asked then stopped as he saw a giant in a teacher's outfit enter the room.

Lily started to get up, then stopped and looked back at the boys.

" You two aren't gonna kill each other the second I leave are you?" She asked.

Zane grinned devilishly.

" I can promise no killing, but I can't promise no maiming."

Lily sighed again and walked up to the giant, and told him her idea.

" That sounds like a good idea," he said with a bit of a accent, Russian maybe?

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" Alright guys forty minutes, whoever paints the better picture will win , the winner will be decided by myself and the rest of the students voting." Peter announced as Noah and Zane went to their respective stations.

" Wait, I thought you were the only one judging." Zane asked.

" Yes, but I don't want the rest of the class left out, besides it's Friday I have no lesson planned anyways." Peter answered.

" Alright then let's get started." Noah dipped his brush into the water.

" 3,2,1, GO!" Lily shouted.

Zane dipped his brush into red paint and started painting instantly.

Noah on the other hand started with a light golden color.

Both mutants were talented to the extremes, but their styles are completely different, were as Noah's colors were warm, and comforting, Zane's colors were cold, and ominous.

Zane's painting quickly became a dark hellish landscape, but it wasn't long before Lily realized what her brother painted was actually Hell, completed with humans being tortured. Very quickly Zane separated the damned into seven different sections, but leaving a empty space in each section, just as Lily asked what they were for Zane filled them out, the one on the outermost layer was a demon wrapped in a suit made of diamonds, with two golden rings on each finger, the horns above his head shined like gems, even his wings and tail were covered in gems, the demon was lounging upon a mountainous pile of gold coins. After that in the sixth layer there lay a rust colored demon with both eyes barely open, and a single black horn jutted out of his forehead, blood red drool dripped out of his mouth where a giant pair of tusks grew, the demon was dressed in a night gown, and his wings were spread lazily around his giant body. In the next empty space Zane painted a beast who's top half was that of a beautiful woman, but the bottom half of her body was that of a serpent's, she was completely covered in green scales, her breasts were hidden under her dark green hair, her eyes glowed dangerously, beneath them were a smile so sinister it made Lily cringe. Next was what at first glance appeared to be a handsome man who was practically naked, with a inviting smile on his face, and in his hand was a black rose that he lifted to his nose, but a giant demon with three dragon heads stood in his shadow, each head had a crown and each crown had a single topaz in the center, the demon stood on two legs each as thick as stone pillars, and on his back were a pair of eagle wings except each feather were tipped in flames. In the third layer was a demon with a pair of giant, insect eyes, right below them was a giant mouth filled with three layers of sharp, blood covered fangs, on his back were a two pairs of dragon fly wings, he had six skinny limps all tipped with five stingers that also acted as fingers, a hard exoskeleton covered his body, and a pair of antennae grew on top of his head. In the second layer was a being Lily knew all too well, it was obviously Satan, the giant red demon was wrapped in red flames, he had a pair of giant horns jutting out of his head, his red demonic skin was covered by black markings, that swirled to form a beautiful pattern, each one of his fingers were tipped with talons, instead of having normal eyeballs he had flames in his sockets, his face was kind of handsome, but it was rugged like an ancient warlord, his chest was bare, but his bottom half was covered by volcanic armor, decorated with gunmetal spikes, in his hand he held a flaming broadsword, and his black, obsidian wings oozed lava and even more flames. In the center circle was a angel with blood red wings, and a face that was not just handsome but beautiful, each and every feature looked like it was sculpted, he looked timeless... and deadly, his eyes glowed red with malice, and he was covered in golden armor that glowed in cold, vicious light, like it was corrupted, go figure. In his hand he held a golden spear that was wrapped in chains of bright, white fire, in the other he held a mace with three chains connected to three different spiked balls, the angel leaned against the black pillar of a giant fortress, looking up at the heavens, as if he was angry at it.

Lily was astonished by her brother's skill, but she wasn't all that surprised, her brother was nearly perfect, but his one flaw is how cocky he is, that and the fact that he was not exactly the best at making friends, at least male ones anyways, girls on the other hand, were a whole other matter.

" And time's up!" Lily declared as the stopwatch beeped.

" And I'm done!" Zane finished with one last fluid motion, he wiped his fore head with his hand, but since his hand was covered in paint there was multiple strips of red on his head.

Lily passed Zane a towel to wipe off his forehead as she watched Noah's painting, unlike Zane's where there were multiple entities, Noah's only had a single angel with a long flowing robe, and a hood that obscured most of his features, on his back were bright white wings that shined like the sun, in his hand he held a scythe which he used to cut down people in a desert kingdom in Egypt, at least it looked like Egypt since there were pyramids in the distance.

Noah glanced at Zane's painting and snorted, " why am I not surprised you chose to paint that."

" What's wrong with painting Hell?" Lily asked puzzled.

Zane laughed. " Oh Lily, what I painted is not just Hell, it is Dante Alighieri Inferno, which is widely regarded as the most accurate representation of the actual Hell." Zane explained.

" So what's with the circles?" Lily pointed to the walls that separated one area from the next.

Noah answered this time.

" In Dante's Inferno, it is described that Hell has seven layers, one for each of the seven deadly sins, which are: sloth, envy, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, and pride." Noah pointed to each layer.

" And then I put the seven lords of Hell in each layer, the outermost layer is Mammon, the lord of greed, the next is Belphagore, the lord of sloth, then it's Leviathan the lady of envy, after that it's Asmodeus the lord of Lust, then after him it's the lord of the flies, Beelzebub who is in charge of gluttony, then after him it's Satan himself, the demon of wrath, and last but definitely not least, it is the archangel Lucifer Morningstar, the most powerful angel cast down to hell for his rebellion against God, so he is of course the master of pride." Zane gestured to each individual demon.

Lily nodded, then looked to Noah's painting.

" And what did you paint Noah?" Lily frowned.

" The angel Azrael performing God's task for him to slaughter the first born child of every Egyptian family, it is a great symbol of God's wrath, and what he is capable of." Noah swept his hand out as if presenting the painting to them.

" You mean how much of a SOB God is capable of being." Zane snorted. " I mean seriously your God, has single handedly killed more people than Hitler, Mao Ze Dong, and Joseph Stalin combined, seriously you'd have to be seriously fucked in the head to worship someone like that... but then again it is you we're talking about here." Zane jumped back to avoid Noah's assault as soon as he finished.

" Alright boys the results are in, let's not kill each other." Peter called as Zane tried to keep Noah away from him.

" I'm not trying to kill anything, but I think Noah's trying to duplicate the efforts of the crusaders back in the day to start a purge, or the crusade two things that was apparently God's idea, so... I stand by my point God's a mass murderer." Zane kicked Noah back into his chair... again.

And he charged again but this time a giant metal man pulled him back.

" Oh... so you're the Tin Man." Zane said as he saw Peter's colossus form.

That stopped him dead in his tracks. " What?" He asked.

" Yeah, Warren called you that once by accident, and the nickname stuck." Zane stepped off to the side just in case Peter decided to kill him, he can try to run.

" Oh if that's the case I'll just announce the results, and be on my way to send a certain angel back to Heaven the hard way." Peter changed back to human form and cracked his knuckles, because it's harder to do as a statue of steel? Then he cleared his throat. " So far the votes are even, all the girls voted for Zane, the rest voted for Noah."

" Why thank you ladies." Zane winked at the girls, causing a few to burst into fits of giggles, and making all of them blush. " And to the guys: what the actual Hell? I was sure this picture would be more appealing to the male population, I mean girls aren't exactly into torture, and demon gods, but hey if you like the priest's picture by all means."

" Wait if it's a tie what's the tie breaker?" Lily asked.

" You." Noah, and Zane said as one.

" Ugh, I love it when the only time you guys agree on something involves giving me stress." Lily groaned.

" Well it's not exactly stress, if you know you're gonna vote for me... what are you doing?" Zane asked as Lily left his side to join Noah.

" Just because you said that, I'm voting for Noah." Lily stuck out her tongue at Zane.

" Yes!" Noah whooped.

" Oh c'mon are you for real?" Zane complained.

" Well the results are in." Peter raised Noah's hand. " The winner is Noah, class dismissed, and I am going to find Warren." Peter quickly left the room.

" Well that was peculiar." Zane commented. " So is it officially the weekend now?"

Noah nodded.

" Awesome." Zane picked up his and Lily's bags and left with Lily following.

Leaving Noah behind with a ache in his heart.

I miss you so much Taylor.