"You do remember me, right?"

Eve didn't respond, trying not to move. She felt like one movement would kill her.

"Don't tell me you don't remember me. I'm the whole reason you're here...or, at least, partially."

She tried not to over-think it. Now was not the time.

"At least reply. I'm sure you're not mute."

She turned towards him slowly, keeping her hand near her blade. "Why don't you just kill me?"

"That would be too easy. I could use you in so much better ways, you don't even know," Azazel explained. "Killing you would affect the team greatly, but I could affect it greater. I'm afraid that, no matter how I use you, I would be the only one ending happy."

"I won't make it easy for you," she warned. "This is not where my journey stops."

"And I would agree," Azazel retorted. "But I'm not going to appear for nothing."

"Then what are you going to do?" she questioned angrily, grabbing her blade. "If you're going to do something, do it now."

Azazel flew up and straightened his arms as claws erupted from his fingers. A red fluid rolled off his lip as he answered, "I'll just do whatever this leads to. I'll wait for your first move."

She grasped the dead bird pin from her hair and enclosed it in her hand. "You're too arrogant for your own good."

"I have my reasons," he countered. "You wouldn't know, of course."

She instinctively tossed the pin at him. It hit him lightly and fell to the ground.

He laughed. "What did you think would happen? Magic?"

"Yes."

"Don't worry, you'll see some throughout this fight."

She quivered. "We never mentioned that..."

"My vote counts as two," he announced. "So it wouldn't matter anyway."

"You don't know what you're doing," she argued.

"I'm fighting."

He landed on the ground and charged at her claws-first and closed his mouth. She held her razor blade in front of herself as he slashed at her. Azazel's claw got stuck in the middle of the blade and she tugged it away, pulling his claw off and spurting blood. She noticed his mouth was completely full of something, and, as they kept slashing at each other, he opened his mouth and a red laser erupted from it, burning her hands and the blade.

She shook her hands harshly as pain coursed through her, but didn't stop fighting. She threw the blade at him and it went through his chest, and she kicked it all the way through him as more blood spewed out. He flailed in agony, slicing her a few times, and flew up so she couldn't get him, but she had a plan. She ran to her pin and threw it between Azazel and the wall, and it stabbed through his foot and into the wall, making him unable to move. He pulled the pin out of the wall and his foot, and the recoil sent him flying into a chandelier. He came crashing down, and she stepped on his hand and grabbed his injured foot, trying to put as much pressure on both as possible.

Azazel's mouth was full again, so she jumped over him as he shot the laser, accidently burning the chandelier away from the ceiling. She kept a distance from him as it crushed him, making a very loud bang, and then everything was silent.

He must be dead.

He crawled out from under the chandelier, leaving a trail of blood, and collapsed. Without notice, the dead bird pin morphed into a real bird, flying onto Azazel and pecking his head. He stabbed through it with a claw, and as he tossed it across the hall, it transformed back into a pin.

Eve gripped her razor blade and stomped over to Azazel, preparing to finish him off, but he flew away again, and as she threw it, not wanting to give up at that, he dodged it. "It's over. Let's just consider it a tie."

"I would rather kill you. A tie isn't worth it." She punched the ground in anger, forgetting her burn, but the pain went through again and she sighed.

"It's better than a loss, isn't it?" He began to fade away, disappearing in thin air.

She looked at herself and all her cuts and burns and decided to leave it at that, turning to the way she came here.

What a fateful encounter, she thought.

Isaac looked into the hall where Eve found Azazel, wanting to go there just to see if he could end him.

"Isaac, are you still worrying about Azazel? He won't be there this time."

"I know, I know, Maggy. I just can't stop thinking about it."

Eve had came back and told them all about what happened as everyone helped patch her up. They were running out of medical supplies and they wanted to ration it out, but Isaac decided it was fine for them to use it on her. They would find more eventually.

As Eve fought with Azazel, Isaac was cured of the bleeding effects of Belial. Everyone was ready to move out now, but Eve was unsure, suffering from something along the lines of shock. They finally assured her that it was fine to go, but she was still frightened. They told her not to look at herself, because, whenever she did, she would get self-conscious because of how torn up she was.

They moved out, and talking resumed. People had started to get quiet again; although the problem before was that they felt like they had nothing to say, they now felt like they've said everything.

Isaac flipped through the pages of Belial, still sad about Judas's death. I wouldn't want anyone else to die. He landed on the last page and read it over. No matter what, they'll always be with me.

Suddenly, the lights began to dim. "It's not night already, is it?" Cain asked. "It hasn't been that long."

"No, it shouldn't be night," Isaac agreed, putting away Belial. "But unless we want to travel without light, we should stay here anyway."

A glow erupted from the back of the group, and they turned in surprise, but all it was was Lazarus with a torch. "...T-torch," he explained, trying to hand it to the nearest person, Lilith.

She felt around herself, finally grasping the torch, and told Lazarus, "I can't see, remember? Don't rely on me to hold your stuff."

He nodded, and Samson sighed. "She can't see you nod, buddy."

Lazarus looked at the ground as the group progressed.

I'm sorry it's been a while since I last updated the story. I'm still getting back into it. :/

However, this chapter has reached the goal of being over 1000 words as I hoped. Now, I just must make the next chapters over 2000. And the next one will be easy. :3

Thanks for reading. I'm not giving up yet. This story will be finished. :D

- SF