"Open the door!" Charlotte shouted.

Another half hour had come and gone before they had finally reached the top of Alastor's maddening radio tower. They had fought off ambush after ambush, along with dodging a couple more mines. Their shoes were bloodied and their guns were smoking. Never in a million years did she think she would be up there.

Moxxie and Octavia kicked the front door open. There were already dents in the metal, hinting at some other visitor. She assumed they were from the pair's last expedition to the top. How a pair of demons like them had made it up there not once, but twice, wouldn't cease to amaze her.

Could it actually be happening? Would she end up getting her powers back? Was this the moment that Alastor would finally get his comeuppance and be thrown off of his throne? The plan had always seemed shaky. Even when Edrich had been alive it had seemed like nothing more than a dream. A plan that had seemed too optimistic for even her.

She was a woman who did her best to see the good in everyone. Almost every demon she encountered had some redeeming qualities. Sometimes those qualities would shine through, while other times they would be overshadowed by unspeakable deeds.

Then there was Alastor.

She should have known he was bad news the moment he had stepped into that hotel. She had no idea why she had been so caught up in trying to find the good in him. The last two years had proven that there wasn't a single redeeming quality within that man. His heart was filled with nothing but blackness. Even Charlie had given up on trying to redeem him.

Once they got back down to Vaggie she expected to get a full lecture on how right she had been. Charlie didn't blame her. She probably would have done the exact same thing to her had the roles been reversed.

Charlie was the next one out the door. She was immediately hit with a blast of hot air. A menacing green glow came from beneath them. Only a thin railing with a couple of cinder blocks placed at each end protected her from plummeting to her death.

"Remember this place?" she heard Moxxie call out, "We made it."

"Yeah, we did," Octavia replied, "Now we just need to find that damn orb."

Moxxie paired up with Millie while Octavia kept her father close in tow. Charlie stuck towards the middle of the group. She was the biggest asset in their group, and she meant that in a non-egotistical way. Charlie was the only one capable of wielding the unimaginable amounts of power that they were supposedly going to take on.

"Alright princess, get ready to do your thing," Angel laughed, "We're counting on ya."

"I won't," Charlie replied, "I promise."

Charlie followed the group around a corner. For being the top floor the tower sure was elaborate. She had no idea how Moxxie and Octavia had navigated it the first time. Even now, knowing where they were going, it had taken the better-half of forty five minutes to get up there. Forty-five minutes where anything could go wrong. And in some ways it had gone wrong.

It all seemed worth it when she heard three important words from Moxxie's mouth.

"It's over here!" he shouted over the rest of them.

Charlie broke into a sprint and turned the other corner. Moxxie and Octavia had already come to a stop. Millie and Blitzo were standing close behind them. Charlie arrived next, laying her eyes on what was probably the most important object in all of hell.

A spherical orb with a glass-like texture sat on a pedestal before her. She could see the magic swirling within its center. It almost had a cloud-like appearance on the inside, with multi-colored vortices taking form inside of it like some sort of miniature tornado. The hair on her arms stood up the closer she came to it. The orb had some sort of static charge with it.

Two years of suffering was about to pay off. For a moment she didn't believe it was real. She thought that perhaps Alastor had thrown her into the pit, and that what she was seeing was simply a pre-death hallucination. For such a momentous sight to turn out to be a dream would crush her spirits harder than anything that had ever happened to her.

"This…this is it…?" Charlie asked, "This isn't some sort of trick, right?"

"Why would we trick you after taking up this far?" Moxxie asked, "Of course it's the orb. I'm not sure how you're supposed to get your powers back from that thing, but we're closer now than we ever have before. So now it's up to you."

"Come on, princess!" Millie added, "You're the one saving our asses now."

Charlie nodded. The moment had finally come.

She decided to approach it like any other object. Her steps were still slow and careful. Angel and the two news anchors ran over to the side of the tower to keep an eye out for any threats to their safety.

Her right hand extended. The orb was unpredictable and erratic. Charlie would have to keep an eye out. For all she knew Alastor had booby-trapped it. It wouldn't be above him to do something like that. The man had a moral compass that rivaled that of her own father. And that was saying something.

That being said, she went with her first idea. Her right hand grazed the outside of the orb. It was warm. She could feel the outer shell rattling as the magic within it swirled around. A hurricane of magic. Magic that had been unjustly stolen from the demons that possessed it.

What happened next would go down in history.

Charlie was knocked to the ground by a sudden surge of energy. The blast was stronger than anything she had felt before. It blew her backwards with a blinding flash of light. Voices swirled around her and chanted words in an ancient tongue not even Charlie recognized.

She soon found herself consumed in a cloud of red. Flashes of white and yellow nearly blinded her. It resembled the center of a hurricane, if it could be compared to anything she had seen at all. Charlie was positioned in the eye of the storm. Strong winds blew against her as the swirling clouds pushed in closer and closer to her side.

Glancing at her feet, the familiar concrete of the tower was beneath. She braced for impact as the voices and wind grew stronger. She couldn't tell if the storm would strengthen her or kill her.

The others were entangled in the same storm. What caught her eye was how they were seemingly unaffected by the wind. Charlie was struggling to keep her footing while the others stood completely still, mouths hanging open in shock. It meant that Charlie was the focus of the "storm" swirling around her. Something about her was central to the storm's existence.

A bolt of yellow lightning struck her in the chest with a searing pain. The pain was a strange sensation. She didn't feel as if she was being truly damaged. More of a passing sense of discomfort. Her body surged with energy and heat as the energy consumed her. Charlie could swear that it would have killed her under any other circumstances. She had met sinners who had died in lightning strikes. The idea of joining them in that fate wasn't very appealing.

Deafening roars came from the center of the storm. Charlie's vision was almost completely blocked by the rest of the clouds. Nobody around her spoke a word. The shock factor was far too high for them to utter even a gasp of surprise.

The lightning around her turned bright red as bolt after bolt struck her body. By then the winds were extreme. Charlie found herself struggling for breath as the vortex appeared to be reaching a climax.

Her eyes began to burn from the brightness of the constant strikes. The clouds had enveloped her. She no longer had any sense of direction. Flailing around blindly in the dark did nothing to help her regain her vision.

She let out a final yell as a deafeningly loud white bolt struck her directly in the chest.

The sensation that followed knocked out her vision.

In an instant the wind came to a stop. Charlie felt herself falling to the ground. Or, at least as close to the ground as she could get. Two pairs of arms caught her. She had no idea who the arms belonged to. But she was thankful for them. She wasn't a huge fan of receiving a mouthful of cement.

"Princess!" she heard Millie shout, "Are ya alive?!"

Charlie gave the woman a weak thumbs up.

Her strength came back in waves. She opened her eyes to see Moxxie and Millie holding her in their arms. A strong rumbling was coming from the base of the tower. Charlie couldn't tell if the source of the disturbance was Alastor or if it was the remnants of the storm. Either way, she didn't like it.

Within a few seconds she was strong enough to stand. There was a new sensation within her. A warm feeling in her chest. It was a sensation that she hadn't felt in years. Not since the day of the takeover.

There was only one thing she had to do to make sure.

"Get out of the way," Charlie said, raising her hands into the air, "I need to test something…"

The other demons obeyed. It had been a couple of years since she had last used her powers. But the memories remained as strong as ever in her head.

Closing her eyes, she focused. Focused more intensely than she ever had before in her life. Hell was counting on her to get this next step correct. And Alastor be damned, she wasn't going to screw it up. Not at such a crucial moment.

Letting out a scream, she opened her palms as the warm sensation traveled from her upper body and into her hands.

A spectacular show of lightning shot into the sky. It branched off of the main beam until the veins of light took up almost the entire sky. One of them made an explosive connection with a green bolt of lightning coming from one of the clouds hovering around the tower. The force of the blast was strong enough to shatter all of the remaining windows in the tower like they were nothing but paper.

The show came to an end as quickly as it had begun. The beams dissipated and dissolved into raining balls of fire. Explosions rang out from below as the remnants of her show crashed to the ground. From the looks of it they were landing on mostly empty parts of the land, something she was now grateful for.

Her eyes opened, greeted by a flurry of expressions ranging from shock to awe.

After that, a chorus of cheers.

"That's the Charlie I used to know!" Angel shouted, "Our girl's back in the game!"

"That shot's gonna give us enough money to retire!" Tom cheered, "Woohoo!"

Moxxie and Octavia were the most elated of all. Of course they would be. They had been at the forefront of the effort. Without the two of them, Charlie would still be trapped inside the prison and reduced to a pile of ashes. The entire ordeal had been risky, yes, but the reward had been worth it. For the first time in years, Alastor was being presented with a legitimate threat to his power.

"We did it!" Charlie said, staring at her hands, "You have no idea how much I've missed this!"

"I've only had mine for a few minutes and I already love them!" Octavia replied, "I couldn't imagine losing them."

Moxxie raised a gun and ran to the other side of the tower. The rumbling was beginning to grow louder and louder. Not only that, but Charlie could see a green glow rising up from below.

"Looks like it's your time to strike, Morningstar!" Moxxie called out nervously, "We've got company.

On cue, a deranged laugh rang out from beneath. The laugh was growing louder and louder. The source was growing closer. And only one man that she had ever met possessed a cackle riddled with such extreme sadism mixed with twisted joy.

Her breath hitched. She had known an ambush was coming. Yet peeking over the edge and watching Alastor rise up into the air towards them sent a shot of dread through her body. Alastor seemed bigger. He was going all-out.

They were about to face the worst that an overlord's magic had to offer.

Prince Stolas had been holding his own hand over the orb. He was just shy of regaining his own powers when the tower shook again.

This time, the explosion was stronger. The swaying of the structure so high up meant that falling off was a real possibility. Although Charlie could probably use her powers to help anyone who fell over the edge, she wasn't sure if the timing of the incoming battle would allow it.

"Shit!" she heard Octavia call out, "Morningstar, do your thing."

Charlie regained her footing. Alastor was almost to the roof. Her time to strike had come.

Alright Charlie.

Deep breaths…

Do it for dad.

Even though he was such a jerk…

Images of her former life flashed through her head. Remembering all the demons that Alastor had killed off. Charlie was ready to give the theatrical douchebag in front of them the treatment that he deserved. She remembered the years of suffering she had endured under his reign. The confinement that had driven her near madness. And for what? So he could get his jollies murdering demons for whatever reason he created in his twisted head?

She wouldn't stand for it.

Alastor finally came into view. He was easily over thirty feet tall by then. His eyes no longer held the red glow that they once had. Now they were far more green and vibrant. The staff in his hand was radiating erratic bolts of energy that flew out of his staff at random times.

The others took up arms behind her. If they were going to have any chance at getting out of that fight alive, everyone needed to be giving their best effort. Charlie had powers, but fighting Alastor would be more than a solo job.

"Ah, Charlotte," Alastor laughed, "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again. You think you're real smart, don't you? Climbing up my tower, taking back your powers, and defying my orders? You're about to get a taste of your own medicine, princess. I should have finished you off with your father."

Charlie didn't dignify him with a response. The two sides were trapped in an uncomfortable stalemate: Neither side wanted to fire the first shot. Alastor seemed like he was ready to.

She was going to take initiative. She charged up a strike on her own end, while Alastor seemed to be doing the same. Octavie sent a fireball in his direction, only for it to be deflected and knocked down to the ground.

Right as Alastor had finished preparing, Charlie released the stream of energy from her hands. A blindingly bright white beam shot out from her hands and struck the man in the chest.

For the first time ever, she saw a flash of fear in his eyes.

She had finally managed to hit him where it hurt.

Blackened blood collected at the impact zone. She could see him wincing in pain, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. Charlie knew when someone was hurting. Alastor was showing weakness for the first time ever. And Charlie planned on finishing the job.

"You were saying?" Charlie shot back, confident enough that she offered a rebuttal, "Or do you want more?"

"You may have the powers of an overlord," Alastor chuckled, "But your little friends don't. And once I finish them off, it'll be just you and me. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"It'll take a lot more than one of your fancy light shows to take us out!" Moxxie shouted, "You won't get to her unless it's over my dead body!"

"Mine too," Octavia replied, "You wanna go after us? You had your chance. Now it's our turn."

Blitzo and Millie didn't shout back, only firing their weapons at him. Even though they didn't do anything, they still conveyed the same message of defiance. They weren't going to take anything from Alastor anymore. He had finally bitten off more than he could chew. And by Lucifer were they going to make sure he paid for it in blood.

Charlie began to charge up yet another attack. All of her resentment and anger was being channeled into her attacks. It came from a woman who had developed an image for herself. An image of the most caring demon in hell. It took a lot to get on her bad side. And yet Alastor had managed to do it with shocking ease.

A burst of heat followed by a green light threw her to the ground before she had the chance to finish. The cement slammed into her back while the rest of her body felt like it was on fire. Charlie closed her eyes and clutched her hands to her chest and head. The last thing she needed was Alastor kicking her while she was down. Even an idiot could figure out where that attack had come from.

"I told you, princess," Alastor continued, "You're no match for me. You may have landed a hit. But you're going to have to do a lot more to take me out. And rest assured I am doing everything I can to bring you and your precious rebellion to a demise. You are nothing but a plague on society. You promote lawlessness and anarchy. I promote law and order. Delinquents like you are to be handled with an iron first. So why don't we start that now?"

The bullets Blitzo and Millie had fired were soon reflected back at them. Charlie did the best he could to create a shield with her powers to block the bullets. But they only did so much. Blitzo let out a scream as a bullet hit him where chest became shoulder.

"BLITZ!" Moxxie shouted.

The imp fell to the ground. He was still alive, but in great pain. His eyes widened as blood continued to gush from the wound. An imp like him wouldn't survive that kind of bleeding for very long. He had minutes left at best.

Millie rushed over to the wounded demon as Charlie fought to get back to her feet.

"He's bleedin'!" Millie called out, "He's gonna die if we don't fix him!"

"Blitzy…" Stolas muttered as he knelt down to his bleeding comrade. The owl muttered something under his breath as Blitzo whispered back. Charlie couldn't decipher anything they were saying.

The Radio Demon laughed at the display. It only angered her further. How a man could take so much pleasure in the suffering of others sickened her. Alastor needed to be taught a lesson.

Fighting the pain in her chest, she threw out another spell. Octavia synchronized a blast of her own with Charlie's. The two beams collided and struck Alastor even as he tried to dodge. The magic followed him like some sort of sentient boomerang.

A deafening explosion rang out as Alastor recoiled from the force of the explosion. More blood dripped out of his body. Yet the man seemed unaffected by it. Aside from some pain, he was brushing everything off like it was nothing. Charlie had to up her game if she wanted a shot at winning.

And so that was what she did.

She ran right up to the edge of the tower. Alastor saw her approach. For a moment he retreated. Not very far, but he still retreated. He was scared of her. She was the first legitimate threat to him since Lucifer. Alastor had always boasted his supremacy and invincibility to the people of hell. He had never anticipated her rising up and getting her powers back. It was almost comedic, how unprepared he had been.

Octavia was the only one who had a chance at fighting back without having it blown back into their faces. Millie tended to Blitzo behind her. Moxxie was balancing between the two.

The blasts came far faster during the next wave of attacks.

Alastor let out a yell and grew even larger, towering over them more than any demons she had ever seen before. A green hue surrounded him as his staff began to emit erratic flashes of lightning and other power. She could swear she heard static in her ears as the beams passed by her ears. It was the same sound she had heard the day Lucifer had died. Something about the sound brought back the anger. And Charlie was going to need it.

She dodged the beams as they enveloped the tower and sent explosions up and down the structure. The foundation was being roasted alive. It took her a moment, but she soon realized what Alastor was trying to do.

He was going to take out the tower.

With all of them on it.

Charlie knew that a one-hundred and ten story fall would mean certain death for all of them. Alastor knew that too. He was willing to destroy hell's greatest feat of architecture and engineering to take out the demons he saw as a threat. It only proved to her that Alastor was scared. He was acting like a mouse cornered by a cat. Every ounce of energy was being directed towards killing her. Even if it meant doing irreparable damage to his own assets.

Beam after beam flew from her hands. Alastor took each hit and recovered, albeit slightly slower each time. Octavia tried to cover her.

"Is that the b-b-best you can do-o-o?!" Alastor asked as his voice became distorted with static, "I've fought cinder blocks t-t-tougher than you!"

"Hit him again!" Moxxie shouted, "And fast!"

The tower suddenly swayed forward. Charlie gripped the railing with all of her strength as debris and demons fell into her.

A slip of her hand sent her plummeting over the tower's edge.

She let out a scream as her right hand gripped the railing on the other side. One glance down showed her that she was on the precipice of a lethal fall. The prison was nothing more than a speck on the ground from where she was.

"Charlie!" Angel shouted, before he himself began to slip with the slanting building.

Her hands were beginning to sweat. Alastor was already launching magic of his own towards her. One of them struck her in the leg and surged up through her head. The pain was enough to make her cry out again. Blood began to pool in her hand as the beam broke through the skin.

A chorus of confused screams rang out as the slant became more and more severe.

"Grab him!" Millie shouted as Blitzo began to slip, "Don't let him fall!"

"I'm trying!" Moxxie called out, "I can't reach him!"

Stolas reached out his hand and grabbed Octavia as she herself almost flew over the edge, "Octavia!"

Octavia crashed into the railing with a loud thud and almost took out Charlie's hand. She heard the owl let out a grunt of pain while Charlie's own blood began to run down her arm and stain her clothes.

A hand was extended to her from Stolas as he used the other hand to pull Octavia back towards the top. Charlie used her free arm to try and grip his hand, but nothing worked.

Alastor sent another burst of energy out and struck the foundation of the tower. Charlie nearly lost her grip as the sudden force pushed her body even closer to the drop below.

The guns that were once in their hands had rolled over the edge of the building. One of them bounced off of Charlie's face and miraculously didn't fire. The weapon plummeted to the ground below and disappeared from her sight.

Moxxie managed to grip an antenna near the top to keep his balance. Octavia and Millie tumbled forward again with Blitzo and Stolas. Angel and the two anchors fell towards the door where they had entered from.

More and more of the building was coming apart. And she was running out of time.

The game of demon dominos was only going to get worse the longer she stood around and did nothing. Even though it was going to hurt like hell, she had to get back on top of the tower. Before Alastor took her out and doomed the others to a terrible fate.

Knowing that lives were on the line motivated her. She was ready to face the pain if it meant she could save other lives.

Bite your tongue, Charlie.

This is gonna hurt.

She raised her hand and flipped herself over the railing and back onto solid ground. Something cracked in her hand and she felt a flash of pain that caused dots to dance across her vision. Her head and chest took the brunt of the impact as face planted into the concrete.

But she had made it.

And the fight was only just beginning.

Moxxie could only hold his ground on the antenna for so long.

Sparks flew and lightning struck as Morningstar and Alastor battled it out. Moxxie wanted to be able to help. But his bullets would do nothing against a man of such power. Especially now that his boss was slowly bleeding out.

The strong winds at such a high altitude were blowing the tower back and forth. Morningstar pulled herself over the edge at the nick of time. Right after she secured a position on the other side of the railing, Alastor launched another attack and blew out a chunk of wall where she had just been.

"You're a-a-an athletic little princess-s-s, aren't you?" Alastor asked, "T-trying to dodge my attacks like that? You're going to r-r-regret doing that!"

Morningstar used her hands to send out a burst of air, causing Alastor to flip around as the blast blew him around. He moved like a broken helicopter. He dipped and rose with erratic motions. Moxxie was able to make out a hint of blood collecting by his eye.

At the same time, Moxxie was working at keeping his own comrades from falling off of the tower.

Millie had Blitzo in tow as Moxxie held her hand to pull her up. Blitzo was bleeding, but still alive. Moxxie had always known him to be a strong man. The fighting spirit was alive and well with him. Lucid enough to talk, Blitzo tried shouting something at him. It only came out as a hoarse whisper.

"Kill him," Blitzo said, "Let him burn."

"We're doing everything we can," Moxxie replied as he helped situate Blitzo against a wall, "Just hold on a bit longer and we'll get you some help, okay?"

He nodded.

A smoky aroma filled the air. One glance over the railing showed that the entire bottom portion of the tower was now on fire. The flames were climbing rapidly. He could see the orange glow growing brighter and brighter as floor after floor went ablaze with the heat of a thousand suns.

Stolas and Octavia perched on the nearby antenna. The two of them looked like death already. The prince glanced over the edge and saw the same approaching flames that Moxxie saw. Tanks of gas began to explode as the flames reached them and ignited the chemicals inside. Each explosion shook the tower further and made the tilt more and more severe.

"She's gonna die out there," Octavia said, "She might be stronger than him, but Alastor still has the advantage. I have to help her."

The owl shifted and pushed past Stolas. Moxxie stood back and kept dividing his gaze between Morningstar and Octavia. Something was about to happen on Octavia's behalf. And Moxxie wasn't sure if it was going to be good or bad.

"Via, what are you doing?!" Stolas asked with worry, "You're going to get yourself hurt!"

The next words out of her mouth.

"If getting hurt means the rest of hell gets to live, then I'm willing to do it," she said, "If I'm going to die, It's going to be for something big. Something greater than myself."

Octavia put her hand on the antenna and began to climb up. In spite of her injuries, she was moving with speed and agility that rivaled anyone he had ever seen before. Moxxie considered joining her for a moment.

"Keep an eye on Blitz," Moxxie said to Millie and Stolas, "I'm not letting her get herself killed up there."

"Not you too," Millie said, wrapping her arms around him, "I'm not losing any of you today."

Her embrace was warm. It was a warmth that he had missed. And under any other circumstances, he would have been willing to stay. It wasn't often that the fate of a realm rested in his hands.

It was with great pain that he pulled away from her. He picked up a gun. Moxxie was aware of the risks of using one. Blitzo and Millie were already under cover. The gun would serve as a good distraction at the very least. He needed to feel as if he was doing something.

"I'm sorry," Moxxie said as he gripped the base of the antenna. The metal scraped painfully against his raw hands, "But I'm the one that got us into it. And I'm going to be the one to get us out of it."

The tower rocked again as Millie and Blitzo called out to him. Moxxie couldn't hear what he said. But it didn't matter. There was only one figure in his line of sight now. The one that was distracted by Morningstar and unable to see the two of them climbing up to what he hoped was a vantage point.

"What the hell are you doing?" Octavia asked as she looked down at him, "I'm the one with the powers."

"I'm the one that caused this. Let me at least try to put an end to it," Moxxie replied, "We're screwed anyways. At least let us go out with a blaze of glory."

Octavia gave him another confused look, but she didn't offer a rebuttal. Moxxie climbed higher up the antenna with her. It was at least another fifty feet up. He wasn't going to let her die alone for something that he had started.

Every sway of the tower brought them closer to plummeting to the ground below. Moxxie gripped the antenna so tight that his hands began to bleed. Their ascent eerily mirrored their trip up the elevator shaft a few days prior.

If only he had known the trouble he would be getting into.

Octavia released one hand and sent a fireball out from her hands and hit Alastor. It didn't do much. He only flinched for a moment.

Even worse, they had given their position away.

Alastor now knew where they were.

"T-t-trying to get away from me?" he taunted, "You're an interesting bunch. You think you're i-invincible, d-don't you?"

Flames began to rise over the edge of the top of the wall. The structure was becoming weaker and weaker by the second. Poor Morningstar was working her ass off hitting him time and time again. The two of them were only offering distractions. It was still up to Morningstar to pull them out.

"Shit…" he heard Octavia mutter.

Alastor seemed to be charging up a strike of his own. It was directed at their position at the antenna.

This time, there wasn't anything Moxxie could do about it.

He closed his eyes and waited for impact. The risks of their excursion had been known the moment they set foot inside the tower. Moxxie had no one to blame but himself. Fighting Alastor had been an insane idea. One wrong word over a week ago had damned them to the fate that he was about to suffer.

The sound of an explosion came shortly afterwards. Moxxie prepared for the shockwave to knock him off the tower and send him plummeting to the floor. If he was lucky the heat of the blast would kill him before the impact would. By this point in the fight Moxxie was asking for the least painful death possible.

Half-seconds turned to seconds. Then to tens of seconds. There was no falling sensation.

Moxxie dared to open his eyes to see what had happened.

And when he did, he knew they were in trouble

Morningstar seemed to have leapt in front of the antenna at the last minute to shield them. She was laying on the floor below bleeding and curled up into a ball. The princess was muttering something to herself. Meanwhile Alastor was only laughing more, even as the static in his voice grew clearer and clearer.

The deafening volume of the explosion told him everything he needed to know.

He was about to leap to the ground to help her when Octavia let out a sudden battle cry. A scream like that had never come out of her mouth before. It was enough to strike fear into Moxxie's heart as he turned around to see what was going on.

What he saw both amazed him and terrified him.

-o

-o

Something inside of her had finally clicked.

Octavia had no idea where the sudden burning sensation in her veins had come from. Nor was she sure what it meant. Her powers had only been in for an hour at most. She was still getting the hang of it.

But when her eyes began to glow and her talons sharpened, she knew something was changing.

With a single flap of her wings, Octavia thrust herself into the air. She had never been able to fly before. Nor had she ever been able to send out a shockwave with a single scream.

Her reflection whizzed past her as she passed a nearby window.

Every feather on her body had darkened to a black shade. Two white eyes replaced her typically velvet-colored pupils. Sharp talons replaced what had once been her hands. White letters and patterns glowed through her feathers with blindly bright neon light. She was taller than she was before. Each flap of her wings sent out a burst of energy that seemed to be scaring even Alastor.

And it felt fucking amazing.

She stuck out her talons and managed to grip Alastor by his side. Morningstar had weakened him. By a lot. Octavia managed to claw the hell out of his face before he was able to muster up any sort of defense.

A burst of air from his hands sent Octavia flying backwards, but he hadn't dealt any damage to her. If the best he could do was blow her backwards, the battle was going to shift in her favor.

Octavia wasn't a moron. She knew that Alastor wasn't a man she could kill on her own. Hope for salvation rested in Morningstar, who was writing on the floor and trying to get back to her feet. Whatever Alastor had sent her way had been strong. Strong enough to wipe out the strongest demon to roam hell since Lucifer.

"G-growing your wings, princess?!" Alastor laughed, "Y-y-you really think you can t-take me on?"

"I don't," Octavia said in a bellowing voice that impressed even her, "But I'm going to make you suffer!"

"That's my daughter!" her father shouted from the tower.

Morningstar was trying to get back up. Moxxie slid down the antenna and ran to her side. She could see him working at patching the princess up. All hope for success rested in her ability to get back up and deal the final blow. Alastor was becoming weaker. He wasn't going to last much longer. A few more shots would be enough to subdue him for good. They were so close to success. Octavia refused to let their hope die out.

She flew out again and clawed him in the back. He recoiled in pain with a deafening scream. Octavia plunged her wings into his sides and unleashed a burst of fire and power. Comets rained down from the sky and pummeled the overlord with shocking accuracy.

"Come on, birdie!" Angel shouted from below, "Kill him!"

Alastor tried to shake her off. But Octavia wasn't having it. Every sway of her body drove her talons deeper into his skin. A loud static noise began to fill her head as Alastor took hit after hit. Warm blood coated her talons with each attack. Hell's rivers would soon run black with the blood of overlords if she had any say about it.

"How's that execution looking for you now?!" she grunted through tightened teeth, "You're about to get a taste of your own medicine."

Parts of the overlord began to pixelate before her eyes. It was like staring at a dying computer screen. Neon flashes came from the 'corrupted' portions of his body with each bit of damage she induced.

"Y-y-you will m-m-meet your fate s-soon enough, O-Octavia!" he shouted, "Do you t-think you can t-truly hurt me?!"

"I do," Octavia shot back as she clawed out one of his eyes, "If only you could see it."

Heat from the flames of the tower brushed against her back. The tilt of the structure was becoming more and more severe. Parts of the inner foundation were beginning to collapse and fall to the ground. Flammable magic and tanks of gas blew up and brought them closer and closer to full-on collapse.

Morningstar slipped down towards the edge. Moxxie and her father worked to hold her upright while Millie focused on keeping Blitzo away from the edge. Her heart skipped a beat as the tower leaned almost ninety degrees to one side. The structure was very flexible from what she could see. It looked like a massive bendy straw from her vantage point. Watching her loved ones tumble towards death was something she wouldn't stand for. The fire filling the sides of the tower only reminded her more and more of her own mother's execution.

"Y-You may be a-able to fly," Alastor said as he shook Octavia off and sent her flying backwards, "B-but your l-little friends can't. I hope y-you enjoy watching them fall. J-just like your mother."

Those last words struck her heart with the strength of a thousand daggers. Her mother had been a terrible woman. And yet she didn't think she had deserved such a terrible fate. Alastor was hellbent on wiping out anyone that he saw as a threat. It was what had kept him on the throne for so long. His sadistic joy for inflicting suffering on others was enough to make her sick. Alastor had ruled with an iron fist for too long. She was finally devoting her life to something useful. She was fighting for change on a level no ordinary demon had ever fought for before. Alastor had tried to kill him. But with hell as her witness, she wasn't going to let it happen.

She flung the remains of Alastor's eye off of her talons and dove in for another strike. Morningstar seemed to be recovering. Octavia only had to last a little bit longer.

"I hope you enjoy the pit!" Octavia hissed, "Because it's where you're headed!"

The static began to consume the overlord. His movements were no longer controlled. Magic shot out of him at erratic intervals and bounced off of the nearby structures and knocked out the antenna above her.

"Watch it!" Angel shouted from the top of the tower as a loud crash echoed out from the structure.

Octavia turned her gaze long enough to see her father attempt to leap out of the way of the falling debris. His eyes glowed and an expression of fear was painted on his face. She tried to call out to him. Her words were lost over the roaring of the fires.

She could only watch in horror as her father was pinned underneath the falling debris. A guttural scream came out of his mouth as a sharp portion of the building went through his back. More debris landed on his legs and upper body, trapping him under the debris as the flames climbed up higher and higher towards him.

Alastor took advantage of her distress. He sent out a burst of magic and blasted her backwards and into the concrete walls of the top floor. Octavia felt blood pooling in her mouth as a crack came from her spine. Her wings gripped the side of the railing as the tower's tilt grew larger.

Another strike hit her in the chest. Even with her newfound powers, the wound was enough to send her to the floor. A blinding flash of green light mixing with white and purple shot out as the beam made contact with her skin. She let out a scream as her own, the noise clashing with the sheer volume of Alastor's increasingly distorted laughs.

White and black flashes filled her vision. She wasn't dead, but the pain was severe. It hurt her simply to take in a breath. Dizziness began to overtake her, unable to tell whether it was from the lack of oxygen or the violent swinging of the tower that was bound to collapse sooner or later.

Each attempt to move brought unbearable pain. She wanted to leap back into action. Alastor was clearly close to kicking the bucket. The distortions and injuries were becoming unavoidable.

Before she had been content to die simply trying. But now she was determined to send him to the grave. She couldn't do that if she was bleeding from the chest and struggling to breathe. Fighting was going to be borderline impossible in the state she was in. A fit of coughing ensued as she tried to get the blood out of her mouth. Each movement made her want to cry. It took all of her strength to bite her tongue and keep herself from screaming in pain.

"S-sending you to the ground i-i-is going to be v-very entertaining!" Alastor bellowed, "C-can't fly anymore now, can you b-birdie?!"

Moxxie and Millie, being the last of those atop the tower that weren't trapped or injured, rushed to her side in an attempt to help. Octavia felt the two of them pulling her away from the edge.

"Get her away from the edge!" Moxxie shouted, "We're not losing anyone today!"

Alastor seemed to be taking a moment to try and recover. It gave her a few more minutes to stare at the man that she had failed to kill. Octavia would never forgive herself if Alastor survived. She was angry at herself for getting distracted. Those few seconds had cost her a chance at victory. To weaken him further and allow Morningstar to finish him off.

Her feathers slowly lost their inky blackness. Her eyes stopped glowing. Octavia was weakening. Blood began to run down from her chest and onto her legs and feet. A trail of crimson followed her and dripped off of the tower as the two imps worked with all of their strength to pull her to safety. She admired their courage, pulling her out of harm's way when they would almost certainly die anyways.

"Kill him…" Octavia spat out as she tried to rid her mouth of the metallic taste, "Don't let him…don't let him win…"

"We won't," Moxxie said, pointing to Morningstar who was now slowly rising to her feat.

The wounded princess didn't look much better off than she was. Octavia would have let out a gasp if it wouldn't send her into a world of pain. Her breathing was becoming labored. She couldn't tell if Alastor had punctured something in her lung or not. The color in her vision began to fade in and out with each passing second. Moxxie's and Millie's voices became nothing more than muffled echoes in the background of her mind.

"Octavia!" Moxxie shouted, "Stay with me!"

His voice was reduced to an echo. Millie called out something to her as well, but she could no longer understand her.

She suddenly began to feel cold. Far colder than she had ever felt in her life. Painful shivers racked her body. She knew what it meant. Octavia had dealt with her fair share of injuries before. The cold was the predecessor to her losing consciousness from blood loss. And from the looks of it, she was losing a shitton. More than any demon, even a Goetian royal could survive.

A bloodied figure that resembled her father passed by her vision. He was pinned under the debris and weakly attempting to push himself out of the debris field. The man's mouth moved with what appeared to be distress and worry. Octavia wasn't lucid enough to attempt to understand what he was saying.

"Dad…" she choked out, her chest aching with the single breath it required to speak.

Moxxie shouted something to her as a blast of heat surrounded them. A large flame shot out of the bottom of the cement floor and reached high into the sky. It was becoming a fight to keep her eyes open. Millie began tapping at her face as she noticed Octavia nodding off. It didn't do much to help. She had lost too much blood.

I'm sorry.

I tried my best.

But it wasn't enough.

It never is.

Her final thoughts were filled with the stench of defeat. Octavia had believed for a few fleeting moments that she would defeat Alastor and emerge victorious. Like every other bit of hope the princess had held during their fight, it had been snatched away ten times over.

The end was coming. The only upside was that it wasn't going to be painful. Bleeding out was far from a painless death, but it was better than ending up in the pit. Octavia only wished she had gotten to live a bit longer. To see life from a perspective beyond that of a nineteen year old. Her time in hell had been short. A climactic end to a life filled with luxury and prestige. She missed the times when her problems were purely social. When they didn't endanger everyone she cared about.

When her very right to live wasn't hanging in the balance.

Fragments of memories flew through her vision. It must have been the "near-death life flashing" that she had been told about. She recalled it happening at the hospital in Qaburn. And it was happening again.

The faces of her father and mother flashed before her eyes. Early memories of her time in the academy. Familiar relatives from family reunions. The calming voice of her father. The large walls of the palace. Strolling the streets of a carnival. She was witnessing nineteen years worth of memories in a single second.

"Octavia! You can't go on us now!" a muffled voice shouted as hands tightly gripped her shoulder, "Please-"

With a final flutter of her eyes, Octavia's vision faded. She was prepared to be whisked away with death. She had spent day after day fighting for her own survival. The time had come for her to rest. Whatever awaited her after would greet her soon. Perhaps she would see her mother again.

The final sensation that she felt was the searing heat of a fireball.