Chapter Nineteen:
BAMF
Nightcrawler looked down at the demon from the church's upper rafters just as its many limbs began to encircle the Slayer's neck. He glanced quickly to the right and saw Cyclops blasting away the limbs that still held Colossus in place. He could see Faith's blade gleaming in her hand as she struggled to get free of the creature's hold.
Taking one long breath, Nightcrawler glanced backward toward the main altar, assuring himself that the unconscious Storm was still unseen by the creature in the place where he had hidden her. When he looked back, he saw Iceman running toward the other X-Men.
His gaze shifted then to the Slayer and the demon, as he debated what to do next. He suddenly wished for a little bit of Faith's intensity in battle, but he knew it sometimes lead one to be careless...rash...everything his meditations and training had taught him not to be. Maybe it was simple her courage he envied right now, in the face of such an evil. Unflinching...without doubt in who she was or what she had to do.
You're a mutant... he remembered Storm's words, and the conviction behind them.
Nightcrawler frowned in quick thought as he examined the scene below him. He had been able to teleport Storm to safe while she was being attack by the demon...maybe he could do it again...
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Despite the throttling limbs squeezing her throat, Faith managed to choke a furious growl through her lips. This thing was strong. Her previous attacks on the creature had been when it was not yet fully formed. She had underestimated the increased power it would gain when the ceremony was completed.
She felt the walls of the church stop trembling, and in the absence of Mary's chanting voice, the demon's own vicious shrieking drowned out all other sound around them.
You will not blackout, she ordered herself sternly, This random suckhead spawn is not gonna beat you...
But while the creature's face was always sickeningly close, its neck seemed miles away. The neck was what she needed to reach, where the blade needed to go if it was going to be destroyed.
Even the blade in her outstretched arm seemed too far, as if the demon was stretching her perception. Some had that ability, to get into a person's mind and make them see things in a twisted way. In Faith's case, making her feel like her situation was hopeless...her attack in vain...
When blade A is twenty miles away, traveling at a speed of zero miles per hour, the words chanted through her head in quiet panic, How long will it take to reach the neck of evil demon B...
"Not nearly...as long...as you think, you bastard," she forced through her throat and tried to force the knife forward.
The demon, as if sensing her angry humor, hissed in vile laughter and jerked her arm back painfully.
Faith cried out as her shoulder was pulled at an unnatural angle, and there was a soft pop as the joint jerked out of place. She ground her teeth together again another scream of pain, and once again felt herself loosing consciousness.
Suddenly, amidst the cold limbs of the demon, she felt two warm arms wrap around her shoulders, and then everything went black...
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A moment later, Faith gasped for air and her lungs filled with the scent of brimstone. She blinked in surprise as she realized she was not where she had been a moment before. At first, she thought she had passed out, but the flaring pain in her right shoulder reassured her that she was awake.
"Easy," she heard Nightcrawler's soft voice say from behind her, "I pulled you away from it..."
"Why the hell did you do that?" Faith replied with fury. The demon also roared at the loss of another victim, echoing the Slayer's outrage of the prematurely ended battle.
"Your shoulder is..." Nightcrawler began with surprise at her anger but was interrupted as Faith struggled to her feet.
"...dislocated," she finished for him and hissed as she took the blade out of her useless hand with the other, "Yeah...I noticed...I was doing just fine..."
"You were doing nothing," Nightcrawler replied flatly, and then took a long breath before continuing, "But you know how to destroy it. So...tell me how I can help you to do what you must do."
Faith adjusted her wounded arm and reaffirmed her grip on the blade.
"The neck..." she said, "I need to get to the neck...behind it..."
Nightcrawler nodded, "Then I can help you get there."
Faith glanced out and noticed that the demon had shifted its attention back onto Colossus and the other two X-Men. If they moved to the left they would be at its back. But how to avoid those winding limbs?
"Okay..." she said, "Ground assault is no good...but at least your buddies are keeping the thing busy..."
Faith studied Nightcrawler for a moment, and then grinned.
"You can help..." she said, "You can get me above it...to the rafters...then I can come down on it from above..."
Faith made a downward slashing motion with her arm and her grin widened. Nightcrawler frowned and shook his head.
"You cannot leap to the ground from that height," he said, and then added with a tone of concern that surprised the battle weary Slayer, "You are injured...even if you happen to land on your feet, your shoulder will be terribly jarred by the impact."
"You sound like you've had some experience with heights before," Faith replied with a smirk.
Nightcrawler shrugged, "Well, I am an acrobat..."
Faith looked back toward the demon, "Don't worry about me, Blue. When the blade hits that thing...it'll break my fall...then, I'll just ride the demon down..."
The confident smirk stayed on her face, even though Nightcrawler still looked doubtful.
"Come on, Blue," she said flexing her one functioning arm, "Let's end this."
Nightcrawler nodded and tried to put his doubts out of his mind. He stood behind Faith and wrapped his arms around her again, avoiding a firm hold on her oddly hanging right shoulder.
BAMF
A moment later they appeared on the rafters spanning the church's inner ceiling.
Faith positioned herself directly over the demon and wielded her knife firmly in her left hand. Nightcrawler spotted the other X-Men taking the full brunt of the demon's attack.
"I am going down to them now," he said to her, "I will tell them your plan..."
Faith nodded, "Okay...Give me to the count of thirty...and be careful..."
Nightcrawler chuckled nervously before he disappeared and replied, "I'm not the one jumping from the roof, Slayer..."
A soft pop and a cloud of blue smoke was all the remained of the blue mutant and Faith grinned again. Then, she glared down at the demon, and the anticipation of battle once again gleamed in her eyes.
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"Bobby! Look out!" Cyclops shouted as Iceman was knocked from his feet by a pair of the demon's limbs. Iceman reached out one hand and a line of clear ice sheered the limbs in half.
Cyclops had seen Faith disappear from the demon's grasp, and he was not surprised when Nightcrawler appeared beside him a few minutes later.
"Where's the Slayer?" he shouted, turning to blast the demon again before Kurt could reply.
"There," Nightcrawler said quickly motioning toward the rafters, "She is going to attack it from above..."
Cyclops nodded but did not respond. He glanced upward and saw the Slayer standing in the shadows over the demon's head. Just as he prepared to fire on the creature again, he saw her jump. From where the X-Men stood, they could not see where she had landed.
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Faith took a long breath and waited, ticking down the seconds in her head, and waiting for the right moment to strike.
She had told Nightcrawler to give her thirty, but when she reached twenty-three, her instincts told her to move...now.
Without ever taking her eyes from her target, Faith took a long step out from the supporting beam and began to plummet toward the ground. Her right shoulder exploded in pain, but she barely noticed. In less than a second, she had reached the demon, and the blade in her hand stabbed deeply into the creature's neck.
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The inhuman scream that rose through the church upon the impact of Faith's blade made any previous sounds seem insignificant.
Mary cringed to the floor and covered her ears with her hands. Voices filled her head...outraged...murderous...and she realized in horror that she was hearing the demon itself...
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Nooooooooo....it's not possible!
The pain...the Slayer! It's the Slayer! It'stheSlayer!
Noooooo...I wanted to kill! Cursed maker, I wanted to kill!
Noooooooo...Let me go! Let me go!
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The demon began to thrash back and forth, trying to shake off its attacker. But the blade had struck deep, and the Slayer had some strength yet to keep a hold on the weapon's hilt.
The X-Men watched the innumerable limbs begin to shrink back, becoming transparent and vaporous again. Cyclops ordered them to run for cover as the creature moved widely around the ruined church.
Nightcrawler hesitated and saw that Faith was still hanging onto the demon's back. She was being thrown from side to side and he knew she would not be able to stand the beating for long.
Colossus and Iceman reached Mary, and Cyclops turned back just as Nightcrawler disappeared again.
"Kurt!" he called but had to step backward as the demon's tail sliced through the air toward them.
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All there was now was pain...at least, that's all there should have been for Faith, considering that her dislocated arm was being swung around viciously with the demon's movements. She held the blade as tightly as she could, but the skin on her left hand was being torn apart in the effort.
The shrieks echoing from the demon were deafening, and inwardly Faith sighed.
This...is...just...great... she thought with annoyance, Friggin' demon...why can't you just fall over and be dead like all the good little suckheads...
She knew the distance to the floor was not a short one and she sighed again. She was going to fall. No denying it now. Her hand was bleeding and would soon be unable to hold on anymore.
Oh well... she thought, If I fall, all I gotta worry about is the floor...besides...this demon stinks anyway...
This time, Faith closed her eyes before she allowed herself to fall. She felt herself slipping down the creature's back, but suddenly was jerked to a halt as one of the demon's remaining limbs wrapped around her waist.
Faith was suddenly drawn up to the creature's face and its expression was filled with pure hate. If it was going to die, it would take her with it into hell...
BAMF
Nightcrawler appeared just above the demon's head and landed on its back. He pulled the blade from its neck and then, with deft skill, he swung himself toward Faith. He was sliding down the arm holding Faith and stabbed into the creature's body, which was continuing to loose form.
The demon shrieked in surprise and fear and swung its arm violently around, sending Nightcrawler flying toward the wall. The blade was knocked from his hands, but Nightcrawler managed to grab a hold on one of the upper frescos and turned quickly to face the creature again.
It continued to spin its body around, still holding Faith in its grasp. Its head was moving at a different speed than the rest of its body, which was now entirely smoky and wraith-like again.
Faith cried out in pain as the demon lost its grasp on her, and she went flying through the air. Nightcrawler leapt along the walls and ceiling toward the Slayer with superhuman speed. He teleported once, and caught Faith before she could impact the wall. They tumbled to the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop. It was not the most graceful performance in the world, but Kurt had fallen enough times from the trapeze to know how to make their landing as harmless as possible.
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The demon was still shrieking, but the intensity of its voice was fading.
The X-Men could only watch in horrified relief as the demon's body began to fade into nothing. It melted into the shadows, falling inward on itself, as if a black hole had opened to reclaim something it had lost.
There was one final cry of fury, and a moment of intense silence before one final shutter ran through the walls of the church. The cold lifted and the only thing the X-Men had left to hear was their own pounding heartbeats.
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Author's note: OKAY! Finally in the homestretch here. Just wanted to reply to reviews quickly and then hopefully finish this book tonight!
To DemonRogue13: Thanks again for the support! If I am able to finish book 5 tonight...then book 6 cometh soon!
To Kernl Toad Sandrz: I salute you Kernl! Thanks for the reviews. Yes, I have read your first book, but alas I did not review! :-( Contrary to how much I work, I can be a lazy bum when it comes to reviewing what I read! :-) But I will be watching for updates on your sequel so keep the chapters coming!
To LilSis: Once again your in depth and thought provoking review astonishes me. :-P
To Malkavian: My only compensation for these stories is my sanity after a 14 hour work day. lol I will keep writing... The next book is already planned...just gotta get it written down. :-)