Author's Note - Apologies on the delay of this update, I have been busy getting my head around the ending of this beast. The good news is the ending has now been written, give or take a couple of rewrites. I have a few annoying fiddly bits needed to tie off any loose ends which may take a chapter or two, this in itself is taking its time as my brain has decided it doesn't like a writing a certain character. Anyway, we're looking at around twenty-five chapters to completion (not left) and I now know where we're going. Took me long enough.

Hope you're enjoying and brace yourself, it's about to get bumpy.

Chapter Eighteen - Let it Burn

The more Angelo was exposed to daylight the more he could feel his mind clouding over. The mercenaries, despite an original offer of friendship, had now withdrawn themselves from his horde. The Leader directly kept his men away from his increasingly unpredictable nature. If anything this made his confused stormy mind more uncertain of the people he had allied himself.

The only thing that kept him going was the thought of the one person who kept him human. He kept replaying through his head the different memories he and Lem once shared. Each night he closed his eyes to think of him, like the way he had been taught to keep anchored to his humanity. But the longer he buried himself amongst his fellow beings, the more he could feel the hate and venom suck him under. His dreams started to fill with vitriol until the face of the man he owed his life began to become a blurred image. The next night the memories began to vanish, and all he could remember were words once shouted in anger. And then he forgot to remember the kid who had rescued him from a Berserker, who had protected him all the way to Jacinto, who would have taken a bullet for him. Instead, all he felt was the evil his life had endured. Did he even know who he was anymore? He blankly stared as he felt the last of his humanity slip from him.

Split from his anchor his body started to embrace its inevitable shift as a new light emerged with him. A light of rebirth as he awoke a new breed of creature. Lambent.

The Formers began to huddle him, keeping him close as his body started to fight against the transformation. Each night as Angelo tossed and turned and howled and screamed his people held him close, protecting him when he was at his weakest. Until he gave himself over to the darkness and he emerged a creature anew. His bone structure warped and twisted, his skin stretched over his elongated frame. His face had changed, cheek bones snapped and reformed over one another, and his skin started to glow an iridescent hue.

The one speck of humanity that had kept Angelo safe from harm was now well and truly erased and replaced with the Former left in his place.

He unfurled himself out, gaining a measure of his new body. He felt reborn, refreshed. His tired old muscles no longer throbbing with fatigue. He sucked in a breath and for the first time in years relished the chance to fill his lungs with clean disease free air. It gave him a dizzying high he hadn't felt in a long time. He felt stronger and taller, ready to represent his people as one of them, no longer a sickening specimen.

The Formers stepped away from him, allowing the creature to emerge from their huddle, they nodded and cowered at his dominant form. A new strength within them. Angelo opened his mouth to let out a screech to assert himself, letting the ear-splitting sound carry on the wind.

The Leader sat beside Thaw watching the huddle of Formers like they had for every night of their journey. Cautious of their volatile alliance.

Angelo's transformation changed things.

They watched as he stalked out of the huddle, circling his monsters as if to assess them, nipping at the weaker ones.

"This isn't good," Thaw commented quietly.

The Leader let out a sigh, "it certainly makes things a little harder than I planned."

"Do you think we can still control it?"

"I won't know until I confront whatever the hell that is,"

"And in the meanwhile?"

The Leader fixed him with a stare, "protect our own."

Angelo woke from his slumber, tangled amongst his Formers in comfort, Luicie still beside him. A noise had alerted him. He looked up to see the Leader standing a small distance from him waiting. He unfurled himself from the Formers and stalked towards him, sizing himself up against him. For the first time in his life, he measured taller than the mercenary.

The Leader slipped his mask to the crown of his head to stare back at the Lambent form of the kid he had once known so well.

"Times have changed," he said thoughtfully, trying his best to steel himself in readiness for the unknown.

A rumble of a growl emerged from Angelo's throat.

"Do you still speak? Or have you completely forgotten everything Lem taught you?"

At Lem's name Angelo slightly twitched before he gained composure and bared his fangs at him. His Imulsion seared innards throbbed in response.

"Look I don't care about, this," he indicated Angelo's new form, "what I do care about is whether you are still willing to honour our deal. That's my endgame, take that village for ourselves. I don't care what form you take to do it. But let's get this straight if you hurt any of my people I will be the one coming for you."

Angelo took a few moments to process the words. The Leader wondered whether he was even capable of understanding anymore but as the Lambent human lowered his head to fix him with a point blank stare and grumbled a growling response, he realised he'd taken in everything he had said.

"So we're in agreement," he repeated just to reaffirm that Angelo understood completely, "you can destroy as many humans as you want the moment we get to that village."

As he turned to head back to his mercenaries, slipping his mask back over his face, he paused and turned momentarily back at the Lambent creature.

"Was this inevitable for you? Were you always going to end this way regardless of what Lem did to save you?" He asked quietly.

Angelo blinked, his insides glowed and pulsed in response to his beating heart. It was enough for the Leader to realise that all of Lem's efforts had been in vain. A surge of unwanted anger overcame him, after everything Lem had gone through to protect that poor kid he had still been unable to resist the temptation of darkness.

"I am sorry this happened to you kid, after everything we've been through, I never wanted it this way,"

Angelo's Lambent being tilted his head slightly in recognition then shuddered. A splatter of Imulsion flicked from the sweat glands on his skin, searing the ground like lava. The Leader took a step backwards cautiously before turning away and returning to his men.

Thaw waited for him, drawing him into the confines of his mercenaries who also awaited his response.

"And?"

The Leader took a breath before glancing back at the creature that had once been Angelo, now curling back on top of the pile of Formers.

"If it so much as looks at you wrong, kill it, because it's certainly not going to hold off taking you down,"

I need a weapon,"

Aidie turned, Longshot slung over her shoulder to find Sofie standing behind her, hands firmly wedged on her hips.

"You know that isn't going to happen," she responded as she dug through the ammunition rounds to load her pouch with relevant bullets.

"You can't leave me unarmed when this place is about to go to hell. Not when I have to protect Tate as well,"

Aidie picked up a pistol from Archer's prized collection, toying it between her hands as she considered her options. She realised that she hadn't been to see Tate since her return, although she had other pressing issues on her mind. Guilt nudged at her to respond.

"If I say no?"

"I'm still gonna find a way to get one," Sofie added, pushing her way to the collection of guns that all looked alien to her, "Either way, I'm getting a gun. With or without you."

"Do you even know how to fire it?"

"Point and shoot, surely there's a simple one I can use. I can't keep being this weak victim anymore. Tate needs someone strong now, and I need to be that person,"

Aidie had a lot of criticism for Sofie over the years, playing the victim to win the attention of her man. But over the past few days, she had seen a different side to her, a strong, dedicated woman, who would do anything to protect her own. No wonder Wilks had drawn to her.

"Looks like I don't have a choice," she said as she placed the weapon in Sofie's open palms, "you realise this gives you a role now."

"Meaning?"

"Get the civilians to safety, round them up in the hospital. Women, children, men incapable of fighting. Protect them, and I'll give you whatever you need to do so,"

"And what if there are those who want to fight alongside you,"

"You aren't going to be one of those people," Sofie let out a squeak of protest just as Aidie continued her reasoning, "you have more than one being to safeguard right now. After everything that's happened to you and your family, you need protecting. So please Sofie, stay at the hospital, get everyone to safety and defend yourself."

Aidie went through the group of Stranded willing to fight alongside her. She knew if Archer had been around the number would have been considerably higher. Now a handful of men were busy passing Hammerbursts and Lancers to one another. She noticed a significant lack of attendance from Burn. He had made his position clear. His village was important to him, but she was not the one to protect it.

Now she stood chewing on her gums nervously feeling very much like the young eighteen-year-old girl telling a group of seasoned Stranded what to do. She let out a nervous breath before clearing her throat. She had never led anyone to do anything, and here she was trying to convince these men that she knew what she was doing.

"Our best options are to position ourselves on higher vantage points. They'll be coming from the canyon, but we're also competing with the Lambent which can come from anywhere," she felt the wobble in her belly again, "I'll take the church tower as the highest point, and we can position ourselves around the perimeter. Archer had a small stack of flare guns. I suggest we all take one. Whoever hits contact first fire the flare, we can adjust accordingly."

She stopped herself from ending her sentence with a question. She had to look like she knew what she was doing. The men looked at each other as if deciding whether to override her idiotic orders, then fixed her with a nod of agreement. They each collected a flare gun from the weapon table and headed towards a position in readiness.

Burn had watched as his wife drifted off into a deep drug aided sleep, positioning herself on a mattress beside her Granddaughter's crib. He listened as her breathing drew heavily in and out as she drifted away from him. He sat in his large chair and watched her, his fingers drumming the arms of his seat as he thoughtfully pondered his strategy. Scratching his chin mid-thought he paused as a sound alerted him to his conference hall. He frowned, no one should be there now. Reluctantly he lifted himself to his feet and stomped wearily to the door. He drew the bolt back and entered the room, ensuring the door closed behind him in case he woke the baby.

"I swear to the Allfathers you better have a good reason for disturbing..."

He stopped at the sight of the woman who stood in the middle of the hall. Long legs that drifted forever upwards to her curvy hips and waist. Her mishmash of clothes hugged her curves in all the places he remembered, and her golden locks hung down her back in a ponytail in a way he recognised from years previously. Her face fixed in a grim state of concentration. She lifted her Torque Bow and aimed it at him.

"Edmynd Burn, well well well. I don't suppose you remember me after all this time?"

Burn hesitated a moment. It had been a long time since he had seen that beautiful pale complexion. Those innocent honey coloured eyes had aged a few years, but he knew exactly who stood in front of him.

"Freja?" He growled carefully, trying to work out a way to approach the situation.

She flinched at his voice, the nerve endings in her body spasmed in disgust. He could see the grip on her weapon weaken slightly.

"I never thought I'd see you again," he built up the courage at her faltering strength.

She let out a breath to steady her nerves, "I promised myself, if I ever did, it would only be for one reason."

"You've threatened me in the past Freja, and it's come to nothing," he took carefully calculated steps towards her, making his movements evident.

For a moment she allowed him to descend upon her, flashes of her childhood rooting her to the spot as he gripped a weighty hand around her arm. She could feel her muscles screaming out to her to respond, but her brain had completely frozen. Her terrified eyes fixed upon his, that same blue eye that haunted her. Here was the monster who had never forgotten the fear he instilled into people. The joy he took out of knowing the control he had. She had escaped him a long time ago, but that hadn't stopped him from terrorising other innocent girls. He had a family now, did he abuse them as he had her? The fear that he was continuing gave her enough strength to stand up to him.

"Don't you dare touch me," she smacked his arm away, feeling her skin burn from the memory of his touch.

He sent her a smirk, "you run out of places to flee that you come straight into my arms again."

"This was no accident," she lifted the Torque Bow up towards his chin to push him backwards, "you are never going to harm a single person ever again."

"You should never threaten anyone unless you mean to do something about it,"

She pulled the trigger on the Torque Bow, catching him on the shoulder and thrusting him backwards in shock.

"Fucking Bitch!" He roared, his uninjured hand clutched over the gaping hole in his shoulder.

"You never thought I could do it, did you?" She remained calm as she reloaded the barrel, "the little blonde girl who never said a word unless you demanded it. Seven years you controlled me because you thought I couldn't fight back. How many more were there Edmynd? How many girls?"

"Does it matter?" He winced as he tried to stagger to his feet, "what does it matter to you anyway?"

"Because I was your first and I certainly wasn't your last," she pulled the trigger again, it hit his kneecap, blowing the bone to shards.

He let out a scream as he crumpled back to his knees.

"You fucking…"

She folded the weapon and smacked him heavily over the head in response.

"How many?"

"I don't know. I don't know!" He screeched back as she loaded the Torque again, "I stopped counting."

"You bastard," she cursed, holding back the urge to weep for them all, "And your family did you hurt them like you hurt me."

"Emma…" He trailed off to grab at his knee In agony, "Emma never let me touch them. She never knew, but I always thought she suspected, she used to talk a lot to her brother about things."

Freja cast her eyes to the door to his home, the building that housed the monster for so long. She strode over to it and jiggled the handle, but it was locked. She headed to the shelving units by the door and started heaving them over to block the entrance.

"What are you doing?" Burn demanded, attempting to drag himself to stop her, "Don't you fucking touch my home."

"No Edmynd you lost that opportunity the moment you touched me," He could hear the waver in her voice again.

"Look we can talk about this, it isn't too late,"

She stopped to turn to him, "you took away my innocence, my youth, my compassion. Did you honestly think that I wouldn't come back at some point?"

"I assumed you were dead,"

Without a second thought, she unhooked her Torque, loaded the barrel and pulled the trigger. It planted firmly in Burn's chest, bleeped for a second before exploding.

"I promised I'd kill you if I ever saw you again," she muttered as she approached the body to assess it, "you can't say I never kept my promise."

She dragged his limp body towards the door of his house, slumping him against the handle. She hunted around for an Imulsion lamp, smashing the glass over his head and dousing him in the fuel. The stench made her nostrils quiver as she drew a match from her pocket, striking it against the matchbox until it ignited into life. She then set the light against Burn's body and stepped back to watch the flames edge their way up his body. She stood and watched as the fire engulfed him, his body sizzling and crackling in the heat and then started spreading to the rest of the building.

It was time to leave.

She was going to make sure his village burned with him.

The Leader took his cue from the flames inside the village.

"Well she always said she was going to burn the place to the ground," he commented quietly to Thaw.

"I never doubted her,"

He turned to his men, waiting on his every move. He approached each one, shaking their hands and checking their weapons.

"Men," he finally announced, "we have been coming to this moment for a long time."

Angelo strode over to him with his vast horde of Formers right behind him. The Nightmares could see the agitation and eagerness on the faces of each creature, the need to spill blood so overwhelming that they were relieved they were on their side.

The Leader unsheathed his blade and pointed at the Formers.

"Now is your moment to shine, go and take what's yours,"

Angelo let a howling screech as he and his Formers charged forwards, melting into the darkness around them in readiness.

Emma's drug filled body woke to the feeling of immense heat around her. Bleary-eyed she searched the room for her husband. Smoke filled the room, and the temperature seemed to be getting hotter and hotter.

"Burn?" She announced to the silence, "Burn are you here?"

The baby started fussing from her cot, kicking the bedsheets from her before alerting her Grandmother with a terrified screech. Emma reached in and plucked the child from her swaddling, nestling her in her arms. She gently hushed her as she padded towards the door in search of her husband.

Something made her stop before touching the door. Heat seemed to emanate from the walls around it, and smoke started to seep from under her only exit.

"Oh no," she gasped, stepping back deeper into the room as the walls started glowing red and flames licked under the doorframe.

She headed towards the window. She bashed on it with one hand and shouted out to anyone who would listen.

"Help!" She screamed, catching sight of someone outside who stopped at her calls.

The baby now had picked up on her fear and started wailing herself. Emma glanced back at the flames which had begun to edge it's way further into the room. She placed the baby down in her cot so she could attempt to smash the window. She picked up a bat from the table and charged at her only means of escape slamming hard into the pane over and over again until the glass formed a spidery web across it.

"C'mon!" She cried in frustration, "break."

One last impact caused the glass to shatter outwards. The draft of oxygen sucked into the room fed the fire further, bursting upwards angrily to the ceiling. Emma looked up at her sky of fire surrounding her and rushed down to pick up the baby. Her world was sucked deeper into the flames.

"Here!" She called to the person waiting to help on the outside, bundling the baby towards her, "take her please!"

The fire spread faster than she realised and before she could even attempt to shuffle herself to the window, she could feel the flames lick at her legs. The heat was overpowering as she tried to beat the flames back to establish her escape. But the flames kept coming, biting and singing her body, enticing her back into their depths. She started screaming as the heat engulfed her. Her screams pitched a higher level as they scorched her deeper and deeper until she was nothing but a flame surrounded shadow.

Aidie could hear screaming and shouting from below her. She wasn't entirely certain of the ins and outs of their panic, but one thing hit home. Burn's house was on fire, and the flames were spreading quickly along the adjacent structures. His men immediately left their positions beside her to assist in extinguishing the fire, leaving her as one of the few left standing to protect the village.

She didn't even know how many men she had left along the boundary, was she the only one now?

Trying not to panic, she lifted the sights on her Longshot to assess how many people remained to help defend the village. She counted a couple along the far side, men who were possibly unaware of the tragedy unfolding behind them at their leader's home.

Her vision then caught sight of something rippling in the darkness towards them, like a flicker of the sun, a river of Imulsion. A sea of Formers surging towards them with a momentum that cleared the gates of the village as it had never been there.

All of a sudden each of the flares went off at once as each section of the perimeter was overrun with the never ending flow of monsters. The rattle of gunfire sounded around her as the screech of Formers filled the air, engulfing the life around them.

She had no idea how to stop the creatures, relying on her adrenalin to keep going for fear of curling into a ball and submit to the darkness. She raised the Longshot, aligning her eye with the sight, picking out her first target and pulling the trigger. The Former was fast, but she managed to catch it where it mattered, it exploded into the air a splatter of Imulsion and seared human bits. As she searched the sea of glowing creatures for her next target, she caught sight of something that made her launch backwards in horror. In denial, she drew the sights up again to ensure her vision was correct.

She watched as Angelo's Former sprinted through the streets, catching hold of his target and tearing it apart. Blood splattered everywhere as he ripped his victim's head right off his body and he flung it to one side as if it was a rag doll.