A/N: Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews, everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting...

Rebirth-Chapter 6

The music was louder back here. True, I was blind, and freezing. Ok, and scared shitless. But, I could hear music. That made the situation a little less intimidating as I felt my way through the back of the building. You'd think they would put a lamp or something back here, wouldn't you? But noooo. Demons can see in the dark, so its just my personal problem that my daughter was kidnapped and taken to a really dark place.

Jerks.

I heard a shuffle of feet behind me. I spun around, but of course I couldn't see anything. Ok, maybe it was just a rat or something…

"The Angel is scared," came a sadistic growl from the same direction.

To my knowledge, rats do not speak.

There was a laugh from the opposite direction.

"Oh-oh, Angel…you're a pretty one too…I'll enjoy this…"

****************************************

The moment she turned into the back alley, where she wouldn't be able to see me, I went into the alley after her.

Oh, I was fully determined to let her handle the situation by herself. I would just…supervise the action. Make sure things didn't get out of hand or anything.

So, I spread my wings, and flapped them once, hard. That was enough to propel me all the way up the side of the building, with a little extra height left. I landed quietly on the roof, and went towards the back of the building, trying my best to ignore the spectacular full moon that was rising, an angry red color. I had other more important things to take care of.

The moment I looked over the ledge, the scene was clear as daylight. Susannah, backing towards the wall behind her, looking around frantically in all directions. Four seedy looking thugs slowly approaching her. No Rose or Bonnie in sight. And of course, Susannah was completely blind, so she probably thought the four thugs were only one man, who kept moving around very quickly.

It was a very one-sided fight. I would get involved if necessary.

Then one of the thugs stepped right in from of her. And boldly put his hand right on her breast.

I had been expecting them try to rape her. I had known something like that was coming. But…I hadn't known that the moment one of them laid a hand on her, I would have felt this ferocious compulsion to jump down and rip them to shreds. I almost did, too. I was leaning over the side of the building, my blood boiling with rage that I had never, NEVER experienced in my life (and death), when Susannah promptly chopped the guy cleanly right on the side of his neck, and he fell down soundlessly.

And I was wrong in my assumption that she thought there was only one, because she raised herself into a proud fighting stance. The other three men backed up a little. They seemed to consult each other about something, then all three of them pulled out a dagger.

Seriously. Four strong demons had come, planning on raping a "defenseless" angel, fully armed.

I was thinking about this, when I suddenly heard a footstep behind me. Not a loud one, mind you, but just a slight crunching. I straightened, but before I could turn around, I heard his voice. I nearly choked in shock.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He sounded very annoyed.

I slowly turned to face the little bastard, baring my fangs at him. "Oh…oh, I get it," I said. Because I did, just then. "I get it…you hire four goons to put on an act for your wife, then you drop in and gallantly "rescue" her."

Paul's lips pursed.

"Only you didn't expect me to be here, all ready to rescue her without your help. So your lame plan to win the heart of your own wife is foiled."

Paul grinned. A grin I was all too used to. "Now now, Rico Suave. Let's not jump to conclusions…"

He brought his fists up, spread his wings ever so slightly, and crouched down defensively.

"Winner gets the girl," he breathed into the chilly night air.

For a second, everything was still. And I heard agonized grunts coming from below us. Good, Susannah was taking care of herself.

Then Paul lunged at me. I quickly drew back a fist, sending it right into his face with as much strength as I could muster, but then a strange thing happened. My fist seemed to go right through him, almost like he was only a holographic image, and then another Paul came up from right behind him, delivering a painful roundhouse kick. I staggered backwards, but quickly recovered. No permanent damage done.

"An illusion," Paul said with a smile.

"A dirty trick," I snarled. "I want a real fight."

"This is a real fight…a demon fight."

(A/N: Enter the techno-heavy metal background music)

Then we both jumped at each other, meeting in midair, and just kind of hanging there, exchanging blows. I had thought that I would be much stronger. But we were actually evenly matched. Punches, kicks, it was like we knew what the other would do. Nothing got through his defenses, and nothing got through mine. It was very tiring.

"What the hell-" Paul gasped out, punching low, at my groin. I easily blocked with my knee, and continued upwards, planning on smashing it into his stomach, but he did a quick backflip, right over my head, and brought his hands together in attempt to bring them down on my head. I easily dodged this with a kind of midair cartwheel, trying to kick Paul's face in the process. But nothing-NOTHING GOT THROUGH!

The deep anger was beginning to boil in my blood. No…not anger. Not hate. There was no word to describe this feeling brewing within me. I felt like I would explode…like it was leading towards some kind of release of incredible power that I would be unable to control. And maybe I was right. Because Paul, just about to try and smash his head into my forehead, froze. Staring into my eyes. I saw them reflected back at me in his eyes.

They were red. Not just pink-eye kind of red. I mean, the blood vessels were snaking and clustering around my iris, slowly turning my eyes into solid blocks of fiery red. It startled me, but didn't lessen the feeling any less. The feeling of unspeakable rage. The need to kill.

And then, in his momentary shock, I reached out and wrapped a hand around his neck. And squeezed. Lifting him slowly above me, watching him gagging and struggling. I smiled. Yes, this was what I had been waiting for, all those seven years. To make him suffer the way I had. To murder, not just his body, but his pride, his soul, his mind. I wanted to kill every aspect of him that there was to kill. Every memory. I wanted him non-existent, gone to a far away dimension to wallow in his anger. Like he had done to me.

Lifting him high, ready to kill him, with just one flick of the wrist…

"P-Paul?!?!" I heard somebody shout behind me. "JESSE! LET GO OF HIM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!"

I looked behind me, saw her running towards us with tears in her eyes, and thought, My God. She's crying for him. She wants him, not me. He won.

And slowly let him slip out of my hands.

There was the incredible sensation of having been hit by a truck. A painful crack at my back. Then I was slammed against the ground, numb to all pain. I moved a little, turning my face to look up. I saw Paul's bloody smile, holding his boot right over my face, ready to squash me into the roof of the building…

Then I heard her voice, cool and soothing. The feeling of hatred stirred in me. I shut my eyes. No. No, she would never have me again. She would never again entrap me the way she had today. I would feel nothing for her but hate. I would kill her if necessary.

There were no doubts, this time.

*****************************************

"Paul, put your foot down," I said, trying not to panic. It was so sudden. I just finished beating up those jerks down there, and I heard some weird sound up here. So I flew up investigate, and, completely out of the blue, there was Jesse with Paul in a death grip.

Should I have minded? I did. I minded very much. Especially when Jesse turned to me, and I saw his eyes.

The eyes of a monster.

And here the tables were turned, and Paul wasn't listening to me as readily as Jesse had. Paul was looking at me sternly, still holding his foot right over Jesse's head. Jesse had his eyes closed, and seemed to be struggling to get up. I wondered, for one panicky second, if that crack had been a broken spine. If Jesse was paralyzed.

"I will put my foot down," Paul said, looking at me accusingly. "In his brain."

And he did. Well, at least he tried to. I saw his muscles flex, and knew he was about to. And this weird, wounded sort of sob ripped from my throat, and I threw myself on top of Jesse. Right over his body, and I put my hands over his head, so Paul would have to smash them before Jesse. And I knew he wouldn't.

Jesse, I realized, was trembling. Fear? No…no, that didn't seem like him. Cold. He was cold.

"Suze," Paul said, sounding angry. "Get out of the way, or your hands will go, too."

"NO!" I roared up at him. He blinked in surprise at my voice. "No, nothing will go! DO YOU HEAR ME???? NOTHING WILL GO!!!! LEAVE US ALONE!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!"

Paul didn't say anything. But he didn't move his foot away, either. I buried my face into Jesse's back, feeling him still trembling. I pressed myself into him harder, trying to keep him warm, trying to keep him safe.

What was wrong with me? Why didn't I let Jesse kill him? Then Jesse would have been the king.

WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME?

I don't know how long I was there, laying over Jesse's body so possessively, feeling him trembling. Sobbing quietly into his back. Agonizing over my stupid decision. But when I ventured another look up, Paul was gone.

Just like that. Gone without a sound.

I slowly sat up, and sniffled. I hugged my arms around me. It was…VERY cold. Jesse didn't make any move. He was just there, still trembling. Was he unconscious? I reached out to touch him lightly. He suddenly stopped trembling.

"Don't touch me," he said. I was taken aback by the biting tone in his voice. I mean, I had just saved his life. Why would he be mad at me?

He slowly sat up, and started trembling again. And suddenly I realized why, when he opened his eyes and looked at me.

He was angry. Struggling not to kill me, it looked like. His eyes…the most awful, accusing, hating glare I had ever received. Like in the dream. I sucked in a breath, and held it.

Struggling not to kill me, and failing, it seemed. His fingers were twitching.

Then he seemed to come to some kind of decision. He stood up, and sighed deeply. I stood up also, careful not to make any sudden movements, since he still seemed to be very mad. He looked at me with cool indifference, and said, "I will never be your fool again. I don't ever want to speak to you again."

And he turned away from me, and got ready to take off.

"Wait-" I called out, and grabbed his arm. He looked back at me dangerously, and I let go quickly. "What-what the hell is wrong? What did I do?"

He bared his teeth at me. "You. Are. Disgusting."

Something broke inside me. I can't say what it was. Something very precious and fragile. Shattered.

"B-but Jesse…I…I…" I lowered my voice to whisper, and tears came down my cheeks. "I…I love you."

And there it was. How could he not know that already? His face softened the tiniest bit, but he still looked at me like I was a leech.

First, it was in the castle. In my bedchamber.

Now, it was on a high rooftop, the winds blowing fiercely, a dying moon rising above our heads. The night so clear and beautiful, hiding such ugly things from ignorant eyes.

I was dying inside.

I felt it when Jesse shrugged at me. Like he didn't care. That was when I fell to my knees, suddenly unable to stand. And then he peered at me from above, his face floating into the orb of the moon, then being covered in shadows. That was when I fell over like a rag doll. And I couldn't move. I just lied there. And I knew that I was finally dead.

"Mommy! MOMMY!"

Rose. That was Rose. And I was her mother. Right.

I sat up slowly. Jesse was still there. He wasn't gone. He was still there. Still standing there, looking very angry. Not even looking at me anymore. Looking at anything but me. But he was still there.

I looked behind me. Rose was running towards me, her arms outstretched, tears streaming from her eyes.

No, I wasn't dead inside. I would never be dead, as long as I had Rose with me.

So I smiled in true joy, and stood up to catch my daughter in my arms. She was crying into my shoulder, and I rubbed her back soothingly. "Shhh, it's ok now, Rose. Everything's gonna be ok…"

"No, it's not, Mommy!" she sobbed into my ear. "They took all our money! What are we going to do? We have nowhere to go, Mommy!"

"We'll be ok, Rose," I assured her. "I'll think of something."

Then, completely ignoring Jesse's presence, I swept past him, to where Bonnie was waiting, looking rather uncomfortable. I wondered how much she had seen.

"Suze," she said respectfully. Said the word slowly, still getting used to it. She bowed slightly. "Rose is correct. Our assets have been taken. We have nothing."

"What happened?" I demanded. "Did they hurt you?"

"Oh, goodness no," Bonnie said with a nervous laugh. "No, we were treated like royalty. But…but it was still quite scary… They released us just now…we were in the building below us."

I nodded. "That's all I was worried about. Don't worry, guys. We'll find somewhere to stay."

Rose hugged me closer, and sniffled.

"I know somewhere that you can stay," came Jesse's voice from behind me. Softened, but still with that coldness. I spun around to glare at him.

"Oh?"

"I'm not doing it for YOU," he spat out with such vehemence that Rose hugged me tighter. "I'm doing it for them…for Rosie. I don't want her on the streets because of her mother's problems."

"How thoughtful of you," I said politely, and turned away from him.

#######.

"You're the dark man," Rose said, speaking to him over my shoulder. "From the dungeons."

"Yes, I am," Jesse said. "My name is Jesse."

"I know," Rose said, her voice suddenly very serious. "I want you to be nicer to my Mommy. You've been very mean to her. You made her cry. If you make her cry again, I'll kick your butt."

Slightly embarrassed though I was, I couldn't help but smile. Bonnie was avoiding looking in our

general direction. And Jesse…I shuddered to think what his expression would be.

I shuddered to think right up until I heard him burst out laughing.

Seriously. God, how I hated him. And Rose seemed to, also, since she muttered sullenly, "I'm serious."

Which only made him laugh harder.

"How will we all fit on your bike?" I said through gritted teeth.

"Oh-" Jesse mostly managed to stop laughing, but still chuckled as he said, "Well, you and…Bonnie, right?…you and Bonnie ride the bike, and I'll fly with Rose."

"I don't like that plan," I said curtly.

"Would you rather I carry you?" he said, the hidden threat I his voice not lost on me. "I may…accidentally…drop you, querida."

Querida. He could never say the word with love, anymore. It was now officially a mocking term of endearment.

"I can fly with Rose," I said.

"No you can't," Jesse said pointedly. "You can't even fly by yourself to this place. You're too weak."

"Fine then, you carry Bonnie," I said, and Jesse's eyes roamed towards Bonnie, and his features became distinctly disgusted. "I'll ride the bike with Rose."

Bonnie was eyeing Jesse, not the same way that he was, but with a much different expression. She was terrified to go into his arms, as much as I could tell she was attracted to him in the same way any woman would be.

"Um, I don't think-" was all Jesse could get out before Bonnie practically screamed, "No! No, I refuse to go anywhere in that-that man's arms! NO!"

Jesse turned his eyes back to me, looking relieved. "I guess I'm with Rose, then."

Rose's grip tightened around me, and I felt her nod her head slightly.

"…I guess."

It was not a pleasant ride.

First, there had been the issue of Jesse actually having to hold Rose. I didn't like the idea to begin with, and I didn't like it even more when she stretched her arms out to him and he lifted her up. No, he wasn't holding her WRONG or anything, if you know what I mean. He was holding her…just a little too…RIGHT. Like, she looked so safe and happy, and she curled into him, and he looked down at her so gently, and smiled. I HATED IT.

I mean, he looks at me, and hates me. Wants to kill me. Then he looks at my daughter, and suddenly he's some kind of righteous father figure. Does this make any sense? Not to me, it doesn't.

Then Bonnie was terrified of the actual bike. And she should be, because I didn't really know how to ride it. And I never really learned how to drive a car, either, so it was NOT safe at all. I had some problems navigating the streets, but once we left the city, it was better. No obstacles. Just the barren, pathetic-looking wasteland, with no dumb rules to follow. Then all I had to do was look up occasionally, to where Jesse was, high in the sky, and follow him.

But the problem with that was that I could see he and Rose were…bonding. Talking, and playing little games. I could see Rose was very happy. I even caught Jesse making goofy faces at her once, which was just…plain…weeeird.

And the whole damn ride, Bonnie clung to me, almost suffocating me a few times, and kept giving me advice and telling me what to do. And she had even less experience with vehicles than me.

So, just picture me, here: on this bike I have only the vaguest idea of how to control, with this old woman choking me and screaming directions at me, directions that were mostly wrong, anyway. Following this guy who seemed to have uncontrollable murderous and sexual tendencies, who hated me for some inexplicable reason, who was carrying my daughter in his arms and making her laugh.

I repeat, it was not a pleasant ride.

And, you know, I had absolutely NO idea where he was actually taking us. He only said "a place". I was getting disturbing images of him dumping us into a deep pit full of snakes. Or poison oak.

I shuddered.

"Your Highness!" Bonnie suddenly screeched. "YOUR HIGHNESS! TO THE LEFT! THE LEFT!" She reached forward and tried to grab the handlebars from me. After a brief power struggle, I finally managed to push her back, and assure her that there was absolutely no need to turn left. I had no idea why she wanted to turn left in the first place, since Jesse (who was now tickling MY daughter, thank you very much) was still just going straight ahead.

Okay, I'll admit it. I was, just a little, jealous. Really, though-was I that different from my daughter? I mean, she bore a striking resemblance to me. Why did he hate me? And why did he love her? Why couldn't he just love both of us?

And what was with him, anyway? He was fine until I saved his life. Did he want to die or something?

I was forced to endure about an hour of this torture before this huge, HUGE dome came into view. Seriously, this thing looked like it could contain an entire city. And it did. An entire city, nearly as big as Hell Mountain. The dome appeared to be made of something like glass…the same thing the buildings back at Hell Mountain were made of.

I skidded to a stop (which drew another shriek from Bonnie) in front of these two gates that appeared to be about a mile high. No joke. A few feet beside us, Jesse landed, still cuddling Rose, who was laughing, not even aware of me and Bonnie.

"What did she do after that?" Rose said, her eyes lit up.

"Well," Jesse said with a grin, "She stuck a pencil in his chest, because she couldn't find a stake."

"She killed him with a PENCIL?!?!" Rose was nearly dying of laughter. "Mommy killed a vampire with a PENCIL?!?!"

"He wasn't a vampire," I said, snatching Rose from Jesse's arms, still shrieking uncontrollably.

Jesse looked at me with a smug smile. "What can I say, she enjoys stories of the stupid things you did as a mediator."

Maybe, deep down inside, I was hurt by that comment. Maybe.

"Hey, I never asked for that job, Jesse. And personally, I would have liked to see how good you did with it. Always blabbing about how bad I was at it, and you probably wouldn't have done any better."

Jesse leaned over, right in my face, and said, "I would have done…MUCH better."

He had that look in his eye. That look that gave off an I-wish-you-were-dead vibe. I looked away.

"Oh, dear!" Bonnie said, as she fell off the bike and got up quickly, brushing herself off. "What an awful driver!"

"Ugh, I'm a bad mediator and a bad driver. I get the point already," I mumbled, turning away from them both.

Bonnie leaped out of my arms and ran up to the gates, touching them lightly. "Wooow," she said. "They're so big! How do we get in?"

I walked up beside her, Bonnie right behind me. "I don't know, Rose."

"Excuse me, ladies," Jesse said. I saw him pat Rose's head lightly as he brushed past us, and felt the strong urge to punch him. But I resisted it. Jesse put his hand onto a square panel right in the middle of the doors. It made some weird beeping sounds, then said, "Hector DeSilva. One of the head officers of S.H.I.T. Welcome home."

As the massive gates began opening inward, I thought aloud, "S*hit?"

"It stands for 'Susannah's Hell-Inspired Tirade'," Jesse said in monotone, as if he weren't very proud of the name. "It's what we call the resistance. The largest organization in the world, bent on ending Paul's unjust rule. So I suggest you run on home to protect him, Angel."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

"Whatever you make of it," Jesse replied, and he walked through the still-opening doors.

Bonnie gave me a curious glance, then walked in after him. Rose grabbed my hand, and we walked into the city.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed that! Now REVIEW!!!