I am sorry for the really late update, but I was busy with schoolwork and studying once again. College is fun and all but all the work really isn't. Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this story. Just a few more chapters and then on to the next story. I'm excited. Well, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy.


Chapter 12: Won't Give In Now

Storm and Yuan ran towards the front of the group as the army charged the ranch. They were ready for whatever their opponents had for them. Fortunately, the enemy was not expecting them at all and they were thrown off guard. A few of the Desian soldiers noticed the group coming in the distance and immediately began calling for reinforcements. Before too long, Magnius came out of the ranch and saw Yuan and his soldiers coming towards them. He smirked a little before calling out his orders to his troops.

Storm pulled her sword from her sheath as she and Yuan grew closer to the opposing army. Once she was about fifty yards or so from the first of the soldiers she stopped and released her Double Demon Fang attack as it flew at the army, knocking a few of the soldiers out of her path.

Yuan was sure to stay as close to her as he could, he didn't want the same thing to happen to her this time like it had before. She was handling herself pretty well, but soon he noticed that she and everyone else in the area stopped fighting and looked at something in the near distance.

There, standing before them all, was Magnius with a smile on his face. Storm glared at him, apparently wanting to tear him apart limb by limb. Magnius noticed her stares and looked down at her and chuckled a little.

"My, you're still alive?" he laughed. "I knew I had the honor to fight Yuan, but it looks like little Storm is alive," he said. "I can take care of that little problem though," he said as he came a little closer. Storm only had to fight through a few more soldiers before she made it to him. Yuan didn't like how easy Magnius was making this for her and he wondered if something was up, but he didn't know what.

Storm sliced through a few more soldiers that tried to get in her way. She was focused on her target and she wasn't going to let them stop her from reaching Magnius. She had come too far and fought too hard to give up now. She looked up as she rushed through, seeing the smirk on Magnius' face as she threw her sword into another Desian.

"That's it...come closer Storm," Magnius whispered under his breath as he watched her charging through the group.

"Lightning Blade!" Yuan cried out as he knocked out three guards that were trying to surround him, knocking them all to the ground. He tried to catch up with Storm who was chasing after Magnius with a fury in her eyes.

"Tiger Blade!" Storm yelled out as she barreled into two soldiers, the first one she connected with knocking out the person behind her as well. Storm glared at Magnius as she noticed that there were no more soldiers between him and her. She saw the look on his face and wondered if there was something she needed to watch for. She began to focus more on her surroundings as she finally made it to him.

"You came a little late Storm. I found the plans for the Angelus Project, now all I have to do is find some human to use it on," Magnius laughed.

"Just because you found it doesn't mean that you've won just yet," Storm growled at him as she tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword as he laughed at the idea of creating a new Angelus Project.

"Did Yuan tell you that?" Magnius asked her. Storm cocked her head in confusion at his statement. She didn't quite know what he was talking about. Magnius used this moment to take his large axe and swing it at her. Storm noticed his attack and pulled up her sword and barely managed to block the attack. He pushed up against in her sword and stared her in the eyes.

"Why don't you stick to your own kind?" he snarled at her before throwing her off his axe. Storm slid backwards a few feet, but didn't come forward after the shock of him figuring out her and Yuan's relationship.

"What makes you think it's anything like that?" she asked him, her voice not quite as confident as usual.

Magnius took a step forward, a bit agitated at her question. "Oh, as if I couldn't see that little spark between the two of you. It makes me sick. First you barge into Cruxis and get Mithos to like you without doing anything. Do you know how hard it is for any of us to get that attention from him? You come in as a two year old and have more respect from him than any of us ever did you worthless human," Magnius began, his voice searing with rage.

"It's not like I really wanted to go into Cruxis anyway!" she yelled back at him.

"Apparently not. You did go and kill the one person who took you in. You just prove that all humans are alike. Now you're with Yuan, another half-elf. Are you going to murder him too when you have no more use of him?" Magnius asked, getting closer with almost every word.

"No! I would never do that! You don't understand why I did what I did and I wouldn't expect someone like you to ever understand that," she yelled back defensively, her confidence and strength diminishing very rapidly.

"Storm, don't listen to him!" Yuan yelled at her from a distance. He could see that Magnius was saying something to her and backing her up in a corner. She was beginning to give in to whatever he was saying and Yuan wanted to pull her back before he hurt her again.

Storm stopped when she heard Yuan call out to her. That's when she began to think more about what Magnius was saying. Why did she care what he thought about her and Yuan? She knew that he was wrong and, in fact, neither her nor Yuan actually expected anyone to understand their relationship aside from themselves. It was then that she heard what she feared would come eventually.

Storm heard bows being pulled back, from where she didn't know. She knew that Magnius was trying to pull the same stunt again on her. He knew that he would have to distract her to do it though, but she was smarter than that for him.

"Storm!" Yuan cried as he realized what was going on. At the same time, three archers appeared and let their arrows fly at Storm.

Storm quickly released her wings and the next few seconds seem to be more like minutes. She watched as she jumped up and flew above Magnius as the arrows flew to where she had been. She watched as Magnius watched her go up and as his face changed when he realized that she had outsmarted him and set his arrows against him. Soon, Magnius was hit with all three arrows that were originally intended for Storm.

The battlefield went silent as Storm flew next to Magnius who had been hit twice in the chest and had a definitely fatal wound to his neck. He dropped to his knees, eyes wide as he looked over at Storm.

"How...?" Magnius chocked out before he finally dropped to the ground dead.

With this Yuan immediately pulled out his wings to attack the archers before they could attack Storm again. Storm decided to help out some of the other soldiers as she flew over to the main battlefield to use her Outburst attack to knock a bunch of Desians out at a time. With Magnius gone the fight began to go a lot easier as the Desians began to lose hope.

Finally, after defeating some more Desians and capturing the rest that surrendered themselves to the Renegades, Storm and Yuan finally reunited on the battlefield.

Storm ran up to Yuan who immediately pulled her into a tight embrace. He acted like he had been deprived of her for years rather than only a few hours. She could feel as he began to crush her before she made a few grunting noises so he would get the point.

"I was afraid it was going to end up like last time. I thought this time you wouldn't be so lucky though," Yuan said as he looked down at her.

"I told you I wouldn't let him get the better of me," Storm assured him with a smile.

"What about the Angelus Project?" Yuan asked her, suddenly remembering that that was exactly what he was after in the first place.

"Magnius had it on him. It looks like we got to him just in time, before he managed to hide it on us," she said as she held up a disc for him to see. "But I think I know how I want to get rid of this," she told him as she waved in front of his face.

"How's that?" Yuan asked her.

"I think we need to have a bonfire. Let's camp out, just one more night," she said as she brought one of her arms around to his back.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Yuan said as he bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips. She smiled at this before they separated to go back to help the soldiers with gathering up their prisoners. It seemed as if their mission was coming to a close. What did this hold for their relationship? Neither really knew the answer to this question.


Well, that's the end of this chapter. I hope it didn't stink too bad. The next chapter will be the last for this story and it's time to start over with a new story. Yay! I really hope a lot of people review for the next story because there will be one point in it that I will need opinion and I need more opinions than what I normally get. But anyway, thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one too. Thanks, and until next time! Bye!