-21-

Destruction & Harmony

Nate ran out the the main area where Adelle was last seen. He made sure he held his gun and ring close to him, they were his only means of getting Elena out of this mess. Her face...that's what kept him going. He may have failed to protect her in the past but he was never going to let that happen again. All of this made clear his feelings for her. He was done hiding, done playing games.

Nate saw Adelle standing next to the statue, still looking at it like it was a deity, his presence not seeming to faze her. "You think you've won don't you Mr. Drake?" she asked in a low, foreboding voice. "Killed all my men, even made some of them turn against me, and still you have the balls to confront me?"

Nate aimed his weapon at Adelle. "I want to put an end to your reign of terror." he told her, walking closer. "You've lost, Adelle."

Adelle just shook her head and laughed to herself. "That's where you're wrong." she said, her eyes glowing a bright red, turning to him. "I don't lose."

Nate felt his body cripple in pain, like the blazing feeling he had before. He let out a painful cry and fell to the ground, his gun clattering beside him. The pain was blinding, like someone was shoving needles throughout his body and set him on fire. He couldn't move, he felt paralyzed.

Adelle walked over to him and knelt beside his writhing body. She held her hand up wearing the black ring. The writing on it glowing red like her eyes. "No one told you did they?" she said in a deeper, more evil voice.

All Nate could do was fight the urge to scream and looked up at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You thought all this ring could do was shapeshift? What good would that do anyone after a year, two?" She asked, grabbing his hand tightly and taking the ring he had from it. "No, it grants the one who wears it power, power like your witnessing right now. And this ring," she began, looking at it and smiling, "this ring the key to making me invulnerable. With power and invulnerability, who would be able to stop me!?" she yelled in a maniacal voice.

"Drop the ring!" A familiar voice called out from a distance. And then, out from the darkness came Sully holding his Wes. "I'm serious." he warned her. "You're not invulnerable yet."

Nate squinted through his blurs and smiled when he saw him. "Sully..." he said wealkly.

"Do as the man says!" Another voice called out, and on the other side of the room was Chloe holding a gun as well.

"It appears I'm at a stalemate here." Adelle said, not seeming at all worried that she had two guns on her.

"Chloe, you go check out that room over there, I got this." Sully instructed Chloe as he pulled out another gun from his holster.

As Chloe began to nod in response, Adelle spoke up. "Yes, Ms. Frazer go to your little boyfriend, maybe you two can squeeze in one last fuck." she grinned.

Chloe paused for a moment and lowered her gun. "What?" she said in horror.

"Chloe..." Nate said in a strained voice. "He's all right, just go."

Without hesitation, Chloe ran to see if her man really was all right. She hoped with all her heart that he was.

Adelle sighed and flipped her hair. "You boys are all such trouble." she said, pulling out her Wes and pointing it at Sully.

"Just give me another reason to pull the trigger, Red, because I already have a hundred." Sully warned her.

"You want a reason, okay, I'll give you one." She hissed back, lowering the gun to aim it at Nate. "Throw away your guns or I will kill him right here, not that he's not half dead already." she laughed.

Nate panted to try and catch his breath. "Sully, don't do it. She'll just kill you anyways. Shoot her now!"

Sully looked at Adelle and then to Nate, he let out a hard sigh and dropped his guns to the floor, then kicked them away. "I'm sorry, Nate. I just can't do it."

Adelle looked pleased with herself. She walked over to Sully's two guns and kicked them further away from him, never taking her gun off of Nate. She made her way over to the statue with her two rings in hand. As soon as he had a moment, Sully ran over to Nate.

"You have to keep your eyes open, kid. Keep 'em open, all right?" Sully said, gently smacking his cheeks.

Over at the statue, Adelle took her two powerful rings and slid each one slowly onto the left and then right hand of Sir Francis Drake. "Now..." she said in an evil voice. "The time has finally come for me to have everlasting power!"

Once the two rings were on the statue, it began to illuminate in a bright light. The light went from the statue over to Adelle and she began to levitate as she absorbed the power. All Nate and Sully could do at the moment was watch all of this unfold before them.

After a few moments, the light ceased and Adelle returned to the ground. She balled a fist and the bright light crackled around her body like electricity. "Now to try out this power!" she growled, she turned and in one swift motion lept over to Sully and punched him hard. When the punch landed it sent him hurling across the room into a pillar that broke as he connected. The hot knocked him out cold.

"Sully!" Nate cried. He looked over to see Adelle right above him.

"Sully can't save you now, Drake!" she howled, any essence of human emotion long gone, her eyes now glowing the same color as the electricity surges around her. She grabbed Nate by the throat and lifted him from the ground. "You've been a thorn in my side for far too long now and I want nothing more than to watch you die!"

Nate struggled to break free of her grip, his feet kicking about. Choked sounds came from his mouth. It was no use, her strength was like that of the incredible Hulk. Just as he felt his consciousness slip away, he heard five loud gunshots and he was dropped onto the ground. He coughed and fought to get his breath back. He looked over to see who his savior was and saw Elena standing there with a smoking gun.

"Elena?" he said with relief.

"Step away from him, now!" Elena yelled to Adelle. Next to her stood Chole and Vergil, Chloe helping Vergil stand, but he was awake. He held his own gun at Adelle as well.

Adelle laughed at the bullets in her body. She took a deep breath and expelled the bullets all at once like it was nothing. "You think your pathetic bullets can stop me!?" she yelled, lurching at the three of them.

"Elena look out!" Nate screamed as he saw her darting at the woman he loved. He fought with every last bit of strength he had to scramble over to one of Sully's Wes guns he had kicked away before. He took it in his hands and aimed it in front of him—right at the statue of Sir Francis Drake. He fired every last bullet that was in the gun. Soon after the statue began to crumble and break.

The pain overtaking Nate's body was unbearable at this point. He let out a loud scream and crumpled the rest of the way to the ground.

Adelle snapped her head over to the statue in hysterics to see it breaking. "No! What have you done!?" she cried out, running over to the bust. The bright light shone over her and the statue both and the pair of them turned to dust, the two rings clinking to the ground.

Chloe, Vergil and Elena all looked in awe at what had just transpired. "Oh my God, he's done it...he's defeated her..." Chloe said.

Elena looked over to see Nate barely moving on the ground. "Oh God..." she said in worry as she darted over to him.

"We'll check on Victor, c'mon." Chloe said, aiding Vergil over to their friend, who was now moving. They were relieved to know that he was alive. Chloe made sure that Vergil was able to stand on his own for a moment before she extended a hand out to Sully.

"You okay, Old Man?" Vergil asked him with a smile.

"Goddamnit..." Sully grumbled, taking Chloe's hand. "Yeah, but my arm's busted. That bitch had one hell over a right hook." The three of them let out a small laugh, but all at once one thought hit them—Nate.

Elena got on her knees down to Nate and took him into her hands. "Hey, hey, hey!" She called out to him, petting his face. "Look at me, Nate look at me." she said to him, turning his face to her.

Nate's eye blinked a few times and then focused on her. "E-Elena..?" he said, breathing very shakily.

"Yes. I'm right here." She said in a soothing voice.

"You're safe?" He asked weakly.

Elena nodded at him. "Yes, I'm safe. We're all safe now, thanks to you. You did it, Nate. You got rid of Adelle." she told him.

Nate let out a groan and his body shook a little. "I just...wanted to keep you...safe..." he said.

"And you did." she said. She and Nate both knew what was coming.

Nate let out a few labored breaths before he spoke next. "I'm sorry...I didn't keep my...promise."

"Don't say that." Elena said shaking her head, "Please don't say that."

Nate swallowed hard and took Elena's cheek in his hand. "Listen to me, Elena. You're going to be fine. You have your...whole life ahead of you...all right?" he told her firmly.

Elena felt her eyes well with tears. "But I want it with you." she told him in a whimper.

Nate just winced and closed his eyes, as if he was trying to fight back tears of his own. "I'm sorry." He said again. He wanted nothing more than to spend his life with her always, but that wasn't going to happen. Even though he had killed Adelle and triumphed over her, to Elena, it was like she had still won.

Elena felt tears streaming from her eyes. Nate took his thumb and tried to wipe them away but they were coming down too fast. "Don't cry, Elena..." he said weakly. "Please...don't...cry..." As his words ceased, his arm went limp from her face and his eyes closed.

Elena just shook her head hard back and forth. "No..." she said through her tears. "No..."

Sully came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Elena..." he began to say.

Elena just jerked away. "No...don't console me. Don't console me because this isn't real!" she yelled. "Nate, wake up. Wake up!" she said, shaking his body. "You can't do this! Please!"

Sully felt her pain as well. He wanted to cry himself to be honest. But he needed to be strong right now. But the only family he had was gone, his son was gone.

"I'm sorry." Elena told Nate's still body. "I'm sorry I hated you all this time for our wedding. I wish I could take it all back. I don't care about that anymore! I know why you did it! You wanted to protect me! You wanted to protect yourself from feeling how I feel right now!" she cried. "Please, make this feeling go away, Nate!"

A moment later, Elena looked to the ground to see the silver ring she used to have. Nate's Sic Parvis Magna ring. She picked it up and looked at it. "This ring...I kept it for you." she said. "Back in Yemen a couple years ago, before you went into the desert, you came to my loft. I told you to get some sleep, when you did I swapped your ring with a fake. I knew Marlowe was after it, and I knew how much you cared for it. That's why I did it. And I..." she began to say and then began to sob. "I was going to give it back to you on our wedding day." she said in devastation.

Sully, Vergil and Chloe all looked at one another sadly. Chloe felt herself begin to cry as well. Vergil took her in his arms and hugged her. Although he hadn't known Nate long, he was saddened by all of this well.

Sully walked over to Nate and looked down at him. He wanted to say so much but his mouth had no words to speak.

Elena looked down to him and stroked his face. "You ran away before after you told me you loved me. I know why you did." she told him. "You were scared I didn't feel the same way. But I do." she said. She looked back to the ring and slid it on his finger. "I love you, Nate."

After she slid the ring on his hand, it began to illuminate like the other one had, but this ring glowed with a kind, golden light. The light over took Nate's body. His stomach where his gun wound was glowed harsh.

Elena looked at her friends to see if they knew what was going on. He gaze was brought back to Nate once the glowing faded. When she saw him now, his face looked back to normal, healthy again. A beat later, he let out a loud gasp and his eyes shot open, his body shooting to a sit up position.

"Nate?" Elena said in utter awe. She and the others all looking at him. Once it registered in her mind she grabbed him as hard as she could. "You're alive!" she cried in joy. She couldn't believe what was happening.

"Yeah..." Nate said himself in shock. " I guess I am." He looked on his hand to see the ring. "The ring..."

Sully looked at him happily "It revived you, Kid." he said, running over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"But how could something like that happen? Is it witchcraft or something?" Vergil asked. Looking to the others for answers.

Chloe stood there in thought like something had just struck her. " Nostos eirēnē..." she said lowly. "Return harmony home...that ring was the center of harmony and life whereas the other was the center of destruction and death."

"I can't believe it...it's a miracle." Elena said, a huge smile coming across her face.

Nate looked into her eyes lovingly. "I love you, Elena." he told her, the look in his eyes serious but loving.

Elena took a deep breath before she answered. "I love you, too, Nate." she said, finally able to tell him. Then the two embraced tightly, then kissed. It really was a miracle, Nate was brought back to life and Adelle was gone for good.

Things were looking up.