Chapter 14

The corridor smelt of dust and something metallic. Metallic and vile. Red stuff dripped down from the hole where his heart should have been and onto her porcelain skin. It stained the body which countless men would have died to have and clothes countless women envied, his blood mingling with her own. Some might have thought it a shame, to see someone as glamorous as her so tainted, so reeking with the sticky substance. But all Echidna could do was stare, unmoving but trembling slightly at the way the man who held her in his arms opened his mouth in shock, as if to say something before his eyes dimmed. And that was it. No dramatic lines. No ceremonious last words. A simple stab in the back had shattered everything she had ever lived for.

The scythe slid easily from the corpse, allowing it to slump forwards onto her.

The hope that had sparked through the last few minutes vanished like a light being turned off. Sven's eye wasn't working due to exhaustion. Creed was dead. Subditus was laughing. He was laughing even though the screaming had stopped.

"What- what the hell's so funny?" Said Rinslet, her voice shaking. "I mean, you've lost, right? T-train isn't-"

"Isn't what? Screaming?" Subditus turned to her. "You honestly believe that girl has the strength to save him right now? He's dead, you simpleton, and I assure you, she's being taken care of as we speak."

Rinslet's eyes widened. Sven couldn't move. Eve suddenly felt like something was constricting her throat, stopping her from breathing properly.

Echidna heard a jumble of voices echoing incoherently through the corridor before any of them started to make sense. "And besides, it seems I have eliminated even the strongest of your little group..." Echidna heard a voice say, sounding almost disappointed. She simply stared up at the ceiling where those familiar blank, unseeing eyes had been, before their owner fell down carelessly, unknowingly. The owner of the voice sighed, "Such a pity, I had truly expected more of you." She could feel the eyes of the man glance over to the two of them and rest on Creed's body as the she heard the voice sigh once more.

"Y-you son... you son of a bitch." Sven shuddered with anger. "Don't- don't you dare say things like that! Train isn't dead! He isn't dead, he can't be fucking dead!"

"Sven."

"THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL HE IS- H-HE ISN'T YOU LYING B-BASTARD!"

"Sv-sven..."

Sven continued to shout, and Rinslet was screaming too- both denying, both with desperation spilling from their words.

"Sv-sven- R-rins...ple-"

"PROOVE IT!"

"P-please..."

"YOU LIAR!"

"H-help"

"YOU BASTARD!"

"M-me..."

The panicked voices, the smell of blood, the screaming which had stopped but still continued in her mind, it was filling her, manifesting her, bubbling up like the core of the earth trying to explode from the shells that gave an impression of calm compared to the fire below. She could hear her own heart thumping in her head like someone beating a drum at a funeral far too fast, not understanding the pain, the total and complete agony. Pushing her forwards towards the edge- over the edge-

A voice screamed out a battle cry, and a bullet barely missed Subditus' head as he moved out the way, instead grazing his cheek. Echidna was pummelling bullets at him, screaming over the unbearable noise. Subditus' eyes had widened with glee as he sliced through the bullets with his weapon.

"Now this is what I call entertainment!" Subditus marvelled.

"Echid-" Sven began, but cut himself off when Eve dropped to the floor.

Sven was by her side at an instant, Sven holding her up in his arms. Eve was shaking uncontrollably, and her breaths were coming short and sharp. But her eyes... They were wide and laced with terror which made Sven inwardly shudder.

"Eve- hey Eve, look at me, it's ok! Everything's ok!" Said Sweeper asked, trying to hide his own frantic emotions.

"No- it's n-not OK! I-I-"

A gunshot alerted him to the situation before them, where Echidna and Subditus were locked in a heated battle, Subditus still laughing manically. Echidna was vanishing and appearing through portals every second, her eyes filled with rage and a desire- no- wish for blood as she shot again and again. Subditus' eyes were filled with some kind of sickening glee.

"SVEN, MOVE!" Rinslet's voice interrupted. Sven leaped to the side, covering Eve's body with his own as Subditus' scythe caused the white floor to shatter, a massive and dagger sharp piece of debris landing precisely where Sven and Eve had been. Sven's eyes widened at the realisation of how vulnerable he was without his vision eye. How dependent he had become on it. How he had disregarded maintaining his skills in observation since Lloyd had given it to him all those years ago, and how useless he was now that it wasn't coming to his aid. Without Rinslet's intervention the two of them could have just died.

"Sven!" Rinslet's voice, closer now, pierced through his thoughts suddenly. He turned to look at the lilac haired woman. "She can handle this. We have to go!" said the thief. After a pause and a glance at the ex-actress, Sven nodded, and the two of them began to sprint desperately down the corridor towards the "operation" room, Sven carrying an almost paralysed Eve. Train wasn't dead. He couldn't be...?

Three portals surrounded the white haired man, through each protruded Echidna's gun aimed straight at his head. Subditus swiped the bullets away with the scythe like he was swatting a fly. Reaching through one of the portals he grabbed one of Echidna's arms and twisted, earning a gasp of pain as the gun fell from her grasp. Echidna was pulled through one portal and out the other, and Subditus send her flying across the room. She was about to make impact with the cold, painful ground before she fell into another portal. The portal vanished and instead appeared behind Subditus soundlessly, and Echidna burst through, propelled by the momentum of Subditus throwing her, and she punched him hard in the face, knocking him down and leaving his nose bleeding and broken. He looked unsteady as landed on his hands and flipped over to his feet to prevent the injuries of the fall.

Echidna skidded as she landed on her feet, turning to grab her gun and bringing it up just in time to block the scythe as it was flung towards her. The metal on the instruments of death clashed harshly, creating sparks. Subditus swung the scythe round again, and Echidna rolled out the way just before it smashed into the wall, and covered her eyes as debris flew towards her. The fight continued, almost gracefully as the ex-actress and the madman continued to attack and defend, shoot and deflect, leaving destruction in their wake. Echidna screamed with anguish, but would not allow the tears of pain to run down her face and distort the sight she needed to take her revenge. She pushed herself towards Subditus, forcing him backwards and causing him to stumble slightly, but before the metal of her gun could make contact with his skull, the white haired man turned and hurled himself at her, his scythe raised above him. Echidna fired at his head, and he dodged flawlessly, effortlessly. He failed, however, to notice the second bullet, which hit him in the shin. Eyes widening in surprise at the sudden pain, he just managed to stop himself from falling onto the floor. But his scythe missed Echidna by a long shot. He whipped round to face her, and saw her pointing her gun at him, standing with her clothes torn, and her usually immaculate hair was loose, hanging around her face and covered with sweat and blood.

"Didn't..." Echidna began, breathing heavily and clutching her injured gun arm as blood trickled from her temple, "Didn't you ever learn... that it's a bad idea... to mess with someone who has nothing to lose?"

"I've found it endlessly entertaining." Subditus replied, "But fighting a little bitch like you... It's starting to piss me off!"

Echidna's eyes widened as he seemed almost unaffected by the bullet she had shoot into his leg as he charged towards her. She created a portal and leaped through it just in time, intending to come at him from another direction. But in the murky depths of the portal she felt an arm around her neck. She would have gasped had she been able to breathe. With her free hand scrambling desperately at the arm holding her in a vice like grip, she was pulled from the portal-her refuge- easily. She felt a hand squeeze the nerves in her already injured gun arm, and the weapon dropped from her grasp.

"Now..." Subditus smiled down at her but glared with his cold eyes as she continued to struggle, half way out of the portal. "All want is for us to be able to spend some quality time together..." Subditus began to move his hand up her reddened dress.

"I swear to God... I will kill you." Echidna whispered. Most would have run at the expression she held.

"Kill me?" Subditus whispered in her ear, "For a man who barely even gave you a second glance?"

The gun seemed to fall through the floor and straight into Echidna's hand; a bullet shot through a portal next to Subditus' head; he ducked, screaming in anger at her act of defiance and brought his scythe down. Echidna brought her gun up to defend herself, but froze when her enemy's weapon sliced through the metal like butter. Taking advantage of her surprise, he picked her up by the neck and thrust her into the wall, cracks splintering around her as she let out a gasp of pain, blood coming from her mouth and trickling from the back of her head. Her eyes were dilated from concussion. He kept his grip around her throat as he held her against the wall, her emerald hair partially obscuring her face.

"He used you, just like every human being in this world uses one another for their own goals and needs!" He snarled at her swinging his scythe around to meet her heart. Subditusonly stopped when he felt the cold, sharp metal of a weapon pressing against the back of his skull. Freezing, he noticed the humming and whispering of a portal behind him. His scythe was pointed directly at Echidna's heart, pressing into her skin. It was also pointed directly at his brain, pressing into his scalp. One move forward, and they would both die. Try to move the weapon and he would leave an opening for Echidna. Stalemate. He shuddered with anger.

"W-why are you doing this to me, you ignorant piece of scum! He didn't even love-"

"I know." She interrupted quietly, a smile gracing her red lips as she raised her head. "I know he doesn't love me, you fool. Not the way he loves his conquests, his desire for the world. He doesn't love me the way he loves Train."

"Doesn't? Doesn't?" Said Subditus in a mocking tone, "Didn't, you foolish little girl. Don't you understand? He's dead!"

Echidna gave a bitter laugh. "I admit, at first I believed he did. I thought for a while that I was special, because he always demanded that I was with him. And soon he began to trust me with things, information, jobs, that he never trusted with any of the other apostles. But he only did so because I was useful. I was a means of transport. And he only trusted me with information when he began to realise deep down that he would never be able to trust Train with that information. I suppose I was something like a rebound, although Creed never had his way with Train in the first place.

"But... these past few months... He called out for me when he had bad dreams. He held me sometimes when I had bad dreams. He trusted me with everything. His past, his ambitions, everything. And I felt needed. Just for a little while, I felt needed by someone. Even though that person would never need me the way I needed them. And you know what?" Echidna gave a cold smile, "I really liked being needed. It gave me purpose. It gave me hope. And you've taken that away." Her eyes hardened, "You've taken my purpose away. Just like you have with Train, to Saya- to all of us."

"Idiot girl!" He sneered, "You honestly believe I give a damn about your feelings? Besides, just because I can't kill you with the scythe, doesn't mean you're invincible."

Suddenly, he forced his mouth onto hers, not even minding the suffering he was putting her through as he handled her roughly. He pulled away, gripping her neck tighter, and relishing in the pain he saw on her face.

"Besides... what are you going to do about it?"

The astonishment was unmistakable on his face as Echidna's lipstick smudged lips slowly turned upwards into a smirk.

"The dice... has already been cast!"

As Echidna finished her old cliché line, Subditus suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and nausea. The weight of the scythe was dragging him down and his feet felt too weak to hold him upwards as he tried to remain standing. The weapon clattered onto the floor, putting them both out of danger, and his hand reluctantly slackened from around Echidna's neck and dropped down, but Echidna stayed where she was. Subditus glanced at the smirk on her features, his eyes narrowing.

"Y-you damn... little... bitch..." He gasped, trying desperately to breathe faster but finding it more and more exhausting. "What the fuck did you do to me?" Echidna chuckled.

"Shouldn't you ask the lady's permission before courting her?" She replied looking him in the eye with her own merciless ones.

"Answer... me!" Subditus managed to spit out as he collapsed to his knees, beginning to feel his heart beating slower, fainter and starting to falter. His breaths came in laboured gasps for life.

"If you must know... when you kissed me you were contracting a dose of a type of anthrax. When he was still alive, Doctor experimented with many different forms of poison, and the ways they could be modified and transferred to a living creature..." Her smile widened as Subditus lay sprawled on the ground, his desperate breathing slowing. "I was frustrated with the amount of men who harassed me, so I asked him to create a fast acting liquefied poison which I could apply to my lips without being affected myself." She continued, "I only intend to use it as a last resort when fighting, but chauvinistic bastards like you only make it all too easy for me to defeat you. Honestly, you throw yourselves on top of me without even thinking about the consequences. It's come in very useful."

"Damn... you... whore!" Subditus grimaced as he felt the strain his body was taking, and the edges of his vision began to darken.

"Can you feel it?" Echidna whispered, "That's your respiratory system collapsing. It's over. You're as good as dead."

This time it was Subditus' turn to laugh.

And with that, he was gone. Echidna's eyes widened in shock as the fallen man was nowhere to be seen.

"W-what?" She stuttered. "H-how- SHOW YOURSELF?!" She screamed out into the corridor which was empty apart from her and the corpse. It was a few moments later that without the adrenaline and anger running through her veins, she felt the total agony of her injuries and the exhaustion the fight had caused her. Finally, she drifted into unconsciousness, her battered body still slumped against the crushed wall.

Oops, left this over a month heheh. Hey, look at it this way, at least it wasn't a year again, right?

Thank you so much to everyone for your reviews favourites, follows, and taking time to read this relatively morbid fanfic :)