Okay, here's chapter 11.

Crossing Paths

Bloodshed and Rebirth

Said demonic Black Waltz looked over at me, and smirked.

"So you're going to try and do that, hum?" she snickered, her lips twisting into an interesting smirk. The silver ball of energy glowed bright, emitting a soft pulse that sounded like the triangle instrument being hit once, in answer. "Well then, come at me."

I didn't hesitate to accommodate her.

"No!! Nina!!!"

*After her! We can't let the witch's plan to separate her work!!"

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Bee, still all white, was in the process of cursing himself out at not being able to help in any way, form, or manner. Black stared off into space, almost completely emotionless. Lucifer let out a sigh, having nothing better to do in show of his emotions. Lars's fists were gripping tight to the earth, his breathing labored by his wounds and his anger at himself for doing what he had done fuming through him. Rico tried to calm him, to give him some kind of comfort in the fact that what he had done was not done by his own will. Bee finally stood up from where he was leaning against, walked calmly over to Lars, and shoved his hand in his face in show that he wanted to help him up.

"...Just kill me..." Lars whispered, his voice about to crack with the still unspent tears. "...I...I deserve to die...for what I...just did..." Bee's once placid stair turned cold, and before anyone could blink, he shouted,

"You dam idiot!!" and slapped him clear across the field into a tree.

*Bee! What the hell's gotten into you?! You could have killed him doing that!!* Lucifer snapped mentally.

"This is between Beelzemons, so stay out!" Bee growled aloud, stomping forward after Lars. The whole group stared wide-eyed at him.

"Lars..!" Black extended his hand, stopping Rico from advancing any further.

"No. Beelzemon is right. This is one lesson Lars can only learn from another of his kind. We must stay out of it." Black explained, a slight twinkle in his eye. Rico just stared wide eyed, while the new girl and her Daemon, Heather and Dae, gulped.

*...Black... I...I don't like this...* Lucifer whispered to Black mentally. Bee was still advancing on the cowering Lars slowly, almost in a move to intimidate him.

*...I know...and I dislike it as well... Just incase we must, get ready to cast a Shell of Darkness.*

*Did you both just forget what I said!? I said stay out!!!* Bee snapped at the both of them. Lucifer and Black exchanged a look, before letting out a sigh of understanding. Lucifer, however, ignored him completely and began to gather the energy necessary for him to cast the Darkness Shell.

Bee had finally reached his target, and now had Lars pinned against the tree by his jacket collar. His three eyes glowed pure white for a moment, before he healed Lars of his wounds and tossed him back into the dirt.

"...Why...?" Lars whispered, hacking slightly as he recovered from the hit.

"...Get up..." Lars simply stared cold, hard bullets into the ground, fighting back the urge to vomit. "I said get up!!" Bee kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying a good inch off the ground. He then grabbed him again by his jacket collar and slammed him back into the tree he had hit him with earlier.

"...Why...?" Lars whispered again, unable to move, to even defend himself. His heart was shattered into a thousand pieces, the words murdered and killer, father-hater and other such names echoing through his shattered mind. Normally, his will would have put him in to check, but that too was shattered like an expensive glass vase falling against a stone mantelpiece.

"'Cause you've already forgotten him, haven't yah!? You've already forgotten what his final wish was!" Lars just looked at him, dumbfounded by all this. It was as if Bee was seeing right through his eyes and straight into his soul; it almost looked as if he was counting how many pieces it had shattered to, and guessing how long he'd have to keep this up until Lars was back to normal.

"Put...him...down!! I don't...want to have...to shoot!!" E-Vie suddenly cried out, her eyes tear-stained. Bee snapped over to look at her, and one look told him all. Alara was dead, and she was the forced murderer.

"I'll chat with you in a second." Bee growled, turning back to face the broken Lars, "For now, I got ah overdue appointment with Mr. Forgetful here."

"I said put him down!!" She shut her eyes tight, and fired. Everything happened in quick succession from then on, stopping only a few seconds after she had let the bullet fly. Lucifer was lost in a blast of black light as his spell rebounded on him, dragging him through dimensions. Black, upon seeing Lucifer was missing, had blocked the bullet with his claw guards, ditched the guards, and had E-Vie up against a tree with the bulk of his arm against her throat, making Kimber and the others who had just returned jump in fear.

"I realize this is hard for you to do," Black growled, his eyes flashing a dangerous white color as he seemed to pick up on her emotions, "But stay out of this matter for now. Please." The way he said that, with the ice echoing off his every word, made E-Vie gulp and the other girls back down.

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I let out a moan as my head pounded with pain. I didn't have a clue what had happened around me, to me, or why I felt like I had a sword running through my thigh. Pushing myself up, I found I couldn't move any higher than a few inches without pain shooting through my body. I looked back at my left thigh, and fought back a disgusted scream.

I had a black energy sword jabbed straight through my leg!! With a bit of white bone sticking out my kneecap tah boot!!

*...Okay... Chaos Lord... Ancient... WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU TWO?!?!?!* My mental shout was answered by two groans and a verbal shout from a rather familiar voice.

"Nina!" Lucifer's voice shouted out around me. I fought back a scream as a black energy hand ripped out the sword and discarded it, and a regular hand was placed against my thigh. "This'll hurt." With that warning, he started to reset my broken bones.

"YEOWW!!!!!~!" My scream woke Chaos Lord and Ancient up with a start. Ancient, who was in his human spirit form, did a double take as he saw the cause for my shout.

*Lucifer I assume?* Ancient smirked. Lucifer blinked behind his helmet, looking over at the spirit with a blank expression.

*...Who're...you?* Lucifer demanded over the mental link. Chaos Lord let out a rather nasty sounding hack as he too rose from the dirt. Looking around him, then down at the blood trail my leg was creating, he let out a curse.

"Dam that Crescent! We're miles from the Sacred Sanctuary!" Chaos Lord cursed. Then he caught sight of Lucifer, and blinked. "Lucifer? What...How did you get here?"

"Chaos Lord...?" He did a minor double take as he realized this Chaos Lord had blue eyes instead of green. "...The...real...Chaos Lord...?"

"That I am," Chaos Lord smiled, standing up slightly before falling back in the dirt. He shook his head to clear it of the lingering pain, and tried to stand back up again. Lucifer helped him at least sit up with a Darkness Shell. "...Thank you..."

"Yeow...Ow...Ouch..." That was my basic vocabulary as I rolled over so that I was sitting up. My hand hit a rock. "Yip!!"

*Hold still, the both of you.* Ancient sighed, pulling out an ocarina. He played a simple tune on it that left two glowing orbs hanging in the air. They both flashed in a silvery color, before pulling a pure white Bee move and giving both me and Chaos Lord a healing treatment. I did a slight double take.

"Huh...? Neat trick, gramps." I smirked, standing up. Lucifer did a slight double take.

"Gramps?" Ancient let out a huff, returning to his wolf form before explaining.

*Yes, gramps. Nina is my descendent from about... Oh, I'd say seven thousand years ago at the very least. It's a rather long, complicated story.* Ancient smiled slightly. Lucifer was about to say something when an arrow of energy found itself shooting towards us that he had to duck. The second energy arrow managed to take the Crimson Jewel off my neck.

"Whoa! Too close for comfort!!" I gulped, rubbing the minor burn mark on my neck. A dark laugh filled the cliff-like arena we were at, and slowly, a rather odd looking knight slipped through the very earth, grabbing the jewel and pocketing it as it rose.

"Welcome, oh Demon Lass! What's wrong? Afraid to face me alone?" He looked like a horse, standing on horse hooves, with a horse head, but the majority of his body was human. His armor was thick enough to make Black's armor look like a little toddler's toy, and his sword looked like something out of Kingdom Hearts. I let out a light growl, somehow knowing he was talking to me. Ancient steeped between us.

*Who would be so rash as to face my decedents without aid?* Ancient growled, his tail whipping in anger.

"I am Stigmamon, one of the greatest warriors in Master Elrond's invincible army!" the centaur-like guy smirked, withdrawing his sword. "Allow me to demonstrate by giving you a slow and painful death...Lucifer!!"

Lucifer couldn't even move, his speed was unmatched. The sword went right through his heart, stuck there, and refused to dislodge itself until Stigmamon had tossed him over the edge of the cliff.

"Lucifer!!"

"BRO!!" I gasped, my anger yet again getting the better of me. Ancient let out a growl, debating some private question, before moving into action.

*Hold tight, my decedents... I shall aid Lucifer while you deal with this fool. And whatever you do, do NOT resort to 'that' technique!!* I had a rough idea what he was talking about.

About a thousand feet below sea level and the battle field above, Lucifer let out a soft moan within his mind as his body began to fade away.

*...I wonder...if this is...what he meant by a slow...and painful death...* Lucifer questioned himself, his hand limply holding his now severed heart.

*Lucifer!!* Ancient roared. Like a streak of blue lightning, Ancient's spirit dove down into Lucifer's dying body, stabilizing him for the moment. Within Lucifer's mind, a bright flash signaled the fact that the two were going to talk weather Lucifer liked it or not.

Lucifer blinked as he found himself not in his subconscious as he would have suspected, but in a pure white room with nothing around him save Ancient's glowing form.

*Ancient? What...What is this place?*

*This is the Hall of Lost Spirits, Lucifer. You're dead.* Ancient sighed.

*...Oh...Well, Nina's just gonna love this...* Lucifer joked.

*Now is not the time for jokes, Lucifer! Time for you is running thin!* Ancient boomed, *There is a way to revive you, but you must open your mind to me. You must allow my light to seep deep down into even your most treasured thoughts, into the darkest most shadowed regions of your mind. Wherever my light travels you must open without fear or delay no matter how hard or painful a task it appears to be.* Lucifer blinked behind his face mask, somehow knowing that if he did that, he'd never be the same.

*What are you going to do?* Lucifer demanded.

*Your own Life Light has left you, my descendent. In order to save you, I must become your new Light of Life.* Ancient answered in all seriousness.

*But...then...* Lucifer whispered, taking a steep back in order to stead himself as his energy began to dwindle.

*Yes, I shall disappear from this world forever. But, that is a price I am willing to pay to ensure that you, Lucifer, brother of my descendent Nina, shall continue to live, and to fight! To fight against the ever growing Darkness just as I did in my youth-filled days!* Ancient almost chuckled as old memories returned, but quickly pushed them aside. *What is your answer, Lucifer? Shall you do as I ask and live, or allow yourself to die?* Lucifer let out a sigh before slowly, for the first time ever, removing his helmet and reviling two sparkling blue eyes set deeply into, not a teenage looking face as one could have guessed, but in a more aged, refined looking face. I'd say he looked more like a 45 year old than a 15 year old. Well, tells yah to really not judge a book by it's cover.

*...I shall open my mind to you... All my thoughts, feelings, memories, past, present, and future shall be laid out before you.*

*More than that must be seen by my light! Even your very heart and soul must be touched if this is to work!* Ancient corrected harshly. Lucifer closed his eyes before opening them and locking his piercing gaze deep into Ancient's.

*Then so it shall be.* Ancient let a soft smirk escape him, before growling and preparing to pounce.

*Prepare yourself, for this...this shall hurt.* Lucifer replaced his helmet, took a deep breath of air, lowered his head in show of his submission, and clenched his fists as if to help him brace for what was next.

*...I...am ready...* Lucifer whispered. Ancient let out a howl before leaping directly into Lucifer's heart. Lucifer's hand went straight to his heart, and he gasped out in pain. Much to his shock, his helmet snapped in half and fell right off his head, leaving his face completely exposed. Just as if a movie was being played backwards on Lucifer's time line, his features began to become more youthful and bright. He could just begin to feel not only this change, but other, subtle changes occurring throughout his body when Ancient's voice snapped him back on task.

*...Concentrate on opening the doors, not on what is happening to your body...*

Lucifer shut his eyes tight again and began to mentally throw door after door open in his mind, racing ahead of the ever growing glow that was Ancient's light. When he reached the door farthest from his consciousness, things got a bit more difficult. Namely, the door wouldn't open.

*...Do not fear my light, embrace it... Let it pass through you, and this door shall open...* Lucifer mentally looked back at the light, and gasped as it floated right through his spirit and directly into the once closed door.

"Hey, Ares! Hurry up!!" Lucifer blinked, looking down at who had spoken. A strange man hidden in shadows was calling to a different man in rather odd attire. The most prominent features of this strange man was that he had what looked like a blood red katana sword sheathed at his side and a blood red pearl earring on his right ear only.

*...So I have done it...I have made it to your soul...* Ancient's voice whispered.

*Ancient, is that...you?* Lucifer questioned.

*Yes. Ten thousand years ago, I was Ares, the Lord of Peace and Destruction... Something no man knew save my ally, Corinth, was that I was not all human...*

*Not...all human?*

*...No...You shall...understand...once your heart...is re-forged...with my light...*

*...How may I aid you...?*

*Open the door to your heart, for I now see it...And do not fight that which comes after...* Lucifer gulped at that, but, in one mighty swing of his fist, he knocked down the seal to his heart for Ancient's light to enter.

Back in the Hall of Lost Spirits, Lucifer had been brought to his knees in pain. His hand was still gripping tightly to his heart, but now, his other hand was pressed hard against the ground in an effort to stop him from eating mystic concrete. With a rip and a pop of cracking bones and ripping clothing, four of his six wings receded back into his back, and the remaining two, which were even with his shoulder blades, began to grow out in size until they were about as big as Bee's. What used to be human-like nails on his hands suddenly expanded and became claws; his once human ears began to shift upwards, becoming pointy and almost wolf-like in shape. In a gasp of shocked pain, Lucifer's K-9 teeth jutted forward into more beast- like wolven fangs. Shutting his eyes in pain and wrapping his now elongated wings around him, Lucifer fought back an urge to, as freaky as this will sound, howl.

*...It...is done...* Ancient's now tired voice echoed weakly.

*A-Ancient...You...You were...are...half wolf demon?!* Lucifer gasped, still trying not to howl.

*Yes, my descendent... Now, let go! Let your newly changed spirit reflect our heritage! Let roar your power, and bring your body full turn with your spirit!* Ancient whispered. Lucifer forced himself to his feet, before slamming his wings open, releasing his grip from his heart, and letting out one of the longest howls ever heard by the dead. Without warning, an ash grey wolven tail suddenly slammed out from his clothing. Lucifer didn't notice, though, because he was too busy howling away with this new demonic power coursing through him. His howl suddenly stopped and was replaced by his near scream of pain as his spirit was sucked back down into his body. *...Go now...Protect...your little...sister...*

Back in the realm of the living, I was just about to be joining Lucifer, or at least thinking I was going to be joining Lucifer, because I was 'this' close away from having my head cut off!

"Ha! You're too upset to do any damage to me!" Stigmamon yelled evilly. "Now, go join you foolish friend in the afterlife!!" Right before he could stick me with a very nasty looking sword, a silver arrow slashed through the blade of his sword, ripping it from his grasp and sticking it against a wall.

*Nina, Chaos Lord, don't get freaked out when you see me. Ancient had to do a bit of ...cosmetic work... to bring me back from the dead.* Lucifer stated plainly into my mind. I blinked slightly. His voice was...different now. Teenage sounding, obviously, but now it had a more...how to say this...a more beastly, wolfish, yet still soft, edge to it.

"What?! Who did that?!?!" Stigmamon demanded.

"I'll give you three guesses," Lucifer smirked. Stigmamon whirled around, and was nearly knocked back in to me out of complete shock. I sort of dodged getting squished when Chaos Lord managed to grab my hand and pull me out of the line of fire, and when we both looked up at where Lucifer was, our jaws hit the dirt.

"L-L-Luci-Lucifer!?!?" Ah, to explain him now without going into an elongated paragraph! Well, here goes the explanation.

For starters, he had no helmet, nor visible staff, nor Angemon looking clothing, nor anything that resembled the Lucifer that had existed before hand. Now, he had silver fingerless tight fitting gloves, a black tank top, a silver semi tight semi loose fitting pair of jeans, sheathed at his right side and tightly tied around his belt was a blood red katana, and, as not to be left out of the 'all cool human looking guys in my family have a pair of these' category, he had black biker boots, thankfully without the spikes. Clothing's out of the way, so let's talk physical. From the top down, his genuine looks, including his facial features, made him look as if he were my age. He had blood red eyes that seemed to cry out in primal wolfish furry, pointy wolf-like ears, a single blood red pearl earring was on his right ear, definitely a wolf's fangs, and wolven claws. Wings; like was said before, they were still black and now, he only had two of 'em which made him look almost like Bee, with a big almost here. His hair was now an off silver color and it remained relatively the same length, stopping directly above his ash grey wolven tail. Both me and Chaos Lord did a double take at that.

"He's...got a tail!?" Chaos Lord gasped. Lucifer smirked with his face halfway hidden behind a glowing silver bow, before curling his lips in a very wolf sounding growl.

"O-Okay, so you lived...." Stigmamon muttered as he began to regain his composure. "But...That don't mean I can't take your sissy out!" The arrows flew with such speed and accuracy that Lucifer seemed more elfish than wolfish. In two shots, Stigmamon's pants were stuck to the ground, and in another two shots, his shoulders were pinned against the rock wall. My jaw yet again hit the dirt.

"Way to go, Lucifer!" I whistled, sheathing the Crimson. Lucifer released his grip on the bow and it vanished in a blur of black light as he descended down to a landing. Once he was grounded enough to grab in a hug, I was on him in a huge choker hug. "Okay, so where's great times a thousand gramps?" Lucifer's eyes turned down towards the ground.

"...Ancient...sacrificed his very existence to bring me back from the dead..." Lucifer whispered. I felt my heart go right out my shoes at that one. Lucifer's eyes suddenly flashed crimson red, and at a barely audible whisper, he added, "...But his heart and his memories live on...here..." I sort of blinked when he pointed to his own heart. It then hit me like a ton of bricks what he was saying, and I lightened slightly.

"Well, one out of two ain't bad, I guess."

"You...You...You rat!!!" Stigmamon yelled, "I'll get you for this! You just wait! I will!!" Chaos Lord kindly knocked him out and grabbed the Crimson Jewel out of his pocket.

"Now that that's over, let us return to Sanctuary. I'm sure the others will be twice as shocked as we were." Chaos Lord smirked. And who said Bee wasn't a driving influence in that mon?

"One minor problem..." Lucifer muttered.

"Yes?" Chaos Lord pushed.

"...I...uh...Sort ah lost some abilities..." I shrugged and sighed at the same time to that one.

"Oh well. What yah loose?"

"Namely, the Darkness Shell..." I winced.

"Okay, we'll just have to make do without it and I'll have to get used to being carried around everywhere in somebody's arms instead of in a bubble..."

"Now that we've got that discussion out of the way, we should get going before sleeping beauty wakes up." Chaos Lord pressed.

"Okay. Let's hit the skyway, Lucifer!" And without further delays, we had takeoff!

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Iniora: All done! How you like? Me no Baka anymore?

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