Free Change Fault

A/N: Aww... Thank you for all the reviews! I'm so proud of you guys; you got me over one hundred! (Did you know that was my original goal for this fic, to get at least one hundred when it was over? And I reached it before that!) Also, if you notice the rating has been changed back to PG-13, mainly because of this chapter and all the violence.

Review Replies:

little lisa: Yes, I'm trying!!! I feel so stupid about the romance part, you don't know how much. I have no idea why people would flame this... I mean, there's no really upsetting coupling or stuff like that... It's a habit to say, I guess! Thanks!

SVZ: School is going to start. It does it every year. THIS SUCKS! *KICK*

DTN: Now that I've started writing the chapter, I think I can be almost done by the end of Summer Vacation. Mainly today.

Mage Gurl 05: I'm hurrying. But I'm also lazy. Baaaad mix.

DSRockStar: ...Why do I keep doing Cliffys? Everyone keeps complaining and yet I still do them... Well, lemme see what I do for this chapter...

brennanvanilla: Thank you! Merci! Gracias! Arigato! Etc...

rider of unicorns: Torture? No, this is torture *pokes repeatedly with pitchfork and then puts it away*. It was one of the quickest chapters, and yet it was the best. What is with my mind? That's actually happened before. Also, I've been counting down the months since I dunno, January for the seventh. I DON'T WANT TO WAIT A MONTH!! WAAH!

Chapter 11 Other Reviews:

Silverwitch2: Alright! You reviewers are so demanding... *laughs* Here's the chapter that has been well awaited for.

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own a thing. Promise.

Chapter Thirteen: Fill Me When You're Empty, Lose Me When You Win

(A/N: Another long title. Short title is: Fill and Empty, Lose and Win)

Nita rushed out of the way of the Lone One's blast, scared out of her wits. Kit fell to the other side, landing on his front. Annie and Ronan were maybe three inches from getting hit, but managed to move out of harm's way in time.

It laughed. "That was merely warm-up."

Nita was on her knees, then her feet in seconds, unzipping her pocket and taking out her new Rowan Wand. "Prepped and ready to go, as always." Kit got up himself, with no weapons to fight with and yet still looking determined. Annie stepped up with Nita, taking out a temporary rowan wand of her own that was merely a day before. Ronan as well was unarmed, but Peach seemed to be in control now and made him step forward with the rest of them.

"How touching. Two unarmed and two armed with pieces of wood. How threatening." With one strong and smooth wave of Its arm, another bolt of orange was sent toward their lines. Just before jumping away Nita shot her own light towards It, surprising It profusely as it stung into Its supposed leg. Ronan had pushed Kit aside.

Ronan had touched Kit.

It laughed even deeper. "Now they're really unarmed. I'm sorry, dear Peachy, but your host is now unable to perform his duties." Ronan looked puzzled for a minute, and then looked down at his hands. They matched the rest of Kit's body, impenetrable and absorbent darkness. His head snapped up and suddenly a beam of light short out of his eyes, and Ronan fell limp to the ground. Nita ran to him along with Kit, but only Kit touched the growing darker form of the Irish boy. It was lifeless, as if its soul had been left.

Unaware of the sight beside her, Annie's eyes were drawn to the beaming light, taking no shape that was recognizable on earth, and too glowing to look at directly, but okay in the corner of her eye. It flew-no, floated-no, it blasted straight into the Lone One with a gigantic amount of force, sending It flying into the ground along with the startling new being.

"It-It's Peach." Kit breathed, looking at the flashes of red in the light. "Protecting us." Kit looked down at himself once more, the darkness that had taken refuge over his body, and snarled, getting up. Nita watched him, looking up at him and glancing down at the lifeless Ronan.

Annie backed off as she watched Kit stalk toward the limp Lone One, who was still being fastened into the ground by Peach. Screams turned to groans as the Lone One forced Itself up, getting pushed back inch by inch while standing. "What do you plan to do, little boy?"

Little boy. Kit's snarl was louder this time, and he ran at It, furiously, hitting It head on and landing on the ground with the light between them. The light was taking a more familiar form-to Kit that is, a Sprite, it's legs speedily digging into Its temporary skin.

Nita ran, leaving Ronan with Annie, but did not run all the way to the power sandwich. "Kit! Get off It! Let me get a better aim!" Kit shook his head, knowing that Nita could tell his answer was no, and he pressed down harder. He could hear the protests of both Powers, but he wasn't about to get up.

"Just shoot, Neets!"

"Stop being so heroic, El Niño, we only need one person holding It down!" Nita was urging, pleading now. Kit's answer was no once more, as the Lone Power was pressed deeply into the moist dirt. "Kit!" Shoot! Damn it, Nita, just shoot! The female wizard cringed, the dark thought had entered her head by force. She raised the Rowan Wand slowly, hoping Kit could hold them down, and yet hoping he was thrown off all the same.

Twisting beams of blue and green flamed on her wand, and were sent out as streaks of skinny lightning, one after another.

~!~!~!~!~

Dairine and Darryl were still running when Tom opened the door for them expectantly. They zipped into the leaving room and slipped over the carpet, falling in front of the easy chair that Carl was sitting on with a cup of tea in his hand. They stared up at him, both lying on their stomachs meshed onto the floor.

"Aren't you going to do something?! Where are they?!" The questions, all similar, poured out their mouths like waterfalls. They continued to ask without answers as they got up from the floor and sat down on the couch. "Will they be alright? Why isn't Nita at home? Did you know about the banished Strider?"

Carl raised his hand to cease their questioning when they were finally seated, and Tom sat down in the other easy chair with his fingers laced together and raised about a foot over his lap, his elbows on the arms over the chair. "No; we aren't sure; yes they'll be fine; Nita's with them; yes." Carl's voice was brisk and business-like, too serious for the Senior Wizards it seemed. Dairine looked at them with rounded eyes, glassy and ready to spread to tears. And not only because everyone one else was in danger; but because she wasn't there with them.

"I'm sorry if this isn't what you want to here, but somehow Nita, Ronan and Annie were thrown into the containing facility that Kit had been re-stationed to. We're pretty sure Ronan and Annie somehow got in by permission or something, but Nita, well, we are just as baffled as you are." Tom spoke just a little more casual, and it was almost as if the pair had switched roles.

Dairine wasn't satisfied. "What if they are killed?!"

Carl shut his eyes when he answered. "I know this isn't the answer you want, but when you recite the Oath, you except the costs, the advantages as well as the dangers."

~!~!~!~!~

Suddenly things were in slow motion. Nita restrained herself from shutting her eyes tightly as she watched the beams zip toward Kit, Peach and the Lone Power. No, she hadn't missed, that she was sure of, and the beams hit their mark, going straight through Kit and Peach toward the Lone Power Himself, hitting all three with the same amount of strength. Repeatedly they hit, but all in slow motion, and Nita half expected them to fall out of the air and land with a plunk! on the ground like cardboard.

Kit let out a scream of pain and fell off the pile first, as another wave of treacherous bolts soiled the remaining two beings. Peach's scream was high-pitched and more living than even Kit's own, as the lightning penetrated Its glowing-no, glowing didn't do the scene justice-skin. It was then sent down into the Lone Power, who tried not the scream, tried to keep the agony out of Its face and grin, but the gurgle of pain sputtered up Its throat and was sent out in groans and hoarse cursing.

When finally Nita's barrage of light died into merely faint sparks and then faded away, the scene was more like a battlefield then war itself.

Annie was down on her knees, resting Ronan's limp but living head on her lap, talking to the body as if her Speeches would revive him. The spread of darkness had stopped halfway into his chest on both sides, coming up his arms.

Kit's many wounds from Nita's barrage were dripping blood and the cloak that covered him was tattered and ragged. His eyes were closed, and his breathing came in patterned chokes and gasps.

Peach had been flung off the Lone Power after taking all It could of lightning, and the small speedy body looked like a snail in speed now. It wasn't bleeding, and yet it seemed as if it's light was dripping out, though there was no dripping to be seen. Its feet, normally speedy and ever moving, were crossed over one another in an abnormal position.

The Lone One was the worst off of them all, and he had been on the bottom. Burn marks tattered the somewhat-human chest that had been exposed by the flames; that had ignited when the beams penetrated through. Though there was also no blood, Its mouth was open and Nita could imagine the small trickle that would've been coming out of the corner, and the darkness that was being absorbed in itself in the darkening world.

Nita herself was the second least wounded, with a few deep cuts from falling away and bruises from landing. Annie's only wound (besides her ego) was the sharp cut across her cheek from dodging the first lightning bolt, which was pouring red raindrops down onto the ground.

It was a war zone, and suddenly Nita felt like she shouldn't be standing. No one else was, it felt ridiculous that she was fine.

And then it clicked in her head what was going on in the sight around her. Kit! She ran to her limp partner, then slumped to the ground like everyone else. She thought healing immediately and felt for her "pocket", her manual for once falling out itself and landing onto the grass. She opened it so it was in about the middle and for once the spell was right where she wanted it to be. She ran her hands over the wounds she had inflicted on Kit's chest, for his back was away from her, and wished silently for this to work. She leaned over him, pressing her hands onto his chest and laying her head between them, letting her hear his heartbeat and close her eyes. She whispered the words in the Speech and let her feel the pain of Kit's wounds, let her feel the tear of it, and then her desperate need to heal them resurfaced.

Kit's eyes opened slowly, while Nita was still laying on him and trying to concentrate, he eyed her almost suspiciously before hearing the whispered words. He looked around this cursed world, at the tree that was leaning in even through the darkness to hear the wizardry, and every other tree that was there and off into oblivion. He listened as Nita's Speeched words turned into English ones, and he heard those just as clearly, and the tree-trees were still listening.

"I need to save him. Please, heal him, let me heal him. Let me save him. I need him. I love him." Her words came out in more a mumbling run-on sentence, pleading to some unknown Power that was most likely watching them now and listening to her call, deciding whether to answer the non-wizardry words.

Looking down at her tensioned face, Kit lifted his hand, feeling no pain, comforted by the sight of his best friend, and brushed some dark tresses out of her face. Her eyes opened and widened, and she stared into his own dark eyes--not impossibly dark though, not absorbent darkness with no light though. And she stared at his hands, the normal tanned skin was shining in the starlight of the world above them. She stared for a few more precious seconds, and then embraced him tightly, still on top of him with her arms around his neck.

Everything else seemed to fade away, though the Lone One and Peach were the firsts to go, and Nita felt it was on their on accord, for they weren't beaten. Then the world melted away, and the pair found themselves on Nita's lawn, with normal grass that had dried over the hours of the day under them. Kit was in his own normal clothes, a collared green shirt and jeans, no holes, no tatters. They sat up, though Nita didn't release her hold on him.

"Did you mean it?" Kit mumbled into her hair, his arms wrapped around her tightly as he heard the loud, pounding footsteps coming down the sidewalk. Five pairs of feet, one coming from the house.

Nita detached her head from his shoulder and looked up at him. "Did I mean what?"

"Did you mean what you said? That you needed me? That you--" He stopped, looking up into the concerned eyes of Tom, Carl, Dairine, Darryl, and Nita's own father. His parents and sister (maybe even sisters) would be coming soon enough, as Harry Callahan had his cell phone out.

"Of course I did, El Niño. And I do." She kissed his cheek lightly and then broke away from him, standing up shakily as if she didn't know how to use her legs, and pulled Kit up with her. Dairine trudged up to them quickly and through her arms around her sister, before looking behind them.

Annie and Ronan were there, Ronan waking up from what seemed like a nightmare, Annie with a scar across her face. Dairine let go of Nita and saluted happily to Kit before running over to the Irish pair and dropping down to hug Ronan. Mr. Callahan was up and hugging the two of them seconds later, and Nita hugged him back--so did Kit, though weakly.

Of course it wasn't over. The Lone One hadn't died and neither had Peach, and the fight against entropy still went on. But they were safe once again, and alive, and in love--or did was that not mentioned? Oh well, that's someone else's loss.

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: Whoops, I lied in the other chapter then! This is the second-to-last chapter, I didn't even realize it until I go to the end! So there's one more, besides this, coming up, so look out for it!

-SAT (Shima And Tempis)