Here we are dear readers! The second last chapter! I hoped you've enjoyed the story so far and will enjoy this chapter. Thank you to all readers, reviewers, followers and favouriters, you make my day.

A little spoiler: Have the tissues a ready, the feels are immense!

Chapter 21 - Do or die

Zoey's/Darkness' Pov

War is never nice, it was a lot of other things; corruptible, brutal, monstrous but never nice.

I was powerful, I was unbeatable, and I was going to win.

I was a woman on a mission and I was going to win.

War was a game in which I was the master, the one who pulled the strings of all those who would be the soldiers, I was never a simple, killable pawn. Zoey's mind was so... memorable - I had ran out of words to say about her memorable mind.

That boy - Stark, Zoey's breathless whisper reminded me - kept giving me looks. I wasn't too fond of that. "You alright, Z?" He asked warily.

"What would suggest that I'm not?" I crooned and he knew that I wasn't Zoey straight away, I guess I wasn't that good of an actor, oh well. I was so good at everything else though. I looked in front of me where all of my soldiers stood looking battle worn but ready, viscous, vengeful looks on some of their faces. I liked that new inclination to chaos. That is what I thrived for, chaos, why did you think I was in the minds of both Neferet and Zoey? Anyway, Darkness feeds from chaos, strife, pain. Now, every drop of those delicious emotions were mine.

"Look Zoey, you can beat this, you can see through whatever illusion Darkness is feeding you. You are better than some malicious scum, you can see through its temptations. If anyone can do it, you can." Stark murmured, it was sweet that he cared.

"Don't get too cocky team arrow." It was so fun playing with him. He frowned at that but Neferet (or myself, whatever way you want to put it) was arriving with her merry band of fighters. This should be fun.

They stood metres in front of us, facing us, and they looked so deliciously angry.

"Will you have peace, or war?" I asked, well Zoey wanted peace, I wanted war. War was the only way I could get my share of power, of emotions. Those wonderful things that are called emotions.

"I will have war!" Neferet /I shouted, or how fun this was.

Both sides of the fight were gearing up for battle, Neferet's struck first, a boulder soaring through the air to crash into the House of Night. Zoey's side had ducked and cowered for a moment, their terror tasting so tangy in the air. Their heads came up with shock and horror and anger. Oh, that beautiful, spicy anger. I was going to put all of Zoey's spirit into this to get the best results.

Let the fun commence!

Stark's Pov

War raged all around me. The snicker snack of blades colliding with other blades, the pounding of fists on flesh, the snarls and screams of battling; it all collided into one ball of sound. I hated war. But no soldier ever took kindly to battle.

Darkness was a nasty piece of work. It was getting on my nerves that the woman i loved was being used by the thing. She would beat it though, I was sure of that.

I was quickly distracted by the war raging around me. Zoey had long disappeared amongst the fighting bodies and I found myself worrying for her safety. I attacked those who came at me with no remorse, well my arrows were too busy finding and striking one opponent my fists were finding another. Then came the worrying thought that Zoey's father was somewhere in the battle - what if I killed him? Zoey would be so sad and mad and... A man stopped my thoughts short.

It was - it was -

I recognised his face but it couldn't have been - a student that I had known in the Chicago House of Night. His name was Paul and he was the only adult fledgling to ever come into existence; it was said that Nyx's mark was a blessing since he was on the brink of death before he was marked. Anyway, Paul's head shot up at the mention of his breathless name and he took note of the arrow pointed just above his heart. "You wouldn't kill me James," he said, as he hung his weapon at his side and stood defenceless in the middle of utter chaos.

"It's Stark and you don't know me," I gritted through my teeth, his voice put me on edge. I did not like him at all. Paul had always been a dark horse, back in the day he was always sketchy about his past, he looked for pity but then when he received too much he got angry. He was destructive. Nyx's mark may have saved him from death, but it did not cure the blackness around his heart. Apparently, changing into a red fledgling hadn't changed that either.

"I know that you left Chicago a broken boy, you wouldn't dare even touch an arrow or a bow, and you were scared and lonely. So scared that you deprived yourself from company, you didn't deserve it is what you said all of those years ago." He said and he still stood there, looking as cool as a cucumber.

My arrow did not stray from its position. "Like I said you don't know me,"

"If I know you correctly, then you couldn't handle the guilt that comes with killing because you couldn't before. Your first kill is always memorable."

"Like you've killed before," I scoffed, I was stalling and we both knew it.

"I have. I've killed even before I was marked. I killed a whole family before Nyx saved me," He said the last of his words bitterly. It was the first time I had ever heard him talk about his past. Paul then suddenly looked over my head and that surprised me, you're about to get killed yet you look away?

Suddenly, another red fledgling jumped on my back.

The next moments were of a tussle, my bow and arrow got knocked, I couldn't shoot and I had to rely on my fists and feet to win this fight. All the while I knew that Paul was going to get away.

Once I had dealt with the rogue red fledgling I noticed that Paul was still there.

He had Zoey in his grip.

She was struggling and the shadow was gone from her eyes. Darkness had took a back seat in her mind, thank Nyx. "Don't do this," I say and we can all sense the worry in my voice.

"Do you think I would hurt my own daughter?"

...

For once I was speechless. This was Zoey's father? His name was Paul Montgomery and he had killed his family metaphorically once he left their lives for ever.

"Dad," Zoey whimpered, as Paul held his blade to her throat and the other hand helped restrain her and caress her slightly. This couldn't be happening. "Please," Zoey whispered and her father hushed her.

"Now, James there is one thing that I ask of you, walk away from here, this is not your business, if you do not then Zoey here gets to become headless Zoey," Paul hissed, it was probably a bluff but I couldn't risk it. I turned to go although it pained me to do so. Zoey whimpered behind my back and I looked back, just once. "Oh and I heard that you have undertaken a relationship with my daughter and for that you will be punished dearly," he snarled and before I knew it, he had pointed yet again behind me. I knew what that meant now. Suddenly, I was swarmed by hissing, bloodthirsty red fledglings and I was taken away by the tide of them. I was taken away from Paul and his blade, from Zoey and that may have been the last time I saw her alive.

Zoey's Pov

It was my dad. My dad that held me so close, but not how I wanted to, not with a blade held to my throat. "You left," I bluntly say and it feels that everything has stopped around us and it is just I and my dad, like I had dreamed it would be for so long. But my dreams had turned into nightmares in this one little moment. "You left me and mom and Michelle. You have no idea what hell I have lived in because of you."

"Don't blame it all on me dear Zo-Zo, what Linda did after I left, who she married after me was all on her."

"Because of you she is dead," I whispered. Darkness chuckled in my mind, I had absolutely no recollection of the events after I had agreed to be a host for darkness and this moment but suddenly the sight of my dad had pushed Darkness into the recess' of my mind. Now, I still had the power, still had the thoughts and plans of Darkness but I had my humanity. Having a humanity was the key to winning.

"I had no hand in Linda's death and you know it, you're just looking for someone to blame,"

"You're working for Neferet, for Darkness," I say harshly and it's true, my dad is going to kill me unless I kill him. I don't think I can kill him. Can I put up with being a murderer? A proper murderer, someone who enjoys watching the light fade from somebodies eyes.

"I'm working for the winning side,"

"Enough," I say and twist out of his grip, the blade was lax against my skin and he lets me escape. "Why did you leave? That is all I have wanted to know since that day,"

"I left because it had to be,"

"Don't give me that bulpoopie," I say and my dad chuckles, he had the nerve to chuckle in my face while I was desperate for answers. My hatred stepped in then.

"You're so my girl, you still don't swear because of that damned petition you swore to me,"

Yet he is not answering the question. All I want him to do is to answer the question. "Dignify me with an answer," I spat at him, his face twists at the menace in my voice but then it smoothens as if this is all a petty game.

"I left because I hit your mother, I left because I found out that she had had feelings for somebody else yet repressed them for your and your sister's sake, I left because I no longer cared for your mother as I had when we first met. We were only together for your sakes and I had had enough."

"You could have kept up contact with us, you could have divorced mom and still have contact with us, you didn't have to just leave out of the blue!"

"Do you know the horror of that day, Zo-Zo?" He asks and I shake my head, supressing the awful words that were ready in my head. I suppose Darkness helped with conveying my feelings for my dad. "That day, I left you and I drank myself into a hell so much better than the one I currently lived in." He says all solemn, "That day I was in an accident, I drove my car off a bridge and I remember nearly dying, wanting to die but it was only the tracker that saved my life." He said and I was gobsmacked, my dad was a vampire like me, he went to a House of Night somewhere, he suffered from blood cravings and then he rejected the change and came back as a red fledgling. It was rather tragic. It still didn't excuse what he did.

"You could have kept it secret, you could have still come and seen us, sent us letters, phone us, something."

"I couldn't - I couldn't because you were better off without me."

But he didn't understand it, not yet, and I don't know if he ever would. "I needed a dad though," his face still didn't change.

"Now, I'm here what are you going to do? Are you going to be my daughter properly and join me with Darkness, with Neferet?" He asked, was he serious? Was he actually serious, or was he kidding?

I don't thing he was.

"You have to be kidding me," and he didn't look like he was either. "I've done everything in my power since I've got here to fight Neferet and Darkness and now you want me to join her?"

"You'll be by my side, we will be unbeatable the father and daughter pair."

"Everybody is beatable." I say and it is very much true, everything can be conquered you just have to put a bit more work into those who thought they weren't. Once I didn't say anything more my dad realised what I had been thinking.

"You surely can't defeat me if that's what you're thinking…" He chuckles, "You aren't strong enough," he was full out laughing at me. Something that I had always hated was people laughing at me, laughs taunted me at high school, for being me, so I went out with a popular football jock and in time I fell in love with him for who he is – was. Then I was laughed at for being a vampire, now I was being laughed at for being weak. I was not weak, I was anything but weak.

I was strong.

I could hear Darkness in the back of my mind, taunting me with little tantalizing details. If I listened to it did it mean that I was a monster? Stark had told me that I wasn't a monster.

So if I listened to it…

Suddenly, my father was pinned to the ground by earth, power flowing through my veins as he looked up at me with startled eyes.

I picked up his blade from where it had dropped during his fall.

He realised what I was going to do.

"You can't do this. I'm your father, you're my little girl. You used to draw a million versions of me and you, your mom and your sister on the walls, and I could never have the heart to wash them off because you looked so happy just staring at them. I am your dad and no matter what you do, I will always be your dad." He was so desperate. I didn't like desperation. It didn't taste very pleasant.

"You're not my father when you're dead." I say, I don't even recognise my voice anymore.

I held the blade in my hand, I couldn't even feel the weight of it. I held it above my head.

I swung.

"You really have to learn not to trust a fox," I say.

I said that and the blade sunk into my father's flesh. He choked on his own life blood.

I walked away as my father died.

It had to be done.

Shaunee's Pov

All through the battle, Kalona was always in my sight.

He was a menace all the way throughout showing no mercy to those that he met with an angelic blade, with his fists, with his wings, with himself as a whole. I had gotten used to red fledglings going down from a snapped neck or screaming as their bones were all broken simultaneously. I fought my own fights though. I recognised that built in fight or flight instinct and told it where to go. With fire in my hands I met my opponents with a yell and they went down screaming as they burned.

Now, that seems menacing.

I might be going loopy a little bit.

In the corner of my eye I could also see Erin who worked opposite to my method. She incapacitated her opponents with water, temporally drowning them and leaving them breathless. She didn't kill though. I didn't either.

That moment of distraction was my worst moment.

Pain seared through me, my abdomen on fire with it. I knew instantly what it was. A sword. In my stomach. They pulled it out and moved on, I didn't even see their damn face. I tried desperately to staunch the wound, but my hands touched things that did not belong outside of me. I fought the horror and the panic that overwhelmed me in that moment. I had to get to the others. I had to do something. I had to move. But I couldn't. I didn't even realise that I had fell to the ground. War still raging around me despite the fact that I couldn't hear it.

A feral howl split the air, and the panic slipped out of me with a sigh. Kalona was here. I did not realise that another scream was mixed in with the animalistic one. Kalona was rather like a wolf actually, all impulses and…

If Kalona was here then everyone would be fine. His wrath would be the weapon that would save everybody. With that fact in mind, the pain was a background concern now. I could feel the blood seeping out of me. The liquid slick on my shaking fingers. I was so fascinated with the redness of it, the heat of it and although fire was not in my hands it felt like it was roaring through my veins.

The next thing I knew, Kalona and surprising Erin was by my side.

"No, no, no, no." Erin was murmuring constantly as she replaced her fingers with my own. Kalona was hovering by my side also, waving his hands and muttering words. Trying constantly in all of his angelic might to save me. I wasn't saveable though. I was too far gone. I tried to say that but my mouth wouldn't work. "You're not going to die okay, you are going to be okay, you are going to get through this," Erin is crying now and she is trying to put all of my blood back into me if that was even possible.

"Shaunee, Shaunee stay with me, just stay with me for a little while longer," Kalona seemed so much younger and so much more innocent than he was.

Darkness started to creep in on the edges. I'm not talking about the spirit either.

"Shaunee, c'mon you can't die Shaunee." Erin was wailing like a banshee now, I guess that a death was just around the corner huh. "Kalona do something!"

"I'm trying!"

"Well, try harder," Erin was saying and she was now rocking me, whispering assurances in my ear to keep me positive.

I was so not positive.

It was too late for that.

"Shaunee I may be able to do something but you have to hold on okay?" Kalona was saying and then all I knew was just dazzling white light, I refocused and then I saw swirling black lines, almost like thin tattoos, were gracing the skin of Kalona's arms. "I'm taking your pain right now and helping your body to heal itself, just hold on." But then his eyes narrowed, "You're not feeling any pain, why aren't you – "

"Because it doesn't hurt," I croaked, blood staining my chin.

"No, Shaunee no. You've got so much to live for Shaunee, c'mon." Erin was saying.

"Take care of everybody, makes sure we win this. We have to win this. Kalona, never lose hope, keep loving and praying. Erin, I'm sorry, I'm – "

"Shaunee, don't give up. I'm sorry too, you're my twin and you always have been." Erin wailed, her tears ruining her make up but she didn't notice.

"Thank you so much Shaunee for being there, for being blunt and honest with me, for – " Kalona was cut off when I gurgled.

The darkness was closer than ever.

I didn't want to leave yet I didn't want to stay either.

I'm sorry.

You'll always be my twin.

You may be a fallen angel but everyone deserves redemption.

I fell asleep and just as I drifted off I heard two screams joined in horror.

Zoey's Pov

I was ready for anything.

Especially Neferet. When I did face her, I didn't find her, she found me.

"You killed your own father," She said with disgust.

"I killed your minion there's a difference," My voice is hard and I mean every single word. Although it hurt to kill my father I justified it that he was no longer my father since the day he left, since the day he was marked. Now, that was harsh but I was coping – I think.

"You are a monster,"

"If I'm a monster what does that make you?"

With them words said we fired everything we had at each other, four of my elements flaring around me, directed at her and she fired with her streams of darkness.

I would win.

During our fight, I noticed that we were equally matched in the power department, our powers meeting in the middle between us. This was all too cliché I think. What made the different was the voice of Darkness in my mind. Let me take over, let me…

"Do you really want to see all of the people that you love, die? Do you want them to see you like this, at the mercy of Darkness?"

"I thought you were too," I say bluntly knowing that Stark would still accept me if I did this. We both stopped at throwing each other's powers at one another. So, I let it happen, I again felt like I took a backseat in my own mind, it was like watching a television show and watching myself do everything. Neferet's eyes widened. Obviously, she had taken the front seat in her mind right now, darkness was her powers but it was not her. "I've waited so long to do this." I can hear myself say.

"This is a weakness, it will only bring you down in the end. If anyone should know then it is me Zoey, you will die because of Darkness, it will tear you apart because you are not strong enough." Neferet was clinging onto a thin ledge here.

"You wanted the girl to die anyway,"

"I hate you and I want to kill you myself but maybe I will let Darkness do it for me and let it be more of a brutal end,"

"You seem to have forgotten what I am like," I hear myself say and that is when I can feel myself hurl everything I have at Neferet.

It seems to be going okay at first. Four elements whirling around me stronger than they had ever had before, a steady strange of darkness weaved in between and attacked Neferet with everything that had. Than a moment slipped. I was myself again, Darkness had evaded my mind for that moment. The strand disappearing from my attack.

I knew in that split second what I had to do to win.

I hurled spirit, everything single bit of spirit that I had, at Neferet.

I heard her scream as I fell.

Stark's Pov

It was all over.

The red fledglings, well the ones that were left, had all been grouped together. We had won the battle. The body of Zoey's father was found and so was Neferet's.

The bad thing?

Zoey was gone. It was said that she had flung so much spirit at Neferet that her own intentions and the work of Darkness had shattered her own soul. Her eyes were wide and vacant. She looked dead. I was kneeling over her body, I was crying, I had screamed myself hoarse.

Yet, I would not move from her side. No matter what anybody said. Zoey was gone. I couldn't believe it.

I felt the exact moment her soul shattered.

It hurt beyond belief. It was like my heart was gripped by a constant ache, everything hurt, my blood had boiled in my veins, and my limbs seemed on fire.

But nothing compared to my feelings now. Zoey was gone.

She was gone all because of damned prophecy and a damned uprising.

She was just gone.

Okay, there we have it. That chapter was brutal!

References;

"Will you have peace or war?" / "I will have war," - is from the Hobbit.

"...feeds from chaos, strife, pain." and "You really have to learn not to trust a fox." - belongs to Teen Wolf, said by the Nogitsune in season three which I based Darkness off of.

"Don't get too cocky team arrow," - is a loose reference to Team Arrow in Arrow, I suppose Stark is the smarts of Felicity, the strength and experience of Diggle and the bad past and cockiness from Oliver.