29

I Will Follow You into the Dark

A/N: I am so incredibly sorry that it took me this god damn long to update. I meant to have this finished AGES ago but then life happened .. Anyways I hope this chapter is long-ass and epic enough to make up for my horrible lateness, and if you have any questions by the end of this mess feel free to ask and I will be glad to answer them.

This chapter is fondly dedicated to Alex, A.K.A the Blonde, Slightly Nicer Angel, for sticking by my side and always being there for me through thick and thin, like a genuine Gargoyle.

And now, without further ado...

So do I. So do all who come to see such times, but that is not for them to decide; all that we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

-an excerpt from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien

To the sound of a heart beat pounding away

-Re-Education, Rise Against

x.x.x The Scar x.x.x

Four of them stood, spines as straight as they could possibly stand, eyes fixated solely on their Master as she focused on the crystal levitating in front of her. Pale, spidery fingers curled around it, inches from its surface; she narrowed her violet eyes and summoned some of its energy, gleaming stings that flowed outwards to swirl around her palms. She stepped back, cradling the energy between her palms and then turned abruptly and unleashed it, hurling it into Carrion's chest and sending her flying backwards into the stone wall some twenty feet behind her with a shriek. The other three remained motionless as their Master stepped closer, peering around them at the fallen Blitzkrieg.

"Are you dead?" she asked expressionlessly.

Carrion pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the trickle of blood that snaked into her colourless eye. Cyclonis made an irritated noise and turned from the defective Blitzkrieg.

"You understand that would have worked if I had possession of the girl." She said, directing her anger at the three males before her. "Now tell me again why it is that I don't?"

"They had reinforcements, Master." Halo explained, staring at his boots and hating how he was taking the blame when it had clearly been a fault of the other two.

"Ah yes, reinforcements, and how many were there, exactly?"

"Three, Master. And an air ship."

"Three." Cyclonis repeated, turning her back on them and approaching her throne. "You do not have to guess that I am displeased."

Behind them Carrion started snapping her fingers one at a time, joints popping loudly; the sound distracted her from the ever-present ache that pounded in her defective brain. The agony was caused by a large tumour, an overgrowth created by the crystal during the time when the creation process was still based on trial and error. Roughly the size of her own fist, it accounted for most of her ever-present fury. The sound of her cracking fingers made Zodiac's teeth grind together.

"We could launch another assault, Master." Halo suggested after Cyclonis remained silent for a long time. "If we were to attack them now-"

"You are taking into the consideration they haven't already been destroyed by that Storm Cell I created for you, which, if you'll recall, was instructed to detonate if and only if the girl was secured by you!" Cyclonis interrupted him furiously, turning back to him again, a dark aura crackling menacingly around her, her voice taking on that haunting undertone like some unworldly creature were speaking through her. "I should have your head on a pike for your stupidity! You could have ruined everything!"

Halo flinched despite his desperate attempts not to and next to him Dark Angel lowered his head so his bangs could hide his smirk, glad he was not the one facing his Master's wrath.

"Yes but Master I was not the one who detonated the device! It was one of the fools on board the gun ship, they should-"

"He has already been disposed of!" Cyclonis snapped. "Need I remind you that fool was under your command and therefore you are the one responsible for his blunder! And what are you laughing about?" She demanded of Dark Angel. "You seem to be forgetting that if it weren't for your own stupidity during your last assault you would be the one in his position!"

That wiped the smirk of Dark Angel's face and Zodiac wisely held back his snicker; Carrion continued the meticulous popping of her joints.

"As for another attack, that will not be necessary." Cyclonis went on, returning to her throne. "We shall be seeing our dear friends again very soon I can assure you."

Halo and Dark Angel looked at their Master with confusion but Zodiac was no longer able to ignore his irritation.

"Knock that off right now or I'll rid you of your hands altogether!" He snapped at Carrion, who bared her sharpened teeth at him, snapping the joint of her middle finger challengingly. Zodiac lunged at her and the two of them locked their jaws around the other's like a pair of fighting wolves, snarling and shrieking and tearing at any flesh they could reach; Dark Angel watched them with interest, half hoping they'd end up killing one another.

Cyclonis ignored them and answered Halo's questioning expression. "The newcomers you described were none other than the Storm Hawks; it seems they've finally gotten over themselves and have come back to the Atmos' defence at last. Now I happen to know how the Storm Hawks work unfortunately well, and therefore I can promise you that we will have no need to go to them; sometime very soon, they will be coming to us."

"This... doesn't alarm you, Master?" Halo asked uncertainly after a moment and his Master laughed.

"Why on Atmos would it alarm me? I'm quite looking forward to it." She said, a look of vicious excitement crawling over her pallid face. "And you should be grateful for it, Halo; it means you are still useful to me. I want more of my Blitzkrieg fit for battle by nightfall. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Of course, Master." Halo bowed.

"Good. Then go. And take those two with you before they make a mess on my floor."

Halo nodded and turned to leave the room, delivering a sharp kick to Zodiac's ribs in passing, who was now tussling with Carrion on the shiny stone floor. "Stop fucking around and go prepare the new Blitzkrieg!" He ordered and with a growl Zodiac detangled himself from Carrion, grabbed her by her long red hair and dragged her down the corridor, her screeches echoing off the high ceilings.

"I don't recall dismissing you." Cyclonis said coldly as Dark Angel made a move to follow after them. He looked back to her, muscles stiffening uneasily.

Cyclonis left her throne for a second time and approached him. "Let me see." She instructed and Dark Angel unfurled his wings, which had been jammed tight alongside his spine until now. She examined them without looking at his face, tugging on feathers and sending small jolts of pain through his muscles, which she evidently enjoyed.

"Did they perform well?"

Dark Angel nodded, not mentioning that it made his shoulders ache to use them and they made it hard to breath, putting pressure on his rib cage.

"Good." Cyclonis paused with her thin fingers over the small patch where Stork's throwing axe had sliced through; it had healed over perfectly, but the scar tissue didn't allow the feathers to grow back in that place. "Cruel girl." She said mockingly, her voice falsely sweet. "I suppose this will you give you more motivation to capture her in future."

Dark Angel growled, hating to be reminded of another of his failures. "I had her." He seethed "I had her and that god damn-"

Cyclonis silenced him with a glare. "I don't want to hear any of your excuses. You will bring her to me next time or I will have no further use for you, understood?"

Dark Angel nodded, furling his wings once again.

"Good. Then you are dismissed. Go and find some way to make yourself useful." She said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Dark Angel shifted to go then hesitated, looking back to her as she moved back towards the crystal.

"Master?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "What is it?"

"That... girl."

"The one you failed to bring to me?" she asked snidely and he ground his teeth.

"No. The other one."

"The other one?" Cyclonis turned to him slowly and for a second he thought he saw something strange flicker in her hard, dark eyes. "The Faerieshian?"

"Yes."

"What about her?"

"She... there was something... strange about her. I..." he touched the side of his head uncertainly, where the headpiece had sat before she'd snatched it from him.

"She is nothing." Cyclonis reminded him sharply. "Just like the rest of them."

Dark Angel looked at her for a moment longer before turning to leave. "Yes, Master."

But the girl's face did not fade from his mind.

x.x.x Varan x.x.x

Something weird was going on with me.

I kept expecting to start freaking out. I kept myself busy all day trying to avoid what I thought would be the inevitable nervous breakdown; I helped Stork and, uh… well, other Stork add extra armour to the Merlin, hefting sheet metal for them wherever they needed it and after that I retreated to my room to stockpile as many explosives as I could before tomorrow. I didn't even stop to make dinner; I mean nobody wasn't really in the mood to eat anything anyways, and if they did get hungry they just hunted down whatever they could from the fridge. Piper surprised me by stopping by my room and giving me a sandwich when I didn't take a break to eat but I barely touched it before going right back to work. I had to take advantage of as much time as I could, because it took precaution and patience to build these devices and even though I knew we had precious little time there was no way I was going to rush myself. So I was pulling out all stops instead, not stopping to take a break the stretched longer than five minutes, if that.

And that's how I spent the day, working diligently and singeing my fingers time and time again. And the whole time I waited, waited for my limbs to start shaking uncontrollably, for the queasiness in my guts and prickling beneath my scales. It didn't want it to come of course, because there's nothing like working with unstable explosives while being a nervous wreck to stress you out even more; I was sure if there was ever a day that my ulcer was going to surface, it'd be today. But I figured it was coming anyways and I tried to prepare myself for it as best as possible.

But the strange thing was, it never did.

My nerves stayed tied down and silent all day while I wired up bomb after bomb obsessively. My breathing stayed slow and calm, stomach stayed settled and my tail didn't even so much as twitch and to be honest, that in itself was what was starting to freak me out. I mean I never liked my paranoid fits but at least when they were happening I felt like everything was as it should be. I guess I'm a creature of routine that way, even if it's not such a great routine. It was just nagging at me how calm and collected I was managing to stay; it made me think I'd become way too used to this sort of thing and I didn't like that thought at all. As soon as fighting and bloodshed started being so normal to me that it didn't shake me like it used to well… I took that as a bad sign. I never wanted to be used to that sort of thing. I wanted to be able to handle it when I had to of course, but be able to accept it without even a flick of the tail? No way.

I dunno, guess that's the pacifist in me surfacing. I really, really don't like violence. I know sometimes it's going to be inevitable; it was one of those ugly things Wasp had talked about way back when, a shade of grey that just happened sometimes. I would rather have everyone lay down their arms and be at peace then go out and fight them any day of the week, but I wasn't so foolish to believe that would work all the time. When you had people like Cyclonis and her merry band of psychopaths, well, sometimes you just had to fight fire with fire, or we'd all be under Cyclonian reign by now, if we were even still alive. But still, I never wanted violence to become the first line of defence to me, nor become something regular in my life. If this war ever ended, and I happened to survive, I intended to live a very quiet life minding my own business, I'll tell you that much. Heh, maybe I could run my own bakery or something. God the others would love that (they'd be all over me about discounts for friends).

Well, if the others were around after all of this I mean.

I brushed that thought away, not wanting to think about it, and was carefully adjusting a very tiny wire on yet another bomb when someone knocked on my door.

"Come in."

My door whooshed open and Fraggle wandered in, looking a little lost. He waved at me in greeting and sat on my bed, waiting for me to finish up my current explosive before speaking to me. "Hey."

"Hey, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing eh, I thought I'd just come and hang out. You've been holed up in here all day, thought you might like some company, eh."

I gave him a look. "Well not that I don't appreciate the thought or anything, but it's not like I can just shoot the breeze with you when I'm doing this kinda stuff, you know?"

Fraggle wrinkled his snout, evidently deciding not to take the hint, and glanced at the padded crate next to my work table. "So how many you got there, eh?"

I sighed and looked over the sum of my hard day's work. "Well so far I've got two dozen of my Bugs and fourteen Raptures. If I pull an all-nighter I can probably get another seven done, eight or nine if I really push it. And Junko said he'd have some of his made up for us too. "

Fraggle nodded. "Nice eh."

I stared at him for a minute before clearing my throat. "Well that being said I should probably get back to it…"

"…Is an extra one or two really gonna make a difference there, eh?"

I blinked at him while he shuffled uncomfortably and then slid down to my floor, leaning his head back against the edge of my mattress so he wouldn't have to look at me.

"I wanted to talk to you about something there, eh."

"Oh." I felt bad then for being impatient with him. Jeez you know if I were to get all pessimistic (or realistic I suppose is the better term) here I'd realize that this could be the last night on Atmos for the both of us; why should one or two extra bombs matter more than spending what could be the last night with my friends? Suddenly I felt horrible, realizing I'd been in here all day, wasting all the time that I could be using to do some other sorts of important things. I got up and sat beside him, staring at his chin and waiting patiently now, not wanting to press him because he had a brittle undertone in his voice that was very unusual for him.

Fraggle cleared his throat uncertainly and just kept on staring at my ceiling. "Uh, so about tomorrow… look I… I wanted to ask if you could do something for me, eh."

"Yeah, anything." I assured him.

"Great…" He cleared his throat again and continued. "Well it's just… well, you're my buddy Var, you know that, right? Like… well I look at it like Shade and Stork and Angel are all best friends and Wasp… well I dunno so much about her but anyways me and you, like I know you and Shade have known each other since you were real young and everything there, eh, but-"

I held up a hand to cease his rambling. "I know what you're saying. I always kinda looked at you like a best friend too."

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye as if this surprised him. "Really?"

I grinned. "Yeah, of course."

"Oh well… cool. I mean I'm glad and everything, 'cause I always felt that way too, so you know…" he cleared his throat for a third time. "Anyways, I was just… thinking. If something… if something happens to me tomorrow do you think you could…" His voice sort of broke here and he swallowed a few times before continuing. "Could you be the one to go and tell my Mum what happened? And tell her and Starla that I'm sorry I never got my sorry ass around to comin' back for a visit? And… well that I love them?"

I stared at him, feeling an overwhelming sadness tear a long seam all the way over my heart, letting everything come spilling out and in that moment I would have traded it all in for a panic attack. Because this was just so much worse. I watched a single teardrop roll down the fur on the side of his face and sink into my mattress and almost started bawling all over the place. Fuck. Just… Jesus all the times he talked to me about his family back on Nord it never really sank in how much he missed them or occurred to me that we should take some time just to let him go back and see them, even if we had to force him. Because now it was all too late; he could die tomorrow and his mother and sister would never see him ever again.

He glanced at me and tried to suck all his fear and sorrow back in for my sake (as well as a whole bunch of mucus). "Aw look I'm sorry eh, I didn't mean to dump a whole bunch of bad feelings on you or anything."

"No, no it's fine." I said hoarsely, waving a hand as if it weren't a big deal. "But I'm not going to do that for you, okay? 'Cause nothing is going to happen to you tomorrow. You can go back and tell them yourself when this is all over."

Fraggle blew out a long sigh. "Yeah. I don't wanna think that anything will happen. But shit does happen, you know what I mean? So can you just humour me here, eh, and promise me anyways? It'll make me feel better, like I got my bases covered."

The oddity of the whole situation struck me around then. After all usually I'm the one to be straightforward and blunt about things, try not to sugar-coat or lie to myself, even if those lies might help soothe me deep down. I usually look things square in the eye and accept that things may happen, even though I don't want them too. And I really didn't want anything to happen to Fraggle, or any of the others, but I had to face the facts that fuck, something just might anyways. Fraggle already had accepted this and trying to persuade him to think otherwise, for the sake of keeping hopeful, wouldn't make any difference. This is what he needed now and as his friend I had to give it to him.

"Yeah. I'll… if something goes wrong, I'll tell them. I promise." I vowed and he looked relieved, nodding. I guess it was like having his lucky charm in a way; who knew if the damn thing was actually lucky or not, but if it helped keep him calm and reconciled then what did it matter? And so now he had this promise too, and that's all he needed. The fact that I might not be around to deliver the message either didn't seem to cross his mind; he'd just needed this.

"Thanks brother."

To try and lighten things up a bit I let out a dramatic sigh. "I told you not to call me that, remember?" I said in a long-suffering tone, yanking the rim of his toque down. He grinned and shoved me, which caused me to shove him back and of course being bigger than him he fell to his side, laughing and adjusting his toque.

"Welp I suppose I'll let you get back to your work then, eh." He said, getting to his feet and I scratched at my bandages, thinking. My skin wasn't so sore anymore, thanks to the burn salve Stork kept putting on it for me, but then again the burns hadn't been as serious in the first place thanks to my scales. I'd assured Shade of this earlier, telling him over and over that yes I'd be able to look after myself tomorrow and no it didn't hurt to move, etcetera. Jeez and they guy says I worry too much.

"Well you know, on second thought, I was getting kinda lonely. You can stay, if you want." I said as he was about to step out the door.

"Really?" he asked excitedly, and that sort of went to my heart; Fraggle was always most happy and comfortable when he was with other people and I think my company might have been just as good for him as his was for me.

"Yeah, just don't natter away like you have a tendency to do." I said and he swatted at me, falling back onto my bed comfortably and remaining, to my amazement, quiet, after issuing a long, contented sigh, seeming at peace. I went back to work, soothed by his silent presence, which, as it turned out, had been something I'd needed.

I glanced back about an hour later when he made a weird snorting noise and nearly burst out laughing when I realized he'd actually fallen asleep, sprawled out over my bed like it was a Saturday morning and he was simply sleeping in, not the night before the battle that would decide our fates. God I swear that kid could sleep through the Apocalypse if he wanted.

x.x.x Stork x.x.x

The problem with having two mechanics around is that things get done faster. Stork and I had worked all day at re-vamping the armour on both the Merlin and Shade and Varan's skimmers, altering and making new pieces of armour for everyone and assembling various gadgets and gizmos that Stork assured me would probably not get us out of a jam but it was worth a shot for consolation's sake anyways. How's that for optimism eh?

Anyways that had dragged us through the day well enough, eating up all the time and energy I would have spent freaking out about tomorrow. But then we ran out of things to build and repair. I know Stork's all about over-preparation and being paranoid and everything, but I swear even he couldn't think of anything else we could do by the time ten o'clock rolled around. And that was a problem because now here I was with nothing constructive to keep me distracted and as predicted the freaking-out flooded in its place.

Now I know there are some things you can't just run away from, but god damnit I'm a stubborn little thing at heart and I was going to try my best at it anyways. I'd wrangled Wasp into some sparring, which had to stop when both of us started getting a bit too rough, our nerves evidently jumping the gun a little bit. Then I went and enjoyed a nice big bowl of Sky Charms, because cereal's about the only thing I can make for myself without setting anything on fire and I didn't want to go and bother Varan. Plus I really loved those tooth-rotting little marshmallows.

After that I enjoyed that nice big bowl of cereal coming back up and into the toilet and I didn't love the marshmallow pieces so much anymore.

And so then I retreated to the roof, because suddenly being inside made me way too claustrophobic and I needed more space, fresh air. And that's where I still happened to be, staring up at the inky night sky and trying to sum up all my favourite memories and play through them again and again.

I didn't believe Piper. I just couldn't. But I wasn't going to let that stop what had to be done. The crystal had to be destroyed, that part was blaringly obvious. I could very well die if it was, for some reason. I mean it made sense to me, as crazy as everything was; if it created me then I was connected to it. If I was connected to it, well, if it was destroyed I would be too, wouldn't I? I mean this part also seemed blaringly obvious.

I don't know when or where it happened, but at some point it did and the thought of death suddenly stopped scaring me. Well, my own death anyways. I mean it wasn't like I'd accepted the fact that I was indeed going to die; there still was a chance Piper was right and I was wrong (me being me, this was often how things worked out after all). But I'd accepted the fact that it could happen; I'd accepted that there was a good chance I'd die. I'd made my peace with it and the more I thought about it, the more it started to sound okay to me. Well not okay, but I mean… tolerable. I could handle that. Maybe it was because I'd almost died once before, and all the fear and anguish that had gone along with that had already raged in me. I couldn't control what had happened to me last time. This time I was in complete control. And maybe that's why it seemed to sit alright with me. I might die yes, but thousands and thousands would live. It would put an end to all of this, hopefully. It seemed like a small price to pay if you asked me (god damnit did I just make a short joke at my own expense?).

The only thing that of course was bugging me was the idea of leaving the others. I'd miss them forever, it would ache in my soul for eternity, wherever I went when I died. I was sorry to be leaving them. But even in that sense, well, they'd already had to deal with my 'death' once, maybe the second time would be easier on them? But still, I felt god damn wretched about it. I took solace in the fact that at least my Dad was back with his friends again, and the others had each other of course as well. It wasn't like I would be leaving them completely alone.

But still, it sucked. For lack of a better word, it all just fucking sucked.

And so that's why I was out here, playing through all the things that we'd all gone through over the years, trying to soak up every golden moment out of every one. God I hoped that if/when I died I'd be able to come back to this plane of existence sometimes and watch more of those moments in the making, have a front row seat to the others growing up and going on more harebrained adventures. If I could do that then things wouldn't be so bad I figured, as long as I'd get to see them sometimes.

"Hey." Falshade's voice broke into my mournful thoughts and I started.

"Oh, hey." I greeted in return. He stretched out beside me wordlessly as if we'd agreed to come out here and hang out or something and I was glad for his company.

"I don't see any of our stars." He noted after a while and I blinked, only just noticing.

"We must be pretty far from where they usually are." I said.

"Well the Atmos moves too you know; maybe they're on the far side right now or something."

"Or maybe you should just shut up and stop being a know-it-all." I huffed and he grinned, ruffling my hair.

"Oh, hey, there's one. Which one is that?" he asked, pointing off into the distance. I squinted at it.

"Isn't that Gladys?"

Falshade snorted like he did every time I said that name. Gladys was the name of an elderly woman who'd lived in the same apartment complex that I had during my time working at Finch's. She liked to wander the halls muttering to herself and once she'd cornered Angel in the stairwell when he came to get me while Shade had been swamped with homework. I don't know exactly what happened, as he refused to tell us, but he never came to my building again alone, so I assume she must have really scared him. Which, naturally, Shade and I found hilarious. Being such a note-worthy character in my rather reclusive life I of course had to name a star after her.

"Jeez we haven't done this for awhile, have we?" Falshade asked randomly and I was sad to note that it was true. Man since when had we stopped hanging out so much?

"Maybe it's 'cause we're getting old." I said and Falshade shuddered.

"Ugh, you think so?"

"Nasty thought, isn't it?" I agreed.

Falshade nodded. "Okay, see that one right there at the end of that row?" He pointed at the star he was talking about and I nodded. "I'm now dubbing it Tiggy."

"Tiggy?"

"Yeah." He said defensively. I giggled and pushed a fist into his ribs.

"That sounds so unbelievably dorky."

"I like it." He sniffed, snubbed.

"Alright fine. Well then I'm naming the one next to it Butterscotch. They can by dork buddies."

"Like us?"

"Exactly." I said with a nod and he laughed, digging his fist into my scalp. We went along for some time like that, thinking up the best dorky names we could, maybe just to prove that we weren't that old, not yet. Hell neither of us might get any older either, when I thought about it… god damnit, why did I never think these thoughts when I was in the middle of a battle? I mean you could die then too. I suppose Wasp was right, it was better to have the spontaneous battles; this build up was killing me. Fuck what if this was the last time I'd ever be able to be my dorky self with Falshade, naming stars and acting like kids, just idling the night away?

I must have started shaking or something because I felt Shade's hand grip my arm gently. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I lied. He knew me way too well for that though and looked at me seriously, his violet eyes glimmering a bit in the moonlight.

"Look I know you're all gung-ho about this whole crystal thing." He said, apropos to nothing. "And I'm not going to argue with you, because I think it's what has to be done too. But I just… worry. So please just… promise me you won't do anything stupid tomorrow, okay?"

I had a few clever little comments to make there but there was a desperate, serious look on his face and I wasn't able to get them out. "Yeah. But you gotta promise me the same thing. Don't do anything overly stupid, okay?"

"Okay." He said with a nod and I held out my hand, determined to get a shake on it to seal the deal. He however had different plans in mind; he stared at my hand for a second then at my face and without warning moved in and pressed his lips to mine softly.

And I'm ashamed to admit it, but it made butterflies go off in my stomach. A warm feeling spread through me from head to toe, and for a second it was like everything was going to be okay.

He broke away pretty quickly though, in case I decided to attack him or something (which if I were in a mile of my right mind at the time I probably would have) and I came back to my senses (fucking hormones man, they'll getcha).

"What was that all about?" I demanded and I saw him roll his eyes, but he was kinda smiling to himself too.

"I guess I'm just getting all my stupidity out now." He said simply and I decided not to smack him.

x.x.x. Falshade x.x.x.

"Okay, so let's just give this a quick run-down one more time so we all have it good and straight." Piper was saying and I had to shake my head for the umpteenth time to force all the intruding thoughts back so I could focus on her.

"Right, go ahead."

"Okay well as you know we're splitting into two teams; Wasp and Stork are coming with us on the Condor and we'll be going down into the Wastelands. We'll leave the Condor here, just at the base of the terra, and make our way into the tunnels here." Piper pointed out the locations on the stained old map she had rolled out on the table, which from the looks of it she had made herself. "If we can't get in there for some reason we'll find some cracks in the exterior and get in that way."

"And what about the Condor? Won't someone notice her down there?" Stork (our Stork) piped up.

"Thought of that already." Other Stork assured her. "We've got a cloaking system rigged up, they could walk right past her and not know it."

"And while we're doing that Falshade, Fraggle and Varan will fly in with the Merlin and 'cause some serious chaos topside." Piper went on and the three of us nodded. "Now if there are guard towers they'll be right in this inner ring here." Piper circled the area on the map, just inside the open space were the clawed mountain tops didn't tear through the cloud layer. "Like we said you should aim to cripple those first, Fraggle, while Falshade and Varan take care of any soldiers on Nightflyers, who will most likely come from here." She pointed to a long precipice that jutted from the fortress she'd sketched on the map. "This is where the main hanger bay is, so if you need to get into the fortress for some reason then head for here. Now when they do come out to see what's going on remember, stay away from each other and move around a lot, with any luck they won't realize right away that it's just the three of you, they'll think Stork and Wasp are somewhere out there too. "

"Gotcha." I said, swallowing. "Anything else?"

Piper let out a long breath. "Not that I can think of. You said the storm cell around the terra blocks radio waves?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Then just before you guys are going to pass through radio us and tell us. After that... give us an hour. That should be all we need."

"And what if we don't hear from you when that hour's up?" Varan asked from his place beside me.

"Then fall back." Piper told us sternly, looking us straight in the eye.

"No way!" Fraggle and I objected at the same time.

"Look if something happens to you we're coming in there to help you!" I insisted, a final tone in my voice and Piper smiled grimly at me, like she was trying to show me she appreciated my loyalty but it was futile to argue here.

"And how do you intend to find us? Even if you got into the lower tunnels, how would you get to us? The place is huge, Falshade, and you'll have no idea where to start looking."

"But-" I started, looking over at Wasp and Stork. I refused to leave any of my friends behind if they were in trouble, that went against Gargoyles rule number one.

"She's right, Falshade. If we don't come back you three should go and try to help the rest of the Atmos." Stork interrupted me softly, her voice gentle but firm. Wasp nodded in agreement. "We might catch up to you, who knows? We might just be running a bit behind schedule, you know?"

I glared at the two of them and, being the kinda girls they were, they glared right back formidably and after a long, agonizing staring contest my resolution broke down as it always tends to do when dealing with my god damn squadron.

"...Fine." I relented. "So then say things do get a bit messed up, where do we meet each other, if we get split up?"

"Where we always are supposed to." Stork said simply. "Vatican. That'll be our emergency rendezvous point." She looked to the Storm Hawks to clear it with them and they nodded as well.

"Vatican it is then. So..." Piper fidgeted. "Well I can't really think of anything else that needs to be said..."

"So then it's go time." I concurred and she nodded. For a moment my legs got extremely weak and my throat got all hot and prickly like I was going to throw up. Thankfully I didn't but I felt very removed from the situation and hyper-aware of everything at the same time and it made my entire body tremble inside. The Storm Hawks glanced at the five of us and as if by some silent signal moved towards the hanger. "We'll see you two on the Condor in a minute then." Piper said, nodding to Wasp and Stork. Then she looked at the three of us and came over and hugged each one of us tightly. "Take care of yourselves." She said in a muted voice, and although she was smiling her eyes were shining on the brink of tears. "I hope we get a chance to see you guys again." She murmured. "I'd like to spend more time with you."

"Yeah, us too." I said, voice hoarse. She blew us a kiss and strode off down to the hanger. Junko followed her after talking quickly to Varan, probably about explosives stuff; he'd left a crate of them by the door for us that he'd made the day before.

Finn turned to Fraggle and I. His eyes gave away his anxiety but there was a determination in there too, and he had an open, honest expression on his face. "You know, it's funny. You both look like the spitting image of your dads." He said, clapping us each on the shoulder in a comradely way. "You're good boys... er, men I guess now huh? I guess I'm just saying I'm glad Stork met you two, and you know... well I bet your dads are really proud of the both of you."

Fraggle coughed awkwardly and turned away slightly, wiping at his nose. I just grinned back as best I could and clapped Finn's shoulder in return. I'd barely known him for two days but I already liked him. You could totally tell he was Stork's father, adopted or not.

"You're a good man too, dude. Stork has one cool dad, I'll tell you that much." I said and he grinned widely, mussing up my hair like he was my uncle or something like that.

"Man, I like you. One hell of a Sky Knight." He said, sticking out his hand. I shook and so did Fraggle and then he saluted us, taking off after the other two, leaving only Stork to stand there awkwardly.

"Uh... look I'm no good at saying real motivational stuff or anything like that, so..." he twitched a bit, shuffled his feet awkwardly and then just sort of waved. "Uh, good luck then, and whatever." He muttered and took off.

I cleared my throat and looked back at the others, my heart beating erratically. Shit I was already sweaty and we hadn't even started this thing yet.

"So... this is it." I said, throat clogged. The others looked like how I felt, skin pale, limbs jumpy, something struggling in their eyes. Their faces were determined and drawn but there was anxiety there too. Not really fear, no, but worry to say the least. I mean none of us knew what to expect; for all we knew this might be the last time we'd all be together. That knowledge showed in each of them, as well as the acceptance of this fact. They looked haggard and nervous, like they were trying to prepare themselves for the worst. But they were standing tall and brave despite all of those unfortunate facts and I thought to myself this, this right here, was the epitome of courage. To stand with gritted teeth and a rushing pulse as their fates bared down on them and still just keep on going anyway, that took guts, that took nerve, and most of all it took heart and fuck did I ever admire each and every one of them.

"You're gonna hate me for it but I wanted to have one of my little pep talk things before we do this." I said and Varan rubbed my shoulder consolingly.

"Yeah we figured." He admitted and my mouth quirked, not sure whether to smile or frown.

"Okay well..." I inhaled deeply and blew it out, long and slow, pushing my fingers through my messy hair. I tried to think of something big and motivational, or at least something meaningful, and came up with nothing, so I decided just to say what I was feeling. "Well I guess I just wanted to say... how important you all are to me. You're more than just my best friends by now you know, you're like my family, the brothers and sisters I never had. And you know... I really sort of wish you guys weren't here. I don't... I don't want anything to happen to any of you. Fuck, I love you guys and..." I cut myself off, sniffing and wiping at my nose, coughing awkwardly. "But you know, at the same time there's no one else I'd rather be with right now then you four. You guys always make me feel strong and hopeful, even when I'm not, and I really think I'm going to need that today. So I'm glad that you're here too, if that makes any sense. I'm glad you're here and I want us all to be back here when this is over too, alright? So please just... don't do anything stupid, alright?"

"Sorry to tell you this Shade, but being stupid is sort of our speciality." Stork reminded me, trying to smile but her eyes were red around the edges too.

I rolled my eyes but I couldn't exactly argue. "Ain't that the truth." I looked at all of them seriously. "Okay well then please don't do anything unusually stupid, okay? Look out for each other and look after yourselves, please. Because you know there's nothing I want more then to grow up and keep living my life with all of you, once this is all over. I can't think of anything that'd be better than that."

"Yeah. I don't think we can either." Varan agreed and I let some of the tears fall loose, I didn't really care about holding them back anymore.

"So that's all I had to say." I concluded, voice raspy. "Anyone else wanna add something?"

"I think you pretty much summed it all up there, Chief." Fraggle said and I issued a long, slow sigh, letting my feelings of doubt and fear out with my breath and strengthening my resolve.

"Alright, then I guess this is it. So let's just remember this: we are the fucking Gargoyles, we don't give in, we don't give up and we are going to run these guys into the fucking ground."

I stuck my hand out in front of me, muscles bunched and back straight, ready to go now that the hard stuff was said and done. Stork and Varan's hands fell on top of mine immediately; Varan had a look of grim determination on his face, his tail staying obediently still for once and Stork had a daring little grin on her face, her green eyes screaming 'bring it.' Fraggle's hand came down too, his mouth split in that wide, crazy-ass smile he was so famous for and Wasp's hand settled on top of his, fire in her offset eyes and her wicked fangs shining past her curved lips. We might have been scared shitless deep down, but this was what everything had lead up to, this is what our destinies had brought us all together for and damnit it if it was the end of us, we were ready to give them hell and go down laughing. And I really wouldn't have it any other way.

I threw my other hand on top for Angel, because I had his blood in me after all and so for a moment it was like we were all together again. And then Stork took the words right outta my mouth: "Okay boys and girls, let's go kick some Cyclonian ass, what say you?"

"BANGERANG!" Came the cry from the rest of us because let's face it, we could act tough and be warriors when we had to, but we would never shake off the fact that under that, we were just a bunch of moronic kids. And that's something I wouldn't have any other way either.


"So just remember you're skimmer's gonna need more juice because of all the extra weight she's carrying." Stork reminded me as she straddled her Hornet.

"Right." I nodded. "Well I guess this is it."

"Yup." She made a disconcerted noise, pushed her bangs from her face and then looked up at me, sticking out a hand. "Well, good luck, Falshade. Take care of yourself now, ya hear?"

I grinned and shook. "Yeah, same to you. Be careful, Stork. Please."

She waved her other hand at me. "I heard you the first bloody time." Then she dropped the difficult routine and looked at me seriously. "Don't you die on me." She whispered and the concern in her eyes really got to me.

"Yeah... again, same to you." I said and something cinched around the corner of her mouth.

"I'll do my best." She assured me and something about her tone suddenly jolted a memory from where it had been tucked back in some dark corner of my mind. It was that dream I'd had after the whole bathtub incident, when that monster had eaten her head. It had been a crystal she'd been holding at the time and she'd told me this was how it had to be...

I stared at her, thinking back on the weird tone she'd used when asking if the crystal's destruction would also mean her own. Had she really believed Piper? Had I? And what was going through her mind about the whole thing? I didn't like the shifty look she had and I was about to try and talk to her when she released my hand and took off without another word, flying off towards the Condor.

I felt panicky then, worried about her. Well I mean even more so now; it really didn't sit well with me that we were splitting up, even though I knew that was the best way of going about things. Logic and emotion don't get along very well, I'll tell you that much.

Glancing about I noticed Wasp rooting though one of Stork's crates of tools for some reason and was suddenly inspired.

"Hey, Wasp?" I asked, tapping her shoulder as she straightened up, pocketing something. She turned to me and smiled.

"I have to go, don't I?" she asked as if she thought maybe that's what I'd come to tell her.

"Yeah, but before you do can I talk to you quick for a second?"

She blinked as if surprised and flicked both ears. "Of course."

"Great. Listen..." I trailed off, taking her in before me and it suddenly really hit me how much closer I'd gotten to be with her over the last couple of weeks. It made me sad to think that I'd only just begun to realize how special and important she was to me, to all of us; she was always there when we needed her, in one way or another, to help with figuring out my dreams and to look out for the rest of us, even after we'd shunned her in the beginning and never really accepted her into the group until very recently. She was a good friend despite all her oddities and in that moment I wanted to tell her how much I appreciated that about her.

"...You know I'm sorry it took me so long to warm up to you, Wasp." I said, switching from my original subject. "You're a really good friend and I'm sorry it took me so long to realize it. I'm really glad you ended up coming along with us, you know. I don't know what we would have done without you sometimes, seriously. And... well I'm just sorry I never got the chance to know you better. I would have liked to. I wish we had more time..."

"I'd like to know you better too, Falshade." She said, smiling at me and god I never realized how pretty she could look when she wasn't running around being a creep. Although by now I found her creepiness sort of charming, I had to admit. "But you know, this isn't over yet. Maybe we could still have the time, some day."

I smiled back. "Yeah, you're right. Anyways I just wanted to tell you all of that... and ask a bit of a favour of you, if that's okay. Actually two favours."

She cocked her head to show she was listening. "Okay."

"Well... you know that day back in those tunnels, when I needed you to find Stork? Well this is sort of like that. I can look after Varan and Fraggle and they can look after me out there, but I can't look out for you two today and it kinda makes me nervous. So can you maybe keep an eye on Stork for me? Just... make sure nothing happens to her. Please?"

Her face softened and she reached out to touch my jaw. "Things happen sometimes that we can't control, Falshade." She reminded me quietly. "But I promise you I'll do everything I can to make sure nothing happens to her."

I swallowed, my gratitude overwhelming me slightly. "Thank you." I said hoarsely.

"No problem." She assured me. "What's the other favour?"

"The other one is look after yourself. Can you do that for me? I really would like to have that time one day, you know."

She cracked a smile. "I can do that. I'm pretty good at not dying, you know."

For some reason I didn't have a hard time believing that.

"Great. Thank you." I said and on an impulse hugged her tightly. She pushed her face into my shoulder and hugged my back for a few moments before moving away.

"And you'll look after yourself too, right?" She asked me and I nodded.

"Yes. I promise." Just then we heard the Condor's horn blare and I motioned to her skimmer. "They're waiting for you, you should go."

Wasp nodded, moved to her skimmer and then ducked back towards me to kiss me on the cheek quickly. "Good luck, Falshade. See you on the other side." She said before hoping onto her skimmer and roaring out of the hanger, dropping right off the edge of the runway before activating her wings.

I felt Varan's hand settle on my shoulder as the bay doors clanged shut, separating the Condor from my view. I glanced up at him and he gave me a sympathetic look.

"They'll be alright." He assured me quietly. "I mean they're with the Storm Hawks, remember?"

I forced a grin onto my face. "Yeah, that's right. Suppose that means we should be a little more worried about ourselves then, huh?"

Varan snorted. "Don't get me started. Last thing I need is for my ulcer to rupture in the middle of battle." He turned and tugged my sleeve a bit to make me follow, heading back up to the bridge where Fraggle was waiting impatiently.

"Well?" he asked, waiting for the go-ahead.

"Let's get going." I said, motioning in the direction we had to go and he gave a jerky little nod; as we passed the Condor I could see Wasp and Stork standing inside the windshield, watching us go. I held my breath for a moment and let it out again, trying to push the thought from my mind that that might be the last time I would ever see the two of them again.

Varan came over to me then and handed me a chain of explosives which I accepted and clipped to my belt, next to a small pouch filled with some spare Striker crystals and Sliver, the blade of my trusted scimitar shining bright at my side. Varan had another chain of explosives slung over his chest and as he stood beside me, staring out the window grimly, my nerves sort of cracked and I had to smother some nervous laughter.

He looked at me, brow raised. "What?"

I grinned. "You look like a commando."

He rolled his eyes and shoved me away, feigning irritation. "I can't fucking win with you guys."

After that the three of us fell into a nasty silence, one that gnawed at the inside of my chest and made me feel twitchy and sick, like I had a really bad flu or something. I hugged my arms tight to my torso, eyes fixed on the horizon where slowly but surely the blot of dark storm clouds that encircled Cyclonia started to rise like a giant, ugly mouth, ready to swallow us up and spit out our bones.

"Don't get too close." I told Fraggle after what felt like a lifetime of watching that thing swell in front of us as we got ever closer. "In case they've got patrols on the outside or something."

Fraggle slowed the Merlin to halt maybe half kilometre from the blotch and turned to look at me again. "So this would be a good time to call them then, eh?"

I swallowed, my throat feeling like it was sealed shut. "Yeah, good a time as any." I agreed hoarsely and picked up the receiver for the radio. "Finn?"

"Yeah dude?" His voice echoed back a moment later, and you could tell he was trying a little bit too hard to keep a light attitude about all of this. Then again I suppose I had to respect that about him.

"We're about to go through the storm cell." My voice sounded like it was echoing in my head, like I was far away from myself. Maybe I was already on my skimmer, sick of all the waiting. I couldn't take anymore waiting; I just wanted to get this over with, whichever way that might end.

"Alright, we're moving in... good luck you guys."

"Same to you." I said and the transmission went dead. I turned to Varan and Fraggle, who were both watching me expectantly.

"Well this is it." I said. "If anybody wanted to say anything, now's the time."

Varan shook his head, looking like his mind too was already on the battle and he just wanted to stop all this hanging around, saying goodbye and confessing to all the things we should have said or done a long time ago.

Fraggle however was never good at just being quiet when something was bothering him. "...I wish Angel were here, eh." He muttered and I felt something in my hardened chest give a little and I rubbed his shoulder a bit.

"Yeah man. Me too." I said, choking on my words slightly. Fraggle cleared his throat, wiped at his nose and then straightened up, arranging his face into an expression of fortitude, eyes fixed on the roiling mass of murky storm clouds.

"Whenever you're ready there, Chief."

I held my breath, closed my eyes and let everything ravage through me for three seconds: fear for the others, fear for myself, all feelings of doubt and hopelessness flooding through my veins and then out my pores, flushing it all out and filling myself with the will and courage I needed to get myself through this, making myself feel strong and brave, ready to take on anything and ready to die if that's what it all came down to. I'd said all I'd wanted to say and this was what I'd been waiting for all my life; all that was left now was to plunge into it and hope for the best.

I opened my eyes again, any feelings of weakness and hesitation gone. "Okay, go." I said, letting out my held breath.

"Aye aye, Captain." Fraggle said and cranked the throttles wide, pulling the three of us past the point of no return at breakneck speed.

We had to be fast here; the element of surprise was really the only advantage we had and we couldn't risk taking the slow, cautious approach; I just hoped to god no mountains would lunge up out of nowhere like last time. I skidded back along the floor as the Merlin hurtled forward and punched through the cloud layer and Varan shot out a hand to catch me by the arm, the claws on his toes digging into the floor to keep himself upright. An eerie silence settled over our ears as the clouds blocked out all sound (we'd shut the proximity alarms off in advance this time, 'cause believe it or not we Gargoyles do learn from our mistakes) and for the half a minute it took for us to tear through the clouds I could feel every one of my heart beats, strangely slow and steady.

Then Varan was tugging on my arm and the two of us raced down to the hanger as the Merlin burst through the inside wall of storm clouds and we were back in the Scar, where everything had started.

Varan and I didn't wait once we heard the Merlin's cannons spewing volleys of energy at the enemy turrets and we roared out of the hanger and onto the runway side by side, prepared for the fight of our lives.

And we were barely off the runway when that fight seized a hold of us.

There was a spray of rapid-fire energy bolts from the nearby gunner's towers, which as Piper had predicted had indeed been rebuilt, a whole circle of jagged pinnacles surrounding the fortress. The Merlin sped past overhead and Varan and I had to split up, going into wild evasive manoeuvres, barrel rolls and quick dives that made me feel like I was on a roller coaster. Everything blurred together I was moving and changing direction so quickly and for a moment I got all disorientated, not sure which way was which. Then I heard a loud crunching sound followed by the rumbling of stone and metal collapsing and turned about to see the dissipating energy from one of Fraggle's volleys that had torn right through one of the nearby outposts. Another few rounds took out another one and I could see several soldiers plummeting down into the clotted cloud cover below as the stone crumpled and dissolved under their very feet.

And to be honest I had a hard time feeling very sorry for them.

I must have been holding still too long because a split second later another barrage of bolts tore over my head, almost grazing my hair and bearing down on me like a stream of dragon fire. I flipped my ride over and dove, circling around out of range when a second line of fire split the air just in front of me and I almost did a complete backwards summersault to avoid it, yanking the nose of my Ultra clear just in time. Two separate gunners had me in their sights and were determined to blast me out of the sky, chasing after me as I zigzagged like a hummingbird on crack, turning on such sharp angles I was nearly pitched from my ride more than once.

Then I was struck with an idea and turned around, heading back towards the turrets, weaving in between the streams of ammunition madly and aiming for the gap between the two turrets, gambling on the stupidity of the two gunmen.

I almost ran out of luck right there; one of them was smarter than I thought and stopped shooting when I came in too close. The other one however was just as much the idiot as I hoped he'd be and kept firing and I leaned hard on my throttles, barely managing to stay two feet in front of his string of charges. He chased after me, turning his Blaster to follow my movements and blasting a series of holes right into the side of his neighbour's turret. I tore through the gap and was able to hear the gunner who had stopped firing swearing a blue streak at his comrade. I slowed, turning about and tearing one of Varan's explosives from my belt, yanking out the pin and hurling it back towards the two towers. It soared into the gap between them that I'd just sped through and exploded, the shockwave tearing apart the tops of both towers and sending both gunners plummeting from their posts.

There was a horrible sound of metal screeching against metal behind me then and I turned to see the Merlin plough into one such pinnacle and tear the top right off, putting a bit of a dent in her hull in the process. Fraggle swung her back around sharply, moving in on the next one, systematically trying to bring them all down and although it was working well enough I couldn't help but feel this was too easy; it occurred to me that while these towers weren't constructed to hold up against much and weren't shielded, the fortress probably would be. And pretty soon no doubt they'd be rolling out with some battle cruisers to take care of the Merlin; this was going to be the longest hour of our lives.

I wheeled about, looking for Varan now that there were less streams of cannon fire bearing down on us. I spotted him not too far away, hurling one of his Raptures onto one of the gunner's platforms. I was about to turn away to take care of some more turrets myself when I noticed one of the soldiers stationed on that platform lunge forward and throw something back towards Varan; his own explosive, ready to blow.

"VARAN GET OUTTA THERE!" I shouted so loudly I tasted blood in the back of my mouth. Varan gunned it, turning tail and trying to get as much distance between himself and his explosive as possible, but his time was up and those Raptures of his had a far range indeed.

At the last second the Merlin screeched between them, the ship taking the brunt of the blast as Varan tried to gain as much altitude as possible. The shockwave rocked our gutsy little bird but no serious damage was done; the Storm Hawks' Stork had fixed our shields properly for us and although they weren't very powerful they held up against the explosion and protected the Merlin from what would have been an extreme battering.

"Thanks for that, Fraggle." Varan's voice said over the radio a few moments later, sounding slightly out of breath.

"Brotherhood of the wing there, eh. I'll take care of that bastard for ya."

"Go right ahead. Shade, you read me?"

"Loud and clear; you okay?" I asked, ducking behind the decimated remains of a turret momentarily so I could talk to him.

"I'm fine. Listen if you're going to use any more explosives hold them for about three seconds before throwing them, alright?"

I wasn't too keen on holding an activated explosive in my hand for any length of time, but I took his advice. "Gotcha... shit, we've got company guys."

I saw Varan turn about and grimace as a hoard of Nightflyers came spilling out from the hanger Piper had shown us like bats leaving their cave for the night. Evidently the alarm had been raised and they were out to squash the annoying flies that were attacking them.

"Yep, here they come. Alright then, remember the plan; let's make some noise, guys." He said, veering off to the far side of the mighty fortress, throwing one of his explosives into the midst of the arriving Nightflyers as he went.

Like Piper had directed I moved away from the outer towers, leaving them for Fraggle to take care of. If we stayed separated, causing as much chaos and destruction as possible, it was to be assumed that they wouldn't notice it was just the three of us right away. What with all the explosions going off, me and Varan darting around every which way and the Merlin blasting at them left right and center, hopefully it would take them awhile to realize that Stork and Wasp weren't with us. And the longer it took for them to realize that, the longer the others would remain undetected in the lower tunnels. We weren't really aiming for a victory with these guys out here; we just wanted to cause as much damage as humanly possible and keep them good and distracted. And keep from getting killed in the process.

When I thought about it like that it didn't seem as overly important as it really was and I felt a little depressed. Or maybe that's just because I wished the others were out here with us (we're always better at wreaking havoc as a collective force after all).

I pushed that thought from my mind and focused on what was at hand, which happened to be a fleet of soldiers on Nightflyers pouring towards me. I leaned hard on my throttles, charging forwards to meet them head-on and at the last second took a leaf out of Wasp's book, deactivating my wings and spinning my Ultra about so the broad side smashed into the oncoming skimmers, the extra armour crumpling the front ends of about three Nightflyers all at once. What ensued was sort of a mid-air pile-up, as all the Nightflyers that had been coming in from behind crunched into those who'd already crashed into each other or got their wings shredded trying to veer out of the way. My skimmer plummeted for a few feet before I yanked on the conversion gears and my wings sprang free from the runner boards again, allowing me to roll to the side and avoid all the bits and pieces of busted rides that were dropping down from above. While they were still trying untangle themselves and salvage their rides I soared past the cluster of Nightflyers and hacked at anything that came in close enough, wings and limbs alike. Then I took off, looping around the fortress and getting a good look at how huge it really was. The design of it made me thing of a gigantic black cactus, large spires protruding from the sides of the main structures like vicious branches and wicked looking spikes jutting out from its surface at erratic intervals. It was one nasty looking place alright, projecting the characteristic of its inhabitants perfectly.

Circling around the far side of the stronghold I got the shock of my life when all of a sudden the Merlin came peeling around from the opposite direction and I had to go into a nosedive to avoid getting smushed like a bug on the windshield. The guys who'd been chasing me from behind weren't so lucky though and I heard a few dull thuds as they didn't manage to get out of the way in time. And if that didn't get them, the following barrage of cannon fire surely did.

Pulling up again I felt the air rattle around me as Varan let loose another one of his explosives, sending skimmer parts flying about in all directions. I veered out of the way to avoid some of the shrapnel, pulling in closer to the massive citadel and only just avoiding having my head taken off by a charge hurled at me from behind. I glanced over my shoulder and noticed I was being followed by two guys on Nightflyers and I sped up, circling and twining through the maze of spikes and towers that decorated Cyclonia, ducking under cable bridges that connected some of the outlying towers and terraces that extended from the inner ones. I felt like a bird trying to find my way through a thicket of massive thorns, weaving in and out through any gaps I could find and trying to avoid getting my engines knocked out by the guys behind me.

Ahead of me I could see a long bridge stretching across to one of the spires and more importantly a group of soldiers gathering on it, hurling crystal charges at me like crazy. Glancing up I spotted where the supporting cables attached to the stone wall and fired a charge of my own from Sliver at it before pulling into an almost vertical climb to get out of the way. I heard the cable groan and then abruptly snap, the bridge collapsing almost in slow motion below me. Several of its occupants made a dash back they way they'd come and a couple of them actually made it, but most of them went plummeting down below. The two Nightflyers that had been after me tried to steer clear of the wreckage; one of them passed the falling bridge but smacked right into the tower itself so close were the quarters down there while the other guy was knocked down beneath the falling bridge.

A few seconds too late I noticed one of the other cables strain with the weight of the collapsed bridge and then snap as well, whipping through the air towards me and I pulled up desperately so my wings wouldn't get tangled up but didn't make it quite far enough.

"FUCK!" I howled when the cable connected with my leg like a whip-lash, tearing right through my jeans and into flesh, burning like crazy. Cursing to myself I glanced at my leg to make sure I wasn't bleeding too badly and then took an energy bolt dead on, blasting my ride backwards and almost causing me to tumble from my skimmer. 'Shit what's wrong with you, Falshade, pay attention!' I scolded myself and turned on my attacker, lashing out with Sliver which he blocked with his own blade, turning himself and preparing to send his elbow into my face. I caught his arm and twisted it back before throwing a punch of my own at him, cracking his head to the side. The grip on his blade loosened slightly and I was able to flip Sliver over his blade and slash into his side. He yelped and jerked back from me and now that I had the space I was able to launch a kick into his chest, throwing him over the side of his Nightflyer. Before he could even eject his parachute he collided with the roof of one of the towers below with a thud, followed by the projection of blood from both his mouth and a broken arm.

I quickly checked my leg, noting it was only a shallow wound and so I took off once again, knocking out the engines of a skimmer below me with a well-aimed bolt from Sliver and then noticing a group of Nightflyers all streaming towards the Merlin, armed to the teeth with missiles and explosives. They loosed a barrage of explosions on our little air ship, hammering her from all sides with various bombs and Fraggle retaliated with a string of cannon fire, trying to single out one skimmer from the mob.

I turned my skimmer around and sped over, ducking under one of Fraggle's charges and bowling into the thick of them, hacking and slicing with Sliver. I rammed into one guy so hard he went spinning off to the side only to come to a nasty halt against the Merlin's hull, his skimmer crumpling like a tin can beneath him. The back of my neck prickled and I turned in time to catch the oncoming blade of another soldier. I threw my arm to the side, throwing his blade out wide and then dove in for his exposed torso, Sliver punching clean through his ribs with a sickening crunch. I winced and felt nauseous as blood sprayed into my face and his eyes stretched wide with shock, but I didn't have time to focus on that right now. I yanked Sliver free and slammed my elbow hard into his face, sending him tumbling back off the other end of his ride.

"Thanks there, Shade, I got the rest of 'em, eh! Go do something about those jokers in the hanger, they're going to be rolling out the big guns in a sec!" Fraggle's voice informed me from below my wrist. I looked back towards the hanger bay and noted more soldiers running for their Nightflyers, as well as a troupe of them darting towards a battle cruiser that was docked nearby. Shit that was the last thing we needed...

I turned about and reached for another explosive, clutching it securely between my knees and then pulling out a second one, speeding closer and closer to the hanger bay. I was getting into a good throwing position when I had to spin wildly to the side to avoid a glowing red dagger, which embedded itself in my starboard side wing. I looked up to see a Nightflyer bearing down on me, another dagger cocked and ready in the hand of its pilot, a wicked grin on his face. I fumbled for Sliver but with my hands full of explosives I couldn't grab it fast enough.

Just as he was about to throw Varan came to my rescue; he came out of nowhere, smashing into the side of this guy's skimmer with his own and landing one hell of a punch right in the guys face, which seemed to crumple below the mighty force, nose erupting in a fountain of blood. Varan gave me a look to see if I was okay and I waved my free hand to tell him to get out of the way and he nodded, taking off back into the fray and shaking that pain from his knuckles at his side and I couldn't help but laugh a little.

I pulled to a stop, hovering above the open bay doors, looking down on the dry docks where the engines of that battle cruiser were being fired up. I'll tell you this much, these assholes were not going to get the jump on the Merlin today, not if I could help it.

I pulled one pin free and then the other, hurling one explosive down at that cruiser before they could get its shields up and the other in towards the hanger itself, where rows upon rows of Nightflyers were standing, waiting for their pilots. I watched the Rapture hit the floor, bounce once and then explode, the shock wave sweeping through all those neat lines of skimmers and shredding them in its wake, waves of roiling energy, skimmer parts and soldiers bursting free from the bay doors like projectile vomit. Then the second Rapture went up where it had landed on top of that cruiser, ripping the roof wide open like the lid off a can and blasting into the engines, which also went up in the resulting explosion and the butchered ship keeled and then sank down into the filthy cloud layer below.

I was grinning to myself, feeling satisfied that at least I'd evened the odds a little here and was looking into the now warped bay doors, waiting for the smoke to clear so I could take in the damage toll. And then I felt that grin slide from my face as my insides turned cold and sank down into my toes.

At first he was just a strange shape among all the dissipating smoke and debris. But then he soared free of the hanger doors like a giant raven and his eyes found mine almost immediately, like he was connected to me somehow. He had blood running down from under his hairline and over his cheek, the exact same shade of his smouldering eyes, which narrowed fiercely as they honed in on my face.

Then he was speeding towards me and I barely managed to get Sliver out from its sheath before he thundered into me, sabres catching my blade and forcing it back and I almost went reeling off the back end of my skimmer. Evidently he hadn't worked out how to brake too quickly with his new wings though and he rushed past over top of me, but he turned sharply and came back for another round, slashing at my wings with one sabre and at my throat with the other. Problem was I could only block one blade at a time; at the last second I punched out with my knee and hit my controls, rolling to the side so his sabre only grazed my wing, thwacking him across the leg in passing. I spun my skimmer around, ready for him to come back again, and was shocked to find nothing but clotted sky before me.

"What...?"

I heard his boots against my wings at the last second and ducked as he swung both sabres, one behind the other, in a side swipe that would have decapitated me. I straightened back up a moment later and lashed out with Sliver but he jumped over my attack, landing on my opposite wing and slashing at me again.

I locked blades with his and stood on my seat to try and catch a hold of him with my free hand, fingers clawing for his throat; he moved so quickly I didn't have time to react and that bastard actually bit me, teeth sinking into my hand.

And oh fuck did that ever hurt!

I was mad then and this time he wasn't quick enough to dodge my attack as I delivered a powerful snap kick right to his thin chest, sending him reeling backwards. He came charging right back a moment later though, attempting to hack me in two with his sabres and I blocked his attack with Sliver, throwing a punch that would have got him right between those awful, scarlet eyes if he hadn't dodged it, instead twisting his arm around and trying to punch the hilt of one of his sabres into my chest. I ducked under his arm and slammed into him with my shoulder, nearly sending us both toppling from my skimmer. I forced myself backwards and tumbled onto the seat of my ride, the controls jabbing into my ribs and he actually did slip but managed to catch a hold of my wings and scramble back to his feet, glaring down on me.

I didn't think anything would have gotten through to either of us at that point, but evidently the Merlin's blaring horn was able to do the trick. We both looked around as one in time to see the Merlin on a collision course with my skimmer. I lunged for my controls and yanked on them so hard the gears made a grinding noise in complaint as I went into the messiest barrel roll of my life to avoid getting nailed. Angel leapt free and shot into the air, dark wings unfurling and he kicked out at the windshield in passing, dodging out of the way.

"Oh he did not just get his fucking boot prints on my god damn windshield, eh!" Fraggle seethed over the radio and I saw him turning the Merlin about, firing at Angel, who veered out of the way, sneering.

"Leave him!" I shouted into the radio, blood pounding hard in my own ears. "I'll take care of him!"

Angel turned back towards me then as if he heard me and bared his teeth at me. I did something a little immature for the situation and shot him the finger and he folded his wings, diving towards me like a falcon. I yanked my Ultra out of the way at the last minute and he swooped past me, angling his wings to come back around for another pass while I tried to get a hold of my temper and frantically tried to think of something I could do. It would be all too easy to throw an explosive at him or chop those false wings off him with my scimitar but as furious as I was right then it still registered in the back of my mind that it was Angel who was attacking me and I couldn't bring myself to hurt him, as much as I really wanted to at the moment.

If I could just keep him occupied at least... I mean if he was out here that had to mean they had no idea where Stork and the others were right now, right? I dodged out of the way of him again and he seemed to be getting frustrated, seething to himself as he swung back around yet again. It seemed he wasn't quite used to the idea of working distances with those wings of his and that inspired me and so I turned my skimmer around and took off, ignoring whatever he chose to shout at me. I could see him chasing behind me out of the corner of my eye as I swung back towards the citadel, weaving between the spikes and spires once again. It might have been close quarters in there but I'd been flying a skimmer since I was nine years old, I had faith that I could manoeuvre through pretty much anything. Angel, on the other hand, had been using those fancy wings of his for what, all of three days? He wasn't used to them yet, not by a long shot.

I spun around the side of one tower so closely I could see the grain of the blocks of stone before flipping back around and turning completely sideways to fit in the gap between two other spires. Angel had to veer around them altogether, keeping pace with me from above now, firing pot-shots of energy at me with his sabres. Despite everything else that had been ruined by Cyclonis' influence on him his aim hadn't suffered it turned out and I had to change direction on a dime in order to avoid getting blasted, turning back around the other way and nearly colliding with one of the hanging bridges in the process. I ducked under it instead and sped under another runway projecting from a smaller hanger nearby to avoid any more blasts of energy.

What happened next was something I didn't see coming though.

As I flew out from under the opposite side of the runway Angel folded his wings above me and came plunging down to land directly on my port side wings. My ride dipped wildly to the side and nearly tumbled out of my seat. I lashed out at him and for a split second forgot to watch where I was going.

And that split second was all it took for me to plough right into the side of an outpost.

Well I didn't exactly plough into it; what happened was my wings sort of clipped the outpost, sending both me and my skimmer spinning through the air uncontrollably. My skimmer crashed down against a terrace nearby, skidding along the surface before coming to an abrupt halt when the wings caught against the wall of the tower.

I, however, didn't stop. I was flung free of my ride and pitched right over the edge of the terrace. I dropped about fifteen feet before abruptly slamming into another platform below, Sliver clanging down next to me.

I groaned and rolled onto my back, my head spinning, vision fuzzy. Jesus Christ that hurt... I sucked in a rattling breath, trying to fill my empty lungs and making sure none of my ribs were broken before I became aware of a creaking sound above me. Blinking furiously my skimmer swam into view and I realized it was just teetering on the edge of the balcony above me. Then it tipped, overbalanced and slid free.

I only just managed to roll out of the way before it slammed into the stone where I'd been lying just seconds before, front end crumpling slightly with the impact. Shit I was that close to becoming Falshade jam...

I scooped up Sliver and got to my feet a little clumsily, looking out at the battle that was still going on, oblivious to my absence, hoping to spot Varan and wave him over for assistance. I never got the chance though; I was barely up for half a minute when I felt a pair of boots thundered into my bruised back, sending me toppling right over myself. I went into a roll and spun back around, the wind knocked out of me for a second time and only just managed to get Sliver up in time to block Angel's sabres as they came rushing towards me.

"For fuck sakes, Angel!" I snapped, completely pissed off now. I threw my weight against our locked blades, pushing him back and throwing a punch at him with my free hand. He caught my arm and spun me about, crunching me into the wall behind us and leaning in close.

"Where is she?" He demanded, pushing one of his sabres against my throat and I spat in his face, kicking out with one foot in an attempt to snap his knee. He avoided my kick and rammed his knee incredibly hard into my stomach, making me double over in pain. Then he had a handful of my hair, yanking my head back so hard my neck cracked in compliant and glared into my face.

"Where is she?" he shouted again and it took me a minute to realize he who he was talking about. I blinked at him and then let out a short, hollow laugh, shaking my head.

"What in hell makes you think I'm going to tell you?" I asked him seriously and he made a frustrated noise, throwing me back against the wall and then pointing one of his sabres at my chest so the tip scratched against my chest plate.

"If you know what's good for you, you will." He growled at me and although I knew he meant every word of his threat I snorted and looked at him scornfully like I didn't believe him. I'd learned a lesson or two from him on being annoying over the years.

"Or what? You gonna kill me, Ange?" His sabre stayed right where it was so I let out an exaggerated sigh, looked off to the side as if bored and then back at him again, grinning tauntingly. "You told me I should hide her somewhere. And so that's what I did. I don't even know where she is now."

Rage flickered in his eyes momentarily before a nasty little grin crawled over his hollowed face. "Ah, well that's too bad." He said, not sounding upset at all. "Because that means you're no longer useful to us."

I darted to the side an instant before he threw his weight against his sabre, thrusting forward to meet nothing but stone. He turned on me a second later and I lashed out with a roundhouse kick that connected solidly with his shoulder and on any regular day it should have popped it from the socket. Instead the arm holding his sabre was snapped to the side and I came charging right into the opened space, Sliver diving for his exposed ribs. I didn't know if I was just trying to get his weapons away from him and incapacitate him anymore or if I honestly wanted to hurt him now; all I knew was he wanted to kill me and he'd kill the others too and I was not about to let him.

His elbow came back towards me so fast I had no time to react and Sliver never reached its target anyways; his elbow connected solidly with the bridge of my nose and I staggered backwards, the pain so intense and abrupt it blinded me while blood gushed from my nose and into my mouth. I barely had time to recover when he came charging at me again and I had to suck in my stomach to avoid the edge of his sabre as it slashed past and surely would have carved out my intestines. His other blade was on a direct path for my throat when I whipped Sliver out to block it and slammed a furious snap kick right into his guts, sending him reeling back to fall to his ass on the stone balcony. I didn't even give him a chance to get back up; before he could even get his breath back I was on him, Sliver lashing out for his chest. At the last second he shot his foot up and it connected solidly with my hand, sending Sliver flying off harmlessly to the side. I dove after it, going into a roll and coming back up with my sword back in my hand, which was shocked with pain from that blow. By the time I was on my feet again Angel was back up too, sabres ready at his sides.

For a second we just glared at each other and I was reminded of all the years we'd spent training together, able to laugh off all the bruises and bloody noses. We'd always been evenly matched when it came to melee fighting. I might have been bigger then he was, heavier built and with more muscle mass, making me stronger, more powerful. But he was more agile, quicker and with faster reflexes. I could throw harder punches but he could deliver nastier kicks; I was a dangerous force to be reckoned with wielding my scimitar, but he had two sabres to keep you busy and he was fast with them too. Together we made a formidable team. But against each other, and with that crystal of his poisoning his mind, we were one terrible fight to waiting to happen and it would only end when one of us was down for good.

After another moment he snapped and came charging at me, sabres ready to hack me to bits. I dug in my heels and let him crash into me, catching his blades with mine. I shoved him back and punched Sliver's hilt hard into his temple, splitting his skin and he staggered back slightly before slamming the hilt of one of his own blades into my collar bone in retaliation and I heard a crack. Stunned slightly by the pain I jumped back out of the way as he came at me once again, trying to take advantage of the gap in my defences. Instead I whirled to the side and slammed a kick into his ribs and felt something snap beneath my boot. He skidded and clutched at his side momentarily before breathing in deeply and then bringing his attention back to me, fury etched onto his face. He came back towards me with a rapid succession of slashes and jabs from both sabres and I barely managed to block all of them. He surprised me by ending the barrage and landing his knuckles on my cheek instead and before I even had time to react to the blow he planted a wicked roundhouse right in the center of my chest, sending me tumbling backwards as I tripped over my own feet.

I tried to suck some air back into my aching lungs as he moved towards me, a sneer carved on his face. Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed that dagger, still embedded in the wing of my Ultra, which I'd fallen next to. Faster than I thought possible I had my fingers around the hilt and yanked it free of my skimmer, turning to throw it at him with an accuracy I didn't know I possessed.

The blade dug itself into his shoulder, just below his collar bone and he staggered back, evidently shocked to suddenly find a dagger sticking into his flesh. I blinked, completely stunned by what I'd just done. A trickle of blood spurted free from beneath the blade and a jolt tore through my whole body as I recalled with a nauseous feeling that that same blood flowed in my own veins.

Angel, on the other hand, evidently had his mind on other matters. Teeth clenched tight he grasped the hilt of the dagger and wrenched it free from his shoulder, breathed in and out roughly for a moment and then raised his gaze to me, rage burning in his scarlet eyes. He cocked his arm and as I realized what he was going to do I scrambled backwards desperately, trying to get back to my feet.

It wasn't so much of a piercing feeling more than a sharp thud, like someone had punched me. And then suddenly the hilt of the dagger was standing out from my flesh instead of his, embedded firmly just about my left hip bone. I was so shocked to see it there that the pain didn't even register right away. What did register though was the sound of Angel laughing, a harsh, empty sound that didn't sound at all like him and yet at the same time it sort of did. I mean it would be just an Angel thing to do to laugh at me whenever something bad happened to me. But this was just taking it too far.

So I guess around then something broke down and died in me and I didn't give a shit if he was or wasn't Angel, I wanted to strangle him, I wanted to beat him to a bloody pulp. Shit maybe even a small part of me wanted to kill him. I just knew I was sick of him and if he wasn't going to snap out of it then I was going to do whatever it took to end this fight with him and get back to what was important.

I pulled the dagger free in one swift tug and the pain did register for that, but I barely cared. I was up and I could still move and that was all that mattered. Angel shut up when he saw me get to my feet once again and rolled his shoulders, giving me a challenging look. At the same time we lunged at each other, the sound of our blades clashing together ringing in my ears. What he didn't expect though was for me to slash at him with the dagger I'd pulled out of my side, now coated with both our blood. His eyes widened slightly as he dodged back out of the way and I pressed forward with a side-slash from Sliver. He blocked it and chopped at my arm with his free blade, which I blocked with the dagger, twisting his arm to the side. He retaliated by launching a kick at my injured hip, the heel of his boot pounding right into the slice left by the dagger. I smothered a howl of pain and slammed a mother of a punch into his jaw, cracking his head to the side. Blood sprayed from his mouth and he turned back to me with a snarl, slashing at me with both sabres angrily. I deflected both blows but one of his blades came in so close the tip nicked my arm, drawing a line of blood. It went on like that for what seemed like ages, both of us exchanging blows back and forth, attacking any part of the other that was vulnerable. Neither of us was able to score a serious hit though and the longer we kept it up the more wrathful we seemed to get, frustrated and fed up with each other like two predators fighting for dominance. Our blows started to come harder, each slash of a blade aiming for more critical places. We were literally at each other's throats and I could barely even remember who it was I was fighting so furiously against. It didn't seem like Angel anymore; by now he was the enemy and god damnit I just wanted to rip him apart.

At some point he lunged in close to me so I couldn't get Sliver out to slice him, slamming me up against the wall once more. Evidently he must have finally gotten sick of me and just wanted me out of his face, because he threw his sabre to the side altogether and his hand closed around my throat with a frighteningly strong grip. I choked, my windpipe closing off and I could feel his fingers digging into my neck, his muscles fuelled by that god damn crystal. I struggled against him but Sliver was stuck between us and hard as I tried to shove him back I couldn't get him to move. He had me pinned and he wasn't letting go, a maliciousness in his eyes that promised me he wasn't go to release me until I died right there under his own hand.

In a move of desperation I did the only thing I could think of and instead of trying to struggle back I lunged forward, smashing my forehead into the bridge of his nose. It was sort of ironic, really; if that crystal hadn't changed him like it had he'd have been too short for me to actually connect with him.

I felt something crack and he made a growling noise, tightening his grip but I'd gotten enough room to do it again, smashing my forehead as hard as possible into the narrow bridge of his nose for a second time, ignoring the pain that reverberated in my own broken nose. He stumbled back a little after that second blow and I threw all of my bodyweight against him, pushing away from the wall and slamming my forehead into his face for a third time. This time I felt his nose shatter under the impact and his fingers slipped from my throat. And that was all I needed.

Before he could recover enough I used my fist this time, Sliver's hilt reinforcing my knuckles as I landed one of the hardest punches I'd ever thrown into his already busted nose. He staggered back, blood flowing down his face as if from a faucet and that's when I hit him for a fifth time. I turned and launched a roundhouse kick at him, directing all my fury and pain right into that kick and my boot landed home, thundering straight into his broken face. He went reeling backwards and fell to the balcony, his head cracking back against the hard stone.

I don't even remember how I got there, but I was beside him in a heartbeat, kicking his other sabre out of his hand and then pressing my boot down hard into his narrow chest to keep him from getting back up. And I had the tip of my scimitar pressed against his throat, just hard enough to make a tiny stream of blood bubble to the surface.

He tilted his chin and looked up at me, his face a bloody mess, and his scarlet eyes found mine. There was a taunting look there like he was daring me to do it. It would only take a second, one hard thrust and he was dead. And it was almost like he was challenging me to do it.

I thought back to the dream I'd had of him back when he'd first gone missing, and what'd he asked of me: 'Can you kill me, Shade? So I don't hurt the others. Or you.'

I'd promised him I would...

But that had been a dream. He hadn't really asked me that... but would he have? If he'd had the chance, before this had happened to him; I knew Angel would never want to hurt any of us, and if it were me, I'd want him to kill me if there was a chance I'd hurt them. But who was I to make decisions for him? Who was I to judge how he would have felt, what he would have wanted?

I stared down at him as he waited for me to make up my mind, seeming prepared to wait there without complaint until I did. Under all the gore and those awful crimson eyes he was still Angel, he still looked like Angel and it brought on a whole slew of memories of the years I'd spent with him, all the time during which I'd both depended on him and had him depend on me, whether I'd known it at the time or not. He drove me crazy and some days I downright hated him and then the next day he'd be cheering me up and trying to be a good friend, as awkward as he was at it. He'd saved my life that day when Zodiac tore me open, him and Varan both, and I at least owed him that. I couldn't just throw all of that out of my mind. I just couldn't.

"...Shit." I muttered, taking my foot off him and stepping away from him. Even if it had really been what he'd wanted me to do and I had promised him to his face, I could never kill him. And I knew deep down that if our positions had been switched he wouldn't have killed me either.

He looked surprised, cocking his head as I turned away from him and threw the dagger off to the side, letting it fall down into the Wastelands. I moved back towards my Ultra, hoping it would still be in good enough shape to fly for a little while at least, even if it was just enough to get me back the Merlin. And I just left him lying there behind me, for reasons that still escape me. I know it was stupid and naive of me, but I thought that maybe if he realized I'd had the chance to kill him and I hadn't, it'd wake him up somehow, make him realize I wasn't the enemy here.

And once again my optimism and faith utterly failed me.

I didn't hear him coming up behind me; all I felt was his boot slam into the back of my knee and I crumpled. The next thing I knew he had his foot on my chest and his sabre was lying across my neck.

"Why didn't you do it?" he asked, a strange expression on his face.

I sighed, spotting Sliver out of the corner of my eye, lying a good five feet out of reach. Cursing my own stupidity I leaned my head back against the stone and tried to come up with an answer.

"I don't know." I said at last. "I guess despite everything you were still Angel to me. Pretty stupid of me, huh?"

The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. "Yeah, I'd say that was pretty stupid."

I clenched my jaw, refusing to flinch and held his gaze as he shifted, ready to deliver the killing blow.

But it never came.

Abruptly he seemed to freeze, his eyes flicking to the side to focus on something I couldn't see like Wasp's would do from time to time. He raised his free hand to his temple uncertainly, blinking and holding very still as if he were listening to something. Then his face contorted angrily. "But I've-" he immediately fell silent, flinching. With a growl he lowered his hand and glared at me. Without a word he lifted his foot, slammed an enraged kick into my ribs and then flared his wings, leaping from the edge of the platform and vanishing from my view.

Evidently I'd been saved by a call from none other than the Master herself. God I love irony...

I remained frozen for a minute before rolling to my side and letting out the breath I'd been holding, a sob rattling in my chest. I knew I had to get back up and help the others, but for a few minutes I was utterly drained of energy and broken up inside and I just couldn't. I curled up slightly and closed my eyes, wishing this was all just one huge nightmare that I'd be waking from soon. I touched my throat, feeling the thin line that the edge of his sabre had sliced into it and blew out a shaky breath, feeling like my mind was buckling, trying not to comprehend that I'd nearly been killed by my best friend.

"Falshade!" Varan's voice broke through the darkness that had overwhelmed my mind. "Oh god, please don't be dead, don't be dead..."

I rolled over, staring at him blankly as he approached me cautiously, his skimmer parked on the edge of the terrace. "Shade are you alright?"

No. Angel almost killed me, Var. I'm afraid of him, I hate him, and now I know I am going to have to kill him next time, or we're all going to die by his hand.

"I'm fine." I said, getting to my feet. His eyes widened at the sight of my torn and bruised body but I waved a hand to pass it off. I ripped a section of my shirt off and wadded it into a ball, pressing it into the wound above my hipbone and retrieving Sliver. "I dunno if my Ultra's gonna fly though." I added, moving towards my ride.

"What happened? I lost track of you out there..."

"I don't want to talk about it." I muttered, straightening my skimmer and moving it away from the edge of the tower. I kick-started her and held my breath for a moment while the engine spluttered and belched dark smoke into the air. But then it rumbled to life, a little shakily at first but then with a strong, thrumming rhythm and I nodded to myself. My skimmer wasn't finished and neither was I; I had to keep going.

"We shouldn't stay here." I said, straddling my skimmer once more. Varan gave me an uncertain look but made no comment and we both returned to the skies, plunging back into the battle that had been going on this whole time, oblivious to my own crisis and heartbreak.

War's like that I suppose; it's so horrible and destructive that any person's miseries are swallowed whole without the slightest acknowledgement, a speck of dust in a universe of chaos.

x.x.x. Stork x.x.x.

I was wound so tight as the Condor made the descent into the Wastelands that I was convinced I would die before we even got into a fight. My heart was pumping so erratically and so fast I was certain at any second it was just going to have an attack and quit altogether and I'd fall down dead before we even made it to the tunnels.

Finn stayed beside me the whole agonizingly long time as the Wastelands stretched out under us in all their desolate glory, his arm wrapped comfortingly around my shoulders. Man was I ever glad he was there; I knew having my Daddy beside me wouldn't change any of what might happen in the near future, but it still made me feel a childish sense of security anyways. If I didn't have Shade and the others by my side then at least I had my Dad. And the rest of the Storm Hawks of course. That had to count for something I reminded myself; I mean they'd made it through this sort of thing once before, they could do it again.

And I had Wasp, one of the Gargoyles by my side at least. And when you had Wasp on your team, well, lately I'd begun to think that really counted for something too.

Still though, this just felt so wrong; it's not like I had constant fantasies of what our final battles and moments of glory would be like, but when I did have them we were always together, all six of us standing against the rising tide of evil that was bearing down on us, ready to try and crush us (gee aren't I poetic?). This was almost like a bad omen or something.

Finn picked up on my unease, evidently still in tune with my vibes even after a few years without practice. Parenting is just one of those skills you don't lose I suppose. "Okay, I'm thinking the letter M is a good place to start. Lots of good M words. You wanna go first, Flea?"

I glanced up at him, confused for a moment before cracking a smile. I might not have been seven years old anymore but those old tricks could still work on me, and to be honest I was kinda grateful for that. Meant I wasn't getting too old anyways. "Metamorphosis." I said, bringing out the big guns right on the first round.

"Oooh, nice one." Finn wrinkled his brow, thinking. "Uh... mitochondria."

"Maniacal."

"Metaphysics."

"Monstrosity."

"Uh... mocha."

"Dude, fail!" I said, swatting at him playfully. "Too small."

"Yeah but mochas are pretty impressive you know. They combine the power of hot chocolate and coffee into one." Finn argued. Man I hoped he'd get to spend more time with Fraggle, the two of them would have a riot.

On an impulse I hugged him tightly, feeling overwhelmed all of a sudden of how glad I was that he was back in my life. I really wished we had more time right around then; there were so many things about my new life that I wanted to show him. I wanted to show off how well I could fight and fly, wanted him to get to know my friends more and maybe become sort of like an adopted father to them too, since most of them didn't have one of their own. I wanted him to laugh at our dumb-ass antics and look young and happy all the time, like he had a few days ago in the hanger of the Condor, before everything went to hell. Well I mean more so then it already had.

I dunno if I believe in some deity or anything, but by now I really had started to believe that there had to be some larger force at work in the world, a part of all the small things, twining through us all. And I prayed really hard to it right then; I prayed that we'd all get more time to share.

The Condor slowed suddenly and Stork eased her down onto an open stretch of dark rock. Glancing through the windshield I could see the terra on which the mighty fortress of Cyclonia perched spearing up into the bruised sky, a crooked shadow that loomed over us imposingly.

"Ladies and gentlemen we have reached our destination." Stork intoned from the helm, eye twitching at the sight of the hulking mass before us. "Next stop: certain doom."

"Thank you for the enthusiasm, Stork." Piper muttered, wrapping her arms around her slim torso as if chilled.

I swallowed down the fear that was churning in my guts and cleared my throat pointedly. "Well come on, while we're still reasonably young, people. Cyclonia ain't gonna get any less evil."

Wasp leapt to my side loyally and Finn and Junko followed us down to the hanger bay. Piper waited for Stork, who ran his hand over the Condor's steering distractedly before trailing after us, accepting the energy staff Piper handed him. Aside from her own quarterstaff, which she'd equipped with a blade at one end, Piper carried a curved dagger which was strapped to her right thigh securely. Finn had a similar dagger in his belt as well as a bayonet attached to his crossbow, which he'd loaded with crossbolts Junko had made for him the day before, designed to explode upon impact. We weren't taking any chances with these guys and we'd armed ourselves for some serious bloodshed.

I passed my Hornet in the hanger and patted her flank briefly, hoping I'd get the chance to ride her again. I paused just at the top of the Condor's ramp and breathed in deep, trying to absorb some of the strength that was lingering inside her walls after all those years of carrying the Storm Hawks from one battle and into another. 'Aerrow, if Piper and I are right and you really are a part of me, right now would be a great time to lend me some of your bravery. I'd be really grateful for it, 'cause man am I ever gonna need it today...'I thought to myself and then marched down the ramp like it was no big deal. Oh are we about to risk our lives infiltrating Cyclonia and attempting to destroy the Eternity crystal? Psh, yeah, so what? Bring it on, man.

The sulphuric air of the Wastelands hit my nostrils hard and I'm pretty sure I lost more than a few nose hairs. Wasp made a snorting noise next to me and covered her nose, breathing into her sleeve. The Storm Hawks filed out after us and before we continued on our way Stork turned to the Condor and held a small remote out towards her, clicking a button. The Condor flickered and then seemed to disappear, blending into the background like a chameleon. I tilted my head slightly and was able to make out just a faint outline of her pontoons among the stone backdrop.

"Nice." I told Stork who simply shrugged. "Okay so now where are we heading?"

"Down there." Piper said, pointing to three large pipes that projected from the terra like tentacles. The blackness inside them reminded me of empty eye sockets and I had to fight back a shiver. We approached the tunnels warily, looking around in all directions in case there were guards posted nearby. We made it almost to the tunnel mouths without incident when I heard a strange whining noise in the air and looked up to see a large shape hurtling down towards us.

"Look out!" I yelped, grabbing Piper's arm and hauling her back alongside me. Not a moment later a skimmer crashed into the stone where we'd been standing, exploding into hundreds of pieces of projectile shrapnel. Piper pulled me behind a jutting rock to avoid getting nailed and the moment the smoke cleared I sprang forward, hoping like mad it wasn't going to be a skimmer I recognized.

I was relieved to find it was the remains of a Nightflyer out there and not one of my boys' rides. I blew out a shaky sigh and looked back up at the thick cloud layer above us, prepared for more skimmers to come raining down on us.

"Well I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest we all get inside before any of us get crushed like insignificant little beetles." Stork said monotonously, nudging the smoking remains of the skimmer with his toe. "Just a thought."

Piper approached the tunnel mouths carefully and peeked down each one before turning and motioning to Wasp. "You're going to have to lead us from here on out." She told her and Wasp straightened as if to appear more professional, nodding resolutely and sticking her head down each gaping opening in turn, sniffing. She paced between them a few times, nose crinkled thoughtfully, before she finally stopped at the one on the far left and nodded to herself.

"This one." She said, pointing into the dark mouth. "This way to the treasure."

"You're sure?" Stork asked her uncertainly, looking down the tunnel sceptically.

Wasp scratched at her neck casually and flicked her ears nonchalantly, not bothering to give him a proper response. I had more than enough faith in Wasp's nose by now though and boldly stepped into the shadowy entrance, touching the smooth metal wall for guidance.

"It starts with a bit of a slide." Wasp said beside me, her hand on my shoulder. "Here, come on." She led me forward by my hand and then sort of made a hopping motion, vanishing before me as if the darkness had simply swallowed her alive. I gulped a bit, rolled my shoulders and followed suit, jumping forward. For a moment I was in a bit of a free fall before I slammed into the metal below me, shooting down like I was a little kid in one of those tube-slides. I kept my arms in tight in case the tunnel suddenly narrowed or something and then abruptly found myself skidding over flat surface once more and got to my feet, checking to make sure I hadn't lost either of my throwing axes.

"Well that was fun." Wasp said quietly from nearby as I felt someone else come tumbling down next to me.

"Stork?" Finn's voice came from the darkness.

"We're right here." I said, reaching out for him. The others joined us shortly, Stork grumbling to himself about bruised bones or something.

"Where are you guys?" Junko's voice asked, not nearly as quietly as it should have been and sounding rather confused. I heard him moving about and then Piper stifling a yelp.

"Ouch, Junko, that was my foot!"

"Sorry!"

"Keep it down!" Stork snapped at them both.

"Children, please!" I hissed. "It's probably not a good idea to strike a light or anything, so I'm thinking we should make a sort of chain to keep together."

"Right." Piper agreed in a hushed voice. "Wasp you lead the way and let us know if anyone's coming, alright?"

"Okay." Wasp said, sliding her hand into mine. I reached out for Finn's and after a moment of feeling around for him found it and gripped it tight.

"Everybody got somebody?"

"Ugh, we're all sharing each other's germs, you do realize that right?" Stork whined from somewhere behind me and I rolled my eyes.

"I'll take that as a yes. Okay Wasp, lead on."

Wasp didn't hesitate and started pulling me along swiftly, moving with ease through the blackness. I had a hard time keeping up, worried about tripping in the dark, not able to see where to place my feet. A few times I stumbled in dips in the ground and Finn ended up bumping into me, rubbing my back briefly each time in apology. The others kept pace fairly well and for awhile we slipped through the tunnel in near silence, doing pretty well on the stealth part of the operation if you ask me.

That is until Wasp stopped abruptly and created a chain reaction pile up behind her, each of us crashing into the one in front. Junko nearly sent us all flying like bowling pins when he hit us, crushing Stork between himself and Piper. There was suppressed groaning and swearing from all of us as we tried to regain our balance and I glared at where I figured Wasp would be.

"Thanks for the warning there, Wasp."

Wasp was apparently ignoring me, drawing in deep breaths of air. "Hold on a second." She said, releasing my hand and I heard her move forward slightly, sniffing intently. Then she came back, her cool hand wrapping around mine once more. "Okay, I know where I'm going. What were you saying?"

"Never mind." I grumbled. "Next time you're going to stop like that though squeeze my hand so I know, okay?"

"'Kay." She said and then tugged me along once more, leading our little chain deeper and deeper into the heart of Cyclonia. I felt like we were moving steadily upwards once and awhile and I jumped when at one point I stepped down into a shallow stream of freezing water, which ran right into my shoes and chilled me to the bone. Behind me Stork squelched down a disgusted squawk but dutifully trudged on with the rest of us. We sloshed through the little underground stream for a long time and once Piper slipped on the slick surface and fell, dragging Finn down with her. Finally Wasp led us up another pipe that branched off from the drain pipe and for awhile we struggled with something of a steep climb, having to feel out with our feet to find ridges for a foothold and dragging the ones behind us up as best we could. It was a nerve-racking trek that seemed to just go on and on and it made me start to feel slightly hysterical, the darkness pressing in tightly against my skin and making me break out in a cold sweat. Wasp rubbed my arm briefly as if she sensed my discomfort and then abruptly pushed her hand into my chest to halt me, gripping my hand tightly. I sent the squeeze signal back to Finn and froze, holding my breath as I waited to see what had made Wasp stop.

I didn't have to wait long; from further ahead I could hear the sound of boots striking against the metal floor and then there was dim light among the shadows, growing brighter by the second. We waited with baited breath as two Berserker soldiers passed through the tunnel that ran perpendicular to ours. They strode past the mouth of our tunnel and for a second the light from their staffs flowed in, illuminating Wasp's outline. But luck smiled on us for once and they didn't bother to look down the passage, instead carrying on their way. Wasp waited until the sound of their boots faded in the darkness before tugging us forward warily, peeking around the mouth of the tunnel. The soldiers where much further down the passage, only the light of their staffs visible. Wasp motioned for us to follow and took off down the opposite end of the larger tunnel, getting us as far from those Berserkers as possible.

"We shouldn't stay in this tunnel long." Piper whispered from behind Finn. "In case they come back up this way."

"Right, okay." Wasp said, slowing. "Just give me a second." She let go of my hand again, moving off down the tunnel and sniffing intently before returning. "I think there're more of them down here, I'm getting all kinds of scents."

"Do you know which way the crystal is and not towards more soldiers?" I asked uneasily and she blinked at me owlishly.

"Oh yes." She said as if this should have been obvious. "Can't you feel it? It's like a magnet and it's pulling at my inner compass, this way, this way. What's yours doing?"

"I don't have one, I traded it for a cookie." I said and Finn snorted.

"Silly, silly humans." Wasp sighed and led us onward, eventually turning into another tunnel that branched off from our current one. I could feel a cool air current slithering around me and it made me shiver, an eerie feeling creeping up my spine. I could feel us passing gaps in the wall every once and awhile, other tunnels that branched off and led deeper into the bowels of the terra. Jeez how huge was this place? Right around then I was really able to feel all the weight of Cyclonia hanging above us and it made my chest seize with claustrophobia; with all these passages burrowing into the terra's structure how stable could it really be? What would it take to bring the whole place crashing down around us, crushing our bones and organs? I was suddenly terrified to even sneeze.

Wasp once again stopped suddenly ahead of me and I walked into her, banging my nose into her solid shoulder blade. Thankfully the others stopped before creating another pile up and I felt Wasp's hand leave mine, her body gone stiff, yellow eye glinting in the dark.

"What is it?" I breathed, my hands twitching towards my throwing axes.

"...He's coming for us." Wasp said in a low, strange voice.

"Who?" I demanded in a whisper. "...Angel?"

"Yes..." Wasp trailed off and then I heard her rummaging about in her pockets. Suddenly a soft yellow light lit up our immediate area and I was able to see her face, all shadows and harsh features. She handed the little Flare crystal to me and then stepped back, hands behind her back and a submissive expression on her face as if she was apologizing, her eyes staring right into mine as if trying to say something. It took me a moment to realize what that something was.

"...Wasp, no." I croaked. "You can't leave me..."

She chewed at her lip, looking more indecisive then I'd ever seen her, but then she shook her head firmly. "Remember when I told you that I think I have a purpose to fulfill? You remember that? I know this is what I have to do. I know it in here." She pushed her fingertips into her chest. "I have to try and save him, Stork."

"But what if you can't?" I demanded, voice gone a little shrill. I couldn't let Wasp leave, she was the only one of the Gargoyles I had with me, I needed her, I needed her to be beside me through this. I thought as long as I had at least one of them with me then things would be okay, but if I didn't have Wasp everything was just going to fall apart.

Wasp shrugged. "I don't know yet."

"What are you two talking about?" Junko asked, looking from Wasp to me and back again with wide eyes.
Wasp looked at the Storm Hawks. "I... I have to try. I have to try and bring Angel back. It's what I have to do. You have to go on without me."

"Wasp, we can't!" Piper said. "You have to lead us to the crystal, we'll never find it without you!"

"You humans, you're not so well equipped, you know..." Wasp said, changing the subject randomly and rummaging in her many jacket pockets once again. "I mean evolution kinda dealt you a bad hand. But what it did give you was the ability to make up for what you lack. You don't need me..." She went on, finding what she was looking for and drawing it out of her pocket, holding it out to me. "You can find it with this."

In her hand was the miniature crystal field detector I'd been working on so long ago, the little needle quivering on the meter. Piper took it carefully and examined the reading before looking at Wasp uncertainly. "If those soldiers have crystals implanted in them won't it pick up on their energy signatures instead?" She asked and Wasp shook her head.

"No. The crystal's overpowering everything else. Their energy fields are too weak to draw it off track." Wasp assured her.

I was having a bit of a panic attack here, shaking from head to toe. I lunged forward and clutched Wasp's arm desperately.

"Wasp you can't leave me!" I rasped, feeling close to tears. "I need you! You said you'd watch my back, you said we'd look out for each other!"

Wasp's face crinkled unhappily and I knew she felt bad for going back on her word. But there was something burning determinedly in her off-set eyes and I knew right then that no amount of begging and kicking and screaming would get her to change her mind.

"I know." She said softly, brushing my cheek soothingly. "I know I did and I'm sorry. But I have to do this. And you don't need me; you are brave and strong and a nasty little force to be reckoned with. You don't need anybody, Stork."

She clutched my chin and made me look into her eyes until I found the courage in myself to believe her. I could look after myself, and it wasn't like I was going to be totally alone either. Wasp had to do this and I had to press on. It was just how things had to be.

I swallowed and nodded resolutely. "You better catch up with us though." I told her fiercely and she cracked her crooked smile.

"Of course." She vowed, stroking my hair.

"Okay." I moved in slightly and wrapped my arms around her briefly. "Bring Angel back." I whispered to her and she patted my back once before pushing me away gently.

"Go, all of you." She said, shooing me along with her hands. She gave the Storm Hawks a steely look before letting them catch up though. "If anything happens to that girl, I'm coming after the rest of you." She promised them, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Take care of her."

"We will." Finn assured her, looking a little edgy. Wasp nodded and then motioned for them to get going, looking up at the tunnel ceiling calculatingly. Piper took my hand and led me along now and I looked back until Wasp vanished from my view, the darkness swallowing her up and leaving her to her fate, alone.

"She'll be alright." Finn comforted me, rubbing my shoulder. "She seems like she can take care of herself."

In any other circumstance I'd believe him without question and put my worry out of mind for the time being. But this wasn't just some random enemy Wasp would be facing, it was Angel, and he didn't even remember who she was. If she couldn't bring him back to himself I didn't know if Wasp would be able go through with it if his death was called for.

Then again out of all of us I knew if anybody would be able to finish him, it'd probably be Wasp.

Piper took up the lead now, waving my little crystal detector around in front of her from time to time to get a bearing. I was too high-strung and tense to feel proud of myself for it, but the thing worked well; it could pick up the crystal's energy through all the metal and stone around us and it never got muddled by the energy signatures of the Berserkers that were roaming about either. Still, it was slow going. Without Wasp as an early warning system we had to take it extra slow, ears straining for the slightest sound and we had to stop and shield the light before passing into any new tunnels. It stretched my nerves to the breaking point that final stretch and even though the presence of the Storm Hawks comforted me, it wasn't the same as having my friends around. Sure there was a certain amount of strength and resolve to be drawn from them, because heck, they were the legendary and indomitable Storm Hawks after all. But it was the Gargoyles that always made me feel secure and hopeful, no matter where I was, and without that backbone of support I felt much less soothed by the Storm Hawks' company then I had about half an hour ago. And now I had to worry about my all of my squad mates too, totally separated from them and unable to tell if they were okay or not. And trust me, the last thing I needed here was that distracting me.

At some point Piper lifted a hand for us to stop and crept forward on her own carefully, leaving us to wait, muscles strung tight. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up at Junko, his face grim yet still soft and encouraging, a reassuring smile slung under the horn on his nose. I straightened up boldly and smiled back, patting his large hand briefly.

Piper turned back towards us and motioned for us to come forward. "I think this is it." She whispered as we caught up to her and we leaned around her to peep around the corner.

The tunnel opened into a giant, dome-shaped cavern. It was almost like a huge air pocket in the terra's interior, a bubble or something in the stone and it stretched wide before us, other tunnels opening into is as well like ventricles all leading to and from the heart.

"Well..." Piper swallowed and glanced at us. "Let's go check it out. But be careful, keep alert, it might be a trap."

"No shit." Finn muttered, his hand resting between my shoulder blades protectively as I followed after Piper, his crossbow cocked and ready. I gripped the handle on my battle axe tightly, muscles flexed and ready, teeth gritted determinedly.

We stalked down the last few feet of tunnel and stepped cautiously into the room, eyes darting everywhere, piercing every shadow for signs of movement, expecting an attack to come crashing down on us at any moment. The silence and emptiness of the place unnerved me and at first I was so distracted looking for anyone lurking about that I didn't notice the eerie green glow that bathed the place in soft light right away. When I finally clued into it I looked about for the source and felt my stomach drop away as my eyes fell on the gleaming crystal that stood like a lone star in the dark cavern.

It was massive this thing, I'd never seen a crystal that huge before; it stood about as tall as I did, maybe a little taller, and about three times as wide. It was sitting comfortably on the far side of the cavern, atop a sort of platform that reminded me of the one we'd found higher in the tunnels the first time we infiltrated the Scar. The crystal was perched in a sort of dell on this large pedestal, like a giant egg sitting in the center of an eagle's nest. I felt hypnotized by the sight of it, something stirring like a tiny creature waking up deep in my chest. It was like the crystal's low green light reached into some deep pocket in my head and made itself at home there, back in familiar territory, content and comfortable. I felt drawn to it, like an invisible thread was connecting me too it, reeling me in slowly, filling me with a warm, lulling sensation.

"Is that it?" Junko asked, his voice hushed and timid.

"That's it." Piper breathed, seeming similarly captivated. Crystals were her calling in life after all, this must have been like finding a lost city or something to her. She made a hesitant step forward and Stork grabbed her shoulder, shaking her a bit.

"Piper snap out of it!" he hissed, his eye twitching like mad. "I don't like this, this is way too easy..."

The laughter started from out of nowhere and seemed to come from every direction, closing in tightly around us and sinking into our skin, rattling in our bones, a reverberating, chilling sound. It made me think of a mass of writhing snakes slithering around me, cold scales scratching and clutching me tightly, making it hard to breathe. We all pressed closer instinctively, heads snapping about looking for the source of the uncanny sound, weapons clutched tightly in our hands.

And then there she was, materializing from the darkness as if she were made of the shadows themselves and leering down on us from atop the podium, her thin lips curled into a delighted little grin as her laughter continued to echo around us. She was wearing a weird sort of cloak that fanned out in spindly metallic strips around her head like giant spider's legs. She didn't seem to be very tall or very muscular but she had a dark, threatening aura around her and it made her seem deadly anyways. Cold dread trickled down the length of my spine as I finally beheld the Master herself, the unknown toxin that had lived in my body for sixteen years.

Her laughter began to recede as she spread her thin arms wide, eyes glinting maliciously. "Congratulations, Storm Hawks!" she intoned with wicked cheerfulness, her voice dark and heavy and yet somehow girlish at the same time. "You've found the Heart Chamber! You're a little later than I expected you to be, though. Have the years paid a toll on you?"

The Storm Hawks all shifted into a stance of readiness, muscles taught and ready to unleash their fury. Even Stork looked pretty imposing with that crystal staff in his green hands, something I'd never thought he'd be able to pull off.

"Why don't you come down here and we'll let you find out for yourself!" Piper snarled and I had to admire how fierce she could sound for such a petite little thing.

Cyclonis titled her head back and laughed once more. "Always ready for a fight. How touching that you've clung to your old ways; I was under the impression that the Storm Hawks had given up on all of that."

"And we were under the impression you were dead. Wishful thinking, I guess." Finn said coolly and I felt really proud of him right then, like our roles had been changed.

Cyclonis simply shook her head, smirking, and then her violet eyes honed in on me, piercing right into my head like a laser beam. I felt this horrible exposed feeling rip through me, like she could see everything I was thinking and feeling, like she'd done for so long, peering right into my soul. I felt myself shrink down inside, falter, and then suddenly all unnerve and hesitation was gone in one swift motion, leaving me instead with a boiling rage filling me from head to toe, making my muscles feel stronger, my lungs larger, heart beat steadier. If this girl thought she was going to intimidate me then she had another think coming; I'd been the one she'd relied on and feed off all those years, I was stronger than she was and if I could nurture her then I could destroy her too. She didn't scare me.

"You know Feonix if I would have known you'd come here on your own free will all along I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to try and bring you here." She mused, feigning thoughtfulness. "I wouldn't have even had to do what I had to your dear friend Angel. Funny how things work out isn't it?"

My lips peeled back from my teeth and I arranged my face into the deadliest expression I was capable of, returning her taunting gaze with a scorching glare of my own. "It is funny. Because you're going to pay for that. You're going to pay for all of it and you are going to rue the fucking day you decided to take up residence in me!"

Cyclonis' laughter made the whole room tremble with its pitch. "Oh I am, am I?" She asked. Then her voice became serious, icy cold and with a strange, magnified undertone that shook with a different form of evil all together. "Unfortunately I don't believe you." She said, a hiss lacing her words. "In fact I'm certain you are going to be the one paying for this most unwise decision you have made. But I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself." She straightened, staring down at me with hollow, imposing eyes. "You can quite simply hand yourself over to me on your own free will and allow them to leave with their lives." She waved her hand indifferently at the Storm Hawks and Junko uttered a rumbling growl deep in his throat. "Or you can stay and watch them all be torn to pieces before I catch a hold of you anyways. So what will it be, little Stork?"

"We're not leaving you, Stork." Finn whispered to me firmly, a dogged flame in his crystal blue eyes. The others nodded, their faces set like the warriors they were, ready to fight to the bitter end. I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck to the side, steeled and ready to go. Let's get this fucking party started.

"You know I think I'm going to have to go with secret option number three." I informed her, activating the Striker crystal on my battle axe. "Which is where we beat your scrawny little ass to the ground and make you sorry you ever tried messing with us in the first place."

Cyclonis' mouth quirked as if she thought I was joking. "I see." She said. "Well then without further ado..." she lifted a pale hand into the air and snapped her spidery fingers sharply.

I don't know where they all came from or why we didn't know they were there before, but they came flooding from all directions like a swarm of fire ants closing in on their prey. Hundreds upon hundreds of Berserkers flooding from the surrounding tunnels, howling, snarling and slathering like Hell hounds, surrounding us with a wall of gnashing teeth and twitching muscles. Hundreds of black hole eyes leered at us like hungry rabid beasts as they held back, forming a ring around us and waiting for their Master's command. The Storm Hawks and I made a circle of our own, backs pressed tightly together, weapons activated and clutched tightly in ready hands, our own muscles quivering. This was it, this was what everything had led up to and any fear was tucked tightly away by now; we were more than ready for the fight of our lives. We were gonna embrace it.

In the moment before Cyclonis' voice unleashed her demons on us I felt Piper slide something into my belt, wedging it securely against the small of my back: the Black Hole device. I felt her brush my spine with the tips of her brown fingers and I knew she was sending me a silent message: 'It's all going to be up to you in the end.'

Then Cyclonis' voices sliced through the tension like a knife. "Bring the girl to me. Destroy the others."

In an explosion of released muscles they rushed up on us as one, screeching and clambering over each other in attempt to be the first to sink their teeth into flesh.

"Bring it on motherfuckas!" Finn shouted, lunging forward and blasting a gap into the horde of them with one his crossbolts. "Chicka cha!"

Junko was right behind him, delivering a massive uppercut with his green emblazed fist, sending four Berserkers flying back into the sea of their counterparts with a series of satisfying crunching sounds. By now the violence and gore no longer bothered me; by this point it was us or them and if I had to see somebody's guts spraying all over the place then you bet your ass I wanted it to be theirs. Falshade was right; you got used to it eventually.

I lunged forward now too, sweeping my battle axe out in front of me to keep the pressing horde away from me, slicing through reaching arms and torsos that got too close. A terrible shriek erupted from one sucker who got my axe embedded in his chest, wedged between two ribs. I pulled a face and lashed out with one of my throwing axes as another set of hands came towards me, attempting to seize me while I was distracted. My axe severed a hand right from the wrist and with a sickening wrenching noise I was able to tug my battle axe free to swing it in a backhanded arc, catching another oncoming Berserker in the hip. Piper was at my side suddenly, blasting one soldier with a bolt of energy before swinging her staff around with both hands, the end with the blade slicing through the mass of Berserkers and chopping right through the neck of one. His blood sprayed into her face and she flinched, stepping back and desperately trying to wipe it out of her eyes. While she was distracted another Berserker leapt over the body of his dying comrade and lunged at her abdomen with a sickle. I leapt over to defend her but Stork beat me to the punch; out of nowhere he charged forward and swung his quarterstaff like it was a bat, catching the Berserker in the jaw and snapping his head to the side. There was a definite cracking sound and the Berserker dropped like a ton of lead, dead.

Stork blinked and stared at the staff in his hands like he couldn't believe what he'd just done and if it were any other circumstance I would have laughed. Instead I leapt in front of him, grabbed the fallen Berserker's sickle and jabbed it into the throat of yet another oncoming soldier, landing a kick in his chest for good measure, sending him tumbling backwards into the mass of them.

Piper had straightened back up now, vision cleared. She patted Stork's shoulder briefly in gratitude and then charged forward, beating the shit out of any Berserkers that tried to stumble past any of Finn's charges. Junko was sending them flying like bowling pins left right and centre, but I already noticed that some of the Berserkers he'd punched moments before were back up in front of him, ready for another round. I wasn't too worried about him though; no way were those guys going to get anywhere close enough to him to do him any damage. I stayed near Stork instead, as he'd never done as much hand to hand combat as the others and I was worried he might get overwhelmed. He seemed to be doing alright on his own though, blasting Berserkers back with the Striker crystal equipped in his staff or simply beating them back with it. We stayed within arm's reach of each other, at first just holding our original ground but then moving forward into the screeching mob of them, following the others who were slowly but surely carving a path through the enemy, heading for that pedestal and the crystal. And for a split second there, I thought we had a hope; maybe we could do this, fight our way through and put an end to this once and for all.

But then I caught sight of Cyclonis, standing up on that pedestal and watching the carnage with a psychotic little grin on her thin lips and I remembered what Stork had said about all this being way too easy.

We were only just getting started.

x.x.x Wasp x.x.x

My life so far has stretched through three different periods in time, like the way they sometimes chop up longer books into parts. And the middle part is the messy tale of Macabre, all tangled and sickening like the spilt, shredded innards of some poor animal carcass rotting in the sun.

The story starts before me; it starts with a woman. Not a good woman. Well not a bad person I guess; she made her own choices in life and that's fine I guess, everyone is allowed to do what they wish if you ask me, so long as it doesn't harm other people. And this woman did a lot of those nasty things that get sucked up your nose or pushed forcefully into the blue veins of your arms, those sour chemicals that churn your brain into an altered soup of madness and heightened perception. But the thing is these things cost money, and unfortunately there aren't a lot of professions to get into on Macabre. So this woman offers up her body to different men in order for money and as these things usually happen on that wretched terra, she is impregnated on two separate occasions by two different men. Both are born baby girls and the older one of these girls has soft magenta hair and little pink flecks dotting her sweet little face. Her mother keeps up her toxic habits and as the girl grows older (Macabre has a way of making you age faster than you should) she takes up the job of caring for her sister, whom she loves very dearly and shields as best she can from the filth of the place she must call home. And for eleven years this goes on and she isn't the happiest of children nor the healthiest and the innocence of her young mind has long been absent, but she keeps her slight little chin up and pushes her way through the world she is trapped in anyways, her younger sister bound securely to her side.

But then one day there are too many poisons in her mother's blood and she drops dead in some gutter somewhere, heart seized tight like a rusted gear, oozing sludge from its bloated, corroded veins. Like I mentioned though, these drugs, all those little capsules of toxins and the filmy powders that stick in your pores, they cost money, and this mother-woman, she owed a lot to a particular dealer, who worked under one of the more powerful and frightening gang lords of the fetid Macabre streets. This was Buzzard and his name suited him well because he feed on carrion and the misery of others without a shred of sympathy for their suffering; he was like the flesh puppet of Greed, a sin walking across our plane of existence and leaving a trail of slime and bile in his wake. He got what he wanted one way or another and he wanted his money. The older girl knew the only way girls like her could make money around that terrible place and made this vile monster a deal; she would sell him her soul, hand over the ownership of her own flesh and blood to him and he could use her to gain back the money her mother owed, but she wanted her sister to be taken away from that terra of congealed misery. She wanted her sister, the only sparkling little piece of gold she had in her tragic life, to be spared and sent somewhere where the air was clean and children could grow up without the reek of corruption and disease hanging above their little heads. So Buzzard complied and the sister was sent away, somewhere unknown to the girl and it was promised that if she ever tried to escape from her cruel master that her sister would be killed. So the girl, our poor little heroine of the story, is bound by her love for her sister to a life that will slowly eat away at her insides, making her afraid to look at herself in the mirror less her own self-disgust crush her to death.

This girl of course is my dear Fli and she lived on the end of Buzzard's leash, alongside many others, for seven long and dark years. The only rays of light that managed to trickle in to her rotting core were Rainer and Sketcher, and eventually me as well, friends she could cling to when it all just got to be too much and she couldn't even cry or vomit anymore, the illness in her seeping into her bones. She would always try her best to smile and cared so, so much for me, looking after me in ways she explained teasingly that Rainer couldn't, taking me out to girly places and telling me secretive girly things; Fli even used some of her hard earned money to buy me my boots, my brilliant, big boots. But I could always feel the ache in her and tried my best to soothe it, making her laugh with all my little antics and holding her when she couldn't keep the tears at bay any longer. We kept Fli human the three of us, kept her from tumbling into numbing insanity where she would have walked about as a robot, a shell of a girl with nothing to offer to anyone but her skin and nothing left for herself but her own fears and sorrow. We loved our Fli and as people tend to do when they love someone, we tried to siphon some of her misery from her, taking it into ourselves and filling her with the warm light of our affection instead.

And then there was that night. You probably know about it by now. The night that everything went wrong. The night that I found Fli in the hospital, her back snapped in two and rendering her a gorgeous little rag doll, immobile and helpless. She told me the accident bought her freedom back but I knew that was just her trying to add sugar to her own bitter fate. Fli left Macabre, sent to another terra that was friendlier to her new condition, where people could lend her a helping hand if needed and where life finally would be peaceful for her. Sketcher promised to visit her as often as he could and Rainer and I said we'd write letters, even though I still had trouble spelling words correctly. And that's where Fli should have still been, that's where a new chapter in her life should have begun.

But it instead is where her story ended, as I found out that day in the newspaper I borrowed from Falshade. From what I was able to piece together, Fli's sister had been dead from the beginning of it all, killed by Buzzard's minions shortly after Fli signed herself over to him. There was no safe, happy place for her to grow up. There was no growing up at all. Fli must have found this out after moving from Macabre and in her mind everything that had been done to her, every unwanted touch by all those greasy, slobbering men who'd taken little bits of her soul away with them, all the pain and shame and the surrendering of her own life had been for nothing because as it turns out neither sister was saved, nothing new would grow from the ashes and bones. So Fli killed herself, silently let what was left of her spirit free of her ruined body and float on somewhere that would hopefully be better. And for that I guess I can't really blame her, although it still aches in me, the empty spot in my heart that once belonged to her.

And so that is the end of my beautiful Fli's story. But it is not the end of mine. I go on down a darker road.

I could not just let things go, not like Rainer could. The ignorant selfishness of the people of Macabre, the way they could simply go on their way after tearing into the heart of some other person and not even bat an eye at it, only concerned with their own grotesque needs, it sickened me, as it sickened Rainer. I'd never been in a human society before but I could feel the injustice of Macabre right in my chest, like some deeper instinct in me knew how things should and shouldn't be. I'd always been like that I suppose, even back in the jungle and I think it set me apart from the rest of my tribe. I felt suffering and unfairness in my own body like an illness and it overwhelmed me, always. I didn't understand why nothing was done about it, why nothing came along to right the odds. Maybe I was that way because of my survival, when I should have died back in the jungle but didn't. Something had pushed me back to the world of the living, something had realized I'd been wronged and it had sympathized with me, letting me go back and try again, allowing me to even out the scales. Or that's what I always thought anyways, whenever I needed some sort of delusion to justify myself. Anyways I felt something had to be done, that there was just too much misery clogging up in the streets of Macabre and something should be done about these people who added to this sea of shit.

And when Fli was hurt like that it snapped something in me, anything that argued against this idea of vengeance simply got swallowed up and effectively silenced.

So I killed that disgusting little insect, that parasite of a man; I wanted him to feel everything he'd ever done to other people in his own body, for the pain to scream in his brain in the sound of Fli's voice, to haunt him and make him sick before the final blow. I wanted him to suffer and somehow I couldn't bring myself to feel bad about that. Rainer always said killing people didn't solve anything, it made you as bad as they were, but on that subject I had to disagree with him, and I rarely disagreed with anything that dropped from Rainer's dark lips. But I was not as bad as that snivelling, grease stained sack of shit. Maybe it's my own deluded mind, but I couldn't see how I could be as bad as someone who just spread pain to those who did nothing to deserve it, a contributor to the decay of life, a disease disguised in a bundle of flesh. Of course I spread pain too, but I at least smeared it over those who'd done their share of giving it over the years; I told myself they deserved nothing less. And to this day I still believe it, think of me what you will.

Buzzard plays another role in the story in this next chapter. This man, this pathetic man who had broken our brave little Fli, who had beaten her and poured his soured seed into her weathered body time and time again, was a good customer of Buzzard's, which was the closest to caring about people as Buzzard would ever get, as he only really acknowledged the existence of anyone who made or gave him money. And so he sent some of his cronies to our apartment, looking for me and finding Rainer instead.

And they...

They...

They stole him from me.

They killed him.

They killed Rainer in my place.

I found him like that, sprawled on his bed as if he'd fallen asleep, except the gash torn in his throat told me he wasn't sleeping. Blood had turned the room crimson and it soaked into my skin as I fell next to him, my heart simply imploding, leaving me completely. And it was like something in me denied the inevitable breakdown at first. I had other matters to attend to at the moment so I did the only thing I could think of to do; I moved Rainer's things, his worldly possessions, from that place and then set fire to his apartment, sending him to the afterlife in a wreath of flame.

But not before I cut open his chest and ate his heart.

In hopes that maybe a little of him would live on with me.

Just like in the good ol' days.

My mind doesn't go back over the events that happened after, when I tracked Buzzard down, like an old fairytale knight stalking a gruesome beast back to its lair. I know the memory is there, I know it all happened and exactly how it happened too; I was there after all. But I just can't form it in pictures and sounds in my head. It's a little blip in my memories, a grey patch that has nothing tangible to grasp, just like the memory of the night I went back to my tribe after a long month of healing, gaining my life back slowly bit by bit. I don't think it's that I'm ashamed of it or anything, because I know I'm not. I just think it's something that wasn't meant to be remembered; it happened, it passed and it wasn't worth holding onto. When I really get analytical about it, I realize both points in time were sort of like a turning point, a critical pinnacle of my life, a signal of dramatic change. Maybe each time afterwards my mind sort of reset itself, built itself up for a different life and repaired any damage that had been done, sewing up the rips in my inner fabric, a necessary transition for further survival. And even when I'd thought it was my time, or wanted to die, I didn't, because those instances were never the ending of my story, they were merely the beginning of a new chapter. And, if I got really, really analytical, I would think that maybe, somehow, I was meant for something and that's why I lived when the world around me seemed to crumple and turn to ash. Maybe I was supposed to retain this fragile balance between the good stuff and all the bad shit that got in the way of that, somehow. I don't think I'm like some sort of special being sent from some other dimension or anything; I'm just me and there are things I feel I have to do to make the world a little better, somehow.

See I think I had a dream when I was lying at the bottom of the Crevice and in it I saw two jaguars, one with a coat like the sun and dappled with earthy blotches and the other with a pelt made of the night sky, shimmering here and there with twinkling drops of stars. Artemis and Eris, if you believed in that kind of thing. And they came to me and drew their rough tongues just once over the gaping hole in my abdomen and then they stared at me and for a second it was like the whole universe split wide before me and among all the wriggling forms of life and strings of energy tying everything to each other I saw something like the truth, a small floating orb of gold. And it muttered into my head in a language I didn't understand, a secret little message and then everything went peacefully black. When I woke up I was lying on a pile of bleached bones and there were dark green leaves laying like a membrane over the hole in my stomach. When I peeled them back I found that everything that had been ruptured underneath was sealed shut, nothing was bleeding anymore and in the empty place was a nest of maggots, eating away all the dead flesh and leaving me clean and healed.

That message came back to me days later, and I understood it the second time around. It made sense to me so abruptly it was like perfection, something sliding into a slot that had been waiting to be filled in my head, bridging the separated, confused halves of my brain into one and making everything turn the right way round in my head. Arcana was the bad one in this tangled knot of a world, not me. Up to date I'd done nothing wrong and she had; she'd warped the words of her goddess into something that put death in her hands and made it justifiable. There was no 'good' entity and no evil one either. There were simply life and death, there were simply things that were and things that had to be, no matter how badly we didn't want them. And she had messed up that balance, taken it into her hands and skewed it horribly.

Well I shouldn't say that; sometimes we have to try and take that balance into our hands, we have to get it all fucked up, for something called the greater good. I mean that was why we Gargoyles had all been brought together, wasn't it? To try and preserve some semblance of balance? I dunno; I find if you over think these things they get a little too messy for my liking, sticking all your fingers together and making you chase circles in your head.

But I think... I think there's skewing it for good and skewing it for bad. Both will come back to bite you I assume in the end; everything had a cause and effect after all. This lifetime is just one huge track of dominoes and they inevitably are going to be set off. But we aren't in complete lack of control mind you; we can leap onto different paths when we really need to. This I think is okay; it's not like we're all puppets in some larger show and we have no control over where our legs will take us. Because we do. And we're allowed to seize this control.

But I think it's the moment you seize someone else's strings, shake up their lives and not in a good way (like throwing them down a flight of stairs, or turning them against their friends) this is the way you aren't supposed to skew things. It messes up so, so much. One action can ruin the lives of many in a split second, one wrong pulled string and you can shatter someone's entire existence. This starts a negative effect I find, the dominoes turn dark and they knock over more and more things that are better left standing. So I think... I think sometimes we have to step in, when these bad-skews are made. Something has to be done to stop everything from collapsing in on itself, shaky legs snapping under their own enormous weight. Something has to be done. And I think sometimes that means you're allowed to grab someone else's strings; you can grab their strings and strangle them with them. Because if they aren't stopped more people are hurt.

And because sometimes it just makes you feel a tiny bit better, when everything else around you has turned to shit.

I'm sure someone like Varan would say peace is the way to go, and vengeance is a dish best served cold, and those sorts of things. And I know a section in me agrees with him. But I do think, sometimes, death and violence is needed as well. Because some of them don't listen to peace, they crush the hands of tranquility beneath their own filthy feet. And so sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

I've probably said it before, that I always seem to be the one to try and balance everything out once everything has been blown to pieces, scattered on the wind and beyond repair. No matter how hard I sink my fingers into something and try to hold on it always is torn from my desperate grasp and sucked down into some dark, forbidden place I have never yet visited. And then I am left to hunt down those who have left me broken and alone once again in this wretched world, those who have stolen from me all that made my life good and golden. And I do this in hopes that their influence will not ruin the life of someone else the way it has mine. I take comfort in the thought that maybe I have saved others from some sort of misery by removing those who would fuck up everything just for their own personal gain.

Except this time.

This time I am desperate to stop things before the cycle starts. I want to stop the trigger before I lose someone else I love. It's something I'd never done before, but I know deep in my chest that I'm supposed to try it this time. I did feel bad for leaving Stork, because I'd promised Falshade I'd keep an eye on her, and I'd wanted to stay beside her; I told her I had her back after all. But at the same time I knew deep down to my core I had to do this. It was like an innate, gut instinct, like the instinct to hunt and to protect oneself. It was just there, sitting like a smooth pebble in my mind, a beacon of certainty. Falshade would understand; I think he'd be okay with it if I left Stork for a little while for this. I'd go back to her as soon as I could, so hopefully that would redeem me a little. But I couldn't give up on Angel, not after everything that had happened between us over the last few weeks. He'd held all the ugliest parts of himself out to me in shaking hands and I too had returned the gesture, bringing things soaked with bile up that I myself had never even gone back to. I'd told him things I hadn't even told Rainer. I realized that was important. That was very important. It meant something I didn't yet understand, but something that felt special to me, something I held close to my heart like a pulsing little orb of light, something that could grow if given the chance. I wanted to understand this thing; I wanted to explore it, I wanted to relish in it and share pieces of it with him, I wanted to walk through all the shadowy and shining parts of it and taste it on my tongue. I just knew I wanted it, I wanted Angel, I wanted to have him back. I couldn't just give up on something like that. And Angel had put his trust in me, whether he was aware of it at the time or not. He'd shown my all the vulnerable parts of himself, like a dog showing his belly, giving me the opportunity to shred him apart. That took trust. And because he trusted me I felt it was my place to help him when he needed it, to look out for him and protect him if need be. That's what people you trusted did for you, the people who really, truly cared. They'd done it for me and I wanted to do it for others. If I had any sort of lot in life this felt like a good one to me. I'd do whatever I could for the people who I treasured.

And so that's why I was here instead of beside Stork, wedged in a crevice near the ceiling of the tunnel, waiting like a jaguar to spring on her prey. My chest felt cold and my stomach felt hot and I realized I was nervous, something I wasn't really used to. I was nervous to face Angel again; last time I'd looked deep into his eyes, eyes that used to catch and hold my interest like a fish on a hook, and saw nothing but unshifting, deep rooted rage. This complete lack of feeling from someone I knew and counted as my friend unnerved me in a way I'd long forgotten. It was like being tied to that stake again, my belly torn open and betrayal coating me like the rain falling from the sky. My tribe who'd raised me from a child had forsaken me and left me for dead. The way Angel was now somehow struck a nearby chord to that old bitter, fear-soaked feeling. It made me feel helpless and weak looking into his scarlet eyes and those were two things that I'd learned long ago could write death across your throat if you weren't careful.

Maybe you're nervous because you don't know if you can help him?

I glanced around, surprised by this voice that suddenly joined me in my dark little hiding place. It wasn't a bad voice I was pleased to note; it had a gentle edge to it and appeared to be on my side. But it still felt foreign somehow, in a friendly way but still unfamiliar. I wondered briefly if Shadowfax was reaching out to me from where I'd left him far away in my room on the Merlin, out of harm's way. Or maybe it was just a wavelength of my own thought process crossing wires with my conscience, double checking things. What with all these strange feelings of unease and confliction I suppose it was warranted.

No, I think I can help him. He's still there. People don't just go away. This I had to believe; like exorcising an evil spirit all that Angel needed to come back to himself was for Cyclonis' toxic influence to be removed from him. I'd got a good whiff of that crystal she'd placed in him when I'd fought with him last time and it had nearly made me vomit it was so putrid. It was like all the worst poisons of the world mixed together and injected into the flesh, binding to it and slowly corroding it away, making it sick and unrecognizable to itself. It was like the distilled essence of Cyclonis' own inhuman, nihilistic spirit implanted in him and infecting his body like a plague of hatred. I just couldn't accept that Angel, underneath this shell of corruption and sickness, was altered too, that his soul had turned dark or even worse died within his chest. People didn't just go away like that. Not when they had so much more to them, deeper channels of hurt and hope, so many facets of life. Somewhere, like under the bruised parts of an apple, Angel was still alive and waiting to be set free. And something in me told me I was the one who had to do this.

But what if you can't? What if he won't come back?

I wrinkled my nose, trying to push this thought away. No, he would come back. He'd told me himself that this was something he'd never wanted to be. He loved us and he had too much potential in this world to still be explored to just fade away on us.

... Will you let him kill you?

I closed my eyes and stepped through all the darker patches in my memories. I'd known before I wasn't supposed to die. I'd staggered through too much blackness and pain to just give up then. I had to reach for something lighter, step back into the sun once again so at least if I died then I'd die on a good note, somewhere that felt okay with me. Like an old dog that just knew when it was its time to go and wandered off to drift off in peace somewhere quiet. I'd always thought I'd know when it was my time to die and it was never in times of desolation or agony. I hadn't died back in the jungle and I hadn't died after Rainer was torn from me either. Something pushed me forward towards the light again and again until that fateful night I met Stork. And I think joining the Gargoyles... that was my good note. That was the shifting of the scales. That was the third part of my story, the next transition and to be honest I didn't want another big transition after this one. That was where I'd somehow meant to be all along and I'd found my place there. I'd been happy with them... I'd been happy with Angel. It was okay for me to die now. It was okay if this was my final chapter at last.

... Yes. If I can't save him.

I couldn't be responsible for the death of another precious dark skinned boy.

All thoughts melted from my head as I felt the air in the tunnel shift, a thrumming noise meeting my pricked ears. I stiffened, muscles coiled tight, teeth clamped together. I tucked all feelings away as my warrior instincts took over, banishing misgivings and narrowing my mind to one single purpose and nothing else. The hunter in me was ready, as if I'd been trained for this sort of thing all my life, which was sort of ironic really; after all I'd been trained to kill. Here I was trying to save.

Although I had to be honest, the latter felt a lot more fitting of me, deep down in my heart.

He didn't even notice me as his mutated wings carried him in near silence through the tunnel, only the slightest swishing of feathers giving him away. I could see every detail of him etched in my vision though as clear as quicksilver and I bunched my legs, waiting until he was almost beneath me.

Then I sprang on him, a creature of the shadows leaping to life and falling on him like a bird of prey. He made a noise of muffled shock as I slammed into his lithe body and the two of us careened into the far wall, one of his wings beating me around the head as he tried to stay aloft. We both tumbled hard to the stone floor and I bunched my hands tight into his shirt, pinning him and trailing my fingers over his chest, feeling for the location of this venom that was radiating from him like he'd been pumped full of toxic waste. It made me retch as its aura clashed with mine, sending out little tendrils of poison, making the back of my throat ache with is fetid scent. My skin burned with the contact as if I was being pierced with hundreds of little needles and I was momentarily stunned by its overwhelming miasma.

This moment was all he needed to flip us over, crushing my head into the stone below his hands, snarling and cursing at me. I punched my knee into his stomach and scrambled out from under him, getting to my feet and whirling around, machetes in my hands, their green glow lighting up our immediate area. A moment later his sabres blazed to life and the two of us stared at each other, eyes shining eerily from the crystals' light. His face looked haunted to me, a ghost of what he'd been back home with the rest of us. His eyes narrowed at me and he bared his teeth like a dog as if to frighten me.

"You!" He spit, like the mere sight of me disgusted me. I felt a brief jab of hurt; not too long ago this same boy had said I was beautiful. Then I shoved that thought back roughly. This wasn't Angel right now, Angel was trapped somewhere deep inside this tainted creature that had taken up his skin.

"Hi." I said in a low voice. "Listen, I don't want to-" I was cut off as he lunged at me unexpectedly, his blades catching mine as I lifted them in defence and forcing me back against the wall. With him so close I was able to catch more than the scent of his crystal this time and felt a trickle of fear when I realized he had Falshade's blood on him.

"You are wasting my time!" He snapped at me like he used to in the old days. "Now you can either get out of my sight right now and let me go on my way or I'm going to rip you to pieces, got it?"

I stared back at him unflinchingly. "I can't let you hurt the others." I told him in a stern voice, a growl creeping up my throat.

"And you really think you're going to stop me?" He asked coldly.

"Yes." I answered and pushed off against the wall, driving him back and shoving his blades away from me. He lashed out at me with them, one sweeping in for my side and the other jabbing at my leg. I deflected both and then drove my shoulder into his narrow chest, pushing him back into the opposite wall. If I could just get him to stand still long enough I could tear that crystal out of him like a parasite from beneath his skin...

But then something bad happened. His fist came around too fast and slammed the hilt of one of his sabres into my temple. I staggered and fell back, shocked by the pain, my head whirling on my shoulders. His boot connected with my chest and I fell flat on my back and he lunged after me, knees pressing into my gut as his sabre dove for my ribs.

And my mind did one of those glitch things again, superimposing this scene over another, over lapping similarities and it wasn't Angel or this flesh puppet of Angel hovering above me anymore but that male Faerieshian, back in the jungle, hurting me and robbing me of my innocence, overpowering me and making me feel weak and stupid and defenceless, a pink, abandoned newborn in a cruel and terrifying world.

And something snapped; his male scent pervaded my senses and I remembered a time when males were the enemy, I was afraid and wounded, a deadly creature with only one thought binding up her thundering heart.

Survive.

I let out a shriek of rage and smashed my knuckles into his slight jaw line, rolling him off me and slamming him hard to the stone, my teeth snapping shut just inches from his neck, a near miss. His forehead connected with my nose and my knee dug into his concave stomach, squishing organs with the force. He grunted and tried to throw me off and then we weren't Wasp and Angel anymore, or even remotely close to anything humanoid. We were two feral, furious animals, possessed by bloodlust and ready to tear each others' throats out. Snarling and howling like a couple of deranged wolves fighting for supremacy we completely forgot about weapons and everything turned to tooth and claw. My jaws locked around his shoulder and his fingers scraped at my eyes, tearing at my face and attempting to close around my neck. My ragged fingernails dug deep into his skin and tore it from him in chunks and his fists hammered into every inch of me it could reach. My boot met his gut and his boot thundered into my jaw and at one point he even sank his teeth into my ear, tearing it and I screeched at him, grabbing the side of his head and slamming it back into stone. He swept my legs out from under me and I tore him down with me, pinning him and my fangs went for his throat, the killing strike. All I had to do was squeeze, crush his windpipe and he was finished.

But as my fangs scraped his tan skin back a small bubble of his blood flooded over my tongue, catching in all my taste buds and somehow in that moment I didn't taste the awful toxicity of the crystal that had ruined him, I tasted his blood, his unique scent in liquid form, warm against my lips and suddenly remembered who I was and what I was about to do.

I leapt back from him, horrified by myself and I crouched on the floor, feeling uncertain of what to do. He shifted to his feet and stared at me warily as if unsure why I'd suddenly abandoned my kill. But then he snapped out of it and lunged for his fallen sabres, scooping them from the floor and turning on me with them. I rolled across the stone floor to where my own weapons lay fallen and was on my feet once again, Throatknotch catching his oncoming blade and the Angel Fang whipping out to slice his side. He blocked my attack and chopped at my shoulder with his free blade and I twirled about, moving into his personal space so he couldn't catch me with his sword and stomping on his ankle, making him buckle slightly. He lashed out at my thigh and I had to dart out of his reach, charging back in and sideswiping with both my machetes. He blocked Angel Fang and launched a kick at me, catching me in the belly and sending me staggering back slightly, Throatknotch never getting close enough to do any damage. He came at me with a flurry of stabs and slashes which I blocked with my machetes, slashing at his leg and when he dodged to the side I slammed a furious kick into his exposed ribs, knocking the wind out of him. He doubled slightly and my elbow found his face, causing his nose to erupt in a fountain of blood. He seemed slightly stunned by that blow and I darted in, thinking I could overpower him and once again try and find where exactly that crystal was hiding beneath his flesh. However he recovered faster than I thought he would and slashed at me with one of his blades, an upward strike that would have caught my neck if it weren't for my throat guard. I reeled back out of the way and found myself bumping up into stone once more. I sprang forward so I wouldn't be trapped against the wall, lunging at him again but suddenly he was in the wrong place at the right time, he shifted in front of me stabbed at me and I couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

His sabre punched through my jacket and the muscles on my honed abdomen and dug into my flesh, sticking right in the place between my hipbones, that terrible, empty place. And as if all the pain that I'd felt years before had been sutured up under the scar tissue his blade sliced it open and let if free once more and I gasped, staggering back into the wall and feeling ready to collapse, my hands clutching at the hole in my lower stomach. I felt hot shards behind my eyes and my throat closed with fear as images assaulted my mind, playing that gruesome scene over and over until it burned into my retinas, my own screams reverberating in my head. Bile shot up my throat and then seemed to burn right through the back of my mouth, spilling down my spine and short circuiting all my nerve signals. My legs barely held me up as I slumped against the stone, my machetes, my trusted hunting fangs, falling from my grasp.

Angel approached me slowly as if he was shaken by my reaction. I certainly was; where was all my defensive fury, my faithful, ever-ready strength? Where was the warrior in me, the indomitable survivalist who never wavered or failed me when I most needed her?

She left me in face of this enormous, unbearable pain. This was more than just a physical wound I knew; I'd been cut deep by someone I'd trusted and cared about deeply, the only other person in the world who knew why that place in my guts was empty and seedless, why it had been carved from me and all the other terrible things that led up to that event. It was as if my very heart had been sliced open, all the careful things I kept tucked away until it was the appropriate time came spilling free and screeching in panic and distress, not sure what was going on or what to do about it. My chest was aching so badly I was surprised it didn't crack open in effort to pour all this horridness out.

And all of this must have shown in my eyes as Angel tilted my jaw upwards and stared at me, seeming confused. I didn't even have it in me to attack him right then; on any other day, in any other situation I would have torn my attacker to shreds, I would have yanked out their guts and torn out their bottom jaw, carved their eyes right from their head for this. I would have killed them as brutally as possible. I'd promised myself never to be caught in a situation of such helplessness and fear again, to never be this vulnerable to anyone. No one could ever hurt me again.

But it was Angel's face that was peering into mine and I didn't want to kill him. I couldn't kill him. I just wished he could see my pain and remember that he was my friend, that he'd held me tight on that night I'd broken down, that I'd made him smile and he made me laugh and he'd kissed me too. I wanted him to remember we trusted each other with all the horrors we kept from everyone else.

"Don't you remember what I told you?" I croaked, feeling delirious, beyond all reason as I reached out with a shaking hand and laid it to his chest. He started and his hand tightened on his sabre, pushing it to my chest threateningly but I didn't waver, didn't back down. "Don't you remember?" I cried, feeling hot tears spill from my eyes and I didn't give a damn about holding them back. "It's what's in here that matters! This isn't you! This is you!" I shouted, voice hoarse, as I pounded my fist against his chest. "I know you're still there so please, please come back! Come back, Angel!"

He blinked at me, the hand holding his sabre shaking. My eyes never left his and as he continued to stare at me I saw something very faint flickering in the dark centers of his red orbs, a transmission coming through weakly from the buried part of himself, a brief and wane message but it was clear enough to me; I heard it echo in my head as if he'd spoken it aloud.

Help me.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered and before he could react I pushed his sabre to the side and lunged for his chest, gripping his arm tight so he couldn't struggle free and sinking my fangs into his flesh, feeling the roots of my teeth ache as the scent of that crystal, that god damn crystal, rushed into my open mouth and polluted my lungs, making me cough and gag. Angel let out a howl as my fangs tore through his muscle fibre, little strings of tissue ripping apart beneath my unrelenting animal fangs. I couldn't breathe from the noxious scent that crystal gave off, clotting in my nostrils and throat like hundreds of little bulging tumours. But I kept going, my teeth shredding deep into Angel's chest, his blood choking me as it curdled in my mouth and dripped down my chin in coppery rivulets, soaking into my pores. I felt the pain singing and burning in his chest and even worse could feel the pulses of that god awful crystal sending out emergency signals, trying to heal the very flesh around my fangs and I nearly vomited as I felt little tendrils of tissue wrapping around my teeth, trying to bind back together. I gnashed my jaws and tore them back, feeling the weak membranes split and come apart in my mouth like delicate moth wings being shredded in the claws of a high wind.

Then my front teeth clinked against something solid among all the mulched flesh and I had to fight back my own instinct to recoil from that thing and rinse the sourness from my mouth. It burned like acid flowing down my throat and my vision went white as if its polluted ambiance had blinded me and all I could see was heat, all I could feel was its putrid aura, making my head ache and my mouth fill with nettles and barbs, capillaries bursting and my jungle blood mixing with Angel's in my mouth. But I wasn't giving up, I wasn't going to let it destroy my Angel and I thrust my jaws forward, teeth slamming shut around the crystal shard and wrenching back, pulling some of Angel's muscle tissue with me as I reared back.

And for a few horrible seconds that vessel of blinding infection was in my mouth, stuck there like a chunk of ice and my head felt like it was going explode as black sludge crawled up my brain stem and flowed into the little crevasses of my lobes, turning everything to blood and shit. And it nearly consumed me; all the cackling little gremlins that clung with sharp claws to my back in the dark, whispering in my ear, they expanded and took over my reason, giving me promises of retribution and carnage, a lifetime as a warped version of myself, a she-demon with black eyes who made all before her tremble with terror.

But then my jaws sprang open and the crystal got wedged between my teeth. My fangs clashed together furiously and the crystal shattered, the blast of released energy nearly tearing through the roof of my mouth. Like a spirit freed from imprisonment all the perversion that had made it spread like a disease through the body was snuffed out, it simply dissipated like the passing of a terrible storm. The little splinters of crystal that remained returned to their original, untainted state and the pain vanished from my head, suddenly I could breathe once more and I sucked in a lungful of clean air gratefully, accidently allowing a small sliver of crystal to slide down my throat and sink into my roiling stomach acid. I opened my mouth and let the other remaining shards and all the blood that had pooled under my tongue drip free in long strings of dirty saliva. Then I fell back against the wall again, closing my eyes and feeling a great sweep of relief flood through me like a lulling drug.

I could hear someone breathing hard nearby and my eyes shot open again, having completely forgotten about Angel. He was hunched up not very far away, hand pressed into the bloody hole I'd torn into his chest, hair flopping into his face. I shifted towards him hesitantly, drawing in his scent carefully. The horrid aura that had been exuding from him all this time seemed to have broken apart and evaporated, leaving only his own, slightly sour scent behind. I made a slow step towards him, trembling, afraid to believe just yet that he'd returned to me. I had to see his eyes; they would tell me the truth.

He must have heard me shuffling about and looked up, blood leaking from between his fingers, his face drawn and dazed as if he were staggering out of a bad dream, confused and uncertain of what was going on. He stared at me and I stared back at him, my heart pounding at the sight of his pale, cloudy grey orbs leaping at me from the shadows of his face.

"...Wasp?" he croaked, his voice broken and old, as if he hadn't used it in years.

My legs wobbled and my insides seemed to melt away as a wave of joy hit me stronger then I'd ever felt such a thing before. Something in the corners of my eyes seemed to burst and the tears flew free as I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around him tightly, pushing my face into his neck and inhaling deep his unaltered, desert smell. He collapsed against my body and hugged me fiercely and the two of us whimpered and nuzzled each other like a couple of stray, littermate dogs, reunited at last.

Then I could hear him muttering deliriously to me, his voice muted and cracking here and there: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, Wasp I'm sorry..."

"Shhh." I murmured, stroking his greasy hair. "Angel, it's okay..."

"No it's not!" He rasped, pulling back from me and holding me at arm's length. "I didn't hurt you did I?" He asked desperately and then his eyes fell on the tear in my jacket. "Shit..." He whispered, his face crumpling and tears spilled from his stain glass eyes, slicing through the grit and blood on his face. I caught one on the ball of my thumb before it rolled off his chin and stuck it in my mouth as he fumbled for the zipper on my jacket, tearing it open.

"Hold still." He told me and I did what he asked, sucking on my thumb quietly as he carefully pulled up the hem of my StraightJackit Parade t-shirt and revealed the slice in my stomach muscles, a gaping little hole that looked like a window into my insides.

"Oh god..." he choked, his hand covering his face and he seemed to break down before me, everything bursting forward and overwhelming him and he sobbed, tearing a strip from his shirt and pressing it to my wound.

"It's okay, it's not that bad." I tried to reassure him but as I looked down at myself curiously I realized it was bad. I felt numb around the area now and blood was flowing in a strong little stream from my belly, trickling down my thighs like it used to when I still had my Blood every month. There was a whooshing sound inside my ears and things seemed to be getting a little fuzzy around the edges. I felt peaceful though, the pain just a dull throb in the background by now; I'd done what I'd had to do. It made me smile inside knowing that.

"Wasp, no!" Angel cried as I felt myself slide slowly to the floor. I felt sort of sleepy all of a sudden. I wanted Angel to lie next to me and keep me warm until I drifted off and I tugged at him to get him to come closer, missing the contact we used to share.

He did move in close to me, collapsing next to me, but he didn't seem to be calm like I was. His hands pressed tight to my oozing stomach and he was rambling madly somewhere near my ear, pleading with me. "Wasp please don't die, please, please don't die, don't leave me." He whispered desperately, brushing my hair back from my face with a shaking hand. Then suddenly he left me and I felt a cold spot spread in his absence, my body feeling lonely. I could hear him scrabbling about not too far away and then suddenly he was back beside me and pressed something against my tummy, muttering feverously to himself. I shifted a bit, curious and wanting to see what he was doing, and then felt something warm flow through my lower body, spreading through my veins like the roots of a tree, branching out and pulsing away with a faint life of its own. It was a sort of strange feeling and it made me itchy, like I was covered with scabs that were ready to be scraped off. But it wasn't a bad feeling; it was something that was bonding with my body gently, not a demanding or overpowering presence and it moved in me like a small tide, soothing me. Then my vision started to come back and the whooshing died away and then feeling started to come back too, in small sections at first and then stronger, my muscles tensing up with vigour once more. And then lastly the leaking feeling went away and I sat up, staring down at my stomach to find a faded red patch of new scar tissue like a proud birthmark on my pale skin, the bleeding stemmed and the throbbing gone.

And in Angel's bloody fingertips was a splinter of the crystal that I'd torn from his chest; its structure was broken and its essence was leaking slowly away, but it still had had enough power left in it to heal me.

Angel brushed his thumb over the healed patch on my stomach and issued a shaky, relieved sigh before looking into my face. "Don't you ever do that to me again." He said quietly, fear still shining thickly in his eyes.

I couldn't promise him anything, because I'd come to learn over the years that people died unexpectedly and before their time. It was just one of those things that happened inevitably. But I nodded anyways and he closed his eyes, leaning in against me and I pushed my face into his neck contentedly. I knew the others still needed us and we couldn't stay here for long, but the two of us stole a few minutes together in that dark tunnel anyways, pushing in close to each other and crying quietly, wringing the hurt and weakness from ourselves, building ourselves back up so we could face the rest of what this day had to bring. And in that private moment he moved his mouth close to my ear and murmured three little words to me that no one had ever said to me before and it filled my body with a blazing, shining light that gave me a strength more intense than anything I'd felt before. It was like being back in the jungle for an instant, feeling a wild sense of belonging and happiness that pushed right up to the back of my teeth and made me smile so widely it hurt.

Eventually though I knew we had to get up and keep going and as if Angel could pick up on my brainwaves he got to his feet, offering me a hand to help me up. I tested my legs quickly to make sure they were in working order and flexed all my muscles. My head felt sort of woozy and my limbs were a little shaky; his blade must have sliced deeper into my innards then I thought. But I would survive; I always did.

"Are you gonna be okay?" He asked me in a low, uncertain voice, touching my hand briefly.

"Of course." I said, stretching a bit and cracking my neck. He nodded to himself then looked around as if thinking about something before glancing back at me.

"Wasp, where's Stork? I ran into the others outside but I haven't seen her..."

"She's gone to destroy the Eternity crystal." I said, retrieving my fallen machetes and tucking them into their sheathes securely.

Angel's eyes widened in horror and he grabbed me by the shoulders to get my attention. "She's gone to the Heart Chamber alone?" He demanded, looking absolutely terrified by this notion.

"What's the Heart Chamber?" I asked, anxiety prickling in my stomach. "And no, the Storm Hawks are with her."

Angel ran his fingers through his hair, seeming deeply troubled. "Wasp, it's an ambush! Cyclonis knows you guys are here, she's got a whole army of Blitzkrieg down there waiting to catch her and kill anyone else who's with her!"

Alarm tore down my spine violently. "Then they need our help." I concluded, looking off down the dark tunnel way. I felt all the bad feelings about leaving Stork come rushing back to me tenfold and fidgeted, wanting nothing more than to rush to her side right now. But I stopped myself, turning back to Angel at the last moment.

"We need to get Falshade and the others." I said slowly. "They were supposed to be making a diversion, but I can't see the point of one now if Cyclonis already knows what's going on..."

"Right." Angel nodded. "Where's your skimmer?"

"It's way back on the Condor..." I said, grabbing his shoulder and staring at him pointedly. "Angel, I need to go catch up with Stork. I told her I would, and I promised Shade I'd look after her. Angel you have to go and get him; you can get to them faster and you know the way to this Heart Chamber place..."

A look of uncertainty passed over Angel's face. "Wasp I... I can't. He won't listen to me."

"Yes he will!" I assured him, touching his jaw gently. "Once he realizes it's you he'll listen."

"...I tried to kill him, Wasp." He said, his voice breaking with shame and self-loathing, his body tensing up and shaking like he was going to be sick; I shifted to his side just in case he was. There was so much bitterness and disgust on his face that it made my heart ache for him and I nuzzled against the side of his head, speaking directly into his ear so the message would go through clearly and soundly.

"Angel, it was the crystal." I whispered, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly. "Falshade knows that. And besides, he's your best friend; if anyone will let this all go, it'll be Shade."

Angel sucked in a deep, rattling breath and then nodded resolutely. "Okay. I'll go get the others and we'll be there as soon as we can." He said and I smiled, squeezing his hand before moving to take off down the tunnel in pursuit of the others.

"Wasp!" Angel's voice made me stop and I turned back to him, cocking my head curiously. He shifted awkwardly and then just seemed to throw caution to the wind, stepping in close to me and cementing his mouth over mine, one hand moving up to cradle the back of my neck as he kissed me deeply. Something fluttered pleasantly in my stomach and I trailed my fingers over his arm briefly, kissing him back hard until he pulled away from me, brushing my matted hair back from my face and looking at me seriously.

"Look after yourself, okay?" He asked in a low voice and I smiled, kissing his forehead and nodding.

"Okay. See you in a little while." I said and he nodded, turning back the way he'd come and flaring his wings wide, taking off into the dark to fetch our reinforcements. I turned in the direction the others had gone not too long ago and reached into my pocket, pulling out a can of Buzz Juice and cracking it open, grinning to myself; the jungle warrior in me was back and thrashing wildly. It was time to bring the pain.

x.x.x Falshade x.x.x

I pulled Sliver free from the chest cavity of one enemy soldier who'd come charging in way too fast for his own good and practically impaled himself on my scimitar and looked around, a feeling of unease slithering through my stomach. Something about all of this just didn't seem right about all of this; there were less Nightflyers in the sky by now but no reinforcements had left the citadel to fill the lost ranks, almost as if they really weren't that concerned by us at all. What did that mean? Did they have another unpleasant trick up their sleeves, like that mutated storm cell thing from last time? Or were they really not that bothered by us? If that was the case it probably meant they were on to us by now and that made my whole body shake with anxiety. Here we were being useless out here while the others might need our help, and what in hell were we supposed to do about it? It could take us hours to find them in there...

"Shade you okay over there, eh?" Fraggle's voice asked over my radio. He must have noticed me just kinda hovering in one place like an idiot.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking..."

"Ah, thought you looked like you were in pain." He teased and I rolled my eyes, making a note to hit him later.

"Thinking about what? You think we should try and find them?" Varan's voice joined our conversation.

"I dunno... tell you what, let's give the fortress a bit of a beating, if that doesn't get more of them out here then we'll regroup on the Merlin and think of something better to do." I suggested and turned my skimmer around, circling around towards the mighty fortress and throwing one of my remaining explosive devices towards the outer tower, watching it tear apart the stone and metal like it was made of toothpicks. I was starting to feel restless out here; we didn't seem to be doing squat and I wanted to be with the rest of my team. Fuck this was a stupid idea, we should have all just stayed together...

I was distracted from my griping by a pair of Nightflyers that honed in on me and I wrenched my skimmer around, allowing them to give chase as I sped towards the Merlin, which wasn't far away, hammering shot after shot at the fortress, zipping about like a giant dragonfly to avoid the returned volleys from various blaster positioned on the outer towers. I flew over head of our little airship, the bottom of my skimmer banging briefly against the hull, and then went into a short dive on the far side. I did a complete one-eighty and flipped back around abruptly, streaking upwards much to the surprise of the two guys who'd been following me. I shot between the two, lashing out with Sliver at the one on my left and hacking both his starboard side wings off, sending him into a tailspin below me. The other guys pulled out of his dive and gave chase once more, but at that moment Fraggle pulled one of his characteristic sudden changes of direction and I heard a solid thunk as the pilot of the Nightflyer crashed right into the underside of the Merlin. I watched him and his skimmer plummet down below like a squashed fly and chuckled to myself before taking off once again. I dodged a string of cannon fire (some of which happened to be from my own teammate), hurled a charge of energy at one of the outlying blasters and then was nearly clobbered around the head by a soldier who appeared out of nowhere and was wielding a large mace. I went into a roll to avoid having my skull mulched and slashed at him with Sliver, catching him in the arm and having a spurt of blood splash into my face. Swearing to myself I wiped at my face with my sleeve and opened my eyes again to find the mace on a collision course with my engine. At the last second I yanked on my conversion gears and my wings tucked in tight to the side of my skimmer, allowing me to drop out of the way in the nick of time. The guys gave chase but I activated my wings once more and flung a bolt of energy at him with Sliver, tearing into the underside of his ride and sending him spinning past me, his ride billowing smoke.

I pulled back up and made to swing around to the far side of the fortress, meaning to check and see if any more soldiers were heading for their skimmers in order to retaliate. And that's when I found the one flaw with Piper's plan: having been separated from view of Varan by all the outer structures of Cyclonia, and as I'd been supposed to be staying away from him in the first place, I had no idea he was over there until it was much too late.

The air around me shook violently in the wake of one of Varan's Raptures, which he'd evidently hurled towards a cluster of those outer blaster cannons not a moment earlier. Any skimmers in the immediate are (mine included) were hurled backwards by the blast, followed by a spew of debris that was vaulted through the air. I had just righted my skimmer, trying to get me senses back in order, when suddenly something rammed into my skimmer, hard. It must have been a projectile piece of shrapnel from one of the nearby Nightflyers that went up with the explosion. Whatever it was it pierced right through one of the only places I didn't have extra armour protecting my Ultra and jammed right into my engine. It wasn't even three seconds after impact that my engine blew right in front of me, tearing my skimmer apart and sending me spinning into open air.

Back at the Academy we did fall training, in which we were instructed to jump from levitating platforms or roll from our skimmers in mid air, to get us used to the idea of what falling felt like. But for all those lessons I really came away with nothing, because the moment I was plummeting it was like my mind went right out the back door and I couldn't have taken in a breath even if the wind wasn't snatching all the oxygen right out of my mouth.

Luckily my parachute deployed on its own, the wind tearing it open at the back and I was jolted from my free-fall so violently my insides got plastered to the back of my ribs and I nearly got sick. I could barely register what had happened and only just managed to get my arms over my head to protect myself from the falling pieces of my poor, faithful Ultra, now in ruins beyond even Stork's repair.

I felt a sense of failure at the moment as I sort of drifted there; I was without a ride now and even though I could always take over the top-side Blaster, I just felt really purposeless. I'd always flown and fought on my own, from my skimmer, in complete control of my own immediate area. It would feel so strange just having to go along with wherever Fraggle wanted to go, picking soldiers off from the safety of the Merlin. It just wasn't what I'd envisioned doing in the battle that would make or break us...

It was Varan's cry of alarm that shook me from my self-pity.

"FALSHADE!" He shouted from somewhere off to my left and I looked about for him, wondering what had him so upset. Then I saw a Nightflyer on a direct course with myself, the pilot's blade flung out wide and intent on one purpose...

Shit... SHIT!

I struggled uselessly against the cords of my parachute as he came ever closer, a cruel gleam in his eye, his intent written all over his ugly face. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Varan coming for me, sending his skimmer's engine into overdrive desperately but this guy had a head start on him. He was coming right at me and I was just hanging there, completely defenceless; I'd dropped Sliver when my ride blew up.

I felt his blade tear through those cords like they were extensions of my own nerves. There was a moment of give and then they simply snapped. I felt myself hang in place for a split second, during which I could see Varan's claws reaching for me desperately but he was still too far away and then I was falling again, a victim of gravity and I no longer had a parachute to catch me.

"NO!" Varan's howl echoed in my head and then everything just seemed to go silent, like I'd gone completely deaf; I couldn't even hear the wind screaming in my ears. It seemed the only thing I could actually comprehend was the spiked tip of the top of one of those fang-shaped towers, roaring up towards me at an alarming rate.
And I just couldn't believe that this was how I was going to die. It wasn't how it was supposed to happen...

Then something collided with me, hard, from the side, and if I'd had any air in my lungs it surely would have been knocked out of me. Something blurred in front of my face, I felt arms tighten around me and then I wasn't so much falling as being driven to the side, the sound of a thundering heartbeat in my ear, which suddenly wasn't deaf anymore. My mind was coming back in chunks, not able to comprehend what the hell was going on. It only occurred to me, hazily, that that wasn't my heartbeat I was listening too.

Then there was impact and I felt myself break away from whatever had collided with me, rolling over myself once and crunching to a halt on my side against the wall of another tower. There was solid ground underneath me again and I was completely numb for a few seconds, totally disorientated and confused out of my mind. One minute I'd been plummeting to my death, the next I was lying on the balcony of one of these spires, insides still where they should be, bones intact, head still in one piece... what the hell was going on?

I heard a groan nearby and blinked a few times to get my vision clear as I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around. Someone was crumpled not too far from me, swearing to themselves and with one more blink I realized who exactly that was and all my instincts snapped to life.

In a heartbeat I was on top of him, one of his own sabres in my hand and I had no idea how it had gotten there. But I pressed the blade against his throat anyways and he looked up at me, shocked at first and then with a resigned look on his haggard face.

"Go ahead." He said, voice hoarse but set. "I understand why you want to, just... be quick. The others need you."

I was still so dumbstruck I could barely digest what he'd said. I just stared at him and he stared back up at me, grey eyes defeated and brimming with wetness. His grey eyes...

My voice managed to find itself and choke up a question. "...Angel?"

"Yes."

I leaned in closer and shook him a little. "Angel Thaenshar?" I repeated slowly and he nodded weakly.

"It's me, Shade."

I moved his blade from his throat, shifting off him slightly and he sat up a bit, watching me nervously as I stood over him, my legs shaking. Things were slowly piecing themselves together in my head... it'd been Angel who'd caught me just now and he'd flown the both of us over here. And now he was practically cowering in front of me, wings splayed behind him carelessly, his eyes their proper shade of icy grey again.

"It's really you?" I asked hoarsely and he nodded very slowly. "The crystal's gone?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I ran into Wasp. Girl has a way of knocking sense into me..." He got to his feet uneasily, staying away from me like he was afraid of me or something, a submissive wolf before the alpha. He moved his sabres towards me with his foot and then stayed perfectly still, avoiding my eyes.

"Is she alright?" I demanded and he flinched, closing his eyes.

"She's fine." He croaked. Only then did I notice the tear in his shirt, the blood that was dripping from a cavity torn into his chest that made my stomach churn. He'd run into Wasp and now the crystal was gone... it didn't take much to put two and two together.

"So you're... you're you again, then." I said slowly. "You're okay now..." He glanced up at me then and the wretchedness and shame on his face tore my heart apart.

"Shade listen to me..." he said, his voice wane and quiet. "I... I don't expect you to forgive me. And you don't have to... but I still just wanna say I'm sorry... fuck I'm so god damn sorry, Falshade..."

The tears spilled from his pale eyes and made long tracks over his hollowed cheeks and he squeezed his eyes shut again, turning his face from me and pushing his fingers into his eyelids, pinching the bridge of his nose and letting his lank hair fall into his face, shaking all over as he tried to keep from breaking down and bawling. I was completely and utterly stunned; I'd never seen him this vulnerable or overwhelmed, ever, just so completely broken inside. And I knew he meant it; I knew he was sorry right down to the core.

It just took seeing him like that and I felt all my anger and bitterness with him flicker and die, completely extinguished. I finally found the truth of what Wasp had been telling me; all of this had been Cyclonis' fault, it was the god damn crystal, she'd had him possessed, it had never been him. None of that seemed to matter anymore anyways. All that mattered was that I had Angel back, he was standing right in front of me, practically radiating his own self-loathing.

I made a step towards him and touched his shoulder gently. Jesus he was a wreck... I didn't think he'd had any more weight on him to lose but evidently he must have; his bones were sticking out sharply from under his skin. "Ange?" I said softly, reaching for his chin to make him look at me. His usually cold, hard eyes gave away everything he was feeling for once as he glanced up at me, disgust, shame, fear, sorrow... I could see it all in his glassy eyes. He was truly and deeply sorry, and not just about what had happened recently either. But I could finally see him in there too, there was no more hatred and hollowness in his eyes, everything that had possessed him had gone with the crystal. He was just our Angel again and god was I ever happy to see him.

"I dunno who said it first..." I started quietly. "But somebody said a long time ago 'if you fight with me today you are my brother'... and you're on our side again, aren't you?"

He nodded slightly.

"Then you're still my brother, Angel." I assured him. He stared at me with disbelief in his eyes then made a sort of choking noise and surprised the hell out of me by flinging his thin arms around me tightly, pushing his face into my chest with a muffled sob. Never once had Angel ever hugged me, ever. And yet there he was, clinging to me tightly, his blood and tears soaking into my shirt and sticking it to my skin. And despite everything, all that had happened, how miserable and furious he'd made me, how we'd only just half an hour ago tried to kill each other, and that even now we were standing on an enemy tower in the middle of possibly the most important battle of our lives, it just all seemed to go away for a minute and I hugged him back, pushing my face into his raven coloured hair, the exact same shade as mine. I knew this day wasn't over, that I could still lose him, lose everybody who mattered to me, but right then I just felt complete again, like the dark shadow his absence had left simply dissipated. I had my brother back. At that moment, that was all that mattered.

Angel seemed to come to his senses after awhile, pulling away from me and wiping at his face irritably. "God I'm such a baby." He muttered to himself. "Shade, Wasp told me Stork was going to try and get to the crystal, is that right?" He asked, looking at me seriously.

"Yeah, her and the Stork Hawks, they're-"

"Falshade we have to find them, now! Cyclonis was on to you guys the whole time, she knows this is a diversion!" He cut me off, desperation in his voice. "Stork's in danger, it's an ambush, Cyclonis has hundreds of Berserkers down there waiting to trap them in the Heart Chamber!"

I gawked at him. "Are you serious?" I wheezed, my heart seeming to have frozen in my chest.

"Wish I weren't. Wasp left me to go and catch up with them but they're going to need our help, there's no point in you guys being out here anymore. We have to get Varan and Fraggle and get in there."

"How?" I said exasperatedly, fear crashing in like a flood around me, threatening to drown me. "We don't even know where they are or how to get to them!"

Angel gave me a look. "I do." He reminded me in a low voice, glancing at the fortress distractedly.

I hadn't even thought of that. "Right..." I said slowly, mind still struggling to keep up. "Okay, then we've got to get to the Merlin... ah, shit I don't have a god damn skimmer!" I recalled, feeling panicky and frustrated, tugging at my hair violently.

"Don't need one." Angel said, a strange edge in his voice and I turned back to him as he unfurled his wings; what with everything else going on I'd practically forgotten about them.

I looked at him uncertainly. "...Dude will you even be able to carry me?" I asked uneasily; I outweighed him by a good forty pounds after all.

"I'll be fine." He said gruffly. He sheathed his sabres, moved past me, looked over the edge of the platform where we'd landed and then simply jumped and I started. He came soaring back over the edge a moment later though and swung past me, turning about and coming right at me. My instincts told me to duck and I barely managed to hold still as he came rushing up behind me, grabbing me under the arms and lifting me off the edge of the platform.

Right from the get-go we plummeted and I yelped while Angle grunted and I could feel his wings beating hard on either side of me, whacking me around my ribs.

"Christ, Shade, you gotta lay off the god damn sweets." He told me through clenched teeth, gaining some altitude while I grasped his wrists, my stomach dropping as I saw the fortress spread out below my feet. Shit this was nothing like flying with a skimmer, at least on my Ultra I had a hunk of machinery between me and a very sticky end after a long drop. This was just awful...

"Where's the Merlin?" Angel asked me, sounding like he was having a hard time breathing.

"Probably on the far side of the fortress." I said, trying to keep my voice steady and Angel veered to side so suddenly I thought I was going to be sick. He made an arc around the mighty citadel and then the Merlin came into view, blasting at both skimmers and the outer spires like there was no tomorrow.

"This might get rough, I'm no good at landings." Angel warned me as the runway rushed up to greet us way too quickly for my liking. Never in my entire life had I ever been afraid of flying, but god damn this was just nerve racking; I had no control over what was happening, I had no parachute and I kept thinking Angel's wings might just buckle under our collective weight at any moment. I couldn't help but squeeze my eyes shut as we came in towards the runway and at the last second Fraggle must have swerved or something because my feet ran right over the opposite side and Angel started swearing, wings beating hard to try and pull us back up.

But then my feet touched solid surface and Angel released me so that I stumbled onto the bridge without too much damage. Angel flared his wings, trying to brake, but had too much momentum and tumbled over himself, falling hard to the runway just ahead of me. He picked himself back up, seething to himself about something before turning to me. "You okay? Sorry, I didn't mean to drop you..."

"I'm alright." I assured him, heading for the hanger and he followed after me slowly, uncertainly, like a wary stray animal.

Varan's skimmer was in the hanger I was surprised to notice and I hurried to the bridge, worried something might have happened to him. I burst onto the bridge and to find the both of them in one piece and they jumped, eyes stretched wide in surprise.

"Shade! Oh thank god you're okay! Shit I wanted to help but-" Varan cut himself off, freezing in his tracks when he noticed who was behind me. Fraggle looked over to see why he'd abruptly stopped talking and stiffened.

"Falshade..." He uttered slowly, almost like a warning, but I held up my hands to calm them both.

"It's okay, he's okay. He's Angel again." I assured them. They looked from me to Angel as if waiting for him to prove this was true and he swallowed uneasily.

"...Hey guys." He said, his voice raspy. He shrank down when Varan approached him slowly, tensing up as if he expected to catch the receiving end of Varan's scaly knuckles. He held perfectly still as Varan tilted his chin upwards, examining him; Fraggle waited quietly for a verdict.

"Christ..." Varan muttered, picking at his torn shirt and giving the gash in his chest a quick inspection. "What happened here?"

"That'd be Wasp at her finest." Angel explained, his voice meek, nowhere near as confident as it usually was. Varan pulled a face and looked him up and down critically once more before abruptly sweeping him into a crushing hug. Angel winced and squirmed uncomfortably.

"Ack! Ouch, Varan, I can't breathe!" He wheezed, trying to struggle free.

"Sorry." Varan released him. "Jeez the two of you are a mess." He commented as if nothing had happened, like Angel had been here with us this whole time; he threw me a bandage roll which I pressed to the wound above my hipbone carefully.

"What are you doing back here?" I asked him.

"Skimmer got nailed by one of those cannons out there, barely made it back. I was looking for you... oh, that reminds me, here." He pulled Sliver out from where he'd had it strapped to his back and handed it to me. I stared at my blade, stunned.

"It was lying on one of those tower platforms." Varan explained.

"Shit I thought I'd lost it for sure. Thanks Var." I said, relief flooding through me intoxicatingly. I replaced my scimitar in my belt and then looked up at the others again. "Listen the others need our help, screw these guys out here, we've got to get into the lower tunnels and find them."

Varan's eyes widened in alarm. "Why, what's going on?"

"Cyclonis is waiting for them down there." Angel reported grimly. "She's got a whole army of Blitzkrieg with her too, they'll cut off their retreat and fucking butcher them."

Varan clutched his head, grabbing the table for support. "Shit. How are we going to get to them? We don't even know where they are!"

"I do." Angel said pointedly. "I can get us there, if, uh..." He trailed off and looked at his boots, shaking slightly. "I mean if you guys trust me and everything. I'd understand if you didn't..." He muttered, his voice wavering.

Varan did a bit of a double take and I felt my heart contract painfully. It made me ache to see Angel this torn up over everything that'd happened; crystal influence or not he still looked at it like he'd betrayed us. He hated himself right now and what was worse was he thought we hated him too. Wasp had told me that's what he'd always been afraid of. But we didn't hate him; fuck we'd been devastated by what had happened to him because we loved him.

"Angel, listen." Varan said quietly, grabbing his shoulder and shaking it a bit gently. "We knew all this time that wasn't you; Cyclonis tried to use you against us, we know you'd never turn on us. But you're back with us now, you're one of us again and we still trust you."

"Yeah man." Fraggle added encouragingly. "You just tell me where to go and we'll go give that bitch something to think about, eh."

Angel glanced at the two of them and a weak smile crawled onto his worn face. He wiped at his eyes irritably once more. "Fuck, man, I love you guys." He muttered which made the three of us start in surprise. Jeez somebody was affectionate today; I wondered briefly if maybe I'd hit him in the head one too many times earlier. "Okay, I'll finish being a girl later. Now there's a pipe sticking out of the terra down below the cloud layer. It's big enough for the Merlin to fit through. It won't take you all the way to the Heart Chamber but it'll get you close enough."

"Right. I'm finished with these hosers here anyways." Fraggle said, firing a few last shots at the remaining Nightflyers before turning the Merlin about, sinking into the murky orange clouds below.

"Once you're down there just go straight through until the second right turn. Follow that tunnel along until the first left turn and then keep going down that one. Eventually you'll see this opening in the ceiling, it's another tunnel. The Merlin won't go any farther than that, so you'll have to go on foot from there; the upper tunnel will lead you straight to the Heart Chamber."

"You're saying all of this like you're not coming with us." Varan said uneasily.

"I'm not. That's the only way you guys can get in but it'll take time. I can get in another way with these." Angel explained, lifting his wings a little pointedly. Varan stared at them with uncertain interest and held out a hand permissively. Angel extended a wing slowly and Varan touched the feathers curiously.

"Jeez that's just... weird." He reported after a moment, taking his hand back.

"Oh, you think it's weird? Try flying with them, they're a right pain in the ass." Angel griped and then looked at me. "I can take you with me too if you want."

"Angel, you barely got me here." I pointed out and he rolled his eyes.

"Look you wanna get in there and help the girls or not? Don't worry about me, Christ."

I thought about Stork and the Storm Hawks pinned by hundreds of bloodthirsty Berserkers and it set my resolve. "Okay. We should go now then, and Varan and Fraggle can catch up with us."

"Hang on a sec." Fraggle spoke up then and we turned to look at him. "I'm just... I'm just thinking about something here, eh."

"Yeah, what's that?" I asked.

"Well... we have to leave the Merlin there, don't we?"

"Yeah, but she'll be there when you get back." Varan said reassuringly.

"How am I supposed to get her out, eh? Won't be able to turn her around..." Fraggle heaved a long sigh then turned to Varan with a strange look in his eyes. "How many explosives you got left there, eh?"

"Uh, eleven..."

"That's gotta be a pretty big boom if we set 'em all of at once." Fraggle concluded.

"Fraggle there's no way we could set them all off without getting blown to bits."

"What if we rigged them up to a timer or something?"

I still had no idea what he was rambling about but Angel must have clued in, because his eyes got wide suddenly and he started shaking his head. "No, Fraggle, no way, that's-"

"I ain't leaving my god damn ship there for them to get their bloody hands on!" Fraggle snapped stubbornly. "Besides, we make enough noise a bunch of them will come to see what's up, eh. Might not get all of them, but it'll take a big chunk outta her fortress anyways..."

"Yeah but... Fraggle the Merlin? Come on, there's gotta be something else you can do..." Angel protested and I finally understood what Fraggle was getting at.
"Fraggle no, you can't just... she's your ship." I said weakly and Fraggle sniffled a bit, running a hand over the steering distractedly.

"She's just a ship, eh." He muttered. "I'd rather have friends over a ship any day. Besides, the Oracle said we'd all have to make sacrifices, take one for the team, eh. It's high time I had my turn."

I stared at him, feeling an ache travel through my chest. I'd come to look at the Merlin as my home, she'd seen us through thick and thin and the thought losing her forever really hurt. And however attached I'd become to the hardy little airship I knew Fraggle felt easily ten times more affection for her; when he'd had nothing else at least he'd had the Merlin.

"Fraggle..." I said uncertainly, grabbing his shoulder. "Are you sure? We could figure out something else..."

"I'm sure." He insisted, swatting me away and ignoring the concerned looks Varan and I were giving him. Instead he twiddled the steering distractedly and said. "Well if you got anything you wanna keep I suggest you go and get it now, 'cause it won't be around long afterwards, eh."

I couldn't think of anything I wanted. It seemed sort of pointless to take anything anyways; here was Fraggle giving away his most treasured possession in the whole damn world. Anything else seemed inadequate compared to that. Who gave a damn about material stuff anyways? Everything I had could be replaced, easy. In the end the things that mattered most to me were the people I loved.

Angel evidently felt differently though, because he stiffened as if something had just occurred to him and took off down the corridor. He came back a few moments later, tucking a small silver object safely into his pocket before looking out the windshield again.

"That's it." He said, pointing to the large opening that jutted from the side of the terra. "You remember the directions, right? Second right, first left."

"I'll remember." Fraggle assured him.

"Good... listen, Fraggle, seriously-"

"You ask me if I'm sure about this one more time and I'm gonna punch you right in the throat, eh." Fraggle told him sternly and Angel held up his hands for peace.

"Alright, alright, jeez, sorry."

"Alright then we should get going." I said, feeling anxiety overwhelming me. "You guys be careful..."

"Yeah, you two as well." Varan said. I took one last look around the bridge, trying to commit every last detail to my memory and then hurried after Angel, following him onto the runway. He promptly leapt off the edge, wings stretching wide and lifting him swiftly into the air. Varan was right, it did look weird to see those things attached to him, as if giant raven wings had been sutured to his back; it was just unnatural.

He turned to me. "You ready?"

I wasn't very keen at all to have another flight like the last one, but I didn't have much choice, so I nodded. He swooped around me and lifted me from under the armpits once again, wrapping his arms around my chest slightly and despite the fact that it was uncomfortable I was glad he did. I swallowed uneasily as my feet left solid surface and Angel soared upwards, gaining altitude steadily if a little shakily. The Merlin grew smaller beneath my boots and for a moment we stopped and got one last look at her before she disappeared into the tunnel opening below, never to return.

"God this is all so FUBAR." I muttered.

"Yeah... well let's hope the Merlin's the only thing we end up losing today." Angel said, his wings pulling us back towards the top of the citadel. "Dude are you okay? You're shaking like crazy."

"Could say the same to you." I pointed out; I could feel all his muscles straining with every movement and he was breathing hard.

"Don't tell me you're scared." He taunted, ignoring my last comment.

"Oh fuck off." I muttered sourly. "So where are we going?"

"There's a chute that opens up a little higher, it's small but we'll fit, it'll take us right to the lower tunnels." Angel explained through gritted teeth.

"That's considering we don't get shot down before we get there." I pointed out.

"They won't bother me, they think I'm one of them, remember?"

"Right, right..." I muttered, not liking the cold, disgusted tone he had in his voice; I glanced up at him, trying to catch his eye but he ignored me.

We broke through the cloud layer and once again I found myself topside of the mighty terra, separated from my friends by tons of rock and hundreds of soldiers. Things were eerily quiet here now; it seemed that any remaining soldiers had turned back once we'd left, returning to the fortress. My stomach clenched sickeningly when Angel veered to the side without warning, swooping into the maze of spires and spikes once again and I flinched as we passed one particular tower much too closely for my liking, my boots actually skimming over the stone wall.

"Okay see that pipe that's sticking up just ahead?" Angel asked and I nodded. "That's where we're landing, so try and get your feet on the edge, okay?"

I swallowed uneasily; the lip of that pipe was only about a foot wide and we were coming up on it extremely quickly. But I grit my teeth and did what I was told, boots slamming hard into the edge and skidding slightly as I tried to stop us, Angel crashing hard into my back and nearly pushing me into the gaping hole in front of me, which dropped down god knows how far. Angel braked hard and dropped down onto the ledge just next to me, gasping for breath.

"Shit, are you okay?" I asked, concerned as I watched his thin rib cage heaving for air.

"Yeah, just... give me a second." He panted.

I nodded and looked down into the blackness under my feet. "So we're going down there?" I clarified.

"Yeah. Gonna have to drop though, not enough room to spread my wings." Angel explained and I felt my stomach turn cold.

"Great." I muttered and he laughed to himself.

"Man since when did you get all soft cock?" he asked and I scowled at him. He sucked in a few deep lungfuls of air for a moment, his breathing returning to normal, before looking at me critically, something flickering in his eyes. "Hey, Shade?"

"Yeah?"

"Look I wanted to tell you something quick, in case I don't get another chance." He said, a strange note in his voice.

"Don't start talking like that." I scolded and he rolled his eyes.

"Would you just shut up and listen to me?"

"I'm listening."

"Right well... okay remember when I said there was this woman who was supposed to adopt me, after my mom died?"

"Yeah..." I said slowly, not sure what he was getting at.

"Well it was your mom. Caspia was the one who was supposed to adopt me. I guess your mom and my mom were friends way back when..." He trailed off and pushed his overlong hair from his face while I simply stared at him, feeling rather stunned. I mean I'd had a sort of inkling when he mentioned he was supposed to be adopted before, but I'd pushed the thought away as it'd seemed way too far-fetched. And besides, wouldn't mom have said something when she'd seen him at our house when we visited Vatican? I suddenly recalled all my little day-dreams about Angel coming to live with us when we were younger and it kind of blew my mind a little to realize that actually could have been reality.

Angel glanced up at me and sort of grinned. "So... we really are brothers after all. Small Atmos, huh?"

"Yeah..." I said, still feeling slightly overwhelmed.

"Although I gotta say, kinda glad things turned out this way instead, like meeting you at the Academy and everything. After all what's the fun of being brothers if you're forced into it, right?"

I mulled this over and then cracked a grin of my own, squeezing his shoulder. I still would have enjoyed having a brother growing up, especially since I'd been so excited about it when mom first mentioned the idea; and I couldn't help but think it might have been good for Angel to have at least a sort of proper family when he was younger. But when I thought about it like that, I was glad things had turned out the way they had as well. The Oracle said we'd all been brought together for a reason, so maybe it was meant to be that I met Angel at the Academy when I did instead of when we were kids.

"Yeah, probably for the best." I agreed. "We would have killed each other as kids." I paused as something occurred to me and added in a more serious tone. "You know... you could still come to live with us, mom and me." I told him and he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, seeming to think about it for a moment before shaking his head.

"Nah, thanks but no thanks, Shade." He said offhandedly. I opened my mouth to argue but he interrupted me. "Look, bother me about it later, we've wasted enough time up here anyways. I can breathe again so let's go, the others need us."

I couldn't argue with that so I just nodded, but I tucked the idea away for some other time; if we ever got out of this mess I was going to bring it up again when I had the time to really argue with him about it.

"So you just want me to jump?" I asked as he grabbed a hold of me once again and I could feel the blood from his chest wound seeping through my shirt.

"Yeah, pretty much." Then, just to be a jerk, he leaned into my ear and added. "Don't scream."

And man if I weren't so happy to be hearing from the old Angel once again I would have hit him.

Instead I stepped right off the edge of the tunnel mouth, pulling Angel along with me as we were plunged into darkness, plummeting in a complete free-fall. My stomach leapt up the back of my throat and I shut my eyes as the wind whipped into my face, searing in my nose and throat like needles it was so cold. I kept my arms wound in tight and my legs straight like I was jumping into water, certain at any moment I was going to smack into the wall of the shaft and my bones would be shattered to splinters. Angel's grip around my ribs was so tight I couldn't breathe and I could only hope this damn chute would end soon; we seemed to just drop like that forever and I didn't have any idea of how far we'd gone or where the bottom of this thing was. All I could do was trust Angel's judgement, which I did of course. The thing I didn't trust was how well his wings were going to be able to pull us out of this drop.

Quite suddenly I could see light through my eyelids and Angel yanked me upwards, pulling me out of our fall so harshly I thought he might have cracked a few of my ribs. I could feel his wings beating like mad to fight against all our momentum but we didn't have enough time to slow completely and I found my feet slamming hard into solid ground so abruptly my knees crumpled and I nearly did a faceplant into the smooth metal floor of the passage we'd landed in. Angel crashed down practically on top of me and rolled off to the side, tangled up in his wings.

I pushed myself to my feet and glanced around; we were in a large tunnel that was rigged up with lights in the ceiling that reflected dimly off the metal walls. It stretched ahead of us and behind us farther than my eyes could see and here and there further down the passage were more tunnel mouths, conjoining like lots of little veins to a larger artery. Directly above us was a large hole in the ceiling, the bottom of the pipe we'd leapt into above. I squinted back up the dark fissure and could just make out a pinprick of light; shit we had to be at least a mile under the terra surface.

I offered Angel a hand and hauled him up, nerves on high alert for any sign of movement other than our own down here.

"So now what?" I asked as he rolled his shoulders uncomfortably.

"Now we just follow this passage, it'll lead us right to the Heart Chamber." He said. "Let's go, you can use your own damn legs now." And with that he turned and took off down the tunnel, his boots only making the slightest echoes off the steel floor. I needed no prompting and caught up with him, the two of us keeping pace stride for stride as we ran down the shadowy tunnel. My legs were longer but Angel was a fast runner and stayed by my side the whole time; I'd learned pretty quickly I never had to worry about Angel keeping up with me.

It didn't take long for the sounds of a fight to reach my ears; I could hear blades ringing together, metal clashing with metal punctuated by shouts and enraged screeches and howls, getting steadily closer. This gave me heart though; if they were still fighting then it meant the others weren't beaten, not yet. Angel grabbed my arm at some point and made me slow, the two of us drawing our swords as we moved forward silently, approaching the mouth of the tunnel with caution. Angel pressed himself tight to the wall just inside the opening and I leaned over his shoulder and looked down upon a gruesome scene worthy of one of my nightmares.

It was hard to spot the others down there; the tunnel we were in projected from the wall of a large cavern about twenty feet off the stone floor, and we had a good view of the battle that was raging below. I saw a flash of Stork's blonde hair among the mass of writhing Berserkers then a blaze of green light as Junko smashed his mighty fists into a group of advancing soldiers, hurling them back into the sea of their counterparts and I felt a stir of admiration; I mean that was just awesome.

At first I didn't even notice Cyclonis, or the crystal for that matter, I was so fixated on the others, trying to scope out what the quickest route to them would be. But it was Stork's anguished scream of "NO!" that shook me out of it and I followed her line of sight up to the top of a large dais where a large, green crystal was sitting in a bowl in the stone, oblivious to all that was going on around it. Just to the side of it stood the Master herself, a wraithlike girl with rage and malice blazing in her dark violet eyes, face contorted with wrath and dark purpose etched into her every muscle. In her thin arms she held a wicked looking energy staff, speared at the end with a number of spikes that curved around the crystal it was equipped with like a sort of cradle, viciously sharp and deadly.

And lying just beneath that lethal barb was Wasp, splayed on her back with her chest exposed and about to be pierced deep by the cruel spear poised in Cyclonis' spidery hands.

Angel's howl tore through my body like a knife as Cyclonis' staff plunged: "WASP!"

x.x.x Stork x.x.x

I dunno how long we'd been at it for now, but no matter how many Berserkers we (literally) cut down to clear out path it didn't seem to make a difference. I mean at first it seemed like we'd been getting somewhere; with Junko and Finn ploughing through them at the front and Piper, Stork and I lashing out relentlessly at any who tried to close in behind us, we were really making progress and suddenly victory seemed... attainable.

But that seemed like hours ago now.

The problem was there was so god damn many of them and only five of us. It was like if we beat one of them down, two more jumped forward to take his place. And a few times now I was certain I was embedding my axe in a Berserker I thought I'd already dispatched (then again the all sorta looked that same, so maybe that was just my imagination). These bastards just wouldn't die and we were starting to get overwhelmed, surrounded in all directions by slathering, ravenous demons that knew nothing of the word mercy. And we'd already taken a few minor hits: Piper had a shallow gash on her upper arm that was bleeding steadily despite the wad of cloth Stork had managed to stuff in it while I held off our attackers, and Finn's brow had been split, spilling blood into his left eye and making it hard for him to see; half the time he had the eye squeezed shut entirely.

I myself was starting to feel the strain in my arms as I continued to swing my axe around like, well, an axe murderer. By no means was I wiped out or slowing down, fuck no, but it just reminded me that while our stamina waned and we took on more and more injuries it was just going to make things harder, and these guys just kept coming at us, like flies to a carcass.

I hated to admit it, because I'd always been a rather proud and independent girl, but we needed help, soon.

The butt of Piper's staff struck one Berserker in the stomach, momentarily stunning him with a zap of crystal energy and while he was still struggling to get control of his limbs I lashed out with a low arc that caught him right in the side, slicing almost entirely through his torso. His guts spilled forward onto Piper's feet and she leapt back in disgust before cracking another Berserker around the head with her staff. I swallowed down my nausea as the first Berserker collapsed into a pile of his own intestines and moved on to deal with the two other Berserkers who leapt over his dying body. Ahead of us Junko smashed a fist so hard into the face of one Berserker that his head snapped all the way backwards until it was lolling by a few strings of sinew between his shoulder blades. Junko grabbed the corpse by the arm and flung it towards a group of advancing soldiers, sending them tumbling backwards. Finn fired one his crossbolts at such short range to one Berserker that it tore right through his torso and took out another one behind him in a single blow. Okay, that was kinda cool.

I turned in time to see Stork, who was grappling with a Berserker of his own, nearly get decapitated as a second Berserker joined the fray. I hurled one of my throwing axes at him and it stuck right into his side, wedged between two ribs. I yanked back on the cord to retract it and the Berserker turned to me with a howl, lunging forward only to catch my second throwing axe right in the face. He staggered back for a moment and then kept coming at me, which you better believe freaked me right out. I mean my axe was stuck in his god damn face, some of the blade even embedded into one of his eyes and he didn't even seem to notice. I shook my unnerve off though and side-stepped at the last moment, yanking my throwing axe free and slamming my battle axe into his chest, causing him to double over as his chest cavity cracked open like an egg. My axe must have split right through some major arteries or something because he went down after that one, dead within an instant.

Something came rushing up on me from behind and I felt long, jagged fingernails digging into my skin all of a sudden as a Berserker grabbed hold of me while I was still trying to wrench my axe out of the decimated rib cage of my latest victim. I snarled and whipped my elbow into his stomach as he yanked me back, my battle axe slipping from my fingers. He barely seemed to notice that blow but my throwing axe got his attention as it bit deep into his thigh, blood spurting out around the head of my axe and soaking into my jeans. He let out a screech and attempted to tear it free but Piper was on top of him in a second, bashing him over the head repeatedly with fury burning in her sunset eyes until his skull was mulched beneath her blows. He collapsed, half dragging me down with him and as I moved quickly to get back on my feet I felt something slice through the skin over my ribs, not a deep cut but enough that I saw a flash of bone, the thin layer of flesh peeled back from one of my ribs. The pain surprised me so much I didn't even make a noise of complaint and hacked out with my other throwing axe at the Berserker who'd come up behind me, meaning to get at Piper. My axe caught in his hipbone and I made a move to slash his throat with my other one when suddenly he let out a bloodcurdling shriek and collapsed all on his own, a huge gash carved into his back so I could see his spines and organs and everything, his flesh burned and smoking slightly. Little strings of crystal energy crackled over his armour.

Shocked I took a step back, wondering what the hell had happened when I heard Cyclonis' voice tear through all the other horrible sounds that were blaring around me and making all her soldiers fall silent in one single sweep, like they'd all been turned to stone.

"I SAID NO ONE IS TO HARM THE GIRL!" she screeched, her voice riddled with fury and as ominous as thunder, piercing my eardrums. "HARM HER AND I WILL DESTROY YOU MYSELF!" Her Berserkers all seemed to flinch in wake of her wrath and for a moment everything was still. Then Cyclonis' eyes turned to me and her mouth curled menacingly.

"You know, I'm not sure I feel you're safe down there, little Feonix. Perhaps you'd like to join me up here? I have the best seat in the house after all." She suggested and before I knew what was happening she was pointing her barbed energy staff at me, a line of red crystal energy hurtling towards me so quickly I didn't even have time to duck.

The energy hit me right in the chest and I expected to have all the air blasted from my lungs. The impact wasn't nearly as hard as I expected; it was like a sort of cushioned blow and the energy seemed to flow over me, coating me in a sort of crackling cocoon of crystal energy. It was hot and made my skin prickle like I was covered with static and I tried to shake it back, jerking away. But then I was abruptly lifted from my feet, entire body encased in energy and as much as I kicked and struggled it wouldn't release its hold on me, like I'd been swallowed by a giant amoeba.

Then I felt myself being tugged forward, over the heads of the Berserkers, drawn steadily towards Cyclonis like a fish caught helplessly on a hook. I shouted and fought against my constraints but it was like trying to fight back smoke, it wasn't solid, I couldn't break it.

Then Piper was in front of me, leaping high into the air with something blue clutched tightly in her hand. She punched her hand into the string of red energy and it simply broke as if she'd severed it with a blade and I dropped to the ground, legs barely catching me. Piper turned to me and wedged the blue thing securely under my chest plate.

"Hold on to that and her crystal won't be able to touch you." She told me quickly as Cyclonis shrieked in frustration.

"You've always been too smart for your own good, Piper!" She snapped. "I've had it with you meddling in my plans! Now DIE!"

Her staff was lowered at Piper this time and a bolt of energy came screaming towards her like a shaft of lightning. Piper pushed me behind her protectively but she had nothing to shield herself from Cyclonis' wrath and I felt myself cry out desperately but the words fell deaf upon my ears as I could only watch.

Out of nowhere something rushed up and placed itself in front of Piper and it was like a firework had exploded as a spray of crystal energy flowed over head of us like we were suddenly inside a giant bubble, shielded from harm. The wave of energy rolled over us and simply dissipated and Piper was still standing in front of me, completely unscathed and blinking in surprise.

And in front of her stood Wasp, her hands splayed wide in front of her like a telekinetic, her eyes narrowed and a look of triumph etched on her crooked face.

"Wasp!" I cheered, springing forward to sort of hug her, but I ended up just kinda crashing into her affectionately. She turned and smiled at me, patting my head.

"I told you I'd catch up." She said and I grinned wildly, elated that she was back with us and was for the most part unharmed; she had blood all over her face and her jacket was torn, but she wasn't supporting any obvious injuries and I felt relief sweep through me, giving me fresh strength.

"Ugh, you!" Cyclonis snarled down at her, annoyance thick in her voice. "You've gotten in my way one too many times!" She seemed to notice the state of hesitation her Berserkers were in right around then and bared her teeth at them in aggravation. "Well don't just stand there, attack! Kill the others but do not harm the girl!"

Wasp pushed herself in front of me as the horde of Berserkers came back to life, pouring down on us with renewed intensity, lashing out with her machetes and ripping through the front line in a surge of torn flesh and gushing blood, hacking at anything within range and snarling like a savage creature from the underworld. I darted back quickly and retrieved my fallen battle axe, cleaving the arm from one Berserker that reached out for me, and shoved my way over to her side, swinging my battle axe around in wide arcs and slicing through muscle and bone alike. Through all the carnage and confusion I tried to shout to Wasp to ask if she'd been able to free Angel from the crystal's stranglehold but I never got the chance, because Cyclonis chose that moment to hurl another bolt of energy at Wasp, who only just noticed it coming towards her in time. She crossed her machetes in front of her and held her ground as the stream of raging energy seemed to collide with her, pushing her back a few inches as she strained against it and then it vaporized. In retaliation she hurled a charge of green energy back at Cyclonis, who simply batted it away with her staff as if it were nothing more than a troubling fly.

"I'll take care of her!" Wasp shouted to me. "You guys keep going, get to the stairs!"

I nodded and fell back a little, merging with the Storm Hawks once more. Junko pushed forward and once again started to physically plough his way through the wall of Berserker meat, his fist slamming into them repeatedly in wicked uppercuts that sent them reeling back, ribs utterly shattered and organs crushed by the force. Junko's arms were covered by nicks and cuts from the various blades the Berserks carried, lashing out at him before they caught the business end of his Knuckle Busters, but he barely seemed to notice them. Finn pressed himself to me briefly, fluffing up my hair encouragingly before slicing open the throat of a Berserker ahead of us with the bayonet on the end of his crossbow.

"I told you she'd be okay, didn't I?" He teased in my ear and I rolled my eyes, shoving him playfully and whipping one of my throwing axes at another oncoming Berserker. Finn took aim for Cyclonis herself and fired away, but she simply held up a hand and his crossbolt slowed on its course and then halted altogether before exploding harmlessly, far out of range to cause Cyclonis any damage. Well, shit.

"You want to play that way?" Cyclonis sneered at him. "Fine, I'll play!" And with that she sent a strike of energy charging towards Finn with a girlish laugh, as if all this blood and guts were fun and games to her.

Don't you dare hurt my Daddy you little bitch!
I grabbed Finn's elbow and yanked him back out of the way, standing in front of him defensively and hoping to god that Blocking crystal Piper gave me would be enough to hold back that oncoming bolt and not send me flying backwards in the process.

I needn't have worried about it though because Wasp stepped in front of me and caught the charge between her hands, gritting her teeth and slipping back into me a little but holding her ground. She didn't just deflect the charge this time though but seemed to collect it into a ball between her splayed fingers, her arms shaking with the effort. And then she threw it back towards Cyclonis, hurling it at her like a comet. Cyclonis seemed impressed but simply side-stepped the attack, letting the missile of energy crash into the stone wall behind her and dissipate harmlessly.

"Hmm, it seems you've gotten better since last time." She called down to Wasp, seeming genuinely sincere.

Wasp shrugged. "I've been practicing." She explained simply and Cyclonis nodded.

"I see. Well then allow me to test these honed skills of yours." And with that she lifted her staff high above her head and then whipped it downwards in one smooth motion, curling it around herself. A string of crystal energy trailed in its wake, attached to the barbed tip of her staff like a whip, snapping in the air sharply and sparking where it lashed against the ground, spitting little shards of energy angrily. I swallowed and glanced at Wasp but if she was startled by this new invention she didn't show it. She stood unperturbed and gripped the hilts of her machetes tightly in her boney fingers.

"Don't worry about me." She said to me. "Keep going, get to the crystal."

I felt uneasy but nodded anyways, slipping from behind her and joining Finn, who leapt back into the fray with the others. I kept on chopping and hacking my way through those Berserkers like they were a thicket of thorns but I kept one eye on Wasp the whole time as Cyclonis lashed out with her cord of crystal energy at her, the crack ripping through all other noises like a clap of thunder. Wasp dodged to the side of the first attack and hacked at it with both machetes as if it were a snake she could chop the head off of. Cyclonis recoiled her whip and lashed out again, the vicious, crackling thread slicing through the air and curling tight around Wasp's wrist. I felt my breath seize and made a movement to lunge over to her defence but Wasp seemed to have it under control; she yanked her arm back with a snarl and grabbed the coil of energy with her free hand, tearing it free and seeming to melt it beneath her fingers; the area on her forearm where the whip had seized her was red and inflamed, burned by the energy's intensity.

Cyclonis laughed like a cruel little girl, retracting her whip once again. "Very good! But how long can you keep that up I wonder?" and with that she lashed out once again, the line of energy striking towards Wasp like a viper. She hefted one of her machetes to block the blow, causing an eruption of green and red sparks to shower through the air upon contact.

I was distracted then, my view blocked as a cluster of Berserkers fell in on me, each with their gnarled hands clawing for me and I went ape shit on them, severing a hand right from the wrist with one of my throwing axes and then slamming my battle axe down in one nasty chop, cleaving one entire side of one poor suck off of him with the mighty head of my axe. Then I lashed out in a wide arc, ripping open the abdomens of two other Berserkers at once. I ducked as Junko's fist came roaring overhead and cracked the necks of not one but two Berserkers at the same time, like a grotesque sort of domino effect. He gave me a quick glance over then pounded his other fist down onto the head of another Berserker who was creeping up on Wasp. He crumpled like a squashed bug under Junko's awesome strength, spine probably broken into several pieces.

"Oooh, nice one!" Wasp congratulated, turning to take in the crushed foe behind her. Junko grinned back and slammed one of his large feet into the chest of another Berserker, stopping him dead in his charge. Wasp whipped out with one of her machetes and tore the head right off another Berserker, dodging out of the way of his collapsing body and then made a yelping noise as Cyclonis' whip snapped against her shoulder, tearing through her jacket and sending a misty spray of blood into the air in its wake. Wasp growled, rage glinting in her mix-matched eyes and she lunged for the fallen dagger her decapitated victim had dropped. She whipped it at Cyclonis with an enraged growl, sending it hurtling through the air to clatter to the stone a good six feet to Cyclonis' left, a complete and utter miss. Poor Wasp never had very good aim.

Cyclonis blinked at the dagger and then shrieked with laughter. "Oh my, that was devastating!" She cackled. "I'll have to remember to duck if you throw something at the person next to me!" Abruptly through her laughter was cut off as Wasp's second blow, a bolt of green crystal energy, caught her right in the chest and blasted her backwards. She didn't fall, which disappointed me, but she did double over and the brief look of shock that crossed her wane features was rewarding enough. Then the air around her seemed to grow dark and she screamed out in fury and rounded on Wasp with a temper that seemed to absorb all the air in the room, making my heart squeeze painfully.

"No more games!" She snapped and lashed out at Wasp one more time, the air sizzling in the wake of that fiery cord of energy, which seemed to be feeding off its master's anger and had grown thicker, the energy flaring to life and writhing as if it were made of snakes.

Like the strike of a cobra that whip lashed out faster than Wasp could avoid and it wrapped tight around her thigh, biting in and blistering her pale skin with its furious heat. Her hands once again moved to tear it loose but Cyclonis jerked her arm and sent a shockwave along the line of energy, zapping Wasp hard with a nasty shock of energy, turning her muscles to jelly and she collapsed.

"Wasp!" I yowled, leaping over to help and clutching both her wrists, trying to pull her back to her feet but a second pulse rippled along the cord and struck the both of us. I felt my muscles convulse and my grip turned slack, letting Wasp's wrists slide helplessly through my fingers. It was like being electrocuted, my joints signing with pain and my nerves no longer obeying my commands and I could do nothing as Cyclonis lifted her arm high, yanking Wasp from the stone floor and dangling her upside down above the heads of her monstrous army, all of them shrieking with delight and lunging into the air, clawing for Wasp like horrid, mutated cats leaping for a trapped bird. Wasp spat and hissed and snarled, gnashing her jaws fiercely and hurling down every curse she could think of, her fingers tearing at the cord around her leg. But another pulse of punishing energy made her go limp and Cyclonis tugged her towards her, drawing her towards the pedestal and letting her hang just in front of her, Wasp's fingers clawing for her face and falling just inches short.

"LET HER GO!" I screamed, smashing into the crowd of Berserkers furiously, carving through them in a desperate attempt to help Wasp, but the dais was still so far and there were dozens upon dozens of soldiers blocking my path. The Storm Hawks tried to assist me, shouting at Cyclonis and hacking through our enemy desperately, but despite our frantic efforts we couldn't seem to get any closer.

Cyclonis delivered another paralyzing zap and Wasp's body was wracked with spasms before she was dropped to the stone floor, trying to push herself to her feet but only making it to her knees, her body quivering and devastated by all those crippling blows.

Cyclonis' cruel laughter curled around us like a noose as she leaned forward and grabbed a handful of Wasp's matted hair, craning her head back so Wasp had no choice but to stare into her nightshade eyes.

"I told you didn't I?" Cyclonis taunted, her voice a menacing slither. "Look where you're petty weapons have gotten you; my powers have trumped yours this time, and I will not be as foolish as you; I will finish what I've started."

Wasp uttered a snorting noise, her feet scrabbling uselessly against the stone as she tried to get her legs beneath her, but her limbs were still battered and weak.

"So what do you have to say for yourself, dear Wasp, when all that you hold faith in has failed you?" Cyclonis asked, her voice dripping with poison and I wanted to wring her neck so badly it hurt, my heart pounding so furiously it was making my vision shaky.

Wasp blinked at her and then started coughing up this eerie sound in her throat. At first I wasn't sure what she was doing the noise she was making was so strange; she sounded like she was choking on something, her throat lodged with splinters. Her body started shaking and then I realized she was laughing, the sound growing in volume and making my skin prickle it was so uncanny. Then she retched slightly and I think she must have vomited, because she hunched up and a bunch of liquid splattered over the stone, causing Cyclonis to step back in disgust. But if she never opened her mouth, or at least, she kept her jaws clenched tight the whole time, bile leaking from between her needle sharp fangs and spilling in sticky strings to the floor. And she kept laughing the whole time, this horrible, wrenching sound like she was hacking up a lung or something.

Cyclonis shook her slightly, face contorted with disgust and confusion. "And just what do you find so funny?" She demanded.

Wasp looked up at her and her face split into a feral grin as she spat something to the floor at Cyclonis' feet. I couldn't see it from where I was but I later found out it was a small shard of crystal that had come up with the contents of Wasp's stomach.

Cyclonis stared at it for a moment, seeming confused, before her eyes narrowed with realization and she turned her scorching glare on Wasp, who simply grinned with a wild sense of victory.

"He does not belong to you anymore." She whispered and Cyclonis' face became livid, her eyes seeming to grow darker in her pale face. She shrieked and then stepped back, kicking Wasp's strong jaw and sending her sprawling onto her back. Then she lifted her staff high, the spiked tip hovering just above Wasp's chest, ready to stab right through her heart like she was offering some sort of sacrifice.

"NO!" I screamed and my heart seemed to implode in my chest as I realized there was absolutely nothing I could do to save my friend, that I was completely and utterly helpless and there was no way I could get there in time to stop that killing blow. She was going to die before my very eyes and I could do nothing to stop it.

But apparently somebody else could.

x.x.x. Angel x.x.x.

Everything else seemed to vanish and go black until I could only see the two of them on the far side of the Heart Chamber; Cyclonis with her horrid staff held high and waiting to plunge in for the kill and Wasp lying there, weaponless and seemingly unable to move.

And it was like everything went to shit inside me. It felt like my heart simply ruptured with pure, untempered rage and I forgot about everything else, that Falshade was still beside me and that Stork and the others were down there surrounded by Blitzkrieg, or Berserkers, or whatever the fuck we were calling them. All I knew was I'd already almost lost Wasp once today and it was in that moment when she was slipping away from me that I realized just how important she was to me, fuck I loved her and I could not just let her die. And now after all of that, after everything the two of us had been through, I was about to lose her again anyways.

And I was not just going to let her die here, be killed by that wretched girl who'd already fucked up almost everything else. I was not going to lose her.

You will not hurt my Wasp.

My wings snapped open so quickly I nearly thwacked Shade around the head and then I was gone, the length of the chamber seeming like nothing as I whipped overhead of her bloodthirsty horde, body moving on its own accord, fury sluicing feverously through my veins and giving me strength, lending me speed.

And she didn't even see me coming.

Her speared staff was driving down for Wasp's chest when I slammed into her, feet first and I felt pure satisfaction sweep through me as my entire skeleton rattled with the force of my boots slamming hard into Cyclonis' thin chest. I saw the shock on her face briefly as she was sent reeling backwards, crashing hard into the stone and sliding backwards several feet. I hit the stone hard too, scrabbling to get back on my feet and I saw her staff rolling along the black stone not too far away, the crystal at its tip glowing menacingly. I chased after it and raised one foot, slamming it down hard and crushing the crystal beneath all the spikes it was cradled in. With a crunching sound it shattered under my foot and I felt like I was stepping on a small animal, its skeleton collapsing under my weight. I heard Cyclonis screech at me and I saw her getting to her feet from the corner of my eye. And for a second there I held her gaze and felt all her fury, felt every fibre of her being trying to reach into me and grab that crux of control she'd had on me in a stranglehold, clawing for some grasp of power. I felt the intense desire to punish, to agonize, to bend me back into her will, to clutch me tight in her bony fist. I felt it all simply pass through me harmlessly, sweeping through the empty place Wasp had torn into my chest and a feeling of pure liberation flooded me, like I'd cast off something that had been dragging me down my entire life. And I couldn't help it, I felt way too good inside not to; I smirked at her, holding her eyes and hurling all the demand for control back at her, unrequited. I saw the realization that she'd lost her grip on me smoulder in her eyes, enraged defeat passing over her face and a wild sense of triumph and satisfaction filled me, giving me a fresh wave of energy. I suppose I'll always be a jackass that way.

But then I turned and all my attention was directed to Wasp, who'd rolled over and was trying to get her legs underneath her, but they were shaking like a foal's and she couldn't stand very far at all without tumbling back down again. I made my chest ache to see her like that; she was usually so strong, fierce and indomitable and to see her trembling like a weak little kitten was just heart wrenching.

Cyclonis had her staff back in her hands and even without the crystal it was still a deadly weapon. She was coming towards us, lashing out with the barbed tip and I lunged forward, scooping Wasp up in my arms and leaping into the air, Cyclonis' staff just missing the both of us as she jabbed at us furiously. I dodged a bolt of crystal energy that was hurled at us by one of her soldiers from below and swooped into one of the higher tunnel entrances, falling to my knees and examining Wasp for injury.

"Wasp." I said, shaking her softly. "Wasp?"

She shifted in my arms and blinked at me curiously as if she were confused about what was going on. Her body was being wracked by weird little spasms and I was worried at first that she'd hit her head or something. But then she seemed to be able to get me in focus and a smile crawled slowly over her face and relief flooded through me so intensely it made my legs feel weak.

"Hey." She said, her voice sort of raspy but pleased none the less.

"Hey." I said, pushing my fingers through her tangled hair and trailing them along her neck. "You okay?"

"I'm still breathing, aren't I?" she pointed out with a grin, shifting and rolling out of my arms, drawing her knees under herself and trying to pull herself up, clinging to the wall for support. I pushed myself under her arm and lifted her to her feet; she managed to stay standing this time but her legs were wobbly and her body was still quivering as if she were freezing cold.

"Where are the others?" she asked, clutching at my arm as she staggered slightly.

"Down there." I pointed across the Heart Chamber; at first I didn't recognize Stork with her hair the way it was, but I could see Falshade fighting against the onslaught of Berserkers as if he'd done nothing else all his life. He'd made his way over to Stork and the group of people she was with, the Storm Hawks I figured. They seemed to be holding their own well enough but Cyclonis was furious now and screamed at her demons to press in harder, demanding that they tear apart everyone but Stork.

"We've got to get over there." Wasp said and I nodded but then glanced at her as she shook at my side, her muscles still wracked with spasms and she didn't have her weapons either.

"You think you can make it?" I asked worriedly.

She wrinkled her nose. "Of course I can." She insisted. "The feeling's coming back, look, see?" She flexed her fingers in demonstration.

"Hmm..." I didn't get a chance to argue with her though because another bolt of energy came careening towards us and I pulled her down in a duck as it smashed into the stone over head. I hurled a bolt of my own back down in retaliation and realized we'd attracted a crowd, a large chunk of Cyclonis' drooling minions who were pooled under our tunnel, clawing at the stone and howling at us, black eyes rolling with delirious bloodlust.

I looked back at Wasp, who was testing her legs carefully, jumping up and down a little bit. She saw me watching her and smiled. "See, I'm okay." She said, jumping a bit more as if to prove it. She still looked a little wobbly to me, but I knew better then to argue with girls by now when they had their mind set on something.

I blew out a sigh and tossed her one of my sabres. "Alright well if you get in trouble just holler." I said as she stepped over beside me; her knees were knocking together a little still but she was standing on her own and what was more she had that maniac grin of hers plastered over her face that let me know she was more than ready for a brawl.

"Well..." I said, pulling her into my chest with one arm and spreading my wings once again. "Let's rip these guys a new asshole, shall we?"

I know, real romantic of me, right?

And we jumped, dropping free of our little hidey hole and falling into the thick of the Berserkers below us, my wings slowing us just slightly so we didn't just smack into the ground. The moment the floor was under our feet they were on us and Wasp sprang away from me, full of fight once more and she lunged forward, fangs bared and plunging my sabre up to the hilt in the chest of one Berserker. I lashed out a second one, tearing his throat open and kicking him back into his comrades, slashing at another who attempted to chop my arm off from the side. Wasp and I stuck close to each other as we carved our way into the horde and it was like we sort of became extensions of each other, one complete person who ripped apart our enemy together, like we were born to do this sort of thing. I had her back and she had mine and together we mowed those bastards down, blades moving in sync with one another's. It was like I didn't even need my other sabre; she was my empty hand and if I needed defence on my left she was at my side in a heartbeat, slashing and stabbing into any Berserker flesh I couldn't reach. And if she needed me at her open side then I was there, back pressed up against hers and hacking apart any soldier who was stupid enough to get too close. Fuck I knew we were in a god awful situation and underneath the adrenalin that was racing through me I knew there was fear in me somewhere, fear for her, fear for the others, fear none of us would get out of this place, but I couldn't feel that right then; I couldn't feel fear or the strain in my muscles or the ache from my chest wound. I don't think I'd ever felt more recklessly alive then I did right then, pressed to Wasp's side and fighting for our lives, my blood on fire and hammering in my veins. The hatred and confusion that had clotted up my head like tar for what felt like years was finally gone, that crystal was out of me and my body was my own again, I was no longer drowning in my own chest. I was back with my friends fighting on the side I was meant to be on and fuck it if it meant I might be killed today, I was filled with this psychotic sort of happiness about it. This was where I was supposed to be, this was what I was meant to do. I was taking all the bad things back, one fucking Berserker at a time and I felt so fucking good it was almost scary. Almost.

I dunno if Wasp picked up on my euphoric vibes or what, but at one point she backed up into me and threaded her free hand through mine while we were still going ape shit on these guys and I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, catching the grin that was gleaming on her face, her beautiful face.

And I knew it for sure right then; maybe not in this sort of situation, covered in blood and gore and fighting for our own survival, but this right here, together with this girl, this was where I was meant to be. This was where I belonged.

x.x.x Stork x.x.x

I don't know where he suddenly came from but Angel was there, streaking across the chamber like, well, a dark sort of angel and he crashed into Cyclonis so hard I wanted to scream with laughter. I mean it was just so perfect, watching her fly backwards, shock etched over every feature on her pallid face, her own little puppet having turned on her. It didn't even click with me right away that oh hey, Angel's back on our side now? It was just so natural to see him fighting against the enemy instead of with them, like the whole time he'd had that crystal in him, poisoning him against us, had been a terrible nightmare and waking up he was back to normal, like it'd never happened. Except for the wings. He still had those.

And it's a good thing he did because he was able to get Wasp out of there and ecstatic relief exploded so fiercely in my belly I wanted to cheer like an idiot. Wasp was okay and she'd been able to get Angel back to himself; how could things get much better, given our current situation?

Having Falshade suddenly appear at my side certainly did the trick.

I blinked at him, stunned to see him; luckily he wasn't so dumbstruck and stabbed Sliver into the face of an oncoming Berserker, showering us both with gore as the thing howled and collapsed at our feet.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, my heart thundering with happiness. This was how things were supposed to be after all.

"Nice to see you too." He said, pretending to be insulted and I was gonna swat at him when we both had to leap back out of the way of a wide sweep of a long sword, the tip just grazing our bellies. The Berserker wielding the thing sneered at us, gnashing his pointed teeth and swung it back again for round two, but Falshade caught the blade with Sliver, holding it back long enough for me to lunge forward, swinging my battle axe over my head and chopping right into his shoulder, severing the arm holding the long sword. The Berserker shrieked in pain as blood spurted in long bursts from the stump of his arm and I felt slightly ill. Falshade moved in and put him out of his misery, slicing his throat open and kicking him down away from us to let him bleed out on the stone floor.

Now that's teamwork, man.

"Seriously, what happened to the whole diversion thing?" I asked, hurling my throwing axe at a Berserker that was rushing towards Piper and hooking it in his spine.

"Well we couldn't let you guys have all the fun, could we?" He pointed out, smiling grimly but sincerely nonetheless and I smiled back, glad to see him despite everything.

"Where are Varan and Fraggle?"I asked then, only just noticing the absence of the two of them and my heart was seized by intense fear.

"They're on a side mission." Falshade reported and I quirked an eyebrow, wondering what that could possibly be. Probably something insanely moronic, knowing Fraggle.

The two of us melded back in with the Storm Hawks, who had moved ahead of us slightly, fighting tooth and nail as the Berserkers pressed in closer, feeding off their Master's growing irritation with us. She was pacing back and forth along the edge of that platform before us like a caged animal waiting to strike. Her eyes seemed to be spitting venom down upon us, her knuckles white against her broken staff.

"Come on, get them!" she bellowed, her voice shaking the entire chamber. "You want to taste their flesh don't you?"

"Not mine you don't." Falshade growled, catching an oncoming blade with Sliver and then, with a quick twist of his wrist, cut the arm holding the thing off just under the elbow. I leapt to his side and slammed my axe head into the torso of another Berserker and once again getting the damn thing stuck in his chest cavity. I managed to yank it free and finish my victim with a blow to the head that cracked his skull right open, brain matter splattering free under the force of my axe. I glanced around and realized with a jolt of panic that I'd been separated from Falshade and the others, sort of cut away from them by a ring of Berserkers who were more interested in killing them then capturing me. I guess I had to admit I was sort of a boring target, as they couldn't really just try and hack me to pieces, which was what they were designed to do after all. So uninterested with me were they that I was able to cut a few of them down without them even making a move at me, like I was some pesky little insect being ignored in light of opponents they were actually allowed to chew on.

And that kinda pissed me off. On my list of Top Ten Things That'll Send Stork off the Deep End being ignored is pretty close to the top, right under mechanical abuse and Angel.

So I really let hell loose on those guys as if to prove to them that I was something to concern themselves with and to get them to lay off the others too. Nobody was going to be dining on my god damn friends, not on my fucking watch.

I lashed out with a vicious uppercut with my battle axe that completely tore the abdomen open on one poor sucker, spilling shredded organs onto the floor in front of me with a horrible range of splattering sounds. Of course the god damn guy didn't die right away and I lashed out with one of my throwing axes, which bit deep into his throat and let his dark blood come pouring free. He yowled at me and blood dribbled down his chin as he drowned in it, choking on his own blood. He staggered forward, clawing at me and I backed up in disgust as he collapsed, his hands trying to grip desperately at my shirt and coughing blood all over me. Completely revolted now I aimed a snap kick at him, connecting solidly with his head and cracking it to the side, finally finishing him. Another Berserker came roaring up on me then, having waited for me to finish off this last guy before springing on me, holding off my battle axe with his own sword and crashing right into me, his ragged nails digging into my arm as he grabbed me, pulling me into his chest and dragging me backwards through the horde, pulling me towards the platform. I kicked and shrieked and then finally got my wits back and slammed my other throwing axe deep into his hip, catching the joint and locking the bone together. He grunted with surprise, his left leg momentarily rendered useless and as he bent to wrench my axe free I rammed my elbow right into his face, feeling his nose crunch with the blow. He let out a gargled howl and his grip slackened on me just enough that I could wriggle free, turning around and finishing him with a blow right to the stomach with my battle axe, going clean through flesh and intestines and severing right though his spine with a nasty hacking sound. I pulled my weapon back as he collapsed before me and lashed out immediately at the person standing behind him, expecting another attack.

What I didn't expect was for it to be Angel standing there instead, barely managing to deflect my blow with his sabre. The two of us stared at each other in surprise, our weapons locked and hanging in the air motionlessly as we stood like a couple of idiots, gawking at each other. It was weird seeing him up close all of a sudden like that; now I remembered what he'd been like before, the look that had been on his face as he sneered at me, attempting to take me away from the others and bring me to my fate at the hands of Cyclonis. I remembered those awful scarlet eyes and the hollowness that had been in them and it all passed through me in a moment of terrible fear and anger. But then that vision cleared and it was just Angel standing there stupidly, carefully lowering his sabre and raising his other hand in a sort of gesture of peace and I was so overwhelming happy to see him that I did something extremely idiotic and leapt forward, practically pouncing on him and wrapping him in a tight hug, ignoring the fact that oh yeah, there was a battle raging ruthlessly around us. I heard him utter a muffled grunt but then, after a moment of hesitance, he wrapped the arm not holding his sabre around me as well, rubbing his cheek against my neck with brief affection.

"Your hair looks weird." He muttered into my ear and if my arms hadn't been occupied with holding him at the moment I would have punched him in the stomach. I never got the chance to respond though because he abruptly snapped out of the little moment we were having and shouted "Shit!" right into my ear before dodging to the side, dragging me with him in a sort of half spin and ramming his sabre deep into the chest of a Berserker who came charging at us, broadsword raised high above his head to try and chop the both of us in half. His face contorted and he fell to the floor as Angel's blade ripped into his heart and Angel shoved me out of the way as his mighty blade came falling down, clanging hard to the stone just where I'd been standing.

"Thanks." I said, jumping over the fallen Berserker to smash the flat side of my axe hard into another oncoming soldier, blasting him back and busting apart his ribcage with the force. Angel nodded and then we both flinched as a trio of Berserkers went flying over our heads, crashing down farther back in the crowd. Junko pushed himself into the gap he'd made and relief swept over his face.

"There you are!" He said. "We should stick together!"

"Right." I said, tugging Angel along with me as we melded back in with the others once again. "Oh, yeah, Angel these are the Storm Hawks, Storm Hawks this is Angel, he's on our side again so, you know, don't kill him or anything."

"Thanks for the disclaimer." Angel grumbled and then staggered a bit when Wasp crashed into him a little more forcefully then I think she meant to.

"Here." She said, handing him his other sabre. "I've got mine back now." She said, sounding very pleased indeed by this and holding up her machetes in demonstration.

"Oh what, mine wasn't good enough for you?" he asked and she butted him in the shoulder with her head playfully before lunging back into the fray, ducking under Junko's swing to tear into a pack of Berserkers who were moving in on the Wallop. Angel, Falshade and I all pressed close to each other and for a second there it was just like the old days when the three of us would crash into each other all the time as we walked down the terra streets where we'd all met, acting like we owned the place, the whole world at our fingertips. But then we broke apart, Falshade springing forward to cut deep into the side of one Berserker and Angel chased after him, ducking under his arm as Falshade slashed out at another Berserker and punching both his sabres in under the first guy's breast plate and piercing deep into his chest cavity, finishing him. Man it was good to see those two back together; both of them would attempt to pummel me if they heard me say it, but those guys were just meant for each other.

Just then something happened that made all in proximity pause in their actions, looking around wildly and wondering what in hell had just happened.

From somewhere deep in the terra a rumbling started up, slowly at first and then growing louder and more intense by the second. The floor beneath my feet started shaking violently and the entire chamber trembled around us as the roaring sound became deafening, reverberating in my chest cavity and shaking the breath from my lungs. The Storm Hawks pressed closer together, looking around uncertainly as if expecting some new horror to reveal itself and several Berserkers shrieked in surprise. Even Cyclonis looked rather confused, clutching her staff tightly and backing up slightly towards the Eternity crystal, glancing at all the different tunnel entrances in turn.

Then there was a piercing, splitting sound and all heads turned towards the stone ceiling as a massive crack ruptured in the rock, spraying bits of gravel and dust and snaking along the ceiling in a long line, forking off here and there and ripping through the layer of stone as the cavern continued to shake.

Then with a crack that tore through the air like a gunshot the whole ceiling shifted and seemed to buckle as a huge chunk of stone broke loose, dropping down like a meteor.

"LOOK OUT!" Falshade shouted, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me backwards. I caught a hold of Stork in passing and the three of us darted back out of the way of the ton of falling rock. It smashed into the stone floor an instant later, setting off an explosion of dust and chipped rock and I shield my eyes from the debris as the floor bucked beneath us. Coughing I clung tight to Shade and Stork as the cloud of dust settled and I looked around frantically for signs of the others, praying none of them had been squished; I could see an arm sticking out from under the chunk of rock but I was pretty sure it was a Berserker's. I felt relief sweep through me when I spotted Angel and Piper not too far away, their mutual dark skin coated with a fine layer of grit. Junko backed away from the slab of stone, his mighty arms covering both his own and Wasp's head from any more rock that might come falling down and I was just about to start feeling lucky when I realized I hadn't yet seen Finn.

Oh god, oh god, oh god, no no no, not my Daddy, please no...

And then there he was, standing on top of this massive hunk of rock and whooping and shouting like a maniac, firing crossbolts at the stunned Berserkers below, laughing hysterically and throwing taunts down on them. Any who tried to climb up the rock to get him were immediately shot down and I felt both a mixture of relief and anger with him for scaring me like that.

Stork was quivering slightly at my side; I turned to check on him and noticed with surprise that he had a cut on his chest, not real deep but enough to allow blood to trickle steadily over his uniform. I wondered if he'd noticed it yet; surely if he had he'd be raving about all sorts of infections by now.

I touched his arm briefly and he glanced at me, shaking his head. "Your father is crazy." He informed me and I smiled grimly.

"Runs in the family." I explained. "What the hell happened just now?"

Falshade's fingers finally unwrapped themselves from the death grip they'd had on my arm. "That would have been our side mission going off." He said shiftily and I stared at him, wanting to know just what in hell this side mission had been. He glanced at me and the look on his face made my stomach clench uneasily; whatever they'd done I knew I wasn't going to like it.

"Oh god, what in hell did those guys do?"

x.x.x Varan x.x.x

My fingers were shaking slightly as I carefully inserted the copper tip of a delicate piece of wire into a small hole I'd made in the top of my last Rapture; the other ten were already hooked together to the bundle of wires I had sitting next to me on the table, like a whole bunch of nerve endings sprawling from different parts of the body. I'd been chewing on my tongue nervously and by now it was a bloody mess in my mouth, making that uneasy feeling quell in my stomach like it always did whenever I could taste blood. Or smell blood. Or see blood. For a medic I really don't have a very strong constitution. I pushed the wire as far as it would go, wedging the cooper piece between the two conductors; usually once the pin was pulled free of the device these two pieces of metal would snap together and a surge of energy would travel through the circuit, activating the explosive agents. I'd separated the two conductors until they held about a quarter of an inch apart and then carefully removed the pin, one explosive at a time, and believe you me that was one of the most nerve wracking things I'd ever done. But all the conductors had held and the distance was enough to wedge the wire between. I then tightened the two conductors until the held the wire in place and gently set the last explosive down alongside the others, tying the bundle of wires together with a strip of tape. Now that I wasn't holding anything that could ignite at any second in my hands my body felt free to start trembling like crazy as I felt sure at any second one of those wires would slip and the conductors would clash together, setting off a chain reaction of explosion. I let out a shaky sigh and rubbed at my temples, trying to calm my frazzled nerves. I really, really didn't like any of this. This god damn tunnel was freaking me right out, my claustrophobia setting in hard and my jumpiness only made things worse, as I was convinced my shaking fingers would screw everything up and set off the whole device way too soon, taking out Fraggle and I in the process.

And the anticipation was getting to me too; if I didn't succeed in blowing myself up by accident then we still had to deal with the army of Berserkers that had the others trapped in this Heart Chamber place, not to mention Master Cyclonis herself would undoubtedly be there as well. It just seemed to be like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. I was having a hard time seeing a good ending to this day and although I'd already accepted that, all this waiting for the inevitable to happen was stressing me out like nobody's business.

Oh well, at least it was good to be back in familiar territory...

Fraggle had remained silent since Angel and Falshade had left and I had a feeling he was silently parting with his beloved ship, trying to enjoy every second he had left with her as we moved further and further into the interior of the terra. My heart was aching for him and the whole time I'd been wiring up those explosives I kept asking myself why was I doing this, why didn't I just refuse to do it, to spare him having to sacrifice the Merlin? But my hands kept working on their own accord and I knew I could never refuse to do anything my friends asked of me, whether as simple as making them some waffles for breakfast or something as heart-wrenching as this. Once they had their mind really set on something I was powerless to try and sway them and so I just silently accepted the matter and tried to support them through it as best I could. I could say it's because I'm a rather submissive individual deep down, but I prefer to look at it like well, if it were me I wouldn't let them change my mind either, so I tried my best to return the favour.

I let out a deep breath, trying to steady myself once again and picked up my alarm clock, which was lying gutted a little ways away from my bundle of explosives. We had to use mine because as it turned out I was the only one of us who actually had one. Figures. I also had another conducting device sitting on the table, which would be inserted into the clock and the wires would all be hooked up to it. When the clock reached the time I had set for it (I was giving us an entire minute for cushion) it would trigger the conductor, sending a signal of energy through the wires to their respective bombs and naturally set them off. Or so I hoped; like I said, I'd never done this sort of thing before. And one little slip up could mean the whole thing would go up too soon... or not at all. I hoped if I did happen to screw up then the resulting effect would be the latter.

I had just finished hooking up my little conductor when Fraggle cleared his throat as if to warn me he was going to start talking; it still startled me anyways and I jumped and then flinched as the Raptures rolled slightly on the table top.

"Angel said first left after we left the first tunnel, right?" he asked me and I was too strung out to even roll my eyes at his atrocious memory.

"Yeah, first left and then go until we see a big shaft opening up in the ceiling." I reiterated and Fraggle snorted to himself, making me glance over at him to make sure he was quite alright.

"What?"

"Big shaft." He snickered and this time I did roll my eyes. Then again I was sort of pleased that despite everything, how dire our current situation was and that he was soon going to lose his most prized and treasured possession, he still at least could keep up his crude sense of humour. I suppose I really had to respect that about Fraggle and all things considered, I was glad I was with him right now; the Oracle had said his light attitude was infectious and it made my stomach unknot slightly just to hear him giggling to himself over there at the helm.

"You almost ready over there, eh?" He asked me, glancing over his shoulder to see how my work was progressing.

"Almost." I said, biting down on my tongue once again as I attached the cluster of wires to the back of my little triggering mechanism with excruciating caution, my eyes watering because I refused to so much as blink less I mess something up. I reached slowly for another piece of tape with one hand while holding the wires securely in place with the other and gently attached them to the rest of my alarm clock, letting out a shaky sigh of relief when it was finally completed. "There, that should about do it." I said, looking over my handiwork. God that had to be the worst IED I'd ever seen. Then again living with the Gargoyles had shown me a variety of improvisation over the years and none of them had ever seemed very impressive or safe at the time. And yet most of them had worked out in the end anyways. Except for the time Fraggle and Angel had tried to make their own deep-fryer on the stove with a pot of boiling oil and had nearly burned the kitchen down.

I glanced out the windshield at the gloom of the tunnel that pressed in from all sides, only lit up dimly by the Merlin's headlights. The tunnel walls seemed to be closing in on us, growing narrower the further we went and I hoped the Merlin wouldn't get stuck before we reached the tunnel mouth, because I had no idea how we'd get into it if we had to climb from the passage floor.

Fraggle glanced at me once again as I moved to stand beside him. "You know, maybe I should start making some noise, eh, get their attention a bit." He said, checking for my approval. The last thing my poor nerves wanted was excessive racket, but I nodded anyways and he leaned hard on the Merlin's horn, rattling our tunnel and any running adjacent to it with a continuous blare. Glancing past the runway I could see a few Berserkers stepping out from nearby tunnels below, chasing after the Merlin as she flew past, their eyes and fangs gleaming eerily in the brief passing of light.

"That's right, come and get it you creepy little bastards!" Fraggle hollered next to me as if he actually thought they could hear him. I felt my tail flicking about behind me uneasily as the tunnel seemed to squeeze in even tighter; I could hear the Merlin's outlying engines staring to scrape against the tunnel walls. Oh god I didn't want to think about would happen if we got stuck down here with those bloodthirsty monsters on our tail...

We almost missed the pipe entirely; Fraggle, as usual, was going way too fast given our tight quarters and I only just noticed the dark blotch coming up ahead in time. "There it is!" I said, pointing, and Fraggle slammed on the brakes so abruptly I nearly went careening right into the windshield. I turned in time to see our time-bomb skidding towards the edge of the table and lunged for it, catching it in my hands just before it hit the floor and closing my eyes tight, expecting the bloody thing to go off right in my hands. Thankfully it didn't and I set it back on the table gingerly, glaring at Fraggle.

He ignored my look pointedly and glanced upwards at the tunnel ceiling; the Merlin's roof was resting just beneath the dark opening, her engines wedged tightly against the walls, locking her hopelessly in place. She was stuck just as Fraggle had predicted she would be, trapped in her own grave and I felt a wave of sorrow and guilt flood through me. I rested my hand against the nearby wall, patting the steel as if the Merlin were some kind of faithful pet and not just a ship. When I really thought about it, she'd never been just a ship; she'd been our home, she'd been our place of security and she'd been with us through all our losses and victories. She was a part of the team really and the thought of leaving her forever made me indescribably sad, a sense of loss that cut deep into my heart.

I glanced at Fraggle, who had one hand rubbing over the controls and was looking down the Merlin's corridor with a forlorn expression on his usually cheerful face. He sighed and wiped at his nose, his ears drooping low and he swallowed a few times, fighting back tears.

"Well, this is it then, girl." He muttered, patting the steering a little bit. "Sorry it had to end this way, eh... I'm gonna miss you."

The Merlin seemed to settle and the riggings groaned as she did so, as if she really were alive and trying to communicate back to her pilot. I dunno what kind of message Fraggle took from that sound, but it must have been something that set his resolve because he sniffled, gave her one final pat and then turned to me, solemn but resolute.

"Alright, you ready to go then, eh?" He asked me and I nodded, securing my broadsword to my back and moving over to the table. Fraggle opened the door to the deck and waited, watching me as I carefully picked up my alarm clock and set the timer. "How much time we got there, eh?"

"A minute, hopefully." I said and then held my breath, closing out all sound around me as I paused for a split second, praying this would work and not send Fraggle and I to our death in a thousand little pieces. Then I pushed the button down, starting the countdown; the Raptures didn't blow up and I let out a breath of relief, backing away from the device and watching the second hand as it twitched over the clock face, counting down the seconds.

I turned, those quiet ticks echoing like bells in my head and rushed out the door onto the deck, Fraggle at my side. Below I could hear the group of Berserkers we'd attracted growling and shrieking at us, clawing at the Merlin's underbelly and trying to climb aboard, snarling at us. Fraggle hurled down several nasty comments at them, taunting them and I had to give him a bit of a shove to get him focused back on the task at hand. My mind had become a clock of its own, running through the seconds and it made my pulse pound wildly, anxiety thick in my veins, making my head spin slightly and I could barely seem to focus on what my hands and feet were doing as Fraggle and I clambered onto the roof of the Merlin. But my body seemed to be working on its own accord, propelling itself forward swiftly and powerfully, my usual clumsiness that was present in situations like this gone. I had to stoop we were so close to the ceiling and then the hole that led into the other passage was above us, a dark patch hanging above our heads like a portal to another world.

I had to give Fraggle a boost so he could grab the lip of the tunnel, hauling himself into the passage above. By now I figured over half our time was up and I was barely aware of what I was doing as I leapt up, claws clutching at the metal rim and I scrabbled against the floor, my body feeling way too heavy below me as I tried to pull myself into the tunnel. My arms were strong but I had nothing to really hold on to and my god damn tail was weighing me down. I started to slip back down and I panicked, thrashing wildly and sinking my claws into the metal floor, scoring deep ruts into the surface with a series of screeches.

Fraggle had my forearms then and tugged me forward with all his might, grunting with the effort but managing to drag me far enough forward that I could get a better purchase, swinging one leg and then the other up beside me, safely in the new passage.

Fraggle was tugging at me, trying to get me to my feet and I scrambled up, running alongside him through the dark as we tried to put as much distance between ourselves and the Merlin as possible. But despite all our efforts, we still didn't make it very far before our time ran out. And when it did it was like the whole world exploded around us.

The mighty shockwave hit us first, pitching us forward to tumble through the air, crashing back down onto the unyielding metal a good twenty feet from where we'd been standing and skidding along the smooth floor for several more feet, our bodies instantly bruised. The massive roaring sound came next, shaking the entire tunnel around us and completely deafening me as if my eardrums had popped. My ears were ringing and everything was muted to me as I turned to look for Fraggle and then finally there was the roiling wave of fire, rushing towards us like a creature made of pure flames, consuming the entire tunnel and leaving nowhere for us to shield ourselves from its monstrous heat. It was like the very doors of Hell had opened up to consume us and even if I could have outrun the thing I couldn't move a muscle, fixated by the advancing wall of fire.

Fraggle was a dark smudge against the blazing storm, his silhouette flickering in the heat waves as he jumped in front of me and I saw him hold his energy staff out in front of himself, jabbing it down against the metal floor, and with an explosion of blue light to contrast the fiery orange a cocoon of energy flowed over our heads, encasing us in a dome of ice. The mighty jet of fire collided with the outside of our shield and for a moment I thought it wasn't going to hold and we'd be completely incinerated. But then it washed over top of the protective dome, surrounding us as it blazed past us, the intense heat competing with the freezing shell created by Fraggle's Frost crystal and howling all around us like we were inside an erupting volcano.

And then it was gone, flowing past us and slowly dissipating further down the tunnel, the terra rumbling in wake of the colossal explosion, the ground trembling beneath my body and I prayed that the whole place wouldn't come crashing down on us.

I blinked a few times, my ears filled with static, and pushed myself to my feet shakily as Fraggle turned to me slowly, gripping his staff so tightly his palms were trickling blood. He had ice clinging to his face and jacket and he seemed to be slightly delirious, overwhelmed by all that had just happened.

"...Are you okay?" He asked me after a few moments and although I couldn't hear him yet I understood what his mouth was saying.

"Yeah." I said, nodding as I figured his sensitive ears had suffered even more than mine; blood was matting in the fine fur on the inside of his ears and I hoped he hadn't received any serious damage to his eardrums. "You?"

"Yeah." He said, wiping frost from his bomber jacket. I grabbed his shoulder to steady myself and shook him a bit to get his attention.

"Good idea." I said loudly into his ear. "You just saved both our asses."

He grinned slightly, clipping his staff back to his belt and then glanced back down the passage, hesitating and then stepping forward uncertainly, going back to investigate the remains of the tunnel below. I knew we had to hurry and catch up with the others, but I found myself following after him anyways. The upper tunnel we'd scrambled into had been decimated further back, torn open into one single, jagged opening that yawned out into the rest of the underground. I was surprised that the tunnel hadn't been ripped apart as far back as we'd stopped; the tunnel now opened up in one gaping mouth just thirty feet back down the way we'd come. Man we'd been lucky...

I gripped Fraggle's arm warily when we reached the ragged opening, the metal twisted and torn back by the explosion and some places still glowing orange from the furious heat. Together we leaned forward cautiously and looked out at the result of our explosion. I felt my eyes widen in awe when I took in the massive crater that had been carved from the terra's interior; it seemed to spread out in all directions further then my eyes could see, reaching down further into the roots of the terra and revealing more passages deeper down, torn open like arteries in a bludgeoned corpse. From somewhere above I could feel fresh air leaking in and there was light somewhere too, seeping in through massive cracks scored into the stone; it was a wonder the terra was even still standing at all. I felt like we were standing at the lip of an abyss, looking down into the underworld.

And there was absolutely no trace of the Merlin, not even a scrap of metal to prove she'd ever been there, our faithful little bird blown into oblivion.

Next to me Fraggle sniffled slightly then abruptly turned, motioning down the rest of the tunnel. Without a word I followed him as he took off down the passage; there was nothing left to see here anyways.

The metal floor was scorching hot beneath our feet and we tried to move as quickly as possible to avoid being burned too badly. We raced along through the dark, keeping close to each other so we wouldn't lose track of each other and heading deeper into the terra, which creaked and groaned around us now and then, still shifting and settling in wake of the explosion. Soon I could see a small point of light ahead, growing brighter all the time and my heart started pounding so fiercely it hurt. I was frightened what I might see when we reached the end of the tunnel; what if something had happened to one of the others? I didn't want to see one of my friends being torn apart by those demons and the thought that they might have been hurt in our absence made my throat close so tightly I could scarcely breathe.

I slowed when the end of the tunnel was mere feet ahead, my muscles seizing tight with fear and apprehension. Even from here I could see blades slashing wickedly and there was a reek of blood coating the air, making my uneasy stomach turn over. I hesitated, frozen there just within the tunnel mouth, trying to find some scrap of courage in my body but I felt like it all had been completely tapped out. I just couldn't handle any more of this...

Fraggle, however, felt none of the faltering that had consumed me. He sprang past me and crashed right into the thick of the Berserkers who had their backs to our tunnel with a vicious snarl, a fierce sound I'd never heard come from his mouth before. His hackles were up, his jagged teeth bared menacingly and he looked pretty damn intimidating then, a totally different creature then the placid goofball I was used to. He slammed into them hard and lashed out with his staff, cracking one unsuspecting Berserker around the head so hard it snapped his neck to the side with an obvious splitting sound, striking him dead in an instant.

"THAT ONE'S FOR THE MERLIN!" Fraggle yelled and as a group of Berserkers turned on him he kept right on going, cracking another's skull with another ferocious swing of his staff. "AND THAT ONE'S FOR THE MERLIN TOO!" He went on, smashing the Berserker's skull again when he didn't go down after that first blow. "AND THAT ONE'S FOR TERRA NORD!" Then he flipped his staff around and activated the crystal he'd placed in the other end; after his Striker had blown up that day at that outpost terra he'd replaced it with a Blazer crystal instead, to contrast with his Frost one at the other end. And he turned it on those Berserkers like a flamethrower, spewing a jet of flame into their midst and causing them to shriek and howl as the fire caught in their clothes and flesh, burning them continuously even as new skin grew back in place of the charred layers. "AND THAT'S 'CAUSE I"M JUST FUCKING SICK OF YOU HOSERS!"

I took in the carnage that was going on out there, watching Fraggle plough his way through the enemy ranks, setting more Berserkers on fire and hitting others with blasts of ice and then proceeding to snap their frozen necks with one good chop from his staff. I knew I had to get out there and help him but my body seemed rooted in place. I just... I just...

I grit my teeth tight and shoved all my hesitation down, reaching instead for the part of myself that I'd always feared, the powerful attributes that came with my heritage. My body had evolved to be able to kill, I was a predatory creature by nature and even if my heart didn't agree with that on most occasions, I knew I needed it today. I needed it to help my friends and I had to let go of the timid, peaceful Varan, just for a little while. I had to step into that more frightening aspect of myself, wield the formidable muscles and lethal claws my body had been equipped with. I'd seen the others do it time and time again; they could be deadly warriors when it was called upon them, unflinching and brutal and even downright vicious. But they also were kind and caring individuals too, when it wasn't called upon them to fight. They had a second skin they could slip into, become the fierce, fearless people they needed to be in order to survive and protect each other.

And I knew I could do that too. I had to. If there was ever a good use for my powerful, dangerous body, then this was it.

My hand closed around the hilt of my broadsword and pulled it free from its scabbard and I charged after Fraggle, side sweeping with my heavy blade and cutting through the bodies of two Berserkers in front of me. Another sprang at me with a snarl, his sword diving in for my abdomen and I lashed out with my free hand, claws ripping into his flesh and tearing his throat open in a single slash. His warm blood flowed down my arm, worming its way between my scales and it sickened me but I ignored the feeling, slamming the flat side of my broad sword into another Berserker and blasting him backwards before jabbing forwards, piercing deep into his chest. He screeched at me in rage and dragged himself forward, impaling himself further on my blade as he clawed at me, trying to reach me and I threw a punch at him, catching him in the jaw and cracking his head to the side, snapping his neck. And I just kept moving onwards, cutting my enemy down before me a little too efficiently for my liking. But I knew deep down this is what had to happen; these guys didn't believe in peaceful agreements or aiming to cripple and if I wanted to live through this day then I had to play by the same rules. So I just kept going on, like I'd been killing these guys all my life and this was nothing new to me. I caught up to Fraggle eventually and tore apart the Berserkers that he left wreathed in flames, putting the poor bastards out of their misery with a quick slash to their necks. Some of them kept on trying to attack us even while they flesh burned from their limbs and I hollered at Fraggle to be a little more thorough with what he was doing. He simply growled at me and dug his own nasty set of claws into the throat of a burning Berserker, tearing his jugular open. Jeez I'd never seen him this violent; he must have been really hurting over the Merlin and he was taking out his pain on these guys, tearing them down before him effortlessly, like he'd always fought this way and not from the helm of his beloved ship. It pained me to realize that he'd be fighting this way from now on.

"Hey!" I heard someone yelling above all the noise that was raging around me, and the ringing that was still in my ears, and spotted Finn standing atop a large hunk of rock not too far away, taking pot-shots at the Berserkers below. He waved his free hand at us to get our attention.

"Nice of you to join us!" he called and before I could think of anything to say a Berserker went down in front of me, his chest carved open by a mighty battle axe and suddenly a very pissed off looking Stork was standing in front of us and I almost forgot to be happy to see her.

"You-blew-up-the-MERLIN?" she screeched, her face red with fury. "Without consulting ME?"

"It wasn't my idea!" I said defensively.

Stork looked like she might just break down and bawl, after she was finished throwing her fit. "You're the explosive specialist!" She shouted accusingly. "And you're the one with all that common sense you're always raving about! Where was that just now?"

"Hey don't you be picking on Varan, eh." Fraggle snapped at her, in no mood for her bitching, considering it was his ship we'd blown to smithereens. "We almost got blown up too you know!"

Before Stork could say anything further a dark shape came plunging down from above and landed just in front of us; Angel's dark wings spread like a shield before us and he stabbed one of his sabres right into the open mouth of a Berserker who'd been charging towards us with a wicked mace in his hand. Angel rounded on us and looked like he wanted to hit all three of us at once.

"I know it's hard for you three, but would you stop being idiots and pay attention when some motherfucker is trying to kill you?" He snapped. Ah, there's our Angel, back to normal.

"Did you know they were going to blow up the Merlin?" Stork demanded of him, slamming the head of her battle axe hard into the torso of an oncoming Berserker furiously, cleaving the poor son of a bitch right in half. Fraggle turned his Blazer on another cluster of Berserkers and Angel backed out of the way of the flames, bumping into me slightly and eyeing the blood that was spattered all over my arms and torso and cocked an eyebrow.

"What happened to two wrongs don't make a right?" He asked me and I wrinkled my snout, feel a bit of shame spear my chest.

"Don't discourage him!" Wasp said, springing out of nowhere and slashing with both her machetes at once, carving a nearby Berserker into pieces. "I've been waiting to see this side of him!" She cackled, hacking at any bodies that came in to close and pinching my hipbone briefly when she had a moment to spare, looking at me seriously. "Don't worry Varan, we all know who you are deep down." She assured me and I felt grateful for her words. "Just sometimes-" she paused to ram one of her machetes up to the hilt in the stomach of another Berserker and then tear it to the side, ripping right though his organs and yanking her blade clean through his side. "You gotta get messy."

I knew she had a point there, but I didn't like how pleased she sounded about this fact.

I felt someone hit my arm and looked at Falshade, who was caked with blood but grinning nonetheless, obviously relieved to see Fraggle and I in one piece.

"You both alright?" He asked and I nodded reassuringly. "Good." He said and then plunged in alongside Fraggle, rubbing his shoulder briefly before joining the fray, Sliver weaving through the mass of blades and bodies effortlessly and biting deep into any Berserker who got in its way. I pushed my way over beside Stork and the two of us worked as a sort of team, one finishing the Berserker the other had already carved into, as it seemed to take two or more blows to get those monsters to stay down for good, unless you got a good shot at their necks. And despite everything, our grisly situation and the odds still stacked against us, I felt content, complete. We were all together again, the six of us fighting alongside each other; this was how it was meant to be and I had to agree with Falshade, I wouldn't have things any other way.

I hadn't even noticed Cyclonis standing atop the platform at the far side of the chamber until her enraged shriek reached our ears; she must have started to realize that we were putting up a decent fight, cutting down dozens of her mutated soldiers and it angered her.

"This is taking too long!" she thundered, her hands clenched at her sides. "I have had enough of all of you! RELEASE HYDRA!"

"Oh no..." I heard Angel mutter somewhere off to my left and I felt myself falter, pausing alongside the others as we stared across the chamber where a section of the stone wall was rolling back, revealing a dark holding cell behind it. And the thing that stepped out from that cell made the rest of us take a step back in shock, our weapons drooping slightly as we hesitated in face of this new horror.

This creature had to be at least fourteen feet tall, her body stretched grotesquely, her face resembling a wraith's, pale and skeletal, colourless eyes burning with an eerie, haunted glow. And protruding from her sides were three sets of arms; she had regular arms attached to her shoulders and then it looked like two additional pairs had been sutured to her ribs and stomach, unnaturally long and holding wicked, curved blades in each hand, making a total of six. She looked like a gigantic, monstrous insect and just the sight of her alone sent a shiver down my spine. And then, when she opened her mouth, which was filled with three rows of sharpened teeth, she let out a bloodcurdling shriek that made all of us flinch and clutch our ears, the sound tearing right into our skulls.

"What the hell is that?" Fraggle gulped, all the fury that had encompassed him dissipated in face of this horrible mutant.

"She's one of Cyclonis' creations." Angel said grimly. "Just be glad it isn't Kronos..."

"Hydra, my pet!" Cyclonis shrieked from her place on the pedestal. "Feed! Feed on those pathetic insects!"

The creature's grip tightened on all six of her blades and with another agonizing scream she came charging forwards, ploughing a line right through the horde of the Berserkers, coming right for us. Finn hit her with one of his crossbolts but she didn't even seem to notice. She just streaked forwards, strings of saliva spilling from her gnashing jaws.

Angel looked over at Wasp, who nodded and hefted her machetes readily and then looked at the rest of us. "Go." He said, shoving Stork into Falshade and motioning towards the stairs that were carved into the side of the platform. "You four go with the Storm Hawks, get to that crystal. We can take care of her."

Falshade looked unsure, hesitating. "But-"

"Just do it!" Angel snapped at him, pushing Fraggle, who was looking a little stunned, towards him too, trying to get us moving. "Give me a chance to redeem myself here, Shade. Go on, get going, now!"

With a final glance at him Shade nodded and tugged Stork and Fraggle along, lashing out at the Berserkers who pressed in towards them. Fraggle seemed to snap out of it and hit a few with a blast from his Frost crystal, freezing them in place so Stork could hack them apart with her battle axe like they were frozen chunks of meat. I chased after them, glancing over my shoulder at Angel and Wasp who stood side by side, their blades gripped tight and ready at their sides, a mutual fire burning in their eyes. Hydra shrieked in malicious delight as she reached them and lashed out with three of her blades at once and the two of them exploded into action, Angel blocking with both his sabres while Wasp held off the third blade and dove in with her free machete for Hydra's abdomen. The creature let out her ear-shredding howl and blocked Wasp's attack with another of her blades, attempting to severe the Faerieshian's spine with a fifth blade but Angel caught her sword with one of his own and lashed out at her instead, letting Wasp get out of the way and block the blade that dove for Angel's ribs. It was like the two of them knew exactly where the other was going to be, mirroring each other's movements and protecting each other's exposed bodies when one of them had both swords locked with Hydra's. It was sort of entrancing actually, watching the two of them weave around each other, wielding their twin blades expertly and fighting alongside the other like they'd been doing it all their lives.

I turned back to the others, lashing out at a Berserker who was trying to push past Fraggle, one hand clawing towards Stork; Fraggle had him locked in position with his staff but didn't seem to be able to throw the guy off and he was slowly being pushed backwards across the floor. Until I stepped forwards anyways; with one downward stroke my broadsword sliced through both of the guy's arms, cleaving them off just above the elbows. I watched the stumps of his arms, hands still clutching his swords, fall almost as if in slow motion and I thought for sure I was going to throw up as the nerve endings continued twitching on their own on the bloody floor.

Fraggle jabbed out with the butt of his staff, catching the screaming Berserker right in the forehead and snapping his head back before turning to me. "Thanks for that there, eh." He shouted to me, his hearing evidently still out of whack. Then he quirked an eyebrow, looking concerned. "You alright there, eh? You're looking kinda green."

That snapped me out of it and I gave him a pointed look. "Don't I always look green?" I asked him seriously and he grinned, laughing at himself. The next second though his eyes opened wide in alarm and I only just managed to duck as he fired a bolt of ice over my head and right into the chest of a Berserker who'd been charging up behind me; he froze just behind me, stuck in position with his own broadsword held high above his head, prepared to come down and slice me right down the middle. Before I could even make a move to finish him Stork leapt up beside me and slammed her battle axe hard into the frozen Berserker's stomach, splitting the unfortunate creature's abdomen wide open. And the poor bastard couldn't even scream.

Then from behind us we heard that horrible shriek pierce the air once more at around the same time I heard Angel howl "WASP, NO!" and fear tore through my chest like a shard of ice.

The three of us turned in alarm to look back at Hydra, who had a fountain of dark mutant blood spurting in a steady shower from a severed stump on her left side. Below Wasp was standing, completely unharmed and with a look of wicked triumph on her feral face, brandishing one of the creature's severed arms like a war trophy in her hand. The limb was still twitching and I felt my stomach clench like I was going to be sick.
"Lookie what I've got!" Wasp taunted, her face split in a savage grin. "One down, five to go!"

"Wasp you bloody idiot!" I could hear Angel seething and Wasp wrinkled her face, looking confused. And then she stepped back in shock, a look of dread stealing the smile from her blood streaked face.

The stump that remained attached to Hydra's side began to quiver and swell, the stream of blood slowly trickling to a halt. And then, in a series of quick, disjointed motions, like watching the sped up process of a tree growing, three separate stalks of flesh shot out from the original stump, flailing outwards and thickening, forming into three more wriggling limbs. In a matter of seconds three new, completely developed arms were sprouting out from where the original had been. As one all three new arms reached back and pulled three new blades from Hydra's back; she had dozens of them strapped to her, all ready and waiting to equip fresh, empty hands. Hydra examined her new appendages for a moment and then her distorted face split into a demented grin, strings of saliva spilling from her rows of fang as she stared down at Wasp and Angel with savage delight, all eight blades held high and gleaming wickedly.

Well shit...

"Don't cut off any more arms!" Angel shouted at Wasp, dodging to the side as three of Hydra's blades swung towards him, trying to dice him up like a hunk of meat.

Wasp was still staring in shock, her eyes wide and disbelieving. "...It's supposed to be for her head!" She said, sounding outraged. "Hydra was the one with the regenerating heads!"

"Yeah, well, this one's with arms!" Angel snapped, darting back over and pushing her slightly, trying to get her moving once again. "So just don't cut anymore of them off, okay?"

The two of them had to split up as Hydra bore down on them, chasing after both of them with two blades each, advancing on them and cutting off any retreat with a wall of limbs and swords, keeping them from getting out of her range, like a wolf herding sheep. I lost sight of them a moment later though because a wave of Berserkers who'd been behind Hydra came rushing up on the rest of us, pressing in on all sides and for a moment I couldn't even get my broadsword up in front of me, it was pinned between me and Stork who I'd been crushed up against. But then Junko's massive body carved through their ranks and with several flashes of green his mighty fists sent a dozen of them flying backwards and I was able to move forwards once again, lashing out at the wall of flesh in front of me and trying to ignore the splatters of gore that splashed onto my scales. I just let it all pile up in some place deep down in my guts for now; I knew later (if there was a later) I was going to be wracked with sickness and shivers for hours for repressing all this unease and nausea, but right now I couldn't let it affect me, I needed to stay strong and ruthless.

I found myself next to Piper amidst all the chaos and she glanced up at me briefly and grinned before suddenly being sent tumbling into my torso, a Berserker having smashed her willowy frame with the flat side of his own large broadsword. She staggered, blinking in shock and pressed one of her delicate hands to the cut above her hipbone, staring at her bloodstained fingers in surprise. I stared at it too and something suddenly jolted violently in my chest; something about Piper reminded me of what I could remember of my mother and seeing the blood roll from her long fingers triggered something in me, something buried under the fear and scars I'd been left with after that terrible day on Bogaton.

I was barely aware of my own actions as I stepped forward, gently pushing Piper to the side and reaching out with my free hand as the Berserker who'd attacked her came back for another round, jaws gnashing about as if they'd been dislocated. His broadsword came sweeping towards me but my arm was longer then his and he stopped dead in his tracks when my clawed hand found his throat, closing completely around his neck. He snarled at me, struggling and attempting to rip my stomach open with his broadsword but I caught his arm before his blade even got close, bending it around the wrong way until his sword feel from his twitching fingertips. He shrieked and spat at me, kicking and clawing the air in front of me and then suddenly all his motions ceased as my hand clenched down, gripping his throat so tightly I felt my claws bite into the back of his neck. He choked and uttered a gargled yowl, shaking weakly in a pitiful attempt to break free but I refused to let go. I just kept on squeezing, feeling his pulse struggling under my palm and his windpipe closing under my monstrous grip. His eyes bulged grotesquely from his head and his lips started turning blue as he wheezed, gasping uselessly for air before there was a strange popping feeling in his neck and he collapsed in against the grip I had him in, dead; I must have broken his neck.

I let him drop to the floor, a cold feeling sweeping through me for a moment before simply vanishing, leaving me with nothing but the unsteady pounding of my heart. I stared at my hand uncertainly, flexing my fingers and wondering where that vehemence had surfaced from in me. Then I felt Piper's hand on my arm and glanced at her, feeling strangely... fine, all things considered.

"Are you okay?" I asked, glancing over her wound briefly, the medic side of my flaring to life.

She nodded. "Just a scratch." She assured me, looking me up and down quizzically. "Are you okay?"

Before I could even think of an answer her orange eyes widened and she cried "Look out!", raising her staff in defence but I moved quicker; in one swift movement I snatched up the Berserker's fallen broadsword and whipped it at the oncoming Berserker. The blade sliced through the air and cut straight through his neck, severing his head from his shoulders and continuing on its trajectory to sink deep into the chest of a second Berserker, who shrieked and then collapsed, blood bubbling from his mouth.

"...I don't think so." I muttered, my tail flicking at me side uneasily. "I'm usually not this good at this kinda thing..."

Just then I was distracted as another agonizing screech rose from Hydra's throat and I craned my neck around and looked back to Wasp and Angel anxiously and noticed they'd started to look like they were in trouble. Hydra now had a totally of ten arms, three new ones sprouting from the elbow joint of one of her older ones. As I watched I realized the monster was purposely attacking the two of them in a way that forced them to cleave off her arms whether they wanted to or not; only moments later Angel hacked off another one of her arms by accident, attempting to block her blades and severing one of her other limbs in the process. Now the hideous creature hade twelve blades all bent on hacking the two of them to pieces and they were getting overwhelmed, caged in by a wall of blades and regenerating limbs.

I felt Falshade push by me slightly, looking like he was prepared to carve a way back through the bloodthirsty horde and back to those two maniacs to help them; I made a move to follow after him for backup and Piper chased along after me as well. But even as we moved in to assist them Wasp and Angel seemed to have everything under control; Angel ducked in to mutter something quickly into Wasp's ear before weaving his way in under Hydra's flailing blades, his small stature allowing him to weave through the gaps in her defences while Wasp kept the creature distracted. I had no idea what he was doing as he moved right in close next to Hydra's unnaturally long legs until he flipped one sabre around in his hand, holding it like it was a large knife and then stabbing it deep into her thigh, punching right through the muscle until the bloodstained tip protruded from the inside of her leg. Hydra shrieked in fury and lashed out at him, two of her hands reaching down to try and tug the embedded blade free from her leg. Angel darted past her wicked blades, leaving his first sabre where it was impaled in Hydra's leg and then stabbing his second sword into the back of her knee, punching clean through her knee cap. Hydra howled in agony and went for Angel with more than half of her arms at once, shredding two Berserkers who were standing too close in the process as she chased after Angel, who darted through the thicket of her blades as if this whole thing was a game.

While she was distracted by him Hydra never even noticed Wasp, who grabbed hold of one of her ghoulish forearms as it swept by in the pursuit of Angel and was lifted from the ground and Hydra swung back around, screeching in frustration at Angel, who was dodging from here to there with ease, ducking under her blows and pulling his first sabre free only to ram it deep into her calf, shouting taunts at her the whole time. Wasp scrambled among the tangled collection of Hydra's arms like a monkey, climbing higher and clinging tightly as Hydra lunged for Angel again, stabbing downwards with three of her blades and quite suddenly Angel had run out of luck, pinned in a sort of cage by the three blades she'd plunged into the stone floor and facing another three as they came rushing towards his abdomen.

At the last moment though Hydra let out her most ear-splitting screech yet and reared up, her blades just missing Angel as she staggered back, staring down instead at her own belly. Wasp had one of her machetes embedded to the hilt in her stomach and before Hydra could even get a stab in towards her Wasp swung her blade across like she was drawing a giant, smiling mouth in Hydra's stomach, ripping the creature's flesh wide open and allowing her intestines to come spilling free in spools after spools. I had to turn away, feeling bile burn all the way up to the back of my teeth and thought I was going to get sick for sure this time.

Hydra staggered slightly, staring down in shock at her own spilt organs that were pooling over the floor at her feet, leaking blood and digestive juices over the stone. Angel recoiled in disgust when a wave of stomach acid ran over his boots, making the soles bubble and hiss. However it seemed after she got over her initial shock Hydra barely seemed to care that her intestines were dragging along the floor; she made a jerky move forwards, trying to pull Angel's sabre from her knee but finding it locked in place by the joint and howling in rage.

Wasp, who was still hanging from one of Hydra's arms, stared with wide eyes before blinking and then crying "I knew it!" She jabbed one finger towards us. "See, see I told you it wouldn't kill you!"

"WASP!" Falshade shouted but his warning came too late; Hydra finally noticed the little passenger who was clinging to her appendages and with a roar flung her away, sending Wasp reeling through the air to crash right into Angel, the two of them tumbling head over heels backwards. Hydra lunged forwards, stabbing at both of them and Wasp just barely managed to hold the blades off with her own, throwing her arm over Angel, who was still weaponless. He rolled to his feet and tried to dart in once again but Hydra was furious now and launched a side swipe at him that nearly cut him right in half.

Falshade suddenly stopped next to me and yanked one of the remaining Raptures I'd given him from his belt. "FINN!" He shouted, waving his arm to get the Storm Hawk's attention. Finn looked over, pausing in the act of reloading his crossbow. "GIVE THIS TO ANGEL!" Falshade hollered, throwing the Rapture over the heads of the surrounding Berserkers towards the sharp shooter. Finn caught it and turned on his high vantage point, cupping his free hand around his mouth.

"ANGEL!" He shouted and as Angel looked over at him he cocked his arm to motion he was going to throw. He hurled the Rapture towards him and damn he really did have good aim because it landed directly in Angel's outstretched hand. Angel needed no prompting; tearing the pin free he hurled it into the cavity Wasp had torn in Hydra's stomach even as the creature attempted to stuff a handful of her slippery intestines into the healing wound. Then he grabbed Wasp by the arm and dragged her back several feet before pulling her in tight to his chest and turning his back on Hydra as she bore down on the two of them, screeching in victory, all twelve arms coming in for the kill. At the last second Angel wrapped his glossy black wings around Wasp like he was forming a shield around the two of them. And then the Rapture exploded.

It was probably one of the most gruesome things I'd ever seen in my life, which by now is really saying something: chunks of flesh, intestines and bone were thrown from Hydra's body like shrapnel, her torso stretching wide open as the blast tore her body apart, ripping apart anything in its path as if it were made of paper. Wasp and Angel and any surrounding Berserkers were showered by the projectile gore, blood spraying through the air in gushing spurts as Hydra uttered a gurgling shriek and collapsed backwards almost in slow motion, her torso utterly decimated.

"NO!" Cyclonis screamed, her eyes wide and practically oozing with venom. Angel shifted his wings slowly from the protective shell he'd formed with them and assessed the resulting damage, releasing Wasp and then pulling a face when he realized despite her destroyed abdomen Hydra was still twitching and emitting choking noises, fingers clutching for some sort of hold.

"You gotta be shitting me." He growled, tearing one of his sabres free from her knee and leaping over her quivering tangle of arms to reach her head, plunging his blade deep into her throat and putting the creature out of her misery with one final, gasping shriek. As he retrieved his other sabre a wall of the Berserkers, who'd been standing hesitantly in a wide ring around Hydra, out of range of her flailing swords, moved in towards the pair in a rushing tide. Angel pressed up against Wasp's back as they prepared to take on this fresh wave of muscle and blades and I lost sight of them as they seemed to be engulfed by the pack of monsters. I glanced over at Shade, feeling uneasy, but he simply shook his head.

"They'll be alright." He assured me, although he didn't look as certain of this as I would have liked him to be. "We have to stick with the others."

I shot one more look back to Wasp and Angel, who seemed to be handling themselves fine; I could see flashes of their blades biting deep into Berserker meat between the riled bodies around me and I nodded myself. Yes, they'd be alright, they'd keep an eye on each other. We had to focus on getting to that crystal.

I turned back with Falshade, heading back towards the others, who'd made some headway towards the pedestal while we'd been distracted. Fraggle and the Storm Hawks' Stork seemed to be working as a team, wielding their staffs side by side and keeping any Berserkers from breaking into their protective circle around the others. Junko was still hammering his way through the wall of flesh before him and our Stork was right on his heels, hacking off any limbs that came into her bubble, reaching for her with gnarled, grasping fingers.

I jumped when someone landed next to me as I shoved and slashed my way through the Berserkers who were trying to close off our path back to the others, but it turned out to only be Finn leaping down from his vantage point on the slab of rock.

"Out of ammo." He explained, clapping me on the shoulder as if to apologize for startling me. "Thought I'd join the party down here."

"If that's what you wanna call it..." I muttered and he laughed, giving me a playful shove.

"Well what else would you call it?" He asked me before charging over to catch up with Junko, letting out some sort of weird war whoop as he did so. I grinned a little bit despite myself; oh yeah, he was Stork's father alright.

I moved over beside Piper once again, feeling a strange urge to stay near her and keep an eye on her, even though she'd definitely proven she didn't need anybody to look after her. It was kinda weird watching her in comparison to Stork or Wasp; the two of them being younger than me, I'd always looked at them and referred to them as girls. But Piper was a woman, much older than any of us, and something about the way she moved just seemed to accentuate that fact. She was still ruthless and fierce of course but her movements had a certain type of control and grace to them, something that came with years of experience. Or maybe it was just that she wasn't as awkward or crude as Wasp and Stork, having had much more time to grow into her body.

I felt my flesh prickle below my scales and turned to catch the head of a large, spiked mace that had been aimed directly for the back of my head, sure to have mulched my brains. I flung his arm out to the side and landed my knuckles right in his soft guts as hard as I possibly could, feeling something squish under the blow. The Berserker in question double over and I thought for sure he was down after that punch and I hesitated for a moment, waiting to see if he was going to make another move. This turned out to be a mistake as before I could even react he straightened slightly and, grunting with the effort, smashed his mace right into my hip bone.

Pain exploded through my lower body and I let out a sharp yowl, jerking away from him and the spikes, which had been embedded in my side, tore a layer of scales and flesh from my body with the movement. I pressed my hand to my side, feeling blood trickling through my fingers and I felt a surge of rage burst in my stomach.

The Berserker came back in for another go while I was distracted, lifting his mace high in attempt to break my jaw but I seized his forearm before he even got close, clenching down so hard my claws bit into his skin.

"That hurt." I growled and threw a freighter of a punch that caught him right in the jaw, snapping his head to the side and cracking his neck with one blow. He slumped before me, dead and dangling from my grasp by his arm. I dropped him, feeling rather irritable as pain continued to course up and down my side, the gashes in my hip searing and throbbing. I turned away from the dead Berserker and was startled to find Piper standing right in front of me, a length of cloth ripped from her shirt in her hand. She lifted my hand from my side and gently pressed the fabric up against the wound, flashing me a sympathetic look.

"It's okay, it's not deep." I assured her, brushing her off gently and pressing the cloth to my hip briefly before moving it away again, noting that the bleeding was already slowing. Piper inspected it briefly anyways before nodding and grinning up at me for a moment before suddenly her fiery tangerine eyes went wide with alarm. My heart squeezed painfully as I whipped around to take in what had disturbed her and was hit dead on right in the chest by a human missile.

I was bowled over backwards, the air blasted from my lungs and in all the confusion I heard Piper yelp as she was crushed beneath my back as the two of us were sent tumbling backwards. I came down hard, cracking my head back against the stone and felt her lithe body being squished underneath my own. Immediately I tried to get off of her, knowing I had to outweigh her by at least seventy pounds, but whoever had smashed into me so hard was still clinging to my chest, knees digging into my stomach. I saw a flash of crimson hair, heard that horrible, tinny laughter and knew right away who it was. Then again I suppose I should have known the moment she careened into me; who else would it have been?

Carrion was hanging above my torso, her mighty war hammer hefted over her head. "Hi big boy!" She screeched, a deranged smile plastered over her wraith-like face. "Didn't see that one coming did you?"

I struggled, attempting to catch a hold of her and fling her off me but she wouldn't budge, digging her sharpened fingernails into my chest and they actually bit right through my scales. Then, laughing like real psycho, she clutched her hammer tight with her free hand and prepared to smash it down right smack dab into the middle of my face. I stopped struggling, suddenly finding myself hypnotized by flat side of the hammer's massive head, as if fixated by what was going to shortly be the cause of my death, picking out patterns in the dried gore that was caked there.

But just as she was about to bring that terrible thing down on me Wasp came streaking in from out of nowhere and launched herself at full speed directly into Carrion's exposed flank, driving her off me with a snarl and sending the both of them somersaulting over each other out of sight.

I lay still for a moment, trying to calm the thunderous beat of my heart when I felt someone shift beneath me, trying to get my attention in a small, strangled voice.

"Var...an!" Piper wheezed and with a jolt I remembered that she was still trapped under my considerably larger frame and rolled off her. She coughed and gasped for air, pushing herself onto all fours and I winced, hoping to god I hadn't crushed any of her ribs or organs.

"Are you okay? Can you breathe? Anything feel broken?" I asked frantically in rapid succession and she waved a slender hand at me as if to show she was alright, trying to fill her lungs back up to proper volume. I remained stationary at her side, clutching the handle of my broadsword tightly and waiting protectively until she could breathe and move once again. For a few moments the two of us were left completely unnoticed on the stone floor until the unearthly, feral sounds that were coming from somewhere close by caught our attention at the same time. As one our heads turned in the direction of the commotion and spotted Wasp entangled with Carrion, caught in the nastiest fight I'd ever seen the two of them in (and trust me by now that was really saying something). The two of them were rolling across the stone floor like a couple of dogs in a pit fight, fighting violently for dominance, scrabbling over each other to try and remain on top. Both of them were frothing at the mouth, dripping bloody saliva over each other in long spools and snapping their jaws so ferociously you'd think they'd been raised by wolves. And the noises that were tearing from both of their throats just sounded so inhuman it made a shiver run right up the length of my spine.

Piper seemed to be momentarily paralyzed by the sight of the two of them and for that I couldn't really blame her; I still had a hard time getting over just how vicious they could be. But then she snapped out of it and scrambled across the floor to retrieve her quarter staff, snatching it up and charging towards Wasp and Carrion. As Carrion managed to flip Wasp onto her back, her sharpened nails sunk deep into her jacket and fangs darting in and snapping for Wasp's face, Piper cranked her arm back and swung with all her might, her staff catching Carrion around the head with a good solid crack like a bat connecting solidly with a baseball. Carrion's head jerked to the side and her grip slipped on Wasp's jacket, falling to the side, dazed and momentarily stunned by the blow. Wasp scrabbled out from under her and rolled back to her feet, crouched and ready to spring. Carrion shook her head furiously, horking and spitting a wad of blood off to the side before catching sight of Piper standing there, her staff tight in her hands and ready for a second blow. Carrion bared her teeth at her and sprang towards her with a snarl but Wasp intercepted her, leaping from her place on the floor and blasting her shoulders right into Carrion's stomach, practically bending her in half with the blow and once again sending the two of them tumbling backwards. Wasp must have miscalculated though and lunged a little too far, a little too much momentum behind her that caused her to go reeling right overtop of Carrion in a complete loop so that when she crashed down to the stone again she was on the bottom, Carrion clawing at her neck, trying to get a grip on her so she could strike. But before she could catch a hold of her Wasp kicked out with both feet, punching into Carrion's chest and throwing her a good seven feet with the force, the Berserker slamming down on her back further away. Wasp was on her feet again, turning and dashing back to where she'd dropped her machetes when she'd dragged Carrion off me and I saw Carrion clamber back to her feet once again and come charging back towards Piper and Wasp, tongue lolling from her bloodstained teeth and her off-colour eyes stretched freakishly wide with psychotic glee.

That was the first thing I saw. The second was Carrion's fallen war hammer, lying just off to my side.

I don't know what I was thinking but suddenly that hammer was in my hands and I was winding up for a swing of my own, the thing heavy and lethal in my strong hands. I stepped forwards, lining up my angle and as I did so Wasp caught sight of me and what I had in my hands. She paused briefly then changed her direction, reaching out for Piper instead and dragging her down into a crouch, bent protectively over the dark skinned woman out of the line of fire.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion in my mind; Carrion springing from the floor like a lunging jungle cat, her sights focused so intently on Wasp she didn't even notice until it was too late. And then I swung, whipping that hammer around with as much strength as I could muster, the air whistling around it as it roared through the air, right over Wasp's head and catching Carrion mid-leap, right in the chest. I felt a dull yet sickening splattering feeling reverberate up the hammer's shaft and shake unpleasantly in my arms. There was a horrible cracking sound as the hammer struck home and blood ejected violently from Carrion's mouth almost instantaneously. She was flung backwards once again, crashing hard into the stone and tumbling backwards a few times like an animal that had been struck by a vehicle. And there she lay, doubled up and choking for breath, blood bubbling in the corners of her mouth, heaving, hacking and vomiting over and over again, rivulets of dark blood spewing from her mouth as her face turned blue from lack of oxygen.

And I knew I had plenty of reasons why I shouldn't, but I felt awful for doing that to her. She looked completely broken over there, clutching her shattered ribs and struggling desperately for air, drowning on her own blood. I felt her hammer drop from my hands and swallowed down the bile that had been rising in my throat, tearing my gaze away from the pitiable creature, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to block out the sounds of her retching and choking.

Wasp bumped against my side like a large cat, machetes back in hand. "Thanks! I would have done something like that a long time ago if my arms were like yours." She said with a wolfish grin and I gave her a look, trying to respond to her appreciation and not quite making it. She seemed to understand that everything was starting to get to me though and pinched my side gently, her Wasp-ish way of expressing sympathy. Then she glanced back at Carrion's crippled form and her hackles twitched in distaste. "I guess this means Cyclonis has released the hounds."

I nodded, swallowing down my resolve, which was having a harder time staying down then the time I forced down some of Stork's cookie dough in attempt to spare her feelings. God the things I'll do for my friends... "That means we should catch back up with the others." I concluded, scanning the multitude of swarming bodies to try and locate the others. While we'd been caught up with Carrion they'd made some headway and I started to plough my way through the surrounding Berserkers to catch up, Wasp and Piper pressed in tight at my back, protecting my flanks.

I'd just stabbed my broadsword through not just one but the chests of two oncoming Berserkers, causing them to form a sort of pile up before me and I was reminded horribly of shish kabobs when they did so. Tearing my blade free of their now ruined chest cavities and slamming a nasty punch into the jaw of the second Berserker, as he hadn't received as much damage as his unfortunate counterpart, I turned to try and locate the others once again, having a hard time keeping a bead on them in the thick of this mob. I picked out Fraggle's mix of blonde hair and blue fur among the backwash of blood red and was about to plough back in once again in attempt to catch up when something else caught my eye and I squinted, catching sight of a frightening yet unfortunately familiar face among all the surrounding Berserkers. While Carrion had seemed to be responsible for taking care of us it seemed that Zodiac had no honed in on the others, moving towards them with dark purpose written on his snarled face, his wicked claws gleaming maliciously before him.

I followed his line of sight and realized he had his nightshade eyes focused on Fraggle, who had his back turned and didn't even see him coming.

Panic shot through me so harshly I felt like my stomach had been ripped open. I shouted out in warning but Fraggle must not have heard me, his ears still shot from the explosion. I threw my shoulder into the wall of Berserkers that had tightened around me while I'd been immobile, forcing my way through with both my broadsword and claws tearing through enemy flesh but no matter how many Berserkers I cut from my path I never seemed to get any closer as Zodiac closed in on Fraggle, his mouth cracking open into a horrible Cheshire grin.

It's amazing what sort of insane and irrelevant thoughts will float through your mind the instant before you think you're about to see your best friend have their life ripped from them right before your eyes. And as I watched, helplessly, as Zodiac closed in on Fraggle, all I could think was that now, when I'd get to meet his little sister at long last, I'd have to tell her about the death of her beloved big brother.

But then Falshade was there; he always had that heroic knack for being right there when you needed him the most. He crashed hard into Zodiac's side in a complete body-check just as his daggers were swiping across, sure to have torn open Fraggle's throat. Instead they glanced across his cheek and scored three deep lines of crimson among all the cerulean blue fur. Fraggle jolted back as if only then realizing just how closed he'd come to death and I managed to plough my way forward a few more feet, grabbing him by the arm and wrenching him back out of Zodiac's reach so hard he yelped in alarm. Over Fraggle's shoulder I saw Zodiac rounding on Falshade now only to be intercepted by Angel, who slammed his thin frame as hard as possible into the Berserker, stabbing one of his sabres upwards so it punched right through Zodiac's armpit and shot clean through his shoulder, the full length of the blade protruding from behind his collar bone. Ironically it sort of looked like the long, curved blade that stuck from the armour on his elbow, aside from the fountain of dark blood spurting from around the wedged blade.

Zodiac's howl tore through my skull and for a moment I almost felt sorry for him, hearing such agony in his voice. Or I might of until he turned and caught Angel by the throat, lifting him right off his feet. Angel struggled, choking and trying lash out at Zodiac with his remaining sabre, but Zodiac simply caught a hold of his wrist with his free hand and flung the blade off to the side and then drew Angel up to eye level, holding him a few inches from his face. The two of them glared at each other for a moment, something silently passing between them before Zodiac's mouth split at the corner into a psychotic little grin.

"Master says we get to eat you alive, you little traitor." He told him with a sneer, his nightshade eyes gleaming wickedly.

Angel bared his teeth at him challengingly. "Go for it." He wheezed, still managing to sound tough even with his throat being squeezed. Zodiac laughed, the sound similar to that of a cat getting sick, then drew his free arm back, ready to punch all five of his daggers into Angel's exposed stomach.

Falshade was back for round two though and Sliver came screaming down through the air and caught Zodiac's arm midway through his swing; with a wet slicing sound Sliver bit through the armoured gauntlet and went right through Zodiac's lower arm, cleaving it clean from his body just below the elbow. Zodiac shrieked and Angel got coated by the blood that was bursting in large spurts from the stump of his arm as his wrist, gauntlet and daggers fell to the stone floor with a final clang. Zodiac stared at the fountain of blood that was draining his life away by the second before a fresh layer of flesh sealed off the veins and bone, his eyes burning with black flames and his chest heaving madly, before he turned slowly on Falshade. With a indifferent flick of his arm he literally threw Angel off to the side, sending the poor little bugger reeling through the air to crash hard into the stone floor and tumble back into my shins. He scrabbled against the floor as I hauled him up like a dog on a leash, desperate to get back to help Falshade but Stork beat him to the punch; she came in from the side as Zodiac spun to the side, whipping out with his elbow to try and catch Shade in the chest with the protruding, curved blade that had already almost caused his death once.

Instead what he met was the business end of Stork's battle axe.

One swift chop was all it took to go straight through armour, muscle and bone, cleanly severing his remaining arm from the rest of his body. Zodiac staggered when his blade made no contact, still caught with the momentum of his swing, and Falshade slammed a kick into his ribs, throwing him off balance. The Berserker crashed hard to the floor and craned his neck, spotting his severed arm lying on the floor not too far away, still twitching. He lunged towards it and I recalled Wasp recounting her fight with Carrion that day Stork came back, telling us how she'd held the detached limb to the stump and her body had sutured itself back together, flesh reattaching itself.

Angel tore out of my gasp, probably realizing Zodiac's intent at the same time that I did and kicked the stump of Zodiac's arm away, the daggers clattering across the stone. Zodiac snarled at him but Angel simply pressed a boot down on his throat, pinning him to the floor.

"This is mine, thank you!" He snapped, tearing his sabre free from what remained of Zodiac's arm. Then he raised his boot from Zodiac's neck, holding it above his face and preparing to stomp down with all his might. I was struck by the urge to turn my head; although I was getting better about this, seeing skulls getting crushed was still pretty high on the list of things that'll make me vomit.

Zodiac wasn't done yet, however; at the last second he rolled to the side and landed a kick square in Angel's knee cap. Angel's leg buckled under him and Zodiac angled what little was left of his arm, the long, curved blade that had torn Falshade open so badly still attached to his elbow and he intended to use everything he had left, swinging an uppercut that would have ripped open Angel's throat if the Storm Hawk's Stork hadn't darted in from the side and grabbed Angel by the back of his shirt, yanking him backwards at the last second. It was a good thing Angel was so scrawny, because I don't think Stork, with his lanky frame and puny muscles, would have had the strength to move any of the rest of us.

I don't know how he did it with no arms to push him back up, but Zodiac managed to get his feet tucked under him and pushed himself upright. Angel was on his feet as well, standing in front of Stork defensively and gripping his sabres tight, ready to charge right back in when he stopped mid-swing and a maniac grin split his haggard face. Instead he backed right up, pulling Stork along with him and Zodiac, the deadly expression on his face faltering for a moment, turned to see what it was that had caused Angel's reaction.

He ended up facing the end of Fraggle's energy staff that was equipped with his Blazer crystal.

Fraggle grinned and gave Zodiac a falsely apologetic shrug. "Hasta la vista mother fucker." He said and activated the crystal. A jet of violent orange flames spewed free from the tip of his staff like a miniature volcano erupting and Zodiac howled like a dying wolf as the fire caught in his flesh, lighting him up like a super nova. His whole body turned to flames and I wondered briefly if the essence of the Eternity crystal that flowed in his veins was somehow flammable. Crazed by agony and blinded by the flames and smoke Zodiac stumbled towards Fraggle as if he still had arms to strangle him with and I lashed out with a ferocious side-swipe with my broad sword, catching the flaming Berserker right in the ribs and sending him reeling back into the wall of his fellow soldiers, the fire spreading between them as if they'd been doused in oil.

Fraggle twirled his staff in his fingertips and blew on the tip of it as if there were smoke there. "I think I score ten points for epic climax, eh." He said haughtily, looking rather pleased with himself.

Angel snorted. "Hasta la vista? You totally ripped that off from a comic book."

"Lunatics, all of you." Stork muttered, shaking slightly. Then, as I was about to move after Fraggle, determined to keep a better eye on him, he reached out and tugged at my vest slightly to get my attention. "Varan, hold on for a second." He said and I paused, shifting closer to him and lashing out at a nearby Berserker when he came in too close. I glanced at Stork briefly to show I was listening and he cleared his throat slightly. "Look, you seem like you've got a decent amount of good sense, so I'll be honest with you. Me, you and the others, we don't need to go up there." He waved a green hand towards the pedestal and then uttered a slight yelping noise, lashing out with his staff at a Berserker who attempted to chop his extended arm right off. "Only one I'm thinking who needs to go up there is Stork. And maybe Falshade and Finn."

I glanced at the others, judging the distance we had left to get to the stairs. "So what about us then? What are you saying?"

"Well once they get up there do you really think these... things down here are gonna leave them alone? We need to stay down here and defend our retreat; I don't think we're going to want to hang around long once the destroyed."

I glanced at the stairs again and swallowed; anyone who made it to the top of the pedestal was completely trapped up there, bottlenecked by the only route down which would surely be easily blocked off when those Berserkers started charging up them. Stork was right, any of us who stayed below would have to make sure the way down stayed clear.

I looked back to the Merb once again. "So why are you telling me this?"

Stork snorted. "Seriously? Because your friends and mine are a lot alike, they stick to this whole 'keep together' code. However unlike my friends, you seem to be the only one your little gang of nut jobs will listen to. We've got to stop kidding ourselves, sooner or later we're going to get overwhelmed down here and we need to get to that crystal as soon as we can." He gave me a pointed look then nodded towards Stork and Shade. "Go on, get them going."

I knew Stork hadn't been among us for very long, but I thought even he would have noticed that the others, even though the buggers knew what I was saying was the best course of action most of the time, didn't listen to me as much as he made it seem like they did. But he was right, we needed to wrap this whole messy situation up; we'd been at this for almost two hours already and fatigue and minor injuries were starting to pay their toll. Not to mention if Cyclonis had another one of her creations waiting to be unleashed on us I had no idea how lucky we'd be a second time around, and Halo hadn't even made an appearance yet. So I grit my teeth determinedly and nodded, making a move to start fighting my way over to Stork and Falshade when Stork suddenly grabbed me again.

I turned to him once again, head cocked and he licked his lips awkwardly, looking like he was struggling to get what he wanted to say together. "Look, um..." he started after a moment of scissoring his mouth unproductively. "Well I... I never really liked Terradons, er, well Raptors anyways, had one too many run ins with them back in the day. But you, well, you're a good kid and..." he revolved his hand awkwardly for a moment before finishing. "Well anyways you kinda make up for that, in my mind. If you know what I'm getting at."

I felt a untimely grin crawl over my face and clapped his shoulder briefly, despite the fact that he seemed to be saying the kinda things we'd all said earlier, something of just in case goodbyes to one another in case things took a turn for the worst. "Thanks. That means a lot to me." I said honestly. "And you know, I haven't exactly met a lot of Merbs, but you seem like some good guys."

The corner of Stork's mouth twitched. "I wouldn't base any impressions of the whole race off myself if I were you." He said with a grin. "Anyways get going, who knows when our luck is going to run out."

I nodded and pushed my way through the horde of Berserkers, hacking at any who tried to slow me down, until I managed to reach Falshade. "Hey!" I called to him over the encroaching sounds of ringing blades and howls of pain. He cocked his head in question and I nodded towards the stairs slightly, which were now within sixty feet of where we were standing. God we'd made it so far... I shook my head, focusing at the task at hand and caught a hold of Stork, tugging at her gently and pulling the two of them back a little bit, closer to the wall of stone that loomed high above us. For a moment we were separated from the raging battle and I gave both of them a pointed look, trying to do my best to be firm. "You two should make a break for the stairs." I said to them, motioning in the direction in question. "Right now, just the two of you quickly while we're still all in pretty good shape."
Stork made a squawking sound and Falshade looked at me like I'd gone insane. "Varan no way, we're not going to leave the rest of you down here on your own, that's-"

"Falshade think about it, do you really think we're all meant to go up there? Stork's the one with the Black Hole device, she's the one who's got the best shot at destroying the crystal, and you should go with her. The rest of us will stay down here and make sure we'll have an exit."

Stork was shaking her head, opening her mouth to argue but I cut her off. "Come on, we were okay when we were split up before, right? We'll be fine, we'll stick together, we've still got some fight in us yet. I really think this is up to you two now." I felt the truth of that last statement as it left my mouth on its own accord, making way too much sense to me not to say it. It just seemed right to me; from the beginning this had been about Stork and it was because of Falshade that we were here right now. They'd been at the very heart of it all along and now they should finish that, together.

Falshade looked over me as if he could read my thoughts and then, after a long moment during which I could see how torn he was clearly in his violet eyes, he nodded. "Okay... this has gone on long enough. Let's go finish this, Stork."

Stork stared at him and then me and then towards the others, her green eyes agonized and even a little frightened. But then she swallowed and set her face resolutely, our stubborn little girl right to the end. "Right. I'm gonna go give that bitch what's been a long time coming." She said and I grinned slightly, mussing up her hair. She glanced up at me and then abruptly lunged forward and wrapped me in a tight hug.

"All of you better be down here in one piece and still kicking when we get back though." She said, her voice quiet and not anywhere near as tough as she'd sounded a second ago.

"We will be." I assured her, squeezing her back briefly before gently prying her off me. Shade grabbed my shoulder for a moment and the concern in his face went to me heart.

"You guys look out for each other." He said and I noted a slight tone of fear in his voice. Right then I could tell he was worried that if he went up those stairs and left us below he might not ever see any of us again.

"Yeah, same to you two." I said and then a shriek from nearby seemed to snap us all out of it. "Go on, get going." I said, giving him a gentle shove. He looked back at the others for a second more and then turned, grabbing Stork's arm and tugging her along as the two of them bolted for the stairs.

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, clutching my broadsword with renewed vigour and turned back towards the others, shoving my way over next to them, determination steeling my heart. Shade and Stork had their mission and we had ours and I was set on seeing it through; we'd keep our retreat open until the bitter end. Either all six of us we're getting out of here or none of us were.

And when I pushed in beside Fraggle and Angel I could tell they felt that way too, grim yet fortified, a reckless sort of purpose shining in their eyes.

"Where's Falshade and Stork?" Angel asked me, but his tone was casual as if he already knew.

"They've gone for the stairs. They're on their own now." I said as Wasp crashed in beside us, her eyes wild and bright as if she didn't belong anywhere else.

"So then there were four, eh." Fraggle said at my side, hurling a wave of ice at a trio of nearby Berserkers. "You know somehow I always knew it'd come down to us."

"Soldiers of fortune." Wasp agreed with her werewolf grin.

"More like soldiers of reckless idiocy."I sighed, although I wouldn't change that for the world. After all, I'd been the one who'd signed onto this whole chaotic parade at the very beginning; if I'd ever had the desire to leave I'd had lots of time to do it.

Angel gripped his sabres tighter and watched steadily as a wave of Berserkers came sweeping towards us, prepared to break our ranks and get to the stairs. "Well kiddies, whatever you've got left I say we let these guys have it." He said and as one the four of charged forwards to meet them head on.

x.x.x Stork x.x.x

As I've probably stated before, splitting up didn't sit well with me at all under any circumstance. So needless to say it really didn't sit well with me at all as I turned my back on Varan and chased after Falshade, charging towards the stairs and cutting down any Berserker in our path; evidently these guys didn't seem to realize that their intended target was slipping by them. They were more intent on sinking their teeth into the others. I think Falshade must have felt the same way I did because he reached for my hand at one point and squeezed it a little, maybe trying to reassure me or maybe just sharing his anxiety.

But as the stairs finally rose before us, a beacon drawing us up towards our final goal, I had to admit that what Varan had said had made sense. I was the one who had the Black Hole device, I needed to get up there if we were ever going to finish this, and if I had to take one of the others (which I'd rather not, because I knew how capable Cyclonis was of hurting my friends) then I'd rather it be Shade, for no other reason than this is what he'd been leading up to his entire life, ever since he decided he was going to pursue his nightmares and take matters into his own hands.

Heck, when I really thought about it, it was almost sort of poetic; the one who was the root of all this madness and the one who'd seen it all coming charging off together to put an end to it once and for all. Eerie how much destiny really seemed to be playing a part in all of this.

I slipped a little on the smooth stone steps, my sneakers slick with blood and I almost couldn't believe it that we'd made it this far, that here we were climbing to the top of the platform, the distance closing between us and the Eternity crystal. I was struck again with that feeling that this was a little too easy, that we still had something to face at the top of those stairs and my stomach clenched uneasily, only six steps from the top now.

And, as I insist and others will deny is the case most of the time, I turned out to be right.

Falshade was a couple stairs ahead of me and just as he was just cresting the top when Halo finally showed himself, pouncing on him like a large, ugly tomcat, his flaming halberd crackling as it sliced through the air just above Falshade's head. Falshade pushed me down slightly and I slammed my chin into one of the stairs above me, nearly biting clean through my tongue while he slammed his shoulder into Halo's chest, driving him back. I scrambled up, practically crawling under the two of them as they had a bit of a shoving match, growling at one another and Falshade caught his halberd with Sliver as it dove for his ribs. I stood there like an idiot of a second, watching them with wide eyes and feeling panicky at how close they were to the edge of the platform; it was a sheer forty foot drop onto solid stone after all.

Falshade caught sight of me just standing there like a struck bunny and nodded towards the dell where the Eternity crystal was sitting. "Stork go, I'll take care of him!" he shouted and as if for emphasis when Halo swung his halberd in a low arch, going for his stomach, Falshade stopped his blade and slammed a ferocious kick into his chest, sending him staggering backwards slightly.

I shook my head, snapping out of it and did as he said, turning on my heel and sprinting across the smooth stone surface towards the Eternity crystal. As if it sensed my presence it seemed to flare slightly brighter for a second and I felt that welcoming feeling stir again in my chest, a kick of joy like the crystal was really a large puppy excited and overjoyed to see me, tail wagging fiercely. You know, if crystals had tails. I was gripped with a nasty feeling of guilt and apprehension then, not sure I was comfortable with blowing the thing up in light, feeling myself drawn to it like a moth to flame.

"Ah ah ah, Feonix." That horrible, girlish voice slithered into my ears and I tore my gaze away from the crystal, flicking towards Cyclonis, who was standing off to the side with a thin smirk on her wane face. Seeing her up close for the first time made my stomach start roiling with hot rage; I hated everything about her, from her chilled violet eyes that reminded me disgustingly of Falshade's, to her stupid little self-satisfied grin that I wanted to wipe clean off her face. Actually scratch that, I just wanted to rip her face right off.

"Oooh do we ever look nasty." She said, laughing in light of my enraged demeanour. "Dear Stork, can't you be a little less hostile? This is the first time we actually meet face to face after all."
"Yeah and the displeasure's all mine." I snapped. "Now get out of my way or I'm sending you back to whatever pit in Hell you crawled out of."

Cyclonis' face didn't change but her smirk seemed to grow deeper and her eyes went a shade darker. "Is that so?" She asked and that unearthly undertone crept into her voice. She moved her broken staff in front of her challengingly. "And what do you plan to do to my crystal I wonder?"

"I can promise it's gonna be one helluva firework show." I said, bringing my battle axe in front of me as well, matching her threatening glare. Behind me I could hear Falshade and Halo locked in their own fight and hoped he'd be able to hold him off long enough for me to get this bitch out of my way; I knew Shade could hold his own extremely well of course, but he was roughed up and had already been going for a couple hours.

I suddenly had the nasty sensation that Cyclonis was reading my mind because she let out a sinister giggle. Don't ask me how anyone can giggle sinisterly, but if anyone had it done, she did.

"I'd be more concerned about myself if I were you, Feonix." She taunted. "After all, you've walked right into my arms and I intended to keep you there." And with that she lunged at me, a downwards chop that probably would have knocked me out if she'd managed to connect. But my axe was up and blocked her staff, knocking it out to the side and then flipping back around, screaming towards her narrow rib cage. She pulled her staff back in quickly and caught the shaft of my axe, blocking my swing and I lashed out with a fierce snap kick, connecting with her staff and pushing her back a few feet. Then I charged in, lashing out a series of slashes and chops, rage spiking in my blood and pushing my pulse fast and hard and I pressed in relentlessly, giving her no room to fight back. I had never wanted to kill somebody so badly in my life, my hatred filling every little corner of space in me until I felt like I was going to explode. And what was worse she just seemed to be taunting me the whole time, deflecting each one of my blows as if she were flicking away troublesome flies and it only made me angrier. My wrath was starting to interfere with my combat abilities, making my swings and swipes more wild and sloppy, my head feeling like it was being squeezed tight as my rage pushed in behind my eyeballs.

It struck me suddenly how it was so easy for her to defend herself, how she seemed to know when each attack was going to come before I even executed it. Of course she knew; she bloody knew everything, she'd been there all along when Falshade and Angel taught me all they knew, all those hours I spent sweating and practicing to perfection, whether it was with my axes or just hand-to-hand stuff with the others down in the hanger. God damnit I hated her! The more I thought about the aspects of my life that had been exposed to her the more I felt sick right down to the centre of my heart, violated and stripped of security and it just made me all the more angry until my heart was pounding so hard I don't think any blood was reaching my head. With one particularly violent swing I found myself overbalanced and Cyclonis simply stepped to the side as I came crashing to my knees on the stone, head reeling sickeningly and my heart practically beating right out of my chest, knocking hard against the back of my ribs. I choked for air, eyes stinging with tears of fury and disgust, body shaking like a leaf.

I felt Cyclonis' cold hand crawl onto my shoulder and I felt like vomiting. "Out of steam already?" She asked, feigning disappointment.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!" Falshade roared at her and I felt myself start, coming out of my fit, my mind clearing and I saw Falshade out of the corner of my eye as came charging towards us, Sliver lifted high and prepared to cut off Cyclonis' head. Cyclonis didn't seem phased by this at all however and let him come within five feet of us before Halo intercepted him, slamming into him hard and catching him with the flat of the blade of his halberd. Falshade tumbled backwards slightly and that was all it took to snap me out of it, bringing my senses screaming back into reality.

I saw Halo advance towards Falshade and I was on my feet in a heartbeat, charging towards him with a fearsome cry and smashing him hard with the flat side of my battle axe, knocking him right off his feet. "Leave him ALONE!" I shouted fiercely. I raised my axe to strike him again, this time with the sharpened side of the head but before I could I felt something strike my kneecap, buckling my right leg beneath me.

"You're fight is with me!" Cyclonis snapped from behind me. The fury came screeching back to life but it was in proper order now, it seemed to have found a niche where it could exist without overwhelming me and I whipped around so quickly she had no time to react as I blasted into her side in a full-on body check, sending her crashing to the floor.

"Think you know me, huh?" I hissed at her as she picked herself up off the floor, her eyes narrowed like a cobra's. "Come on, let's see what you're really made of when you're all on your own!"

Cyclonis dropped her teasing then, charging in towards me and our weapons locked between us as she slammed into me, her eyes burning viciously. We kicked out at each other at the same time, both of us staggering back a step or two only to come crashing right back in, swiping and slashing at each other with our respective weapons. It occurred to me that she never once tried to stab me with the barbed end of her staff but then I realized well of course not, I was no use to her dead. She was simply trying to incapacitate me, lashing out in high swings to try and crack me around the head with her metal energy staff. It almost could have been a violent sort of dance the way we moved, launching at each other only to have our weapons blocked, drawing back and lashing out again. Like a much more intense, much more hardcore cat fight.

I completely forgot about Falshade I was so focused on beating the shit out of Cyclonis, until at one point I ended up sort of half-spinning with the momentum of my swing and catching sight of he and Halo, who were still locked together like a couple of wolves, their blades spitting sparks as the clashed together again and again. But when I saw them I noticed that Halo seemed to be driving Falshade backwards, slowly but surely, towards the edge of the platform. Falshade was only a little smaller then Halo of course but Halo had that crystal working for him, fuelling him with extra strength and he was using every ounce of it to force Shade back, step by little step. Falshade tried to push back and gain more ground but Halo kept him pinned, locking blades with him and ploughing onwards as Falshade's boots slipped slightly back, despite the fact that he was digging in his heels.

My heart clenched with sudden fear as I watched the gap between Falshade's feet and the edge of the platform growing smaller and smaller, but before I could charge over to help him I heard the air behind me whistling and only just ducked as Cyclonis' staff whipped by overhead, sure to have caught me right in the back of my skull.

"You should pay more attention, Feonix." Cyclonis scolded. Then she glanced towards Falshade and Halo and her mouth cracked into a horrible, venomous grin once again. "It appears your Sky Knight is losing his ground." She taunted, bending to hiss her words into my ear and I threw a punch at her, springing back to my feet as she dodged my knuckles and hefting my battle axe high in attempt to bring it down and split her right down the middle. She caught the head with her staff which wasn't even nicked by the blade and smirked at me between our caught weapons. "I never did understand that soft spot you always harboured for him." She breathed in a voice like death itself and I wanted to squeeze her throat until her head rolled right off.

"Shut up." I growled. "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! You act like you know every little thing about me but you don't, you arrogant little bitch, you don't know anything, you aren't human enough to understand!"

Her eyebrow curved upwards and that smug grin would not leave her face. "Oh no? Surprise me."

"SHADE!" I heard someone below shout in alarm and looked back over my shoulder, chest constricting with fear. Halo had forced Falshade within inches of the ledge, his heels nearly peeking over the side. Halo brought his halberd down towards him and as Shade caught his blade with his own his back bent backwards slightly as he fought for balance, fighting desperately to hold his ground and not let Halo push him back any further. But he was nearly out of space and Halo wouldn't let up, determined to drive him right off the edge.

My vision burned red right around then and I knew it was time for drastic measures.

Cyclonis seemed to think she had all the time in the world and was still waiting for me to surprise her as I turned back to her slowly, murder in my eyes. And surprise her I did.

In one sharp movement I backed up slightly, cranked my leg back and then landed the hardest kick of my life right into her exposed and unsuspecting crotch.

And apparently just because you're a Cyclonian empress back from the dead and with a mutant army of killing machines at your beck and call does not exempt you from having very sensitive nerve endings where it counts.

Cyclonis' mouth dropped open in what was indeed surprise and that gave me so much satisfaction it wasn't even funny. She didn't collapse like Angel and Fraggle usually did when I booted them like that but her momentary shock was all I needed. I backed up another step, wound up and then slammed a furious roundhouse kick right into her ribs, sending her tumbling backwards to the stone floor, her breath leaving her in a single whooshing gasp.

I knew she wouldn't be down long however and my eyes crawled towards the crystal. I could put an end to it all right now, I was only about five steps away and I could set of the Black Hole device, I could finally finish this. It could all be over in less than thirty seconds; it was just that simple.

But Falshade was in trouble and that, in my mind, weighed a lot more then the Eternity crystal. After all, there'd be another shot at destroying the crystal, but there was only one Falshade and I couldn't see much point in saving the world only to have him not in it.

So I wheeled around and charged towards Halo, my eyes zeroing in on him like a bull's on a red flag, speeding like a freighter right for him. I wasn't exactly sure what I intended on doing until I was almost upon him, but I caught Falshade's eye as I closed in the last few feet and together we seemed to come to the same conclusion at the exact same moment. Ignoring my battle axe completely I turned slightly so my shoulder collided solidly with Halo's torso so hard thought for sure I must have popped it out of socket. And for all the times those mean spirited boys of mine have teased me about being so small I slammed into Halo with so much force you'd think I was as big as Varan, and man did that ever give me an ego boost. Halo's eyes stretched wide with alarm as he staggered forward, his halberd pitching over the edge of the platform into the screeching mob of Berserkers below and Falshade ducked, sweeping out with one leg to knock both of Halo's feet out from under him, pitching him forward those last few critical inches and sending him over the lip of stone. I heard him hit the ground below about six long seconds later with a sickening yet nonetheless satisfying crunching sound.

I almost ended up facing the same splattering fate however, as I had so much momentum behind me and nothing to stop me. I teetered at the edge for a heart stopping second before Falshade looped an arm around my waist and hauled me back from the brink. For a moment the two of us just panted for breath, adrenalin still pounding wildly in our veins as we peeked over the edge of the pedestal, spying Halo's body lying crumpled and broken below. Then we glanced at each other at the same time and cracked identical, tired yet triumphant grins.

"I think that was one of our best combined attacks yet." I said and Shade nodded.

"Definitely. We gotta get you into some kind of contact sport, girly." He commented, mussing up my hair and I smirked, keeping the fact that my shoulder was throbbing in pain to myself.

Then from behind us we heard Cyclonis' laughter, a low, chilling sound that seemed to increase in volume and pitch, becoming something of a screech that filled my entire head, tearing at the backs of my eyeballs. Falshade and I turned as one to look at her, stepping closer to each other instinctively and clutching our weapons tight.

Cyclonis' gleaming dark eyes were boring into us, a menacing sheen radiating from them, something wicked dancing on her face that made my skin prickle. Her laughter was still echoing around us even though she'd closed her mouth, a smirk in the corner of her pallid lips.

"Feonix and Falshade..." she said in a thoughtful, taunting sort of voice, something foreboding creeping around in the undertone of her words, contrasting darkly with her sickeningly playful tone. "You two were always attached at the hip; it was disgustingly adorable." She went on and I felt bile rise in my throat, thinking of every close moment I'd had with Falshade over the years and how she'd been witness to it all, all the arguing and playful wrestling, the tender words and awkward moments, everything personal that I'd just wanted to share with Falshade and never anyone else. Oh god, has she still been in there that night I'd... kissed him? I panicked for a moment before I remembered that no, that had been after she'd moved back into her own skin, she hadn't been privy to that moment at least. That one was still mine at least. But god, just... I felt so violated the more I thought about it. All my private moments and memories, every golden moment and bad mood, she'd seen it all, lived it all. Nothing I had was safe from her. Nothing in my life had been experienced by just me. It made me feel like I'd been robbed of something precious, it made me sick right to my core.

"Shut up!" Falshade snarled next to me and I felt myself start at the intense hostility in his voice. "Don't you ever say anything to her or I'll tear your god damn vocal chords out with my bare hands!"

I stared at him, stunned by the aggression in his tone. Cyclonis however seemed unphased; she simply laughed, throwing back her head as if she found all of this to be the most hilarious thing in the world. "Oh Falshade..." She sighed, shaking her head with exaggerated sympathy. "You know you really should have just made your move on dear little Feonix when you had the chance. Because it's a little too late for that now..." She stretched out a spidery hand in the direction of the Eternity crystal, calling a thread of energy towards her like some sort of loyal pet; it snaked almost elegantly through the air, a stream of glowing green energy that coiled in the palm of her hand comfortably, forming a revolving, luminescent orb in her hand, cupped like a precious egg by her long fingers. She pulled the ball of energy towards her chest and then a slow, deranged smile spread over her wane face, seeming to crack it in half and letting something gruesome and terrible shine through from underneath, like she was peeling back her skin and revealing the toxic, malevolent being that lived beneath this illusion of a girl. And the energy started to change, turning over slowly in her hands, veins of red thrumming away along the surface until the entire orb seemed to be encased in a series of intertwined veins, pulsing slightly as if it were alive. Then, like a spreading infection, a black ooze snaked through the red, following along the veins of thrumming energy like a poison, coating anything it touched in blackness until the spinning ball of energy resembled a blob of tar.

Cyclonis looked up, evil intent practically spilling from the dark pools of her eyes, which were reflecting the diseased orb of energy she held in her hand. "Time to break up the dynamic duo." She hissed, that supernatural undertone reverberating with her words, piercing the very deepest places in my heart with fear.

As she lifted her hand I made a move to push Falshade back, meaning to step in front of him, to shield him. I had that blocking crystal after all, and Cyclonis couldn't harm me, she needed me. And I mean... if that all went to hell well then if I died at least she couldn't ever gain control of the crystal, right?

Right.

But Falshade, that god damn son of a bitch, he'd always known me so, so well. And he knew what I was up to before I'd even been able to move. He reached me first, shoving me roughly to the side so hard I fell to the stone, out of harm's way and completely powerless to do anything as that warped missile of energy collided with him instead, slamming hard right into his chest.

"FALSHADE!" I screamed, my whole chest cavity seeming to rupture. For a split second it was like he was frozen in place, that orb of diseased energy exploding across his torso, the black ripples of energy sinking right into his flesh and I could see it shoot through his veins, turning them dark beneath his skin for a brief second, tearing through his entire body. And then he was flung backwards as if some giant hand had come along and crashed across his body like he was a meek little insect, sending him flying backwards through the air to slam solidly into the stone wall with a heart-wrenching crunch, his head cracking back against unyielding rock. He fell lifelessly to the floor below, his body crumpling and remaining there motionlessly; I couldn't even tell if he was breathing.

"SHADE!" I heard one of the others yell, panic thick in their voice, but I couldn't recognize whose voice it was. I wasn't aware of anything anymore, of where I was or how I'd gotten here, or my own body moving as I dashed to Falshade's side. I wasn't aware of the tears that were leaking from my eyes or the desperate sounds that were spilling incoherently from my mouth. I wasn't even aware of it when, as I dropped to my knees next to Falshade's broken body, the Black Hole device fell from the back of my jeans and clattered across the floor, rolling out of reach.

I didn't even remember to feel his neck to make sure it wasn't broken before I seized his shirt with trembling fingers, pulling him towards me and turning him over, shaking him much too roughly. "Falshade?" I croaked, my throat raw and barely able to utter any noise at all. "Falshade?" I shook him some more, a feeling of intense desperation and fear ripping my stomach right open, seeming to spill acid through my entire body. "Falshade, Falshade please wake up!" I begged, shaking him even harder and watching his head loll lifelessly on his shoulders, not a flicker of strength in his body. My hands found their way to his neck and crawled over his skin, shaking so hard I couldn't feel his pulse if it was even there. With a sob I pulled him into my body, laying my head to his chest and trying to hold back my body's demand to start bawling and vomiting everywhere as I listened frantically for a heartbeat. He's not dead, he's not dead, Falshade can't be dead, Falshade doesn't die, he's not dead, he's not...

Silence.

He's dead.

He's dead.

He's dead.

He's...

And there it was. One faint thump. But it was a thump, it was a beat.

He's not dead.

Cyclonis' soft, menacing laughter filtered slowly into my jammed up brain, travelling down my nerve pathways and striking something deep in my chest, some sort of cord pulling tight that I hadn't known existed. I could hear her behind me, moving across the stone floor like a wraith. But she wasn't coming towards me; she was focused on something else.

"Oh my, what have we here?" I heard her ask, her voice soft and deadly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her bend and her boney fingers closed around the detonation device that had fallen free from the waistband of my jeans. She lifted it for examination and smiled, sadistic delight seeming to exude from every one of her pores.

"This must be Piper's handiwork." She said, her fingers trailing along the slender little object. "Your little ace in the hole... oh you poor fools." She started giggling to herself, a disturbingly triumphant sound. "You FOOLS!" She howled, screeching with laughter and thrusting the Black Hole device up high. "DID YOU REALLY THINK THIS COULD DESTROY MY CRYSTAL?" She screamed, the entire chamber shaking as that undertone rattled through my skeleton, like some otherworldly presence was sweeping along in the wake of her words. "I HAVE STEPPED BACK FROM THE RELAM OF THE DEAD, I HAVE DEVASTED YOUR PATHETIC PLANET AND YOU THINK YOU CAN STOP ME WITH THIS?" She roared and clenched her hand tight, the device in her hand glowing bright and shaking madly before simply imploding as if it had never existed, leaving nothing but a small wisp of dissipating crystal energy, utterly destroyed.

Our only hope.

Gone.

And then Falshade's body sort of twitched against my own. It wasn't much of a movement, barely enough to register with me that he had indeed moved, but it was a movement nonetheless. And then he uttered a low groaning noise, a definite sign of life and it was with that, just like that, that I knew what I had to do.

I felt Cyclonis standing behind me, looking down at the two of us huddled on the floor and I could feel her satisfied gaze burning right through my very flesh. "Well Feonix, what are you ever going to do now?" She asked me seriously. "With your Sky Knight fallen and your secret weapon gone, whatever shall you do?"

I had never hated anything or anyone more then I hated her right then. It wasn't even just that she was trying to ruin everything good and golden in the world, that she'd tried to break our lives into pieces and tried to kill my friends time and time again. No. It was that she was doing all of this after everything she'd seen through my eyes. Sixteen fucking years of living in the thick of love and loyalty, walked through countless displays of compassion and humanity, shown the very extents that people will go for someone they love. She'd seen right into the very heart of all my relationships, with my father, my friends, everyone who'd ever mattered to me. She'd witnessed it all, the bonds sprouting and growing thicker and stronger, she'd felt the hugs I'd received, heard the words of trust and kindness I'd listened to all my life, she'd been in the thick of the warmth and joy and love we all shared. And yet here she was, and not only was she willing to try and take all of that away from me, she was perfectly happy to do so. She wanted to destroy it, she craved it, she wanted to see us suffer and die slowly, painfully, while the others stood by helplessly. After everything not even a flicker of humanity had rubbed off on her. She was a hollow, evil, twisted psychopath and it pleased her to see all the foundations I'd built with my beloved friends simply crumple under her own hand, like a child crushing an ant hill, laughing the entire time.

She wanted to take it all away from me. She knew exactly how much it meant to me and she wanted to shred it into a thousand pieces right before my eyes.

And that cord snapped.

"...It's not fair you know." I muttered, my voice calm and deadly quiet. "It's not fair that you had to go and fuck everything up last time. It's not fair that you did all of that and instead of rotting in the ground you got to come back. It's not fair that the heroes always die and there is no coming back for them and yet you, you vile, psychotic, robotic sack of shit, you got to come back. You did and they didn't. And you came back only to try and take it all again, you ruined people's lives without even batting an eye while the good guys, they all suffer, they all die. They are the ones that have to fight for their own survival while you sit here in your hiding place, watching like some sick, narcissistic spectator! IT'S NOT FAIR!" I found myself screaming by the end of this, my blood rampaging through my body so hard I was sure my veins had burst open by now under the pressure.

And in my arms Falshade stirred, as if he sensed the rage that was pounding in me and his eyelids flickered, his eyes opening just slightly and I could see a glimpse of his violet orbs shining through his eyelashes. And that was all I needed; Falshade was alive and to my knowledge so were the others. He'd been prepared to die for me, and I knew any of the others would have been too. And I'd die for them; they were going to stay alive. They were getting out of this place and they were going to have their lives back. I was going to make sure of it.

I stroked Falshade's hair briefly before gently setting him on the stone floor and straightening up, a strange sort of serenity filling me up, banishing my anger and leaving me with nothing but my certainty, my determination. "...So I'm going to change all of that. I'm going to put everything right." I said, turning to stare Cyclonis right in the eyes. I was the reason she was here; I was more powerful then she was. I was the only one who had full control of the crystal. I was the ace in the hole. I could finish all of this; I'd been drawn to Falshade for a reason, and that reason was this, this right here, this moment, this final act,

This was my purpose. This was my destiny.

I don't know if she could still peer into my mind or not, but something flickered in Cyclonis' eyes and her confidence faltered. She lunged at me, trying to grab a hold of me but I slammed both hands into her thin chest and shoved her back with a strength I'd never known. She was flung backwards by the force, stumbling and falling hard to the stone floor, as if my body had repelled hers. And I strode right past her without a second glance, heading straight for the Eternity crystal. I was on a mission and no one was going to get in my way.

"STORK, NO!" I heard someone shouting at me desperately, maybe my dad, maybe one of the others. But even the desperation in their voice couldn't stop me.

I'm sorry, you guys. But I'm doing this for you.

The crystal seemed to flare brighter we I stopped in front of it and it was like it sent out welcoming strands of warmth and joy to me, like a pleased dog happy to see me again. I could feel its energy pulsing away to the time of my own heartbeat and I felt a sort of security flow through me; whatever happened after this, it couldn't be too bad.

But still I hesitated, my hands in stretched before me, fingers splayed wide, inches from the crystal's surface. I swallowed and sent out a mental goodbye to the others, hoping they'd be able to forgive me for leaving them once again.

"It's gonna be alright." I whispered to myself. "This is how I'm meant to die..."

"STORK!" It was Falshade's voice this time, I knew it, and it rang through me in a sort of affirmative way. He was going to be okay, and so were the others. That was all that mattered to me anymore.

"...Bangerang."

The crystal's surface was warm and almost sort of soft beneath my palms, like it had been waiting for my touch and seemed to embrace it. And at first, nothing happened, and it was almost sort of funny. I mean, wouldn't it be just my luck that this wouldn't work after all?

But then it was like the crystal seemed to gently tug me forwards, pulling my hands into it, passing through the surface like it was a thin membrane and not a solid plane. Or maybe the crystal moved out around me, engulfing me in a non-threatening sort of way; I could feel it pulsing away like it was an extension of my own body, connected to me deep down. And then I felt it reaching up, through my bones and veins, every inch of my tissue alight with is glow as it passed into me, pulling me around itself like I was its skin and it belonged in my body, a natural part of me.

And then it all started to go wrong.

The energy kept pushing forwards, snuggling into my body but it was overwhelming me, there was so much of it and it just kept on flowing forward. My flesh seemed to turn to fire, green flames of energy filling up my cells, stretching out and seeking more space. My body began to burn as the energy continued to be compressed like a star was being formed inside of me, glowing hot and blindingly, the pulse, my pulse, thundering harder and harder until my whole body was being shaken with its force, choking me, crushing me.

"NO! STOP!" I could hear Cyclonis screeching at me and suddenly she was there, grabbing me, trying to pull me away from the crystal. I turned to her and I felt utter repulsion at having her touching me, clawing at my arms. And the crystal seemed to know this because it shot through me and into her, suturing her hands to my body and burning into her, tearing into her flesh with fury. And then we were screaming, she was screaming and I was screaming, my body agonized and under siege as the crystal's energy consumed me, drawing me into its core and pouring into me at the same time, some strange metamorphous that seemed to be trying to absorb me into the energy that was filling me, like I was imploding while exploding at the same time. The green light blazed so intensely it was as white and hot as lightning and it closed in all around me, so bright that it burned right through my eyes and into my head, stretching through me and taking my body into it; it kept burning into me until it was all I could feel or see or recognize. And then I became the light and my body seemed to fade away and I was nothing anymore.

x.x.x

Falshade's vision was smudged and blurry and the intense light was making his head ache but he could not tear his gaze away from the Eternity crystal as it seemed to swell, consuming everything around it with blazing green light, rays of energy bursting and crackling from the aura of light like shafts of lightning. He could no longer see any sign of either Stork or Cyclonis; the maelstrom of energy had engulfed both of them, pulling them deep into is burning core. He couldn't even hear their screaming anymore and that terrified him even more then when they had been screaming; what had happened to Stork? And why, why, why did she have to go and do something so stupid? Why couldn't she just have listened to him, just once, just once?

He tried to push himself up from the stone floor where Stork had left him but his body refused to cooperate, his muscles weak and slack, his limbs shaking like mad. He attempted to drag his body forward, gritting his teeth, determined to get to where he'd last seen Stork. But all at once he was blasted backwards once again as the Eternity crystal seemed to explode, flinging light and energy in a roiling wave through the cavern like a dying star, hurling the last of its life source out into the universe. There was no sound; the entire Atmos seemed to fall silent in that second and Falshade felt like he'd been sucked into a vacuum, like there was nothing solid or real around him anymore aside from that explosion of light that lit up everything around him like a miniature sun.

Down below the others were frozen in place, Gargoyles, Storm Hawks and Berserkers alike, fixated by the storm of dispersing energy that seemed to swoop right through all of them, passing through them as if their bodies didn't even exist. And then, as the energy began to fade, leaving them blinded and stupefied, something strange began to happen; a few nearby Berserkers simply collapsed, their bodies spilling lifeblood from ragged, unhealed wounds. Zodiac was among them, falling to his knees and staring at the gaping cracks in his burnt flesh, looking on in complete shock at the blood, his blood, that continued to flow and spurt slowly from his severed arm, spreading across the floor with no signs of slowing, forming a dark red pool around him. He just stared, his nightshade eyes wide with confusion; he couldn't comprehend this, the feeling of his own body growing weaker as his blood flowed without hesitation from his shredded skin, brittle and paper thin from healing his burns over and over, cracking and splitting as if it were stretched too thin over his skeleton. This couldn't be happening; his body was meant to heal, he knew nothing of weakness or pain or the impending reality of death. He couldn't die. He...

He fell silently into the pool of his own blood and his black eyes glazed over as the last threads of his life left him.

Elsewhere, in every corner of the Atmos, Cyclonis' mutated soldiers found themselves hunching up in pain as the crystal shards implanted in their chests exploded, tearing through their flesh like shrapnel and leaving them as normal, vulnerable humans once again.

Next to Wasp Angel felt a sudden jolt tear through his spine as his wings shot from his back, extending on their own accord and standing rigid from the rest of his body. For a moment they simply quivered, the nerves twitching as if they could sense something was about to happen. Then twin explosions of agony tore through his body and he let out a howl, falling to his knees and clenching his fists so tight his palms began to bleed. Wasp turned to him and felt her heart seize at the sight of the bloody mess that was his back. She dropped down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into her body protectively as his body shook and heaved. She stared at his torn back and, finding herself fixated by the gore, unconsciously lifted a pale finger and carefully dragged the tip along the side of one of the deep gouges that had been scored into his dark skin. She could see flashes of his rib cage beneath the ripped flesh and wondered briefly if she looked close enough if she could see his heart beating.

Like the shards of crystals that had disintegrated in the chests of all those implanted with them, the bones of Angel's wings, made by Cyclonis' mutation of the crystal's power, had shattered, bursting in hundreds of little splinters through the tissue that had formed the rest of the wings, ripping the flesh apart like the maws of some giant animal and tearing the unnatural appendages away from the rest of his body.

And then from high above on the platform a shape finally appeared from the dissipating light, striding forward with a slow, confident gate. Falshade pushed himself to his knees, having been flung back once again into the wall by the crystal's explosion. He stared at the figure's silhouette, trying to pick out some defining feature even as his vision faltered, flickering in and out of focus and etched dark around the edges. "Stork?" he croaked, his throat raw and bloody and barely able to produce more than a whisper.

Piper couldn't hear him of course from her place below, but her voice found itself calling out a different name, and this one turned out to be the correct one. "...Aerrow?"

The figure stopped at the edge of the platform and for a moment he remained still before his arms crossed over his chest and two twin daggers ignited in his hands, blue energy flaring to life along the blades and illuminating the face of the Storm Hawks' legendary Sky Knight, his emerald green eyes blazing with life once again.

Then he simply stepped from the ledge of the platform as if it weren't a forty foot drop but simply a mere step. His legs bent slightly on impact and the moment he hit the floor he was moving, loping right into the thick of the still stunned Berserkers and carving into them with his lightning blades, their fierce blue flame piercing into flesh as simply if it were made of butter. He moved through them all almost like an angel of death, hacking and slicing through their flesh and seeming oblivious to their counter attacks as some of them managed to snap out of it, realizing that they were no longer invulnerable beings but simply clones of the very creatures they'd been designed to destroy from the moment of their creation. None of them were able to even make a mark on Aerrow though; he cut through them like he was the antidote to their destructive nature. It almost seemed as if his very presence was acidic to them, repelling them and seeming to turn their flesh to ash if he were to make contact with them, his blades instant death to any they came into contact with.

Some of the remaining Berserkers felt their fighting instincts roar back to life in them and charged towards this new foe, prepared to hack him to pieces as they'd been trained to do. Many, however, realized they were no longer indestructible and they felt themselves faltering, fear thick in their veins. Their Master was gone and these people had already destroyed many of their comrades when they still had their mutant powers intact. But the Berserkers were not designed to be able to think for themselves; without their Master barking orders at them they stayed frozen in place, hesitating and many more fell by Aerrow's unstoppable blades without even putting up a fight. Others collapsed due to injuries that had continued bleeding and they simply faded from existence down in that dark cavern, collapsing without complaint and finding themselves absorbed by a fate they were promised they'd never have to face.

Unsure of what to do, some of the Berserkers then turned on the Storm Hawks and Gargoyles who'd remained below the platform, as this is what their Master had ordered them to do before she'd suddenly been swallowed up by the crystal furious light. They came charging towards the others, some of them with serious wounds that would kill them shortly, snarling and howling; they're regenerative powers may have evaporated with the extinguished crystal, but their basic purpose still existed, the desire to kill ingrained into their brains.

Wasp was on her feet then, standing in front of Angel with a snarl of her own on her lips and she crashed into the remaining soldiers without hesitation, her machetes ripping and shredding apart any who was foolish enough to get too close to the savage Faerieshian. Angel found himself on his feet next, his sabres' hilts slippery with his own blood in his hands but he was up and determined to stay standing; he knew he had to get to the top of that platform, to get to Falshade and Stork and the only way there was through these bastards. Before he could even sink his blades into the first Berserker he came across though Varan was in front of him, his claws tearing three vertical gouges right down the soldier's torso, spilling his organs and rendering him dead before he even hit the stone floor.

"God damnit I can look after myself!" Angel snapped at him, slicing open the throat of another Berserker.

"Well then move a little faster." Varan muttered, following after Finn, who was carving a path through the remaining Berserkers with his bayonets, desperate to get to his where he'd last seen his daughter.

And through it all, as the carnage picked up once again in that blood soaked chamber, Carrion stood and watched, her disturbed eyes wide and shimmering with something very strange indeed. Like her fellow Blitzkrieg the crystal's influence had evaporated from her being like a chemical that had finally been filtered from her system. Without it blaring away at the back of her skull like roaring white static or pounding an erratic, adrenal beat out of her chest, she could feel only the faults in her defective body, every single one of them. The tumour in her head squeezed and pushed and demanded more room, pressing her frontal lobe right up against the backs of her eyeballs; she could feel the disgusting brittleness of her weak bones, the puny reality of her wraithlike body. Her hammer slipped from her fingertips, too heavy for the pathetic, twig-like arms she'd been equipped with. She felt a raging sickness in her body, fluids leaking free and organs that had only functioned with the crystal's assistance now failing all over the place and decomposing under her very flesh. She felt no more rage, no more strength; she was a weak, useless creature, not a real human nor even a proper clone of one. She was just some frankenstien experiment who couldn't even exist properly beyond the protective womb of the crystal that had built her.

As her eyes roamed over the bloodshed that was erupting all around her she found herself staring at the Faerieshian, who was also standing apart from the rest of the battle, watching her curiously. For a moment Carrion locked eyes with her, that damn girl who'd refused to die time and time again, and found something in her mutual off-set eyes that spoke of understanding, like the Faerie knew all the feelings that were running through her deteriorating mind all too well and sympathized with her. Slowly the girl extended one gangly arm towards her, offering a warm hand over the bitter, vicious rivalry of their past And Carrion felt a tug in her mutated heart, something that had never made itself known before; this gesture, this whisper of understanding, was what her mutilated, warped being had needed, just a touch of humanity.

She stared back at the Faerieshian and felt something strange spill from the corner of her eyes, hot like molten lead. "Kill me." She whispered, her voice almost non-existence, no longer scratchy and tinny but a weak, almost girlish sound. The Faerieshian stepped towards her, that empathetic look soothing the wretched Blitzkrieg. She didn't even flinch as the girl's hand reached for her chin, stroking her cheek tenderly and then gripping her jaw tightly.

"Goodbye." She murmured and then jerked Carrion's head to the side in one efficient snap, breaking her neck swiftly and painlessly and putting the poor Blitzkrieg out of her misery at last.

Above Falshade had dragged his agonized body to the dell in the stone where the Eternity crystal had sat only minutes ago. Now as he reached the edge he saw only Stork's crumpled body curled there like a discarded doll in the bottom of the shallow basin. He felt himself heave like he was going to be sick and pulled himself over the lip of the bowl, sliding into the indent and scrambling towards her, searching over for her for any signs of life. He couldn't tell if she was breathing; her eyes were closed and her skin was horribly pale, her veins jumping out dark and still from beneath her brittle layer of skin.

"Stork..." He croaked, his voice cracking and waning away into nothing more than a wheeze. He reached out with one hand, grabbing her arm gently and shaking her a bit. "Stork, wake up, please wake up..."

Suddenly he felt an immense heat surge from Stork's body and into his, traveling through his arm and rattling his entire skeleton with its intense force. It pushed through his muscles and bones like a surge of lightning and then suddenly, when it reached his elbow, a terrible pain exploded in his lower arm and he let out a howl, falling back away from Stork and clutching his arm, feeling the broken bone shifting in fragments beneath his skin. He watched as his forearm turned black and blue in great blossoming patches and his entire body shook as he gasped for air.

He was distracted from the haze of his pain and confusion when he noticed something shifting in the air nearby; at first it was almost as if the air particles themselves had come to life, rippling and shifting through the space above Stork and he wondered deliriously if maybe the very fabric of the dimension had been ripped open and a black hole was opening up before him. But then the wavering mirage took on a colour, a dark purple colour, the shade of a nasty bruise. And it moved through that air like a jellyfish, floating slowly but surely towards Stork, hovering above her chest and then slowly sinking towards it, sprouting tendrils of energy as if it were reaching into her body, setting anchors to pull the rest of it in.

And Falshade realized what it was in his reeling mind; it was Cyclonis, trying to get back in once again to the nest she'd built herself in Stork's body. He tried to lunge at the blotch, determined to keep it away from his Stork, but before he could even come close a blazing halo of green light seemed to burst from Stork's body, as if suddenly her aura had become visible and corporeal. It burned into the purple blotch above her, tearing it to shreds with its unrelenting light and Falshade was sure he could hear a slight screeching sound as the blotch shrivelled and burnt up, completely erased from the world.

The blaze of light seemed to recede back into Stork's body until it was nothing but a dull glow shimmering from her pores. And Falshade was reminded of his dreams, the figure in green flames charging and destroying the monster with its fury and burning light. Stork had told him that was how things had to be, before the monster crunched her head between its massive jaws. This was how things had to be...

Falshade felt the overwhelming, childish urge to simply crawl up next to his beloved friend and lie there with her until he died. It didn't feel so far off to him right now, and it didn't sound like such a bad idea either. It was just like falling peacefully back to sleep after waking from one of his nightmares. Angel used to be able to coax him back to sleep, all those years ago, lying beside him comfortingly until he slipped back into blissful sleep. And he would lie next to Stork now and keep her cold body warm until he slipped off to join her. It was the least he could do.

He started to slump down like an old dog lying down for the last time in some quiet place, waiting for death. It'd be nice to leave the pain of his body behind he figured. It'd be nice to just have good dreams from now on...

But then he felt something like a cool breeze float into his head and then Stork's voice was there, pushing the intruding dark clouds back and letting in some light. 'Shade, come on, get up. Don't worry about me. Go and look after the others, okay? Don't worry about me. Okay?'

He felt himself stirring and then he was pulling himself back out of that little bowl in the stone, that comforting little hollow. And out of the corner of his eye he saw Sliver lying where it'd fallen on the dark stone, the edge of his faithful blade shining persuasively.

Okay.

Below the platform, where he'd lain where he'd fallen, Halo felt the healing fibres that had been at work in his body suddenly come to a halt. He knew that his body was still broken in places, he could feel his blood seeping away sluggishly; the energy that had been pulsing hard and fast in his veins suddenly seemed to turn cold and heavy, like a molten metal cooling in his chest. He pushed a dead Blitzkrieg off him with disgust and looked around at the ruin that was once his Master's mighty army. Many of them lay slain across the cavern floor, tangled together in heaps of dead flesh while others continued to bleed and die on the floor like pathetic dogs.

And with a horrible jolting sensation that tore through his body he realized his Master had lost. His delusional confidence faltered and then crumbled around him like a sand castle as if he could feel the whole weight of the Atmos slipping from his grasp alongside the weakness of his own body as it returned back to its normal human state. The power and security he'd felt all these years, doing his Master's biding, following her every order down to the tiniest detail and bringing the Atmos to its knees before him, it all fell right from his body with a terrible, ripping feeling of loss.

No, not loss. Of being robbed. He'd been robbed of all of that he'd thrown his entire life into by those god damn kids.

And then, as often happens to fill the terrifying void of great loss, a violent and intense rage consumed him, pushing into all the empty spaces and masking the pain in his broken leg and battered body. He'd struggled through his entire life building up to this moment; from back in the earliest days he could only recall alienation and anguish, which later channelled to sickness and fury. He remembered being shunned by everyone around him after he was found dissecting the neighbour's cat in the corner of his backyard with a broken pair of scissors, still just a child then. He remembered being forced to the very borders of human existence, exiled and rejected by the people of his terra, labelled a psycho, a monster. And then he remembered his Master's voice coming to him one day. She did not despise him for who he was; she desired him. She told him he was meant to be great and powerful and if he followed her orders one day he would rule over those who'd beaten him and sent him away, afraid and disgusted of who he was, a strange little boy who grew into a disturbed and psychotic young man. He would catch them all in a stranglehold with an iron fist and squeeze the life from their puny little bodies.

And so for twelve years now he'd spent his every waking moment obeying the promising voice inside his head, gathering her new forces and rebuilding her fallen empire. He drove himself mad trying to create the soldiers she so desired, playing God and spawning creatures using his own genetic material. Then, finally, Carrion had turned out to be the first successful, semi-functioning life form after hundreds of failures. And things began to change, his darkly desired future brimmed on the horizon; he made himself powerful, stronger and better equipped than the pathetic human race that he'd been rejected by. He stood at the head of his Master's bloodthirsty army and as the Atmos fell piece by piece by his will he felt invincible, second only to his Master. She would dominate the planet soon enough and he acts as her right hand, the dark general of Cyclonia.

And now thanks to the stupidity and incompetence of the pathetic creatures he'd personally brought into existence all of that, the desperate dreams that he'd harboured for vengeance against the bitterness and rejection he received all his life, they all were being smashed into thousands of splintery little pieces. Those blasphemies had been blinded by their bloodlust and power, they didn't have enough brain matter in their heads to keep themselves alive. Them and those wretched little humans and their half-breed friends; he'd tried again and again to destroy them, rid them of this world for good. And he'd only failed because of the faults of Carrion and Zodiac. They'd allowed the Gargoyles to escape their own death time and time again and now both of those pitiful excuses for soldiers were lying dead in pools of their own blood.

Not him though; in his collapsing mind this made sense to him. All along it had been his destiny to rule like Death itself over the Atmos. Not Carrion, not Zodiac, not the traitor Dark Angel. All of them were weak, unworthy of the place as rulers over his Master's new world. But not him; his Master had chosen him back in the very beginning to start it all, put every ounce of her trust in him and him alone. This was his destiny, he knew it. All the others may be dead but he was still alive, he could start all over again, build a new, better army with no flaws like Carrion or Zodiac. He and he alone would seize control of the Atmos in his Master's name; he'd put it all right. He would still have his revenge, his retribution.

And it would start right now; as he looked through the piles of carnage he spotted the man with the red hair, cutting down all that remained of his Blitzkrieg underlings, his skin reflecting the deadly blue blaze of his daggers. And in his haunted, corrupted mind he saw that human as the epitome of all his torture and the cause of his Master's fall from power. Somehow this man, this wretched Sky Knight, was a burning spear of light from some far off place, another point in time, like an angel stepping down from the heavens to purify the world. And if he were to kill that disgusting, alien creature, the manifestation of the last shred of the Eternity crystal's power, then the Atmos would crumble once again, lost in the darkness with no hope of ever surfacing again. And he would rein supreme, a dark god of the new world.

His groping fingers found his halberd and he dragged himself towards Aerrow, stumbling and staggering but moving with fevered purpose like a rabid dog.

Something was wrong with Varan's leg; he could feel a muted sort of pain throbbing away in his veins, blunted for the time being, and that told him he'd been injured. But for some reason his leg wasn't working properly and that was cause for much deeper concern. He could barely move it in any direction and it wouldn't support his weight either, simply buckling treacherously under him with any attempt of movement. He'd been following after Finn, who was fighting tooth and nail to reach the stairs, but now he was falling behind, unnoticed in light the sharpshooter's hysteria. He staggered for balance, slipping in the layer of blood that was splattered over the stone, finding himself alone among the butchered corpses at the base of the platform and was suddenly seized by a flashback of the genocide on Bogaton, images of burning bodies and his mother's dead eyes boring into his own flooding his mind and momentarily blinding him.

He heard the Berserker howl with delight as it came up behind him, a hungry predator descending on crippled prey, and managed to whip himself around in a semicircle, pivoting on his still functioning leg and catching the Berserker's multi-pronged pike with his broadsword, sweeping out to the side with all his might and flinging both weapon and soldier off to the side, deflecting the blow at the last moment. But his actions threw him off the remainder of his balance that he'd been clinging too feebly and his bad leg crumpled beneath him. He collapsed to the stone and found himself staring into the glazed, hollow eyes of a dead Berserker, his throat hanging open in threads as if shredded by fearsome claws. His claws. He felt the blood that was caked over his body, seeping in under his scales and things started reeling through his mind, the split and torn bodies of his fellow Terradons, and then those same creatures, their intestines hanging loose and bones exposed, moving like zombies and tearing screaming children limb from limb. Then the children were Berserkers and he was the one ripping them apart, but they still stared up at him with eyes like a child's, his own yellow orbs taking in the sight of his slaughtered family. It all blurred together in his mind, spinning faster and faster until it was all blended up into one gruesome, bloody milkshake.

His throat closed up on itself and he couldn't breathe and when he heard the Berserker with the pike charging back towards him, speared tip aimed directly for his chest, he found himself paralyzed, his broadsword a deadweight in his shaking hand. A wounded, defenceless baby bunny, death closing its maws around him once again.

Fraggle's body was a blue blur as he came crashing in from the side, his staff knocking the pike off its course and slamming the charging Berserker hard with his shoulder, slamming him into the side of the stone platform, a fierce growl rumbling in his throat. The Berserker roared in fury and rounded on the Blizzarian but Fraggle moved faster; he plunged in, acting on a deadly instinct he'd never known before and his jagged teeth sank deep into the Berserker's exposed throat with a horrible crunching sound.

Varan felt someone nudging him and caught a flash of blue hair under his arm as Piper tried to heave him back to his feet. Angel was there too and the two of them tried to haul him off the floor but he couldn't get his body to move even if his leg had been working properly.

"Varan come on!" he heard Piper trying to coax him desperately. Then he heard Angel muttering something about 'all of this' and 'shock' but it seemed like his brain was short-circuiting; his body and his mind had taken all they could handle and they couldn't take in anymore.

Then Junko was there and he hefted him up as if weighed nothing, pulling him onto his good leg and letting him lean on his massive frame for balance as he started shivering uncontrollably. "Easy, buddy." Junko said, rubbing his arm comfortingly and it snapped him out of it enough that he could see Angel properly, standing nearby and watching him with concern.

"...Falshade." He croaked and he could see his own reflection in Angel's storm cloud eyes, his eyes stretched wide with distress. He saw his panic there too, etched just as clearly in Angel's orbs.

"Yeah, I know, we're going to get him, and Stork too. Just stay here. Fraggle, stay here with him while we go get the others."

Fraggle's fur was stained with blood so that he looked like he'd turned a different colour entirely and for a moment Varan almost didn't recognize him. But then he pushed himself in under his other arm, pressed in close enough that Varan could feel him shaking slightly.

"Ugh, I don't feel too well, eh." He muttered from somewhere near Varan's armpit.

"Feeling's mutual." Junko assured him, looking around. "Come on, let's get to one of these tunnels here and make sure it stays clear."

Yes. That was supposed to be his job after all. He'd promised Shade he'd keep a way open for them to get out. His fingers gripped with a little more strength at the hilt of his broadsword and he shook his head a few times, trying to come back to his sense. He might have a bum leg and suffering from a slight psychological breakdown, but as long as he had someone at his side to keep him standing he was determined to keep going until he had nothing left to give.

Back at the base of the platform Piper, Stork and Angel had managed to catch back up with Finn, who was glistening with a thick coat of dark Berserker blood and had a look of grim determination etched over his usually juvenile features. He'd managed to hack his way all the way here, cutting down any of the Berserkers who stepped into his path; the mutants who hadn't fled to the tunnels seemed to have gravitated towards the staircase on a very basic instinct. After all their Master had stood up there only a short while ago and somewhere in their very simplistic minds the thought that they should continue protecting the only passage up there, even if she wasn't there anymore. Some of them had taken chase after Junko, Fraggle and Varan but this turned out to be a grave error when the Wallop turned on them, leaving Fraggle to support Varan and crushing their skeletons with vicious blows, sending them reeling backwards to tumble to the stone in a pile of their own broken bones and organs.

Angel was trying to keep one eye on the other three as he trailed behind Piper and Stork, ignoring the fact that his vision was starting to get fuzzy around the edges. He'd promised Falshade before that he'd keep an eye on the others if Shade himself was out of action and even though that seemed like ages ago now he was determined to keep his word. It was because of this fact that he didn't realize right away that he hadn't seen Wasp for awhile and his heart lurched. He paused, letting the other two catch up with their friend and turned, scanning the darkened chamber, his pulse hammering at a sickening rate. When he couldn't pick her out in the shadows that had crept into the chamber with the absence of the Eternity crystal's glow he felt his stomach contract like he was going to be sick. Trying to keep his head he took in a deep breath and let out a sharp, resounding whistle that echoed down the many passages leading off from the Heart Chamber and made Piper and Stork pause, turning about to see what was going on.

Angel held his breath, waiting as the seconds seemed to drag by like hours, his heart beating so fast it hurt. He was about to really start panicking when he heard a scrabbling noise emanating from one of the nearby tunnels and then there she was, loping across the cavern to skid to a halt in front of him, her head cocked as if to ask why he'd called for her. He folded his arms and raised his eyebrow, trying to seem unimpressed despite the fact that his whole body had gone slack with relief when he'd seen her, for the most part unharmed.

"What part of sticking together do you not understand?" He asked gruffly.

Wasp cracked a mischievous little grin, showing off her blood soaked fangs pointedly. "I was hunting." She explained, waving her arm at the tunnels down which many of the Blitzkrieg... Berserkers, whatever, had fled.

"We'll worry about them later. Come on, we've gotta get to Shade and Stork." Angel said, tugging her along back towards the trio of Storm Hawks.

"Right." Wasp said with a short nod and then she and him sprang in opposite directions as one, both of them hacking through an oncoming Berserker with their trusted blades. Wasp came back into Angel's side and scanned his back quickly, not at all liking the amount of blood that was still oozing from the ragged gouges that remained where his wings had been.

Angel caught sight of her concerned gaze. "Don't start worrying about me." He said curtly.

Wasp wrinkled her nose and decided to change the subject. "You see the blonde guy over there, Finn?"

"The mad commando? What about him?"

"He's Stork's daddy." Wasp explained briefly before sinking Throatknotch up to the hilt in the chest of a nearby Berserker.

"Fuck, seriously?" Angel said, glancing over the Storm Hawk in question. "Well then we should probably let him go and get Stork; we can stay down here and keep these assholes..." He paused in order to sever the head from another Berserker. "...from chasing after him."

"You should go too!" Piper said to him, darting in close to the two of them for a moment so they could hear her and cracking another Berserker firmly around the head with her energy staff, breaking his skull open like it was an eggshell. "The two of you go and get Falshade while Finn takes care of Stork, and then we can all-" She stopped so abruptly Angel was worried she might have been hurt and turned to face her, only to find her staring slack jawed and wide eyed at the sixth person who had moved over to join in the fray.

Aerrow carved his way through the remaining Berserkers like oil through water, seeming to repel them with his presence alone. On closer inspection it became clear that his mere touch burned right into the flesh of the mutated soldiers, as if he were a human bolt of lightning, disintegrating enemy tissue before his blades even touched them. He moved silently and purposely through their midst and Piper lowered her staff slowly, too stunned to keep it raised, her muscles turning limp. She'd seen him earlier of course from a distance but now that he was here, only a few feet away, and she could really see him the reality of it all seemed to sink in and hit her hard. He didn't look a day older then the day they'd last seen him, seventeen long and dark years ago and he moved with the same flawless, deadly precision that he'd always possessed. And when his green eyes shifted to the side and found hers she felt it zap right into the wounded center of her heart, the place where she'd kept her grief and sorrow knotted together in a tangled, frayed ball since he'd vanished from their existence, leaving them alone in the cruel world. She took in those emerald orbs and knew with all her heart that this was no dream or crazed vision brought by her distraught mind. It was him in flesh and blood, he really was back and force of this knowledge brought her to her knees, her eyes never leaving the form of her long lost Sky Knight.

Stork felt his own knees knocking together weakly when Aerrow's eyes roved to his own huge yellow orbs which felt like at any moment they might just consume his own head. He was certain his heart had simply stopped beating; it was about time after all, he had no idea how he'd managed to last so long as it was and this was surely the straw that would break his circadian rhythm. The corner of Aerrow's mouth ticked up in an almost grin, a brief flash of an reckless, roguish expression that was so achingly familiar it made Stork's chest ache, despite how often he'd cursed that grin, knowing it would only lead to trouble.

Aerrow then crossed the last of the distance to Finn and cut down the Berserker the sharp shooter had been grappling with for the past few moments, delivering the final blow and letting the creature collapse to the side without a second glance. For a moment Finn seemed like he might just keep ploughing forwards until he caught sight of the Sky Knight from the corner of his eye and when he did all other thoughts were momentarily banished from his mind. Even his gripping concern for Stork was pushed back in that moment as he took in his thought to be dead Sky Knight, the friend he thought he'd lost for good that terrible day so many years ago. And deep inside some desperate, childish part of himself that had believed Aerrow could never die, that his best friend could never be gone for good, flared back to life, as if it had known this moment would come, had clung to it, had only existed for it and now it was consuming him with a white hot light of pure joy the likes of which he hadn't felt since he was just an idiotic teenager with the wind in his hair.

A slow grin spread over Finn's face, uncertainly at first and then bursting free wildly, cracking his dried lips and cinching the corners of his mouth up until they were practically at his ears, his eyes gleaming and teeth flashing behind his split lips like a large Cheshire cat. And, as Finn's enthusiasm and over-flowing happiness had always been contagious, Aerrow found his own mouth twitching up in the corners, his face breaking into that boyish, wild grin he'd been so famous for, and expression that seemed to light up their immediate area down in that wretched place.

And for just a moment it could almost be believed that all was well in the world.

Aerrow's presence had cast some sort of spell over the remaining Berserkers, freezing them in place and holding them there, cowering and slathering uncomfortably like meeker dogs before the alpha, waiting to have their throats torn open. None of them could move on inch if they wanted too, all their muscles and joints locked in place as if they'd rusted tight. All accept for Halo, who hauled his broken body across the length of the chamber and spotted his opportunity for his vengeance.

And he seized it.

Angel saw him lunge and shouted out in warning but he was much too far away to do anything about it. Piper snapped out of her stupor at the sound of his alarmed voice and saw Halo coming up behind Aerrow, his halberd raised high and shrieking down for the top of Aerrow's burning red head, ready to cleave it in two like a melon.

"AERROW!" She screamed, scrambling to get back to her feet but her actions were too late, she was too far out of reach. Even Finn, the only one close enough to leap to Aerrow's defence, was too stunned to react quick enough. Aerrow turned as if in slow motion, his daggers in his hands but nowhere near at the right level to block Halo's oncoming blade, a blazing scythe of flame that blotted out Aerrow's vision with its intense light.

But then, just as those last few feet between Aerrow and Halo's unrelenting blade were closing Halo lurched forward unsteadily, his mouth stretching wide in a silent gasp of pain and he froze, his arms locking above his head and the grip on his halberd slipping. Aerrow blinked, so surprised by Halo's actions that he didn't even think to move aside and stared at the large man before him as he quivered and slowly, almost grudgingly, let his mighty halberd slide from his grip and clang finally on the stone floor at Aerrow's side.

A bubble of blood burst from Halo's gaping mouth as with a cracking of bone the tip of a blade punched clean through his chest, blood spurting in strings from the wound and splattering to the floor, a sound that seemed unnaturally loud in the surrounding silence.

Halo's mud coloured eyes widened in pain and the realization that he would not recover from this wound, his heart faltering and then failing completely and his eyes rolled back in his head, their dark irises going blank as death swept through him with its silent effectiveness. Thwarted and finished for good, he fell forward without a sound, the purple emblazoned scimitar sliding free from his chest as he crumpled, leaving him in a bloody heap on the stone floor, the last of Cyclonis' minions dead and left to their fate in Hell.

And there stood Falshade, his eyes glazed but burning with determination nonetheless, breathing haggard and laboured, his right arm hanging discoloured and ruined at his side. He stared at Halo's broken form for a moment before his eyes rolled up to take in the others, all of whom were standing stock still and uncertain, taking in his ruined, wild-eyed appearance with a mixture of fright and concern. Then his eyes moved to the top of the platform as his scimitar dropped from his weakening grasp, tears rolling uncontrollably down his tortured, empty face.

"...Stork." he breathed, his voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper. And with that he collapsed without a sound at Aerrow's feet.