Title: Fighting Fire With Fire

Author: Queen Serenity

Fandom: A Nightmare On Elm Street

Chapter: Five

"Oh, no! He's found me!"

For the first time since Sere had entered Freddy's playground, a look of fear came over her face. The thing was, Freddy found it rather insulting that it wasn't he who caused it!

As he finally got to his feet, Sere took another step back, the terrified look still on her face. In the next moment, Crimmane once more stood where Sere had been, and she turned tail and ran along with her two pack members.

Briefly, Freddy considered going after the bitch, as would have been his first instinct, but decided against it. Ah, I'll get to her eventually…

Instead, he decided to stand right there and wait, as it sounded as though the footsteps were coming towards him. A silk-lined male voice sounded out, echoing throughout Freddy's playground.

"Serenity… Where are you? Are you trying to play hide and seek, Serenity? Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Over the words, our favorite nightmare monster could hear the sound of claws clicking fading as the lupes ran.

About a minute later, some distance ahead of him on the metal mesh walkways, a figure appeared. He kept walking until he reached Freddy, and then stopped, his fiery green eyes looking the Nightmare King up and down.

"And what is this?" He drawled out. "Another pitiful protector created by Serenity's imagination? Really, I thought she would have learned by now that she has no real power in this realm…"

Freddy's eyes narrowed as he observed the being before him; there was power here. "You don't know who you're talking to, do you, Bitch? I'm no figment… I'm Freddy Krueger, and I'm as real as they come here. And you're in my playground now; I'm the one with the power!" He splayed his razors in his trademark gesture, the metallic blades gleaming dimly in red-lit room.

The man sneered. "Is that supposed to scare me? Your pitiful little mortal weapon? Save yourself the trouble, and get out of my way; I shall be out of your 'playground' soon enough… just as soon as I retrieve my property; she seems to have hidden herself somewhere around here, I can smell her. A young woman with reddish hair… perhaps you have seen her? The sooner I retrieve her, the sooner I leave this…" His lip curled disdainfully here. "…place of yours."

Freddy smirked; this thing really did not realize who, or what, was in front of him. "See, now, there's a problem."

"And that is?"

The smirk grew. Freddy could sense the girl from a distance, still trying to get further away. "The problem is yours, not mine. You shouldn't have allowed Sere to make it into my playground… now that she has, she's my property now. One of my 'children'."

A look of fury came over Jireziah's face, that this man, who he could sense was a demon similar to him, dared defy him; NO ONE defied him! When he spoke next, his voice dripped with the venom of barely concealed threat. "You will give her to me." He locked eyes with Freddy, the green in his eyes burning brighter than ever.

"No, I won't, Bitch. In fact…" He swiped lightning-fast at Jireziah, and the other demon leapt deftly back. "I feel like killing you, just for coming here."

Jireziah stared at Freddy for half a moment later, as though considering, before he suddenly leapt up, phasing through the grate above them and taking off running in the direction that Crimmane and her pack had started running.

Sneering, Freddy willed himself up there, too, and then he was there. He was mildly surprised, however, to find his path obstructed by several dogs. He growled. Damnit, how do these fucking mutts keep getting in!

These weren't like those creatures that were with Crimmane, though; these actually did look more like dogs; large dogs, built like rottweilers but shaped a bit more like Dobermans, their black coats covered in blood, their eyes glowing like hot red coals. Their teeth were bared and saliva dripped as they advanced on Freddy, enclosing him in a circle.

Freddy simply sneered; this would be fun! One of them leapt at him, heading for his throat, but he simply grabbed it with his ungloved hand and shoved his razors through its neck, throwing it over the siderails, cackling.

The other dogs, who he had figured out by now most likely belonged to the other demon, stepped back a bit. When he advanced, though, they attacked. All in all, it didn't take him long to dispose of the fucking mutts… he knew they probably hadn't even been meant to kill him, simply to slow him down. What Jireziah was obviously hoping to do was get to the girl before Freddy did, and just leave with her before Freddy could do anything about it…

Crimmane came to an abrupt halt, reaching a dead end, and Bloodmoon and Nightsun stopped with her. It was useless… she knew he would catch her, as usual. She transformed to her human self, tears in her eyes; there was only one thing she could do. She swallowed, and spoke, quietly.

"Guys… It's time for you to go."

The two lupes whined, obviously not wanting to. Their eyes, respectively red and green, burned with concern for their mistress.

"Please… go. I don't want you to be killed by him; you know he can."

And so, she knelt and hugged them. She knew what they were afraid of; they were afraid that, however things turned out, this would be the last time they ever saw her.

Once she stood, they both disappeared, and she was left alone.

"Did you really think that you could get away from me?"

She turned around suddenly to find 'him' a few feet behind her. She let out a whimper, and backed up until her back touched wall.

He advanced on her, step by step, enjoying every moment of this. "I shall have to punish you for this, you know, Serenity. And it shall be so very sweet."

Something began to grow out of the metal walkway between them, and a moment later it formed into Freddy, and Molly felt a slight bit of hope.

Freddy sneered. "I told you. The bitch isn't leaving here."

Jireziah pulled a sword out of nowhere, taking a fighting stance. "I should have known my hounds wouldn't last. No matter… I always have more." He leapt at Freddy, swinging the sword skillfully, slashing Freddy across the arm. The wound healed immediately, though.

Meanwhile, Molly was edging sideways, about to climb over the rail. Freddy glanced back. "Ah, ah, Sere… stay right there. We're gonna have fun as soon as I'm done with this bitch." A moment later, chains sprouted from the wall and shackled themselves to her wrists and ankles, holding her in place.

Jireziah's eyes flashed brighter, and he started to change. The pupils of his eyes narrowed to become like a cat's, starting out, and then there was a shredding noise as the back of his vest split open. Pulling off the remnants, he grinned ferally at Freddy, his teeth sharpening. The wings of the dragon on his back were sprouting out of his back, growing quickly until they were full-sized. Meanwhile, his black hair grew probably about five inches and talons grew from his fingertips. A moment later, he flapped his great wings once and lifted off of the metal walkway, swooping up skillfully until he was above the walkways.

"You wished to fight me so badly, Freddy," he called, "Now's your chance."

Freddy, in turn, grinned. This guy seemed to have tricks up his sleeve… well, he wasn't the only one. His neck started to stretch and stretch, and then his body started to expand greatly. The neck split into two, then four, then finally eight. When he was done changing, the result was an immense, eight-headed hydra with Freddy faces.

Molly watched all of this in horror, wondering who would win.

Two hours later, it was getting ridiculous. The two seemed to be evenly matched in powers, and no matter what they did to hurt each other, they simply kept healing. There was no way for one to kill the other, or even beat the other.

They both transformed back into their normal forms, glaring at each other.

"I have a proposal," Jireziah said.

"What is it, Bitch?" Freddy was seriously annoyed. For once, he didn't know what to do with this guy… his demons were even at a loss.

"I think we have both realized by now that fighting each other is pointless."

"So what should we do?"

Jireziah looked like he didn't like this one bit. "Well, since you won't simply let me have her… I suggest something other than fighting."

Freddy just glared at him, waiting.

"A game."

"A game?"

"A game. Fair rules. Winner gets to keep the girl to do with as they wish."

"Fine."

Molly listened to the conversation, feeling terror within her. What was she to do?

And then, her alarm began to beep.

The last thing she heard as she left the dream world was…

"Tomorrow night."

QS: I'm very sorry if this chapter isn't up to par… if you guys think I'll need to, I'll do a rewrite of it. However, I can't go more into detail on the battle, since I'm so crappy with fight scenes. I really liked my reviews, and really wanted to get another chapter out for you guys, so I did my best… sorry.

And now, I need to figure out something before I continue. I need to figure out what game they'll play. Nothing funny, definitely. My first thought was Chess, but I thought that that would be too intellectual for Freddy.

What do you all think? Please help. This was the only solution I could come up with as to how two dream demons would fight.

Again, sorry if it's crappy… It's almost 2AM right now and I keep feeling this chapter sucks. Not to mention, it's not as long as usual… *groans miserably*