CHAPTER 14
Sloane closed her eyes, looked away from where the battle had ended. She couldn't bear to see Vicky's dead corpse; the last woman who had been her friend. Gradually, the eclipse ended and sunlight filled the place once more. The torches were re-lit by themselves. Allan let out a cry of surprise. Sloane's eyes flew open and she just stared.
Vicky, on the ground, barely conscious.
The Dark Lord, standing over her.
With a sword lodged in his skull.
Skinner stood behind him, struggling to stand straight.
The Dark Lord turned to look at Skinner and the Dark Lord's arm shot out, recasting the charm to stop the five of them from advancing. Hyde tried to move forward, but hit the barrier charm instead. Sloane tried to dissipate it entirely, but that didn't work.
"He's not dead?!" Nemo said. In all his years of seeing unexplained events and creatures, this was way out of his experience. Dorian he could understand, but this...It was not possible. Way out his league.
"He can't die," Sloane muttered in disbelief. "Not until we destroy his source of power."
Skinner stumbled, falling on his backside and looking very, very tried as he scrambled backwards, using his hands and feet. The Dark Lord approached him, menacing and deadly. It would have been a hilarious sight, with the sword rammed in from the top of his head. Sloane, inwardly, saluted Skinner. He had just done something that even she would no have the courage to do.
Too bad it was for naught.
Skinner tried to scramble back, but he had no more strength. Somehow, he had stood up, spurred into action by his love for Vicky and his determination to see Lizzy one more time. His original sword was nearby; by sheer feat of will, he had reached for it, stood up, dashed to where he stood behind the Dark Lord, and brought the sword down with what strength he had left.
He knew he was a dead man when the Dark Lord hadn't fallen.
Then, the unbelievable happened.
An arrow whistled through the air, cracking the red quartz throne on impact, and Skinner's line of blurring sight immediately shot to where the arrow had been fired. They widened, and for a moment, he thought he was finally insane.
Crow stood there, inside the barrier of the charm, arrow just fired. He wasn't in color; only a faded gray. Then somebody threw a bladestar at the throne.
Immediately after the crack appeared in the side of the throne, the Dark Lord cried out in agony. Another bladestar was thrown, and Skinner shifted his line of sight. Sierra was on the other side of the room. She drew from a pouch at her waist more bladestars; she flung them with expertise, indicating she was familiar with the weapon.
Vicky had been struggling to get up. The pain was killing her, but she had to help. She had to. Then she turned her head. Jesse stood behind her, on the left. The late Lady Heathrow was forming a little orange ball of fire in her arms, whispering the spell. With a flourish, she gathered them up in her right hand and made a sweeping gesture, throwing the ball of fire outwards and it raced towards its target, hitting it and cracking it more as Jesse let loose another one.
All the while, the Dark Lord tried to retaliate, to fight back; he threw balls of fire, ice and other stuff, but somehow, they would always go wide, hitting the walls instead of the spirits of Crow, Jesse and Sierra, even when they seemed intent on their targets. They would just fly wide, as if some invisible force was protecting the spirits.
Revenge for their deaths, Mina reasoned. She glanced at Sloane, who seemed to be at a loss as to what was happening.
"What is this?" Nemo asked. Even the usually-unflappable captain was having trouble believing his eyes.
"I don't know," Sloane admitted. "I have never seen anything like this...The throne is his power source!"
We can only watch, Mina thought, turning back to see what that was unfolding before them. Slowly, second by second, the Dark Lord was shrinking. When he was once nearly seven feet, he was quickly shrinking as the quartz throne began to buckle under the assault.
Crow let fly an arrow.
The throne shattered, unable to take the barrage of spells and weaponry.
A flash of bright white light that caused them to raise their hands, to cover their eyes.
When that faded, the man who was formerly the Dark Lord was a little over five feet tall, and he just stood there, like a statue. Skinner took that opportunity to scramble out of the way, taking care to fight the darkness that drew ever closer.
The Dark Lord — now a mere man.
He toppled forward, the sword in his head killing him instantly.
Sloane barely cast a glance at his dead form as the others rushed forward to help both Vicky and Skinner. She looked at the three spirits who had helped so much. They had gathered, in a line, and she watched.
Crow was at one end; he gave a small smile; she could hear what he would have said — a line came from the many conversations they had had. "Take care."
Jesse stood in the middle, smiling. "Victory is to those who try, even if the odds are against them."
Sloane's gaze turned to Sierra, who was grinning a sad smile. "Don't mourn the passing, but always celebrate the beginning."
Sloane swallowed her grief as they vanished, and Dorian and Tom entered at the same time.
"What happened here?" Tom asked, covered in black blood. He had finally taken care of the demons. "What did I miss? Woah."
Dorian was using his kerchief to wipe off the gryphon's blood off his face. "Indeed. Seems to have been quite a fight." Nemo and Mina helped Vicky up, Mina checking her vitals. Hyde exited the room, and came back within a minute as Jekyll. Sloane went over to Skinner.
She was about to say something when her attention was taken by the group who ventured out from behind the throne, hidden by the massive drape that had a large cage behind.
They were a motley crew; the oldest, close to fifteen, the youngest looking to be only ten months old. The fifteen year old had hazel eyes and hair, looking around. The ten-month-old he carried was gurgling, bouncing up and down, his floppy ginger locks flapping as he clapped his hands. Beside the older boy was an Indian ten-year-old, with keen jet-black eyes and ebony hair. Behind them were three girls; one had hair the color of muted fire, and green eyes; another, midnight hair and raven eyes, and the last, a blond-haired, blue eyed child.
The crew saw them. The three girls were the first to run to their parents.
"Daddy! Mummy!" little Lucy Gray cried as her mother caught her and embraced her, the tension melting away. Dorian came to squat next to them, and he was smiling; ruffling Lucy's dark hair.
"Uncle Tom!" Alice Finn ran forward and Tom caught her, swinging her around, laughing away. It was the first time he had seen Alice and been happy.
"Daddy!" Lizzy Skinner dashed to her father, more like a cannonball of energy, and Skinner jerked back from the force, nearly fainting in the process. "Daddy!" He buried his face in her shoulder, and tears came to his eyes. The three boys came up to the League. Allan immediately recognized Will; the boy was as handsome as his father.
"Dr. Jekyll?" Will asked. Jekyll looked at him as Will handed him Noah. "Your son, sir." As in response, Noah gurgled and said "Da-ddy" as Jekyll took him, gratefully.
Allan grabbed his grandson and hugged him. "By all saints, Will, you're taller than me!" Will laughed.
Nemo had stood up, and Ajit, now twelve, stood in front of him. He could scarcely contain his joy; it had been too long since he had seen his uncle, the primary father figure in his life.
"You have grown," Nemo said in Hindi. He raised an amused brow. "And grown much you have." He opened his arms and Ajit grinned as he embraced his uncle. Sloane held Vicky up.
"Sweet reunion, eh?" Vicky said, in elvish. She smiled weakly, then passed out from the pain, knowing that a few people were shouting Skinner's name at the same time.
A/N: So. Vicky didn't die! Wahoo! Well, for this chapter's Answer-To-The-Reviewers part, I've opted to answer a few reviews from the last two or three chapters as well.
Graymoon74: Heh. Never believe a writer on a sugar high. Thanks for saying that that was a touching scene between Skinner and Vicky; I worked hard on that. Re-wrote it three times, that one. And yes, I do love to kill things....a few classmates and a certain tuition teacher of mine are my main focus. Now, where did I put that chainsaw?
Clez: thank you for the info for the webbies. And, I hope you didn't fall over that cliff before this was posted...it'd be a tragedy, no?
LotRseer3350: what, me, influence from LotR? Oh, I would never do that...*feigns innocence*