Overdue for the grand finale, and hope everyone's had a Merry Christmas. Let's just pray the new year gets better for us all. :)

Okay, I originally thought the previous chapter was the end, but it ended up being so long that I cut it in half - like "Written in the Stars" before it. No matter, just that the big finish is nigh.

This chapter is the grand finale, which I confess was a bit tougher than I thought, but you do gotta be careful when you end a story. It HAS to satisfy the audience. :D

I did say early on to read the spooky shit before bed, so here it comes right here now... (devilish laughter)

Chapter Five

Symbolisms of Love

"...what you need is something that comes from the heart. It doesn't have to be a physical weapon to find, but something that represents the love you were deprived of as well as deprived yourself."

Just what the blasted hell did that mean?!

He knew what the geezer referred to in terms of "the love you deprived yourself", in the form of the girl standing a close enough proximity to him, but the love he was deprived of meant his father whom he never made peace. Never mind that it had been no different than with his grandfather; the pain wounded him so deeply, rendered him helpless, that he could not forgive and forget. He knew it wouldn't magically vanish like dust in a heartbeat, either.

"Symbol of love - like what?" Ron piqued. "And you saw all of this translated in the texts?" Of course, Wright did, which the man affirmed.

"Miraculously. Although, it's not explicit, which means it could be anything depending on the one wearing the mask. I'm speaking cryptically like a damned Oracle." Edgar chuckled, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair. "I wish I could explain it in technical terms."

Damned right, but it made sense all the same to Monty, except...except he wished he could say love was the word for the animalistic urges within himself towards the dainty but powerful female behind him. Lust he admitted, but that wasn't enough. It would never be enough to take this spellbound object from his face. What would...?

"I know, but," Monty said, fingers curling into fists, "I don't know if I have the strength. I just know -" His voice raised when his hands flew to the sides of his face. "- I want my face back, myself!"

"AAAH, SICK AND WRONG!"

Ron's sudden scream caused his eardrums to rattle and everyone to jump off their feet. Edgar whirled around and harshly gasped at what he saw, the words hollow as they fell from his lips. Yori and Kim assumed the stance, hands raised, but the man told them it was meaningless.

"You all have awakened them."

~o~

If his meltdown didn't break anyone's heart, who knew what did. Same went with him howling in not so many words that he wanted to do something to pay for everything. And now...

Everyone had been so focused on him that they didn't pay attention to their surroundings - especially the trio behind Edgar, still on the shelf and glaring at them with ferocity. Fiske's back had been to them, so he didn't even notice or care about Ron's silent horrified reaction to the ugly monkey mugs on their pedestals. One looked like a traditional white Japanese mask, though spotted and warty from a disease without a name; the next was stretched in the lips at all four corners as though it had a Botox surgery that had been botched, leaving the final as the stuff of even greater nightmares - a zombie.

Ron shrieking and Rufus squealing, diving into his master's pocket, didn't help matters, but no one could blame them. "KP, Yori, Monty chap - they're moving!"

"Of course," Kim said through her teeth, chilled to every bone in her body as well as what was around and within them - mostly, her heart which felt like ice and thundered with murder at what each individual mask did.

The teeth parted and loudly snapped together, chattering without a pattern, within the second face.

The rotted corpse one's lips twisted as it snarled and hissed.

The spotted one stuck its tongue in and out.

All three turned side to side, letting out a collective, sad but ghoulish moan, like the walking dead.

"They've been alive all this time, like sentient beings," Monkey Fist gasped, the horror seen in his eyes. "They're still sentient, as their original owner had been. Damn it, what will we do now?!" He turned his attention back to the shopkeeper himself, who was just as petrified as they were.

"All of you need to leave. Run, NOW!"

At this time, the masks lifted themselves from their places on the shelf, floating into the air and hovering for a bit before they began to slowly gravitate in the direction of Kim and the gang. There was no telling what they would do once they caught up to the group - especially to Monty - and none of them would stay and take chances. But it meant leaving poor Mr. Wright behind, except it seemed the masks weren't interested in him at all, but the one who had one of their own on his face.

The four clobbered out of the back in a heartbeat, Ron even slip-sliding and winding up clutching onto Monkey Fist - "not on me, buffoon!" he shouted - only to eventually regain his footing. Kim was head-on with Yori, her skirt in both hands, as they worked to get the front door open, as it had been closed and locked so that no one passing by would assume it was open to the public at this time of night, past lockup hours.

"Hurry up, girls!" Ron howled. "They're coming!"

And not only that, but you could hear the horrible words they moaned, in Japanese:

"Tasukete. Watashitachi to ite. Sanka shimasen ka...Watashitachi no hitori ni naru. WATASHITACHI O AISHITE."

"What are they saying?" Kim shouted to Yori as they were off and running, not stopping to look behind them, although Ron did fumble with closing the shop front door behind them to put enough distance between the three demon faces pursuing them.

They had to get as far away as possible, then hide and talk about what to do. But who knew when and if those things would break out and hunt for them. As soon as they were far enough away from the village boundaries, Yori panted, hands on her knees as she hunched forward, Monkey Fist on all fours and rasping his breaths. Poor Ron fell on his back, spread out eagle-style. Kim leaned backward, pressing against a tree trunk.

"They said...they want him to help them." Yori nodded at the man in the mask who glanced her way through the side. "To stay, join them to become one - and love them. As though they are just lost beings with no place in the world, and really want one."

It was sad, in a way, but the man himself refused to have anything to do with it. He stood up straight and shook his head brusquely. "No," he said harshly. "I am not one of them, no matter what they may think." And then his eyes widened in morbid terror, the pupils dilated. "No..."

Ron lifted his head from his lying position on the ground. "What?" he grunted, forcing himself to gingerly sit up.

"They've broken out. They broke through the windows and are looking for me now. They'll be here soon..."

~o~

He wasn't willing to wait around and see what they would do to him once they caught up to him, so Kim contacted her genius friend for a quick lift in his latest invention - a helicopter of his own design which he piloted via remote control - which they reached in no time, not once stopping for a breath and at risk of soring their bones, especially Monty himself. He could NOT stop.

By the time they were all in the copter, the doors closed and locked in place, just as the trio of Sarūn masks flashed in their direction, the one with the exposed teeth in the lead. Catching them on the radar, Wade let out an incoherent shout of words before getting himself together and lifting the four off the ground.

"I'm taking you all back to England. It's the best I can think of. I notified your mother, Lord Fiske - whatever it means, 'a symbol of love'. Those masks want you to be one of them, and it's making me think you should use that to show the masks you're NOT one of them. I hope mother's love is enough."

Monty had to agree with him, wishing the same.

Turbulence took place in the sky throughout the journey back home. The night in each time zone - his own as well as the children's back in Middleton - just grew later to the point it seemed like an eternal night. He was certain they were missing out on their youthful fun because of him, but no doubt they'd missed plenty from previous missions.

Throughout the flight, the masks remained in hot pursuit, though the turbulence in the cloudy skies the helicopter disappeared into proved to be enough of an obstacle. It wouldn't be long before they touched England and reached the rural areas to land on the outskirts...

...where his home was not too far away.

By this time, there was no trace of the haunted trio - for now. Wade lost them, but there was no time to dawdle.

To look upon his mother's home with its sweet moonlit garden - a stark contrast to the immense, derelict castle he'd been born and grown up in - was a terrible jab to his heart. And there was also a light on to the southeast, telling him that Catherine or Bates must be awake, or both...

...and then the door opened in time to show his mother there, in a pre-dawn gray sleeping gown printed with white leaves and flaming flora, her hair in a somewhat messy bun which she always kept especially during the night. Her eyes widened in shock, glazing with tears she held in - as well as horror at how he looked now. But she still took him into her arms, and the contact along with its accompanying maternal heat made him break, blubbering and clutching onto her back.

"M-Mother, please forgive me! For all those terrible things I said to you; the mask made me do it!"

While it was true, the words were feeble and half-merited. The mask might have made him into something else, but HE chose to do this himself. Meant he deserved her distance.

"Oi, I hate to butt in, but we gotta get inside before those ape-faces catch up to us, and can we lock and close all the doors and windows?!" Ron shouted, pushing past them, a disgruntled Kim and Yori following him. Bates looked at them all worriedly before closing and locking the door, hurrying about the house to do the same with the windows in the living room, drawing the curtains over them. In the meantime, Monty sat himself on the lounge right beside the woman who conceived him, the young trio across from them.

"What exactly is going on? Kimberly, that friend of yours telephoned me at this ungodly hour to say you were all in a pickle - and said MASKS were after you. I suppose he wasn't exaggerating!" Catherine stated with a hand to her chest as she looked in her son's way once again. "What are you going to do now?"

She'd never understand with little information, so Monty told her everything Wright said, word for word. Her eyes widened with unbridled terror, bringing her other hand to her heart, eyes glimmering with tears and also blazing with the fire of mixed emotions.

"I don't expect anything to come easy, and what I've been told sounds too simple...but I feel it in here that it's all I need." He put his hand to his chest where it ached; it took all his efforts to not shed any more tears. "And it makes me feel blessed, for the first time, that I'm not alone. I intend to stand out there and face them, to show them that I am not one of them as they think. Edgar said a 'symbol of love', but nothing physical is needed."

It was then and there that tapping on the window was heard; the semi-sheer curtains displayed floating, bodiless outlines which were none other than the three masks who caught up but could not get inside - yet. They'd broken out through Wright's windows, so it would be a matter of time.

"Sweetheart -" Catherine stopped him momentarily with a hand on his forearm, strongly but gently at the same time. "- before you go, take that." She nodded in the direction of the fireplace, where there were all the mementos, including the ones of the two of them and his late father when they were still just a "family". One in particular...

Perfect.

And to his surprise, Kimberly and the anxious but determined Ronald were going out with him because they wanted to.

~o~

She'd seen and done a lot, and more often, one thing was more difficult than others which were too good to be true. Although...Wade worked his craft using science against magic. Nothing failed yet.

Kim wondered how the heck using a family picture - a young Monty Fiske with his mother, when he was perhaps nine or ten years old - and having her and Ron there would help him. Her poor friend was shaking as though he were in the Arctic without protective gear at the sight of the zombie, Botox-gone-wrong, and plagued faces that hovered over their heads, sometimes zooming in close just to attempt to intimidate them. But Kim wasn't fazed even though they WERE unnerving, and neither was Fiske who held up the portrait for all three to see...

...and to their surprise, the monkey faces shrieked and zoomed back as though they'd been burned. Even more at their target's words, being high enough to almost echo across the forest behind them.

"Back away, you fools! I'm not one of you; I only wear the face of one of you. This is me - Monty Fiske, known as Monkey Fist to my enemies! THIS IS ME!" He sounded like he was on the verge of crying like a pathetic child, but she didn't mean that as an offense. "I'm not a thing split into four parts, nor do I seek a power that will take away my choices. I have people around me who were there even when I never asked for it. I was blind to see everything. Just go away and back to where you came from, and take this with you!" He reached up with both hands then, the framed photograph still in them, tugging on the edges of the mask fused into his flesh without digging his nails in.

"A mirror showed me a better destiny than this. Now, set me free and I will change my ways!"

Kim had to blink, and so did Ron. This was the first time they heard anything about a mirror, assuming it was not related to the masks. He owed them after - if they got out successfully - and everything they might wring out of him.

The three masks moaned wordlessly, shaking as though being electrocuted, then turning around and rushing in the opposite direction...vanishing from sight altogether in what appeared to be puffs of smoke. She blinked again in shock, Ron mimicking, his jaw slack unlike herself. Rufus peeked out from his pocket, shivering and stopping upon noticing that their chasers were gone.

They're gone.

"Wow...does that mean it's over?" Ron asked after a long time passed, giving himself a good shake to get over being in the presence of those monsters. "I'll be glad if that did the trick!" He burst out laughing and did a happy dance, doing the job of taking Kim into one with him. She couldn't help herself and joined it in - but then it was broken off by the sound of harsh gasping for breath.

Fiske was now facing them, and in his hands was none other than - "It's just a mask again, you two!"

He said it himself: the mask in both of his hands, but there was a big cost on his face, which was visible and a sad marring to his features. Surrounding his face on the outside edges were the reddish outlines of where the mask had been magically glued - no doubt a permanent reminder of the experience. She saw two options there. Either he would leave them as said reminder, or have them surgically removed, somehow. Instead of ruining the mood and bringing that up, Kim found herself bursting with excitement for him. "Y-yeah! That's great, Monkey Fist!" She rushed over to him and threw her arms around him, knowing he needed one, shocking Ron and the man himself.

He hadn't had an embrace from anyone in a long time - someone who wasn't his mother. So he stayed stiff as he was, the wretched thing in one hand.

She wasn't sure if he was feeling it, too, but the longer they stayed that way, the warmer it got.

"Oi, KP, I gotta join in, too!" Just like Ron to jump in when he was sure it was okay, and while she didn't look, she knew Yori was there along with Bates and Lady Catherine, whom she was positive was crying tears of joy.

~o~

"Mother!"

He wasted no time throwing himself into her arms as soon as it was just the two of them, Bates having left them alone because it had been a long night, and Catherine promised her son he could stay here just for a few days to recuperate, but then it would be onto serious business.

The mask, which he threw away after the surprise embrace from Team Possible - an inescapable warmth still lingering as the aftereffect - was taken and would be brought back to Japan, but after that, he didn't give a damn what would become of it as long as he never saw or heard of it again. He let out sobs of relief as he'd never thought he would be free again. Who would have thought of using a memento of his childhood as well as the two prophesized on either side of him?

When all was said and done, he fessed up and confessed that he saw them in a mirror the night he stole the mask, not once revealing the explicit nature of Miss Possible. To his surprise, their reactions were far from angry, instead being wary and insisting in their own words each that they needed time to think about this. He would allow that.

"My boy," Catherine rasped, swallowing sobs of her own as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, his around her petite, fragile waist. "My sweet, strong boy. I knew that wasn't you when we spoke last time." The corners of Monty's eyes burned with tears that eventually slipped past the cracks.

While he was whole again because of her and the ones who were long gone, there was still a small, open, and guilty part he knew would never heal - at least, not right away and without foreign aid.

Suddenly, a knock at the door in rapid, random patterns startled them both. "Who in heaven's name could barge on an old woman at this time of night?!" his mother exclaimed in outrage as she stormed over herself, but Monty stopped her. He stood in front of her, intent on keeping her safe if it was unwanted trouble, but when he turned the knob himself and slowly opened it, it was immediately flung open; his back hit the wall, but his reflexes kicked in when using his hands and elbows to deter mild discomfort.

"You-you're all here!" he exclaimed when he saw that all of his monkey ninjas found their way here. He'd been so caught up in his mission that he'd left them behind in Japan, much to his immense regret. But they were here now, and their loyalty hadn't wavered. "You found me!"

He knelt and gathered both armfuls of them in, shocking them and making the rest stand where they were in the same way, as they never saw it coming. He knew exactly why: he'd been fair but also cruel to them, but that was going to start changing. Seeing all the wild monkeys in her home, Catherine chuckled and covered her face with her hand, whilst Bates appeared and shook his head, shoulders slumping.

"Oh, all these animals. Monty, your little friends can stay as long as they don't destroy all my years of hard work and the memories we've made," the mistress of the house said sternly, eyes sparkling in contrast.

~o~

"I don't believe it, Kim. I just don't believe it."

"Nor do I," she answered breathlessly. "But it happened. I wonder what's next."

Yori stared ahead, being on Ron's left while Kim was on the right, leaving him sandwiched between his girls. "If it's consolation, you two, my people will still do everything they can to keep track of him. We'll know if he breaks his word, assuming your people will do the same. We'll also care for DNAmy in the meantime," she said with a soft smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Kim understood why; there was no telling when Amy would come to, or what methods would help her. She'd been scared so much...

She was, personality-wise, childlike compared to a load of the other supervillains, and got her comeuppance in the form of her one-sided "love" for the man who got his hands and feet from her. And when she couldn't take no for an answer, this was what she deserved. From what Kim understood about obsessive love, it never went away on its own. Stalkers only told their victims and law enforcement what they wanted to hear, always biding their time to reach out again.

Until then, there was Lord Fiske. Not only was he staying with his mother until further notice, but he swore he would be in England and would meet with Global Justice after a reach out, then take the needed time to change his ways. Yet she was unable to let go of what he told her: the surprise that was a mirror.

He'd seen both her and Ron in a mirror vision that night he broke into Edgar Wright's shop, which told him they were somehow meant to become comrades in the future, or allies - or something along those lines. They were as simple as hands being offered to him while smiling, but why did Kim have a feeling there was so much more than that?

The mask was back with its owner, though Mr. Wright needed all the help he could get in keeping those damned things sealed away, preventing them from coming alive again. You heard her when she said the other three were "killed", returning to normal after their target silenced them once and for all. All was well again...until the next time something happened again.

Now they were heading home, though she was positive the fun was over and it meant heading home after too much excitement. But at least she enjoyed wearing her costume which miraculously didn't get ruined. Ron and Rufus even said they had fun...except her poor bestie said he might have nightmares because of the monkey masks.

Just pray Mom and Dad wouldn't be too hard on her. She planned to tell them more eventually since they heard enough of her missions as it was.

The next morning, exhausting weekend sunlight breaking through, Kim was surprised to find a message left for her on the Kimmunicator that Wade patched through - from Lord Monty Fiske himself. And what it said was sensational in itself, causing her to sit upright and almost throw off the bedcovers.

"Miss Possible, due to the circumstances, I couldn't properly have the time to tell you and Ronald everything. I'm letting my pride slide for once to say thank you once more. I eagerly await the call from Global Justice. If you can, relay this message to your friend. Also...you both were spectacular in your Halloween costumes last night. Especially you. You were beguiling."

Not only did the whole message make her heart start pounding with hope, but the last part when he called her enchanting - she'd heard similar things, but from him in particular sort of felt like when she was a young, innocent and lively girl again. "There may be hope for you yet, Lord Fiske," Kim said aloud to no one in particular.

Here is the translation of what the masks said as they chased our heroes - well, if you can call Monkey Fist an antihero now, so to speak:

Tasukete. Watashitachi to ite. Sanka shimasen ka...Watashitachi no hitori ni naru. WATASHITACHI O AISHITE - "Help us. Stay with us. Join us... be one of us. LOVE US". (The dialogue is almost the same as the Unloved Ones' from the TV episode)

I promise there will be a sequel to this, for certain. But I wish I could tell you when it will happen, so please be patient and keep checking in when you can. In the meantime: REVIEW. :D Loving detail and no less, please.