I'm so excited about finishing this story. Yes I should be studying for the three finals for my stupid vocational school that I have tomorrow. Can you believe I'm making this fic a priority over school?! Well it's a stupid work school that I'm not even going to voluntarily. In fact, I was only in school for two classes today then I bailed out and headed on over to a Starbucks to write this whole chapter, baby! Hey, you guys deserve it and don't worry. I'm not gonna fail nor care if I do fail my tests tomorrow! I want this thing to be done and so do you.

Here we go…the big finish…

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Peter took a few steps towards her. Seeing that she still wasn't moving, he gently placed his hand on top of Olivia's gun and lowered it for her.

Instead of putting it away, Olivia let the gun loosely fall out of her hands.

She had been quick…incredibly quick…to wrap her arms around him.

He was stunned the moment their lips crashed with one another. But when it became clear that he wasn't going to let go…

They pulled themselves against the wall of the stairwell and for the next few minutes, they were unaware of the darkness and the chaos they were slab straight in the middle of.

They parted at the same moment to catch their breath. Olivia could barely find the words. "What are you…doing here?"

Peter breathed "seems I was destined to be here."

She didn't know what the meant…she didn't care. Peter grabbed her arm and pulled her up the stairs.

There was a sudden explosion and the building began to shake. Peter swung Olivia behind a corner narrowly avoiding being seen by a large group of armed guards, who were running down the hall. The shooting to come seconds later became immense.

"Damn," said Peter. "Looks like Ziegler's arrived."

"He's here?"

"We came here through a portal. We got to get to the woods."

Peter was about to pull Olivia along but she quickly stopped him. "I can't leave Gwen!"

Another explosion. Small bits of debris were now raining the halls.

"Hey!"

They turned around to find several guards approaching them from behind.

"Sh*t," said Peter.

"I can hold them off."

"Liv…"

She pushed Peter down one end of the darkened hallway. "Near the end, corner door. I'll meet you both in the woods."

"Liv…"

She pushed him in the general direction of where would be and then turned back toward the approaching guards, pulling out her gun.

'What the f*ck?' Peter thought as he started running down the hall. He just lost her again. What if she didn't make it to the woods in time? Apparently it didn't seem to matter to her. And Peter was left with an incredibly difficult decision that him unable to move for a whole minute.

He almost turned back…but then he finally accepted: if he didn't try to save Gwen, Olivia would never be able to forgive him.

So he dashed down the darkened hallway.

He found the corner door and kicked it open. The building began to shake more and more. The chandelier above him began to swing in all directions.

With all the rumbling, he almost didn't hear the cry. It was coming from the smaller room...tucked away and curled up with a face so red in the corner.

"Gwen?"

Peter had to gently get her to recognize him. "Pe'er!"

"Yeah, Slimy." He picked her up. "Come on, we're getting out of here."

After hearing a strange crash, Peter turned around and was shocked to find Mark standing there with a gun pointed at Peter. Gwen began to cry and scream again.

"What the f*ck do you think you're doing here?!"

Peter looked at Mark and smirked. "It just so happens I'm from here…and now everything's gone to hell with your place. Ziegler said something about this happening if I showed up."

Mark's eyes widened in fear and confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"As hard as it is to believe, I don't even know."

Mark readied his gun. Gwen began to scream even louder.

"AH! F**K!!!" Mark screamed and slowly fell to the ground before he could pull the trigger.

Peter looked down at Mark as he writhed in pain. A red stain was growing on one leg of his pants. The gun was quickly removed from Mark's hands as Peter looked back over at Gwen. He couldn't explain it but for some reason he knew that Gwen was doing this.

He had to shake the thought out of his head. Quickly, he grabbed Gwen, ran past a bleeding Mark and out of the quarters.

When they got out into the hall however, the ceiling in the hallway began to collapse. Peter quickly stopped to shield the kid.

When it was over, a massive pile of bricks rubble blocked the way back down the hall.

"LIV!"

He was stupid to think that she would answer. He could only hope that she left this area long before the collapse happened.

So Peter and Gwen had to find another way out.

…

In the midst of fighting off countless guards she kpet running into, Olivia found herself ducking for cover from flying debris and explosions. She was almost completely trapped. The only way out she could find was to take the staircase and go up.

She went up to the second floor, or what was left of it anyway. Fires were starting to spread, and there was very little for her to walk around…or even on.

Her hope that there would be some sort of escape route seemed to fade. But then as she got halfway down the hall, she heard voices.

"Set timer to 30 minutes."

Olivia got passed the flames but the smoke was getting very intense. She was losing her balance and was practically on the ground. A strange light could be seen just a few feet away. She crawled over until found a hole leading into the floor below and looked in.

She didn't expect to look down into a room, a room where Guinevere herself was there with two other men. They were surrounding a strange metal barrel.

One of the guards spotted Olivia and pulled out his gun. Olivia got hers out and bullets started flying. Olivia lost her balance and fell into the hole crashing to the ground painfully bringing small bits of burnt debris with her. The guards were about to shot again.

"STOP!!!"

They stopped. "Hold your fire or you might hit the bomb."

Olivia would've passed out right there on the floor if she hadn't heard the word "bomb". She stood up and found herself standing between Guinevere and the strange metal barrel. "What is this?"

"This…," said Guinevere. "…is the end. We can't let Ziegler get away with any of our possessions from here. The prophecy of our destruction is sadly coming true."

On the bomb was a timer, now somewhere at 27 minutes.

"This should wipe out everything stretching as far as the woods."

Olivia began to watch the bomb counting down. She could only pray that Peter and Gwen had made it out and were long gone.

One of the guards turned to Guinevere and asked "What do you want done with her, Guinevere?"

The old woman sat in her wheelchair for endless seconds lost in thought…it almost seemed like she was about to fall asleep. Finally, a soft mumble came. "Let her go…"

Olivia didn't move. She didn't believe what Guinevere was doing. "Turn right when you go out and you will enter the back of the kitchens. There should be an exit door there. Now go."

"Are you…" said Olivia. "Are you all just going to stay here and die?"

"I am," said Guinevere. "I don't know about my guards."

One of the men said "we'll stay with you to the end."

"Thank you." She turned to Olivia. "You should be going now. I just had a vision of a friend of yours right outside with a little girl…a girl who's looking for her mother."

The thought of Gwen was enough to put an end to Olivia's hesitation and she quickly went to the door.

"Forgive me," said Guinevere. "For putting all of this on you. You were right. Gwen was meant to have a normal happy life. Give her the life I never got to live, will you?"

She took one last glance at Guinevere…a brief exchange of mutual understanding. Olivia was not a fan of leaving people to die whether or not they did deserve it, but she knew that the souls that she left behind in the room weren't going to budge.

She turned right and headed for the kitchens…

…

"I WANT MOMMY!"

"She's meeting us. Now stop kicking me!!!" Peter had a hard time balancing between running, avoiding flying bullets, and carrying a kicking and screaming Gwen. They dove behind what looked like a jeep that had been turned over the moment Peter heard an explosion behind them. Fortunately only minor debris went past them.

When Peter looked up, Ziegler was standing on top of the jeep, looking down at the man and the kid.

"Oh thank god," said Peter. "Have you seen Liv? Is she okay?"

Ziegler took the gun in his hands and pointed it at Peter. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Sorry, Bishop. But despite what help you've been, you're still other-world scum. I prefer that you did not come back with us."

Gwen started to scream again. Even though Ziegler had no intention of hurting the child, she was still scared that he was going to kill Peter.

Before he could pull the trigger, an unusual blur of orange flew at Ziegler. A roar and blood-curdling scream.

All the remained afterwards, was the bottom half of Ziegler collapsing to the ground.

Before Peter and Gwen, Musko was viciously treating himself to a meal of what was once Ziegler's upper half.

Whatever this giant orange and black-striped lizard-looking thing was standing before them…it made Peter grab Gwen and get away as fast as he could before the twist creature of science was ready to eat them as well.

He didn't get very far. Something flew at him and struck him from behind…debris maybe. He was knocked down to the ground and Gwen fell out of his arms. The soft grass protected her when she landed.

Looking back, Gwen could hear lots of popping and see lots of flames.

"Mommy?"

She climbed over the unconscious Peter and began to waddle her way closer to the smoke and fir.

"Where are you mommy?!"

She climbed into a recently created opening and found herself back inside of the main buildin, in a very dark room lit only by the fire that surrounded. Her vision became blurry as smoke began to fill the room. But still, she continued to move forward.

…

Olivia had made it to the kitchens. It didn't take her very long to find the exit door. But as she put her hand on the handle, a sudden bad feeling was sinking in. She couldn't explain it, but for some reason, she wasn't ready to escape just yet.

Something seemed to be compelling her to look back, but all she saw was one room to her right, being engulfed in black smoke.

She could hear screaming in her head both telling her to get out AND to go towards the black smoke. But her eyes seemed more interested in the latter.

Her feet began to move towards the black smoke…all logic and reason lost to an unexplainable but unyielding feelings in her gut.

She crouched low, shielding her mouth and nostrils as she venture into the heart of the massive smoke clouds.

Soon, she knew she had become delusional because now she was hearing someone calling out for what sounded like 'mommy'.

The black smoke made it impossible for her to find her way whether she wanted to turn back or not.

Soon her eyes began to play tricks, she could see what look like a small life form crawling through the black smoke in her direction. Olivia couldn't believe it until she was compelled to call out for her.

"Gwen!!!"

"Mommy!!!"

The little girl tried to stand up but she was starting to feel very dizzy.

"STAY DOWN!!!" cried Olivia. "Don't breathe the smoke!!!"

Her hand reached out desperately searching in the dark until she finally felt her daughter. She kept her down until she could finally see her.

There was no time to think. Olivia was already ripping her shirt, nearly taking the whole thing off and covered Gwen's face with it.

Despite putting greatest efforts it became more and more difficult to crawl her way through the dark, deadly smoke and shield Gwen at the same time…especially when she started to feel dizzy.

…

Peter felt two things when he woke…pain, the ickly bloody wound on the back of his head as he placed his hand on it. His ears started to ring. For countless minutes everything around him seemed warbled.

When his mind became clear again. He looked around and realized that Gwen was gone.

"DAMMIT! GWEN!"

There was no sign of life in the direction of the woods. All of the action was still taking place around the compound.

He freaked out as he got closer to the building again. With no idea as to where Gwen might have gone to, all seemed lost…until he heard a strange banging.

It was coming from a window not too far away. When Peter got closer to the window all he could see was black from all the smoke…

…And then the sudden appearance of a hand hitting the glass made Peter jumped. The hand slowly slid down and disappeared from view.

He didn't stop to question it. Peter just grabbed the nearest bit of brick that he could pick up with one hand and threw it against the window.

He ran to the now broken glass and fighting the escaping smoke, his worst fears were realized.

Olivia was on the other side, half-standing half-leaning over a kitchen counter underneath the window. Gwen was lying under Olivia's arm. Neither of them were breathing.

Peter quickly pulled Gwen out first and rushed her over to a spot far away from the building but close enough for Peter to hurry back. He quickly took the cloth that covered Gwen and Peter opened her mouth. "Breathe! Come on!"

He applied pressure to the little girl's chest. So God help him, if she wasn't breathing…

An awful painful cough was fighting it's way out of very small lungs. Peter didn't have time to feel relief.

"STAY HERE THIS TIME!!!" Peter called out as he was already running back. He pulled Olivia out and dragged her back to Gwen. Olivia was barely stay conscious but at least she was trying to breathe. Peter kept patting her back encouraging her to keep coughing out the bad smoke.

"Ba'h."

Peter was confused. "What?"

"Ba'h…bomb."

They both arrived at Gwen's side. Olivia knees caved in as she pulled Gwen into her arms. It almost seemed surreal that they both made it outside and both were just barely breathing. Peter tried to pull them both up as Olivia seemed to be losing strength to get up under her own power.

"Bomb…," Olivia cried. "We gotta go!"

Olivia held Gwen to her chest giving it all she got to keep up with Peter as they ran through the fields. The guns were still going off behind them. It was all up to Peter to ensure that all three of them to made it to the edge of the forest. He kept pushing and pulling Olivia along despite how weak she was. Determined to not give up when they were so close.

The trees were quickly in sight, but then the vision changed and all Peter could see was white.

He quickly shoved himself and Olivia to the ground, face down. They knew what was coming and it only made Olivia shield Gwen even more.

A loud bang. A massive gust of wind. It was like a tornado…a quick speedy tornado shooting past them.

They lied there for a little longer. Peter swore he could feel his back burning.

He rolled himself over. He could no longer see golden fields, or blue skies…

…Only darkness and flames.

Olivia could see it too. With the woods just feet away Peter reached a hand out to Olivia's back. They weren't safe just yet. "Come on!"

They had to crawl beneath the rising clouds towards the now scorched trees.

The first trees they reached out to became their support line as Peter and Olivia pull themselves deeper and deeper into the woods.

Olivia was almost losing her grip with Gwen struggling to remain in her grasp. She was unaware of Peter as he kept pulling and pushing her up the hill.

Eventually, they had to take a break. They collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Olivia looked out passed the trees were the compound once stood…now a giant black crater surrounded by a bluish-gray earth.

Some of the trees they walked past were already on fire, but thankfully there was no wind. As long as all three of them kept moving…they would make it.

"Liv?"

Peter came over and held Olivia. "I'm sorry, I think we're lost." Olivia wrapped her arms around Peter. A silent assurance that everything would be okay. If they were going to die here, at least she would die with the two beings she cared the most by her side.

They had nothing left now but to at least try to keep going.

Gwen peaked out from underneath Olivia and happily looked back towards the dead plains.

"Look mommy! Musko!"

To Peter and Olivia's surprise, a familiar orange and black-striped creature was stalking through the now lifeless land. Even from here, Peter could chillingly see the creature was dragging a charred corpse in his mouth.

Peter blinked. "You know that thing?"

"Let's take him with us!" Gwen said excitedly.

Olivia gave her daughter a weak assuring smile. "It's alright, baby. Musko's a big kitty…lizard…I think he can take care of himself."

Gwen was disappointed but Olivia only smiled at her…then at Peter.

They would be okay…

…

It got even darker.

Peter still had no luck finding the portal and Gwen was getting more and more upset.

Judging by the darkness, night had already fallen on them. It would be even harder now to find the damn portal and Gwen was still struggling to breathe normally. What if the portal had already closed?

"Peter?"

He turned to Olivia. "What is it? Is she okay?"

"Gwen's fine…I…I thought I saw a light up there."

Peter looked the same direction Olivia was looking at. "I don't see anything, Liv."

Olivia eyes widened. "There! There it is again."

She carried herself and Gwen past Peter who couldn't understand why he couldn't see what she could see. "Follow the flashing blue light."

"I don't see a blue light, Liv!"

"Just follow me, then!"

Peter stood there dumbfounded until he saw Olivia was moving faster. He quickly caught up with her at the top of the hill.

"I don't believe it!"

The grayish looking entrance was there, revealing a flat land with an old sawmill just straight ahead. The three of them looked at the gray-tinted screen before them with fascination.

"So," said Olivia. "Do we just walk through?"

Peter smiled at her and took her hand in his.

Together, they stepped into the screen until they were all on the other side.

The forest around them was suddenly gone.

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Epilogue to be posted tomorrow.