Alright, so it's a day late, I'm sorry!!! However it's finally here! These are the final three chapters of "A War I Did Not Start and Could Not End". I hope you all enjoy what I've written; your advice has been so helpful!!!

Train X3

A Cat's Defiance

Eden had fallen silent somewhere between when I had entered Eve's world and when I had arrived back in the lab. The revving of the engine had ceased and the rocking motions had stilled as well. The monster was sleeping, or so it seemed. But for how long?

We made our way through unfamiliar corridors that only Creed seemed to know. The darkness that had greeted us when we had opened the lab doors had taken us by surprise and even Creed hadn't expected the silence that had engulfed our senses. Something had changed or someone was setting us up.

"Do you think someone got to the controls?" Eve asked from behind me as we edged along the nearest wall.

"Are there controls for this thing?" I asked as I held tightly the back of Creeds coat, his eyes serving him better in this mess than mine.

"There must be," Eve replied intelligently. "It's a machine."

"Is it?" Creed asked from the front of our stumbling line.

Silence fell again as we continued to move forward. Eve was right. It was entirely possible that there were controls to this thing, but the problem was where were they and who knew how to work them.

If these controls did in fact exist someone had put the thing on pause. The problem was how to put it on self destruct and who it was that would hit the button.

"It's not much further now," Creed spoke suddenly, taking me by surprise and pulling me back into reality. "The elevator is just ahead but there are stairs, so we'll have to take them."

My aching legs groaned in protest and I tried my best to ignore them. There was no other option and sitting here whining about how much pain I was in wasn't going to fit in well with our current plan.

"Then what?' Eve asked, regarding Creeds plans.

"Then we make our way down to the main sector of Eden," He replied. "That's where they said they'd meet us. Sephiria will instruct us from there."

So Sephiria was alive. Good.

We made our way into the large room the elevator was in and just as Creed had guessed it was powerless. I rammed the door to the stairs open, shoving debris aside so that we could make our way into the stairwell.

The descent was long and painful. By the time we made it halfway down my legs were shaking and my lungs were screaming for more air. Being in Eden had really taken it out of me and no matter how much I tried to deny it my body wasn't easily convinced.

Creed watched with wary eyes as I stepped passed him while he held open the door. I ignored his gaze, not sure how to respond when I knew a fake smile or a reassuring word would do him absolutely no good. He could see how tired I was and it would frustrate and worry him if he knew there was nothing he could do to remedy it.

The room that lay beyond the doorway was massive. So large in fact I had a hard time remembering we were still inside Eden and not Creed's mansion back on solid ground.

The ceiling rose over a hundred feet above us, arching up into a single point where a deadly looking pendulum made of steel and glass hung. It swung in the still air as if someone else was controlling it but it never moved downward. The floor was made of cracked marble and steel, as if a fancy house and a factory had been smashed together.

A concrete colonnade surrounded the round room, towering high above us until they stood mere feet shorter than the ceiling. The light that existed in the room was dim and flickering, created only by the unattended fluorescent lights that lined the walls behind the columns.

So many things had come together to create this room, as if it had never been planned to exist in the first place, and the pendulum only made it stranger. It seemed that we finally stood at the center of the beast, but what would happen from here lay in the unknown.

I glanced over at Creed whose eyes were turned upward toward the swinging pendulum, his mind far from here. Eve, on the other hand, seemed to be concocting a plan in her head as she always seemed to be doing.

"This is where the others said they'd meet us?" I glanced around, hoping to see a familiar face.

"They should be here by now." Creed muttered back as if he hadn't heard my question at all.

Eve glanced around as well, both of us hoping to see Sven walk through the door or any other face we knew. But something darker seemed to be at work. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach.

I stepped away from the group until I stood in the center of the room, directly beneath the pendulum that hung high above. The room was so huge it was hard to see the other side, but from here I could tell no one was waiting there for us.

"Where could they be?" I muttered to myself as I turned around, looking back towards Creed and Eve.

I winced in disgust as I felt my foot fall into something wet and warm, seeping through the cuts in my shoes that had come from fights before.

"Great…" I muttered as I shook my foot free and took a step backwards, but I stopped short when I felt something warm fall onto my exposed arm where my sleeve was torn.

I reached down slowly as if dreading it and touched my fingertips to the liquid, feeling my stomach turn as I already knew what it was before looking. I held my fingers in front of my face to see them colored crimson, the warm liquid dripping down my fingers and into my palm.

My eyes slowly rose upward, my head following even slower as I looked above me where I knew it had come from. I felt another drop hit my shoulder as the air caught in my lungs, my chest tightening so hard I felt like I might choke.

High above the pendulum with a sword pierced through his stomach, hung Jenos. His body was limp and his eyes were shut but somewhere in the back of my head I knew he was gone…he had to be.

I looked down quickly to see Creed had followed my gaze, a similar look to mine flitting across his face before he composed himself and caught my gaze. Eve's hands rose to her mouth as she stared upward, fear filling her.

So that's why they weren't here…something had happened.

"We have to find them," I said, my voice sounding ragged as I tried my best to shove the image of Jenos out of my head. "Something happened."

"I know." Creed simply nodded before turning back toward the doors we had come through.

"Wait!" Eve called after him as she grabbed my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. "We don't know where to go, why should we head back the way we came? We didn't see any sign of them on our way here so we can assume they went in a different direction."

I stared down at her for several seconds before looking to Creed who seemed to be thinking over what she'd said.

"True enough," He shrugged slightly before scanning the room for more doors. "There."

I followed his gaze to see a dark set of double doors at the furthest section of the room from us. One sat ajar while the other bore a large dent and several scratches. Whatever had happened had been bad and it had led that way.

"C'mon." I motioned towards Creed as I pulled Eve behind me, jogging at first before we were at a flat run.

We had to get there fast, I knew we did. Something somewhere inside of me was screaming for me to move faster-to function better. We had to find them. We just had to. The fact that Jenos was dead meant Chronos had been attacked, but it didn't mean it stopped there. What if Sven had been with them? What if he was…

I shook my head and jetted forward, yanking Eve behind me, but she kept up. We were moving through hallways and stairwells at what felt like the speed of light. The trail they had left behind was obvious-too obvious, but it didn't matter. I didn't care if we were being led into a trap, it didn't matter if I was about to die or not. I had to find them.

We burst through a strong, steel door and into a room filled with bright light and the sound of white noise. I shielded my eyes with my arm, trying my best to see through the light but it was impossible. That's when I heard it.

Somewhere mixed among the gravely whine of the white noise was the poignant and unmistakable sound of screaming.

I shoved Eve back into Creed and gave him a look that told him to stay put before turning and walking blindly into the light. The sound was louder than anything else now-ringing in my ears as if it were the only thing that existed.

The further I walked the louder it became, telling me I was heading in the right direction. I had no idea what was going on, my senses were so blurred by now that it was if I were walking through a snow storm, but I kept going.

I jerked to a halt when the screaming, as if a plug had been pulled, stopped. Soon after the sound of the white noise silenced as well, leaving us in the solid white and nothing more.

I took in a sharp breath as something hard pressed against the side of my head followed by the sound of a cocking gun. My eyes traveled sideways until I caught sight of a gun pressing hard against my skin, held by a familiar hand.

"Echidna…" I growled. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, don't you know?" Her voice replied from where in the light. "Or are you really that stupid?"

I watched as a space opened in the light in front of me and she stepped through, her long purple coat swirling around her thin frame.

"I'm on your side," I replied, the growl still in my voice. "Or did you forget?"

"I didn't forget," She replied, her arm slipping further into the gate she had created for it, the gun simultaneously grinding into my skull. "But who says which side I'm on."

"Don't tell me…" Creed's voice came from behind me as he and Eve stepped forward slowly. "I should have known."

"Sorry, Creed," She smiled almost sadly. "It wasn't my first choice, but decisions had to be made. You chose him and I chose this."

My glare intensified as she cocked her gun, her eyes still on Creed. It was obvious she didn't want to betray Creed, but her need to get rid of me had driven her to it.

"So you sided with Mason?" Creed asked, his voice calm.

"Not Mason," She shook her head. "Just the idea he created."

"His idea is insane!" I snapped.

"Shut up, Heartnet," She glared at me, her expression completely changing. "I've had enough of you. It's time you learned your place."

I braced myself as I felt her shaking finger press dangerously hard on the trigger.

"Echidna!" Creed called, her finger pausing at the sound of his voice. "Don't you understand what will happen when this all ends? Mason is dead. The Doctor is dead. All that's left is a skeleton of the dream Mason once had and Chronos is destroying it piece by piece. If you keep up with this you'll be next. This "dream" of Mason's has fallen apart and you'll fall with it if you don't get out now."

"It doesn't matter who's dead or alive," Echidna snapped back, madness in her eyes. "It's already begun. You can't stop it now."

It all happened in a matter of seconds. I felt her finger press hard against the trigger and I let my knees go weak and fall as the gun exploded above me. I launched up from my crouch and wrapped my fingers around Echidna's neck before slammed her into the ground behind us.

"You bastard," She growled as she raised her gun again, only this time without the use of a gate. "Why don't you just give up?"

I grabbed her wrist and twisted it hard, forcing her fingers to release before I caught the gun in mid air and jammed it between her eyes.

"It goes both ways," I growled back, my finger tight against the trigger but far from pulling it. "Now where are they? What did you do to them?"

Echidna's painted lips curved into a smirk before she began laughing.

"Tell me!" I yelled, pressing the gun down harder.

"Why should I tell you, Heartnet?" She laughed again before she fell silent at the sound of the cocking gun.

"Tell me." I growled again, barely audible.

"I'm not afraid of death," She replied nonchalantly as if I had a water gun held to her head. "I'd rather not die but if it has to happen then so be it."

"Shut up," I growled before firing a warning shot into the ground only centimeters from her head then jammed it against her temple, burning her skin. "Tell me where they are."

"They're here," She replied, looking around the room. "You must have heard them before."

"The screaming…" I muttered more to myself than her. "What did you do to them?"

"I assume you found the beginning of our trail?" She asked, a smirk across her face again.

"Yes." I growled back, the image of Jenos flashing through my mind.

"I'll leave the rest to your imagination." She replied.

"You're sick." I growled back and this time I came close to pulling the trigger.

"What you believe is sick is merely ingenuity, Heartnet." Echidna smirked.

I barely moved as I felt a gate open beneath us, my knees sinking into its vast blackness as her back followed. She reached up and took hold of my coats collar before pulling me close, the look of madness in her eyes again.

"I'll drag you to Hell one way or another," She growled. "Even if I have to go with you."