AN: Okay Everyone, This is It. The final/last chapter of 'Inner Child's Demon'
Firstly, and most importantly, I just want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has followed this story, favourited it, reviewed it, and just kept going with it. The response has been phenomenal for me personally and I think and feel that that is probably one of the reasons why I kept writing as I did and updated quite often. So thank you all for that. This has been a great experience.
Although I'm kinda sad for this story to end, I am also happy that I can start to sleep again before I start my next adventure, plus finish an old story that still needs to be finished.
Thank you to everyone who interacted with me via PM's and reviews, those have been awesome. Thank you also to guest reviewers who left their take on the chapters. I'm sorry I couldn't PM you to thank you personally.
Thank you to everyone who favourited this story and followed it - that's awesome sauce.
To those who chose to just read and enjoy the story from beginning to the end without doing reviews and so, thank you; it's been fantastic just to see that you kept on reading and are/were enjoying the tale; and that just motivated me to keep going at it to get the story out there to you.
Secondly, I wanted to end the tale on a partial lighter note yet on an action (you'll see what I mean) note because I know that most other tales in the horror/thriller/supernatural genre rarely if ever have a closure ending (which drives me nuts); but I will say that there is a character death mentioned in this final chapter.
And as I always say, I hope you will enjoy this chapter. And until the next tale team; Thank You ALL very much for your support it has been greatly appreciated and I'm very thankful for it.
from Dante Andy Anderson
Epilogue: Twenty Years Later
Darkness is what Rachel was experiencing now, darkness, pain, and fear - more because she was worried for Quinn's safety than her own. She was currently inside a house on her own as she tried to hunt down a fire demon that broke its' way out of hell and began wrecking havoc in a poor family's home. After determining that the thing wasn't attached to anyone in the house, be they adult, child, or pet; Rachel had the home owners and their family sent away so she could do her job and battle it.
The knocking was always a dead giveaway, why demons thought it was funny to knock on things she'll never understand but if what Cain had said when he was alive was true, demons and bad spirits just thought it was great to mess around with people's heads.
According to Quinn and Brittany, this place had no known history, unlike that last place the group helped out which was rife with a sad and violent history, the only thing that Rachel could think of was that the older kids must have played a ritual game with spells they knew nothing about; boy did that bring back fond memories of her High School year when she was just a little four year old and the Unholy Trinity had to look after her.
Why? May you ask, were Tina, Brittany, Mike, and Santana not helping her out? Well, Tina was working another case with Santana in the state over with Mike; Brittany was at home with her and Santana's ten year old twin girls and five year old son.
Stoic on the other hand was with her as was Quinn; who fought and won an argument with Rachel about coming with her that night because the blonde argued that it was a terrible idea for Rachel to go alone, even if Stoic were going she was still at the house alone. The only consolation that Rachel did get was that her now very heavily pregnant and almost about to pop wife was going to be stuck in the tech truck monitoring the house and Stoic was going to be about the house perimeter to keep an eye on things.
"Mommy?" a little voice said making Rachel freeze. Either this was a trick being played on her mind by the demon or a certain someone was about to get into very big, big, BIG doggy doo-doo. Why couldn't Rachel say the word, 'Shit,' anymore? Well, apparently swearing wasn't allowed anymore because the crew were having and have had children.
"Mommy?" the little voice said again.
'Oh crap,' Rachel thought as she slowly turned to see a little girl walking through the house.
"Mommy?!" the little girl was getting more annoyed now.
"Hello little fresh meat," the demon said.
The little girl screamed and cast a blast at the demon making the demon roar at her.
"Um fire, so water, take water," the little girl screamed as she sent a jug full of water, (though why the hell there was a water jug just sitting there on the front table in the house's hallway, Rachel didn't know), flying into the demon's face causing him to scream in pain.
"Oh god, AMBER!" Rachel said as she ran towards the little girl and grabbed her before running out of the door of the house and putting a protective block on the door so that the demon wouldn't be allowed to escape before yelling, "Cataracta you get your demon ass here right now,"
"Angel, god, think you'd remember after all these years," Stoic said as he appeared in human form in front of her.
Rachel glared at him.
"What?" he asked.
"This," Rachel said as she held Amber out at him, "I told you to keep an eye on her while Quinn was staring at screens every so often, what was she doing in the house?"
"Um, well,"
"Mommy, I just wanted to help," Amber tried.
Rachel turned her daughter, still at arms length away from her, in her arms so that the little hazel eyes stared back at her, "Don't give me that look, what did I tell you about wondering away from the truck?" Rachel asked sternly.
"Always stay in the truck with Mama because it's safer in there with all the protection and listen to Mr Tibbs because he knows stuff," Amber said in an almost bored and like she had repeated it numerous times before tone.
"And why weren't you in the truck and asleep in the little bed we bought for you?"
"I wanted to help,"
"No,"
"But,"
"What did I just say?"
Amber pouted before trying to wiggle away because she felt the presence of her very angry Mama behind her,.
"I'm sorry," she tried to squeak, "Are you mad?"
"Oh I'm not mad, what I'm feeling right now is beyond mad and I know you know it," Quinn said as she placed her hands on her hips, the glaring blonde was standing in the truck by the doors, the monitors were seen flickering and glowing behind her.
"I hit him in the face,"
"Oh do not even go there, I'm about to subject you to a speech,"
"No Mama, not the speech," Amber whined.
"Too bad, and Stoic, keep an eye out next time, please,"
"Hey, she's your child too, you're both in the truck and I'm out here trying to spot holes and other spirits, I can't be everywhere, next time get your mother to babysit, the Changs managed to get their friend's to baby sit their children,"
"My mother is at least three states, I'm not getting her to come here just so she can lose sleep,"
The never ending loop of this argument would have continued had it not been for a roar and glass breaking inside the house.
"Okay, can we leave domestic's alone for now and focus on that...DEMON," Rachel yelped as she ducked out of the way of a fireball going for her head.
Stoic caught it in his hands and made it disappear.
"I should have just done this before because it was obvious, Cataracta, take care of the fire demon with your watery goodness, please," Rachel said as Stoic nodded his head at her.
"It shall be done," he said as he changed into his demon form and roared as he attacked the demon on the inside. Thank god it was nighttime and the prospects of seeing a water angel attacking the demon in the house wasn't high. Although, if Rachel thought about it, even if people did see it, no one would really believe them. What with technology as it was, it was getting harder for people to tell what was genuine and what wasn't if anything was caught on camera. And while at times it made her and the rest of the crew's life a bit harder, most of the time she could get her job done in peace.
"Wow, the monitors are going nuts" Quinn said as Rachel jumped into the truck too and stared at the screens.
"He's kicking ass," Amber said.
"Hey, no saying ass," Rachel said quickly.
"But you say it, and Aunty Tana says heaps of stuff too,"
"Are you a smart-ass Latina?"
"No,"
"Then you're not saying anything like her,"
Amber pouted again as she snuggled into Quinn's arms, "Mama, I'm tired,"
"Then go to sleep," Quinn said softly as she placed a soft kiss on her daughter's head as she hummed a Jewish lullaby that Rachel had taught her before Amber was born.
Amber put her thumb in her mouth as she was slowly drifting off to sleep in her Mama's arms. The sight made Rachel smile as she glanced from her family back up to the monitors.
Stoic was having a lot of fun getting rid of this demon, too much she thought, but he got the job done and eventually walked out of the house as a human again looking very pleased with himself.
"Right, I better go cleanse," Rachel said as she kissed the side of Quinn's head and the top of her daughter's before disappearing.
Stoic reappeared by Quinn's side and smiled.
"Happy?" Quinn asked.
"Yes, I'm very happy to be exercising my guns," Stoic answered as he flexed his arms.
"You've been hanging around Puck again, haven't you?"
"No...okay yes I have, he's been talking the Air Force and the Gym with me, he's an interesting fellow,"
"Yeah,"
"Okay, job done, let's go home," Rachel said as she climbed into the truck.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, quick meister, we have to pack up the equipment," Stoic said.
"You do it, please," Rachel pouted as she looked at him.
"God after all these years and that pout still gets me, fine, fine, I'll do it,"
Rachel smiled as Stoic went to get all the equipment out of the house so that they could pack up, lock up, and then leave before they contacted the family the following morning that it should be safe enough to return and that if anything else happened at all to contact them again.
"She's getting faster at moving to you, and her power is getting stronger, just like her Mommy," Quinn said to Rachel softly as Rachel took her daughter out of Quinn's arms.
"Yeah she is, I'm going to get Stoic to train her for me as he'll know better," Rachel said as she held her daughter close.
"Why don't you?"
"I don't know about stages Sweetie,"
"Your various Tony Awards begs to differ," Quinn laughed.
"You know what I mean," Rachel giggled and playfully slapped Quinn's arm.
"Yes, yes, yes, go on,"
"I don't know how to train someone so young, I never really had the chance, but Stoic does know as he's done it before years before me,"
"That is true,"
"We need to talk to Santana about her potty mouth by the way,"
"Oh good luck with that, not even Brittany's managed to succeed on that front,"
"That is so true,"
Quinn smiled at Rachel as she reached out and stroke their daughter's light brown hair.
"Stoic is right though, we need Mom or maybe Dad to come and babysit," Quinn said.
"Dad has been freer recently, we could ask him as he loves to babysit for us, besides this time it was not our fault we couldn't get a sitter, we thought we'd get a good night at home just our family,"
"Yeah, just us and the quiet,"
"Yes, exactly, we thought we'd get a good night at home, but you know me and cases with children,"
"I know,"
"Okay, shall we head off? I've checked through the place, locked it up, got the gear, blah, blah, blah," Stoic said as he brought all the gear, which basically was a lot of cases of cameras and wires and mikes to monitor the house.
"Wow, even after all these years I'm still amazed at how much you can carry," Quinn commented as they all loaded up the truck, closed the doors and began driving back home.
-page break-
Once at home Rachel made Quinn sit on the couch and put her feet up as she put their daughter to bed. Stoic decided that he'd retire to his office in the house so he could read and then rest.
Soon Rachel was heard walking briskly down the steps of their house and into the living room.
Quinn laughed as she saw and felt Rachel flop onto her lap.
"Hello," Quinn said as she placed a soft hand on Rachel's face.
"Good night," Rachel said as she closed her eyes and leaned in towards Quinn's stomach so she could hear the baby.
"No, not goodnight yet,"
Rachel just smiled at her but her eyes remained shut.
It was moments like these she loved, just these quiet little moments where she and Rachel could just be together with no one else, well, if you didn't include baby lump that was currently kicking the crap out of Quinn's bladder.
"What is it with my babies and kicking me in the bladder?" Quinn had once asked which made Rachel laugh.
"You've only had Beth, and now baby number two," Rachel had answered.
"Yes, yes, yes, you had baby number one, I can't complain that much," Quinn had then replied with a sarcastic tone as she waved her hand at Rachel almost to say that the conversation was over. Rachel had laughed at that.
Right now though Quinn was softly caressing her hair and both women felt at peace.
Sure, life after Rachel came back wasn't always good, but then again when did life ever go the way you wanted it to?
High school went and then it ended, they went to competitions and they won Nationals in their final year.
First year in college was difficult because Quinn was in New Haven, Brittany was in Los Angeles doing dance as she had graduated the same time as Quinn, Santana, Mike, and Rachel.
Mike was in Chicago, and Tina was doing her final year in Lima all through their first year at college before she moved to Florida to study politics and business at a University there. And even though Santana was living in New York City with Rachel, the Latina was working hard in Med. School and that meant that they rarely if ever could see each other often.
So life wasn't always the easy street they hoped for, although a highlight was that Quinn and Rachel were officially engaged in their first year at college (though they married years later), which didn't overly surprise everyone, although what did surprise those who knew about their lives was that the crew managed to keep on top of their studies and take the occasional case if they had to; with Stoic's help, and of course help from the Mom's back home.
LeRoy visited Rachel when he could, which Rachel loved, she even got to meet his new boyfriend; which made her laugh as the guy was quite young prompting her to call her Dad a cougar which made him laugh while blush a shade of red she'd never seen in him before. Hiram wasn't around until about the last year, when Rachel turned thirty-five; the brunette didn't quite know how to react to him so they too their relationship very, very, slowly on condition that he didn't talk to LeRoy because his ex-husband, Rachel knew, would deck him in the face. He agreed to those parameters.
Among other good news for the crew, Mike was made human and whole again, though he was granted to keep those abilities that he had gotten as a shade. It had happened during one of their earlier missions, it seemed that Heaven had a council about his situation and granted him his true human body back because he kept on going and worked despite being given the chance to just leave it all behind. Tina was ecstatic because this meant that they could have children without the worry of the shade life possibly affecting their children. Mike understood that. While he and Tina were okay with him being a shade, the life of a dark warrior was not something they wished on their children because they knew how difficult it would get.
So Mike thanked the Heavenly host who came on behalf of Heaven and did the ritual to make him fully human again.
Of course, with the good comes also the bad, and that bad news had to do with Finn; who had enlisted in the Army but was later discharged for accidentally shooting himself in the leg while cleaning his rifle. Not his proudest moment he had to admit, but the boy now turned man was very, very, invested in fighting for his job so he tried to reenlist and eventually he was allowed back into the Army.
"Thank god for that one, I mean, it was just one mistake, it's not like a recruit never screwed up before," Finn had stated to Rachel one day.
"Yeah, but yours could've hurt someone," Rachel had answered.
Finn just shrugged his shoulders at that.
A few months later, Rachel had gotten a call from Kurt, who was also living in New York but with his boyfriend Blaine elsewhere, that Finn had died.
Rachel didn't think an endless stream of tears was possible but here she was left in sorrow and pain as her once boyfriend turned very good friend was now among the dead. The most difficult part of that was having to go back to Lima for the funeral and reasling that Finn hadn't yet crossed over, that he was waiting there for her and the crew.
"I wanted to say goodbye, you know, to give closure," he had said to her.
Rachel was in a small room with just the New Directions team who knew Finn, Mr Schuester, Burt, and of course Carole. Delivering Finn's final message was hard, especially when she had to convince them that Finn was really there and he was really leaving them all behind, but the message eventually got through.
When Santana finally lead him towards the light, people gasped as Finn materialised in front of them with his trademark goofy smile, standing proudly in his army uniform, as he waved goodbye and exited this world.
It was not massive closure by any means, but at least they knew he was happy and going to better place.
After that, life just went on by, people existed and then they didn't anymore either because they lost contact or they passed on.
Rachel and Quinn married before carrying on with their careers. Quinn was working for a business firm as their junior partner, which surprised a lot of people at her career choice. Santana went on to be that doctor she always felt she could be and was damn good at it. Brittany taught dance at the New York Dance Academy. Mike moved from Chicago after college to dance as well as work as an engineer in New York. Tina studied politics and eventually moved up to New York from Florida so she could work for the city council. Rachel did as she always dreamed and went on to conquer what she could of Broadway. You'd think with their busy lives they would not be able to work with the supernatural world. But they made it work, factor in the fact that there were numerous paranormal groups around the country and odd paranormal things didn't happen all the time, life could be as they wished it to be.
Stoic was always there by their sides as the crew got older and their mom's could now just retire and give advice when needed and do the odd case back home in Lima, Ohio. The angel was always their go to guy and he'd tell them if a case was easy or safe enough for other investigation teams to deal with, or if it was something that just couldn't be handled by mere-mortals alone.
Eventually the crew all had children, Mike and Tina had a son together, the pair still aren't married but they make the relationship work despite the usual Asian tradition and their parents still frowning at them for it.
That was followed by a surprise daughter about five years later.
Santana and Brittany had twin girls followed by a son with a another girl on the way as Santana just found out she was at least a few weeks pregnant. The pair were the first to marry out of the crew, and had children early on via sperm donor.
Quinn and Rachel married a bit later in life compared to the others and as their careers kept going were the last to decide to have children together, but they didn't regret anything as they had a stable life now and things could work as needed.
When Rachel was finally successfully pregnant with Amber, people were happy, including Puck who was their sperm donor and looked to it as an honour to be asked, since of course he had his tubes untied as he was now married and his wife wanted children eventually. And yes, she was fine with him being the Daddy of Quinn and Rachel's children, as Quinn was now pregnant again with Puck's kid.
"Though acquired without the need for the act," Rachel said as she glared at Puck.
"I wouldn't touch her like that anyway, I grew up, I respect you guys, and I have a great missus, so bleh," Puck said as he held out his hands in a surrender position and stuck his tongue out at Rachel.
Stoic was always with Quinn and Rachel in the house but resumed his businessman life as a typical guise; whenever people met them they always thought that Stoic was in a relationship with both girls, since now they looked around his age. Which made him gag. He was their loving Uncle now thank you very much; and he was very much in love with his wife whom he visited now and then when the heavenly realm granted him passage to the next world.
But he had to say that while the crew all lived in their separate places, they still gathered together every Sunday for a big family crew meal; that was his favourite day of the week, so he supposed he could see why people thought he was in some type of relationship with both girls, even if they were wrong in which type exactly.
Which leads us all to this point now with the family living and being happy as was evident of Rachel resting her head on Quinn's lap with the blonde stroking her hair. That was, until they heard three knocks on their wall.
Rachel sat up quickly, "Quinn?" Rachel started.
Again the three knocks came as Rachel looked at the time, it was now three in the morning. The knocks came again, and again and was followed by banging.
Stoic walked into the living room looking a little angry at the house being disturbed.
"Stoic?" Rachel started as the knocking and the banging got louder.
Amber was heard screaming as the angel roared and zoomed upstairs to get her.
"What's going on?" Quinn asked in fear as Rachel placed a protective barrier around them.
Stoic reached them with Amber and placed the scared child in her Mama's arms.
"Two pieces of bad news," Stoic said.
"Yes," Rachel said as she looked at him.
"One, there is an increase number of shadow reapers appearing around the world, they're not like my brother Cain but they are just as deadly and can be just as strong, so cases may soon start to come in, thank god you're on a break from that show biz world of yours, good timing,"
"Aha, and two?"
"Something's in this house that shouldn't be, something broke the protective seals, we need to fix them,"
"You think?"
"We are," a voice was heard hissing as footsteps got louder and entered the room.
The small group stared at the new shadow reaper staring Rachel down.
"We are the Shadow Reapers there are always more than one of each kind, Cain was our leader until you destroyed him, but now that our powers are stronger, and that we are far better we shall have our vengence and your world, starting with your powerful child," the demon hissed at Rachel as he pointed at Amber.
"Why are you here?" Rachel asked angrily, "I gave no entrance, no lee way,"
"There is always a way," the demon hissed again, "And now on behalf of my brothers, and of our fallen leader, I shall destroy you and your family,"
"Think you can take him?" Stoic asked as Rachel looked up at him with a big smile.
This demon talked tough but Rachel could sense his power, his real strength, and it wasn't as good as the demon thought it was, in fact he seemed like a novice to her so she'd have no real problem sending him back to hell or even to the fiery abyss if he was going to be an even worse threat.
She looked slowly from Stoic to the demon in front of her with a big smirk and said the words, "Child's play," as she unleashed her power and attacked the demon with a roar and all her might.
The End.