DING!

Passing through the golden bell with Kent at his side, Wally wasn't quite sure what to think. He was worried about Rachel, sure, but she seemed to be able to handle her own against her brother earlier and he was her brother, so it wasn't like the witch boy was actually going to hurt her, right? In any case, when the two emerged from the bell and he had shaken off the strange feeling of being dragged through metal (Is this what phasing feels like?) and out onto the open roof, the pair found themselves accosted by the sight of Rachel & Klarion going at it like a pair of stray dogs in the street. If he had thought that their dalliance before was wild, then it was nothing in comparison to this. When creatures of Chaos fought, they really fought.

In the distraction wrought by the chaos of the two siblings, Kent was able to erect a small golden dome that shielded him, the speedster and the Helmet from any further wayward attacks. But even that seemed to take more out of him than he was willing to admit; especially as one of those attacks slipped through the closing dome and hit the old man at full force. "Not bad…for a former…Doctor Fake, aye kid?" Collapsing into Wally's arms, the old man couldn't help but tease the young'uns. "The bubble will…give you…just enough time…to do…what you need…to do…"

"I have no idea what I need to do!" Wally panicked.

"Have faith in…what you can't…explain…Believe in what you…can no longer…deny"

"Mr Nelson?"

Kent's head then lolled over to where his young apprentice was more or less squabbling with her equally powerful brother and he could not help the urge for his last words to be playful, just as his beloved Insa's had been so long ago. "Are you…planning on destroying…the whole…Tower?" Kent called out as Rachel skittered backwards a few paces, her back barely scraping the newly formed dome behind her.

"Can I at least go semi-lethal?" Rachel pleaded, not willing to look away from her pyro-kinetic favouring brother in case he stabbed her in the back (as he was known to do). If she had, she might've not of brushed off her mentor's strangely amused emotions (given the situation) or his tone of voice. Maybe then, she would have noticed that her mentor was at death's door.

"Rachel!" Wally scolded her as he tried to readjust the weight in his arms and warred with how to tell her that something was seriously wrong with her mentor.

"What?" Rachel whined petulantly as she danced out of the way of another fiery attack. "You never let me have any fun!"

Before Wally could say anything further, Kent Nelson's eyes slid shut for the very last time and his pocketwatch containing a portrait of his late wife, slid from grasp. Laying him down flat on the stony roof, the speedster immediately began to start chest compressions in the hopes of bringing him back to life. Part of him was genuinely concerned for the old man, part of him was just relying on heroic muscle memory that told him to start these compressions as soon as the elderly man had stopped responding and another (smaller, but yet still terrifyingly strong) part of him was worried about how Rachel would react when she found out. His thoughts flickered back to the incident with Amazo where her familiar had been hurt and she had…reacted. God! She had been terrifying, ripping through anything and everything with that dark power of hers. Wally had woken more than once after that encounter, in a cold sweat from nightmares plagued with dark birds and blood red eyes. Even after he had forgiven her.

"…Raven! You cannot fight me as you are!" Klarion cried from where he stood perched on the edge of the Tower. "You are far too weak, right now! Give it up! Gimme the Helmet!"

"Hm? Do you honestly think that you can possibly defeat me with just the powers that you stole from the Limbo witches?" Rachel replied, faking nonchalance as her chest heaved for breath. She wouldn't be able to last much longer like this. "Have you already forgotten why I am the one called 'Munin' and you are but 'Klarion'?"

"You are a mud black witch! You derive your power from the belief that all is born from nothing" Klarion growled, pulling himself up to his full height as he squared his shoulders. Apparently that jab about his home life had struck strong & true, just like Rachel knew it would. "However, little sister, knowledge sometimes surpasses innate talent!"

"Shall we test it then, brother?" Magic visibly thrummed between the two witches, "Because honestly? I'm still somewhat bored"

"Well, we wouldn't want you getting bored, now would we?" Klarion grinned wickedly as his own magic responded in kind.

As if on cue, the two witches began to chant, using an old spell that had translated from here to the sixth dimension and back. An old spell (which had many different functions when worded just so) that had been used countless times, again & again for 'training' purposes under their father's watchful eye. Rachel assumed it was so he could decide which gems would be best to use for opening gates to other conquerable worlds and which gems were just decorative pieces stuck in his proverbial crown.

"Ard gerd, in d'cordia zaya" The siblings incanted in unison, their voices overlapping and dripping with power. "In the name of the King of Despair who rules over the crossroads of Desire & Unwanted Longing and embraces the darkness of all souls! Come forth from the mud black abyss, O Gate of Decay!"

"Nn!" Wally grunted, falling over himself in an attempt to stay upright. With so much magical power running about with reckless abandon, he was glad to be tucked safely inside Fate's dome; even if the Tower beneath his feet rumbled and roiled with the force of it all.

"I call forth, O servant of strife, bound by contract of blood & name!" Klarion decreed, calling forth his feline familiar to stand before him. Only instead of the typically small & demure feline that they were used to, a rather demonic-looking Teekl stood there with four beady red eyes that seemed to shine in the dark. The same four crimson eyes that were reflected in that of her witch.

"I call forth, O manservant of strife, bound by contract of blood & name!" Rachel replied with a smirk dancing on her lips. She changed had the wording of her spell only slightly, but it would still make the world of difference. Just as Teekl had appeared before Klarion looking rather monstrous, Hugin too, appeared with four eyes of blazing fury. It was a sign of the devil, it was a sign of Trigon.

"Holy crap…!" Wally breathed as he took in the two monsters before him. Two monsters wielded by two demons…at this point, it was anybody's game.

"I command you to descend upon this fool and feast upon them!" Klarion enchanted as his own vision doubled and a rather feline tail appeared from his back, swishing this way & that in agitation.

"I command you to descend upon this fool and dine upon them!" Rachel replied as she too, shifted into her more demonic aura and the forked bird tail flopped out from beneath the confines of her hoodie. The pressure now was intense; even buffeted by the protection of the waning dome. Wally found it hard to even sit up straight and his chest heaved with every breath.

"The forbidden, final page!" The siblings chanted in chorus, feet planted wide as their familiars prepared to battle. "Trigon, grant me power, for I am—"

"KLARION!"

"MUNIN!"

At their calls, the two familiars charged, clashing with each other in a feat of pure pandemonium. The rooftop shook with the magic leaking from the two mages, each powering their familiars far beyond their usual borders of anchorage and chronanaptyxis (the ability to grow/shrink at will). Both beasts looked far more demonic than they usually did and a certain devilish quality that terrified Wally, made everything feel like he was a child again, holed up in his room and scared of the monster under the bed. He wasn't that same child of course, not anymore, but fear had never been a logical thing and as it gripped him tight, he found that for once he didn't particularly care about the logicality of something.

Every time a talon would strike a cheek or a claw would yank free some feathers, their respective witches would flicker where they stood as their anchors took damage. Replacing a familiar was easy enough (to choose, to name, to bond with a creature) but that didn't mean it was easy. Doing so usually wrought the gem a fair amount of grief for the one lost, and in that way, it was almost like losing a part of themselves. As if an arm had been chopped off, only to be replaced by one that was far different than its predecessor.

(Klarion could still remember a time when he had been young, when he had been handed a small child still garbed in the smouldering robes of the Azarathian people. How he had been instructed by his caretaker—by their father—to care for the girl known as 'Munin' She had been a tiny, twitchy little thing then; painted in blacks & purples and as curious as the bird he had named her for. Even though she may have forgotten, Raven used to lap at his heels most days and it was only thanks to his knowledge of the Azarathian people's foolhardy tempers—which was why he liked playing with her so—that he had kept her around. As such, it was strange to see her like this; to see her as an equal. He had no doubts that this gem of a gate would grow to be one of Father's most powerful, yet).

'Wally!' M'gann's voice suddenly came through the telepathic link sounding far too stressed & pained for the speedster's liking.

'Meg?' Wally flinched, looking around him for any sign of the martian.

'Wally, we're in trouble! Ah—! Tell Kent, we NEED Doctor Fate!'

"Ah!" Wally gasped in shock as a painful zap passed over the telepathic link, shocking both the martian and the speedster. Sparing a glance over at the two witches showed him that the two familiars had been shoved aside in favour of the two witches just blasting each other (or trying to) with each of their magicks. Wally couldn't be sure just who was winning, but it was clear that it wasn't going to end any time soon. "…All I need is a test of faith?"

"Hey, dumb-adillo!" Klarion screeched when he caught a glimpse of the speedster picking up the Helmet. "You put that on, you may never get it off!"

"No…! MR KENT!" Rachel breathed, her eyes going wide with tears when she caught sight of her mentor laying prone on the floor. There was a smile on his face, but his beloved pocketwatch had fallen from his grip and he didn't even so much as twitch when one of the attacks went wide. She quickly turned on her brother with a ferocious glare that promised him pain. "You killed him!"

"That wasn't me!" Klarion retorted unconvincingly as he easily batted aside Rachel's increasingly enraged attacks. Whilst Wally, taking the distraction handed to him, slipped on the Helmet of Fate.

"No, no, no, no!" Klarion stomped his feet like a tantruming child. "That was my Helmet! Give it back!"


Inside the Helmet, Wally found himself faced with a neverending sea of blackness on all sides; one that was illuminated by two little dots of light where he (logically) assumed the eyeholes of the Helmet must reside. Still, that didn't help with his confusion or his panic as he tried to figure out WHERE he was and just WHAT had happened to him when he put the golden headpiece on.

"Okay, okay" Wally breathed deeply as his voice echoed around him; some words coming out before he'd even said them and others coming far too late. "I know Brown's Law: I'm not HERE, I'm just delusional—!"

"—You STILL don't believe?" Kent chuckled dryly as he stepped out of the shadows, looking far more alive than he had moments ago. "SERIOUSLY kid, just HOW did you get so bullheaded in fifteen short years?"

"But—but you're—! You're—!"

"—Yep! But don't feel bad" Kent nodded succinctly as if he were talking about the weather instead of his own death, "Soon as this little brouhaha is over, my spirit will ascend and I'll be reunited with my beloved Insa"

"O-oh, okay. Wait—! But what about Rachel?"

"Unfortunately, she won't be able to complete her tutelage under my care. But at least she's got you young'uns to play with and to help her out!"

"Wait—! If you're gone, does that mean that I'M—?"

"—AH, you're alive" Kent reassured him, placing a hand on the ginger's shoulder. "But your soul no longer controls your body. See? We're INSIDE the Helmet; YOU put it on and MY soul was dragged along for the ride. Probably because I spent so many years serving its master"

"Master?" Wally puzzled as his brows furrowed in confusion. How could a headpiece be a MASTER?

"Nabu" Kent explained, nodding as he did so. "The REAL Doctor Fate; one of them LORDS OF ORDER I was telling you about. He's the one controlling your body now; wanna watch?"