Kelly watched Jim, Kate, and Alex run out of the building, with Amber and Krissi in their arms.
"Okay, does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on? Krissi and my sister are unconscious, James is wearing fruity armor, and who the hell is the red head? Hey! Don't run away from me!" she said as they started to run from the house. She followed them, and just as she caught up to them, the house exploded in a burst of flames and all four people standing were knocked to the ground, Krissi and Amber tumbling from their grasp.
Jake rolled his eyes as he and Adrianne took flight.
"Star Children!" Adrianne yelled, and the holy power of Heaven came crashing down on the dark-based warriors and devastated their ranks. Jake was out of power, so he swung his sword around. The original Dragoons helped too, but destroying a lot of the rest with their magic didn't stop the warriors from coming.
"This isn't working," Meru said. "Dart, and Lloyd, come with me, we're going to shut down that portal that's bringing them in."
"You've really grown up Meru," Dart said to her.
"Thanks," Meru said. "Now let's get moving."
The two leaders, after restoring Jake's magic, followed Meru to an area around the place where there was a small portal which the warriors where coming from.
"Wait Meru," Dart said to Meru. "If we knew where it was, why didn't anyone try to destroy it."
"People have tried," Meru said bluntly. Dart got silent. "But now," she continued. "We have you." Dart smiled.
"Red Eye Dragon!" The small dragon magically appeared. "Oh, right," Dart said. "Forgot about that."
"Let me try," Jake said. "I think I can do something." Jake charged up his cannon, and fired at the bottom of the portal. It collapsed with a crash. Energy flew from the wreckage in streams, and nearly hit the small Dragon.
"Hey! Watch it!" The Dragon flew away. The Dragoons did too. The ensuing surge from the energy knocked down everyone on the battlefield, including Adrianne and the other Dragoons remaining there.
"Adrianne!"
Eevano looked at the wreckage of Krissi's house. He scowled as he saw that Kate, Alex, Jim, Krissi, Amber, and Kelly were still alive.
"Poor brother," Kryusa's voice floated from behind him. Eevano turned around. "Can't even kill a bunch of teenagers."
"As I recall, your attempt to fool the girl into helping you was a failure. And she's the weakest. The healer. At least I lost to a telepath, a Slayer, and the Violet Dragoon."
Kryusa frowned. "At least she was the only Dragoon who slipped through my fingers," she continued.
"You lost the four Old Dragoons," Eevano said. "At least I only lost the girl."
"Before I even started to take over that operation, you had already failed miserably many, many other times," Kryusa argued. "More than I."
Eevano was silent for a moment. "Shut up!"
"You're like a child Eevano," she said. "Always the baby of the family. You never were good at anything, were you brother? Never amount to-"
Eevano let out a piercing scream, and his true form, his true spirit, erupted from his host's mouth and faced Kryusa.
"Do not trifle with me, fool of a sister!" the spirit said in the true booming voice of Eevano. "I am more powerful than you by far. Try to defy me. TRY!"
"Your penchant for smoke and mirrors never ceases to amaze me brother," Kryusa said. "You are not the only one with a more powerful form."
And her true spirit arose.
Jake sat up. He was in a totally white area. There seemed to be no walls or ceiling, but then again, there didn't seem to be a floor either, and he wasn't falling. Disoriented, he got to his feet, and his head exploded with pain. His memory flashed back to what just happened. The blinding light, the destroyed portal. The screams of his friends. His mind wandering, he felt around for his Dragoon Spirit, but found it nowhere.
"Jake," a voice came from behind him. He whirled around, and saw seven people sitting behind a large, invisible desk that seemed to wind in a half circle. Three men and four women, arranged with the men in every other seat.
"What the hell did you do with my friends!?" Jake threatened.
"You're in no position to threaten us, Void Dragoon," a red-headed woman in the center said. "My name is Ophelia, and you must believe me when I say we have no intention of hurting you or Adrianne or any of the other Dragoons. We only want-"
"Who the hell are you, and what the hell am I doing here?"
"Please," the man sitting next to her said. "You will be able to see them soon. But we need to question you first."
"What happened to them? What happened to Adrianne?"
"She will be fine," the woman called Ophelia said. "What we need to know is-"
"I don't care," Jake cut her off. "Show me Adrianne, or else you get nothing out of me."
Ophelia dropped her head. "Is this wise? Do you think it is wise to see her now?" She brought her head back up and stood. "After you nearly killed her by incinerating Endiness?"
Kate, Jim, Alex, and Kelly stood again. The impact of the blast had knocked them to the ground, and they were a bit shaken. They looked back at the rubble, and saw the two spirits of Eevano and Kryusa fighting.
"Aw crap," Kate said. "Grab Krissi and Amber and run while they're distracted. We can get to safety."
The two fighting spirits noticed the humans running away.
"Emma!"
"Orinas!"
They both yelled for their servants. Orinas and Emma swooped down out of the sky. Emma landed gracefully, while Orinas fell on his back.
"Ow, pain," Orinas whined, showing them a cut on his arm. "But you know what they say, blood will have blood." The cut, still bleeding heavily, suddenly stopped bleeding. Then the blood sucked itself back into the wound, and the laceration mysteriously disappeared.
"Self-healing is a nice ability to have," Orinas smirked. "It keeps me young."
"Stop being an idiot Orinas," Emma snapped. "Let's just kill them and get it over with."
Orinas shrugged. "You're the boss. No, wait, you're not."
"Just kill them," Emma whined, but then she saw Amber, unconscious. "Who is that girl? Is she one of the Milton twins?"
"What if she is?" Kelly asked.
"Then I have an obligation to her mother to protect her," Emma said. "I'll leave the sisters alone, but I'm afraid I must kill the Dragoon."
"Why?" Jim asked. "What the hell did we ever do to you?"
Emma shrugged. "Orders."
"Wait, wait," Kelly said. "It's got to be more than orders."
"Well, maybe orders and a highly powerful spell Eevano cast on me," Emma replied. "That bastard. I wish he had never been born."
"I'll help you break it," Kelly said, putting her hands on the sides of Emma's face. "Let me in." Kelly and Emma stood perfectly still.
Kelly broke her contact. "There," she said. "The spell is broken. You should be fine now."
"Thanks," Emma said. "And don't ever probe around my head that long again. You were touching on a few gray areas there."
"I couldn't find the spell! I'm still learning!"
"Great," Kate said. "Thank god we're all acquainted. Now can we kill something?"
All eyes turned to Orinas. He smiled nervously.
"Can't we just work this out?"
"What do you mean? The blast from the portal was powerful, sure, but not powerful enough to destroy an entire world," Jake continued.
"No of course not," the woman in white, she said her name was Ophelia, replied. "The ensuing blast only liquefied Fort Magrad. We were only able to save some of you by strenuous means."
"Wait," Jake said. "Some of you? Who'd you leave behind?"
"Well, most of the Endiness Dragoons," Ophelia continued. "We saved Meru, Dart, and the Moon Child."
"What about my friends," Jake said "What about Adrianne?"
"I saved them all, and we spared no expense," Ophelia finished. "But I don't think you understand the severity of what you've done by destroying that portal. It enveloped the planet, and opened the entire world to that demon dimension. It's swarming with soulless beings now. Nothing is left." She stood up.
"What?" Jake was in shock. "No, no, that can't be true."
"It is," the white robed man said. "You did something very wrong. You killed a world."
"No," Jake said, not wanting to believe it.
"Yes," a new robed woman said. "And never to exist again."
Ben woke up and he was completely surrounded by white. He felt around for his Dragoon Spirit, but it was nowhere to be found.
"That's odd," he thought out loud. "I definitely had it with me. Maybe it got stolen."
"It didn't get stolen," said a woman's voice from behind him. "I have it, but I'm kinda not supposed to give it to you, 'cuz you kinda lost it when you almost died there for a sec."
"Almost what?" Ben turned around. He saw a blonde girl of about his age, and she was dressed in white robes. She had deep green eyes with small yellow flecks in them.
"Woops," the girl said. "You didn't hear that."
"Hear what?" Ben asked.
"Exactly," the blonde girl said. "So, which one are you?" she moved in on him.
"Which one what?"
"I guess you're the fire one. All that," she touched his chest. "Fiery personality. You must be the leader."
"Well, I should be," Ben said. "I mean, I was the original Dragoon. Before Jake, I was the one who saved all those people."
"And set a good number of buildings on fire while doing it. You caused $54,784.30 in damage doing it."
"Wow," Ben remarked. "How… accurate."
"Well," she said walking quickly over to her "desk", everything was complete white so he couldn't tell what anything was. "It was nice to meet you."
"You can't stay?"
"No, I have other work to attend to. Other guests to work with," she said, gathering a few clipboards from behind the desk. "I will see you later Ben."
"Wait," Ben said as she started to leave. She turned around. "Other guests?"
"Yeah," the girl said, smiling. "We have your friends in rooms adjacent to yours." She stopped. "Woops, shouldn't have said that."
"Said what?"
"Exactly," the girl replied. "You know, say what you want about gypsies, their magic comes through in a pinch."
Ben raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but there's something I've been meaning to ask you ever since I woke up," he said. "Where am I? What the hell is this place? And where are my friends?"
"All in good time," the girl said.
"Well," Ben continued. "Will you at least give me your name?"
"Kylie," she said. "My name is Kylie. Now you get back to sleep and I'll bring your friends to you soon enough."
Ben sat back down on the floor, or what he guessed must have to be the floor, and thought about this.
Adrianne looked around at the familiar surroundings of Eevano's castle.
'I can't believe I always end up here after meeting with a Dragoon,' she thought spitefully. 'I mean it's not like I'm associated with them anymore. Yeah sure, I'm a Dragoon myself, but I just joined the team. I'm a newbie. What does Eevano want with me?'
"I came to see you myself my dear," Eevano's voice drifted from behind her.
"I'm not speaking to you," Adrianne said without turning around. "Not until you tell me what the hell you want with me!? Why keep kidnapping me?"
"It's so easy," Eevano said. "And I'm still in love with you."
"Let Evan go," Adrianne said. "I know he's in there. He's spoken to me. I heard him."
"My host still loves you," Eevano said. "You know I'm a spirit, in your words, a parasite, living off of another living being to sustain myself. But I prefer to see myself as an opportunist. I see myself as a god who uses my host as a, well, a host to house my great spirit. This body will expire in a few days. My power is too much for it to handle."
"What?" Adrianne asked. "What are you saying?"
"Evan's going to die, and you will be my new host." Eevano opened his mouth and his spirit came out. But then blood started to drip from his lips, and he looked down and saw the Greatsword, the double-edged sword which can heal and destroy in one swipe, sticking out of his chest. Evan screamed, and the escaped spirit of Eevano laughed.
Evan croaked and fell to the ground.
"Oh my god!" Adrianne heard Kate yell. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I only meant to kill-"
"I know what you meant," Adrianne said as she held up her spirit. She pulled the Greatsword out of his chest. He gave a slight grunt and collapsed onto the floor.
"Here," she said, and her Dragoon Spirit began to glow. "This'll make you feel better. I promise." There were tears in her eyes.
The wound refused to heal. Tears in her eyes, Adrianne changed into a Dragoon, drew her crossbow, and aimed it for Evan.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, and fired her crossbow.
"Thank you," he said.
"Don't mention it," she choked out through her tears. "Hey, if you see anybody we know on the other side, say hi for me."
"I will," Evan said smiling. "Listen Adrianne, don't dwell on the past. It's over and done with."
"Are you asking me to forget you?" she said. "No, please, I can't bear to lose you again."
"You have to," he said. "Your place is here, with the Dragoons. Obviously I don't belong here with you. Don't forget the past, but don't let it stand in the way of your future."
"With Jake?"
Evan smiled. "If you want."
They both smiled. Then Evan's eyes closed, and he slipped away.
"Goodbye," Adrianne whispered, barely audible.
"I understand," Jake said. "But I still need to know-"
"It's the girl," a female voice interrupted.
"Who?"
"Adrianne," she continued. "By the way, Jake, my name is Kylie."
"Oh," Jake said. He knew he'd heard that name somewhere before.
"The girl escaped?" Ophelia asked. "How is this possible? Was it-"
"It was."
"Eevano."
"Eevano!?" Jake turned around to face Kylie. "I'll take care of him. I've beaten him before, and I'll beat him again."
"It's not that simple," Ophelia said. "His soul has separated from his host. And I think the host is dead."
"That's terrible," said Kylie. "Well, I might as well show you where it is."
"She's a little odd," Jake said. "Has she always been like this?"
"Of course," Ophelia said. "But then again, you should know. I mean, you two were very close."
"What?" Jake said. "I've never seen her in my life."
"It will all become clear soon." Ophelia remarked, standing. "Now, if you'll excuse us, the Council of Light has other business."
She snapped her fingers, and everything disappeared. Jake, Kylie, Ben, Greg, and Becca were lying on the ground near Krissi Manion's house. Emma, Jim, Alex, Kelly, Krissi, and Amber, the last two finally awake, gave them an odd look.
"What are they doing here?" Amber said to her sister.
"We might ask you the same thing," Kylie said, advancing on Amber. "Who are you? What is your business here?"
"I followed Jim," she said. "Back off, Psychopath Barbie."
"Who's Barbie?" Kylie asked.
"You really were deprived as a girl, weren't you?" Amber asked.
"Probably," she said. "But then again, my childhood memories and the childhood memories of my friends were all removed when I became a servant of the Council."
"The who?" Amber asked
"The Council of Light is the great malevolent force behind all the world's workings."
"Uh, don't you mean benevolent?" Jake asked.
"Interrupting me is not high on the list of things I won't kick your ass for," Kylie chided. "Now, as I was saying before I was so RUDELY interrupted…
"The Council of Light is a benevolent panel of otherworldly beings that watches over the forces of good and keeps evil in check. It's their job to choose the Dragoons, and they're not done yet."
"There are more Dragoons?" Jake questioned.
"WILL YOU STOP INTERRUPTING ME!?" Kylie exploded, turning towards Jake. Jake shrunk back. She faced the others again. "Now, as I was saying before I was so RUDELY interrupted…
"You sill have not met all the Dragoons. You know Meru, right? She's the Dragoon of Water. Blue Sea Dragoon. Do you know any of your friends that have that power? Didn't think so. And she's not the only one. The others are-"
Suddenly an explosion came from deep within the castle.
"Mount up guys," Jake said. "We've got a bad guy to kill."
"But doesn't anyone want to hear about the rest of the-"
"No time," Jake said. "You're welcome to tag along if you want."
Kylie followed behind Emma, Alex, Amber, and Kelly, mumbling something about not being excluded because she was a member of the Council. The Dragoons transformed and picked up a member of the non-Dragoons. Jake linked his arms under Kylie's arms, Greg picked up Alex, Becca picked up Kelly, Ben picked up Amber, and Emma used her psychic powers to float up alongside them. She carried Krissi with her.
Adrianne held back her tears and faced the true Eevano.
"You killed him."
"Not at all," Eevano said. "It was your friend, Kate."
In all the commotion, Adrianne had forgotten Kate was there. She turned towards her and shot her a look.
"I'm sorry, but it had to be done," Kate said. "He was the host. The host of a very powerful and very dangerous demon spirit."
"Come now," Eevano said. His voice sounded like a pearl fell out, and then consequently shattered on the floor. "Demon is such a derogatory term. It has all that Buffy reference clinging to it."
"Buffy wasn't a demon," Adrianne argued.
"Well, actually-"
"Kate, shut up," Adrianne continued. "Just help me kill this goddamn spirit demon ghost thing."
Kate drew her two swords, and the spirit lunged at her. Her sword ghosted through him, and he turned back around. He floated over to Evan's body, and entered back through his mouth. Evan stood up, smirked, and pulled the crossbow bolt out of his chest. He looked down, and his smirk disappeared. He was wearing the Cursed Armor.
"Thank you Kate," Adrianne said. "If you hadn't distracted him I wouldn't have had time to refit Evan's body with the Armor. It's a sacrifice, to lose Evan, but it may have been necessary for the good of the whole."
"We can bring him back," Kate said. "I mean, Emma has the Necklace."
"Right," Emma said. The rest of the group had appeared.
"Great," Eevano said. "Well, I might as well do one last thing." He pulled out a receiver with a large red button on it.
"When I press this button, it will blow up this house and destroy the whole city."
Eevano nodded. "That's right. When I press this button, the magical energy in the generator will implode and break it's container, level this building, and eventually liquefy the city."
Kate rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about it. He's not man enough to do it."
"Am I?" Eevano said. "I'll press it. And I'll do it now-"
Krissi tackled him to the ground. "How dare you? I should suck the life out of you right now. Actually, that's not a bad idea." He opened his mouth wide and started to suck the air around him into his mouth.
"Krissi!" Jim yelled. Krissi started to turn into dust.
"Don't worry about me!" she yelled, fending him off, but turning to dust anyway. "Just get the controller."
"Uh," Adrianne said. "I think it might be too late."
The walls fell apart to reveal a giant metal machine that took up the entire left half of the house. It sizzled with purple lightning. Like Jim's.
"No," Jim said simply. "You all stay here. I got this." Jim flew up towards it.
"Jim don't," Becca said, sensing his plan. "Don't go through with this. There has to be another way. A way where I won't lose you."
Jim smiled weakly. "No worries." He flew up to the generator, and ripped a wire free. He pulsed his power through it, and made it surge with power.
"Let's get out of here," Jake said. "We can't change Jim's mind. Only he can make that decision."
"No," Becca said. "I'm going to stay and try to convince him."
"No," Jake said, and then was silent for a while. "I'll stay. As far as we know, I'm the strongest, so I have the best chance of getting him out of here alive."
Becca just stared at him, like she had something to say, but she kept her mouth shut.
"Change back," Jake ordered. "If neither of us come out alive, Ben's in charge. He's still in charge in my absence." He looked at Ben.
"Get them out of here," he said bluntly. Then he changed into a Dragoon and flew up to the generator.
Jim held onto the generator with all his might, and surged his electricity through it. Eevano, still in Evan's body, tried to distract him.
"Why do you do it?" Eevano asked. "Why sacrifice yourself to save the world?"
"How do you know I'm going to die from this?"
"Come on," Eevano continued. "There's enough electricity in this generator to liquefy the entire city. Just because you're a Dragoon doesn't mean you're immortal. How do you think the other Dragoons got their powers? The Endiness Dragoons died. How do you think they got their powers? The Dragon Campaign Dragoons died. Well, most of them did anyway."
"You might as well give up," Jake said, and Eevano turned around. "Even if Jim fails, I still have enough power to wipe the floor with you and your generator."
"Oh, you're just full of wonderful ideas and rousing speeches today, aren't you?" Eevano said jokingly. "Let me ask you this: Why you? Why not let Becca stay instead?"
"Truth is," Jake said. "I'm sorry Jim, but I don't give a rat's ass about that generator. We both know that you're a dead man, and that's why you didn't want her around. That's why I don't want her around. She would never recover. And we need as many Dragoons as we can get for the Final Battle. Which this is not, by the way. This may be hard, but it's not the be-all end-all."
"And how do you know?"
"I just do," Jake said simply. "I just feel it. Deep in my bones type deal."
"Well, I don't care," Eevano said. "I'll just make sure you're not around to find out." He lifted his fist and punched him in the stomach. Jake took the blow hard and flew against the wall. His wings hit the wall first, and snapped off with a sickening crack as his back connected a split second later. He fell face first onto the floor. Jake got up and ran back at him, sword drawn. He swung hard at Eevano's chest, but as the blade connected, it bounced off and began to quiver. A sickly sound of metal hitting metal reverberated throughout the room.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Eevano said. "I'm kind of invincible."
"But, don't worry," Eevano said. "It'll all be over soon."
"Damn right," Jim said. "It'll all end now." He held up his palm. It was sizzling with the same purple electricity from the generator.
"Sucked it dry," he continued. "While you two were fighting. Unfortunately, it's a bit unstable, so Jake, tell Becca I love her."
"I will," Jake said. "Do what you have to man."
Jim smiled. Electricity erupted from every facet of his body and took down the entire structure with a deafening crash.
A/N: NO WAIT! DON'T GO YET! I still have to write the epilogue. This book is obviously not going to have a happy ending, so all who were rooting for one can pretty much give up. As many loose ends will be tied up in the epilogue if I can.
