This chapter is kind of short, but also hard to write, so forgive me. I have edited it up a bit to, to make it longer, without hopefully sacrificing decent content.

John's POV

The hands of death were cold and numerous. Many screamed in pitches I had never heard before, and prayed that I never would again. They pulled at me no matter how hard I tried to get us out of there.

I thought hard about how I was supposed to get out of there. The fight they were putting up was stronger than I had thought death could be. I wanted to protect Shadow as best I could, to keep her from harm.

It was with that thought that I felt a great heat, and suddenly we were free.

"Shadow!"

She was gasping for air, the hole in her chest was seeping blood again, as her heart started beating.

"Please! Not again!"

I pressed my jacket against the wound in her chest. I thought my heart was breaking. I was going to loose her, again. And I didn't think I had the ability to bring her back from death a second time. Not to mention it would just cause her that much more pain. Just like now, the pain in her chest, the gurgling noise she was making.

"Jo…John." She whispered.

I grabbed her hand, kissing it. I couldn't bring myself to hurt her anymore. I wanted to give my last breath to save her. No matter what Broom had said in the realm of death, here in the living world, they couldn't tear me away. But even if we were in death, I would have given myself up for her.

At that point, everything went black.

Liz's POV

I saw John slump over Shadow. And I thought for sure that Snakehead had done something to kill him. Shadow sat up, taking the blood-soaked jacket from her. The leaves sealed the hole in her outfit, and it looked like a red flower bloomed from where the wound had been. It was healed. I had been scared for a moment that she would just bleed to death again if he managed to bring her back. Professor Broom had mentioned that John had the power to do things that we had only dreamed of, and it made me wonder if this was it.

Shadow picked John up like he was a doll, placing him next to her sister. At that point all hell broke loose.

She stepped forward, a single motion that was as if she were stepping through the television screen and into the middle of an action movie. A tornado engulfed her completely, I was scared that she was going to be killed, but something told me she would be alright. This time, she had complete control over it. I knew then, that she had finally accepted herself; she was more at peace now than she had ever been. She and John had reconciled while he gallantly threw himself into the realm of death to get her. I'm sure there was probably going to be a great deal of arguing later, and even possibly physical fighting, but both of them had realized the prudence of taking care of one battle at a time.

While John had taken his journey into death, we kept Snakehead busy. It's what the man who had been Phineas had called himself at one point in the fight. It was mostly Hellboy, but I had flamed him a few times really well. When he returned, I knew he had succeeded, but then it looked as if it were for nothing, she was still wounded. There was a flash of light, and she was fine, John was out. Our fight was tedious, long and violent.

Shadow just stepped it up a notch.

The tornado blocked our view of her for the most part. We could see her outline, her eyes were glowing, and the vines in her outfit seemed to be painted an electric green. Her hair was in the air, the funnel lifting it from her shoulders. And Snakehead came for her, with a tornado of his own.

His face was peeling away, revealing more and more of who he really was, the skin coming away in chunks like a snake that was having a hard time shedding its skin. He had dropped the guise of Phineas, the man he had killed to gain our trust. He had taken Phineas' chaos abilities. I think the act of killing the mage and taking his face and powers was making it difficult to maintain any of his original powers. So in reality, she was fighting another person who was just like her. They were the only two Chaos mages left. Until the next generation when more would be born to help take up the mantle. But if Snakehead killed her, the last TRUE mage, then there would be no more born. He would hold chaos in his hands, and destroy the world. Which was his goal I supposed.

They threw lightning, wind, trees, anything they could get a hold of. Most of it was deflected. Some of it made it through. Both of them looked like they were going to drop, and quickly. One of them would make it though, and we were hoping it would be Shadow.

She rose into the air. Hellboy and I both ran to the altar, grabbing Moon and John. We could feel in the air that this would be a hard and horrible blow. We would be lucky to live through it. She had created a living bomb.

John was coming to, trying to wake Moon. I knew that the two of them were Shadow's bonds to this world, and she would need them both to survive. Moon looked like she had been poisoned. But once John touched her face, color immediately returned. She began to look as if she might make it.

"John… you're healing her." I gasped.

"No time! Revelations later! Hide NOW!" Hellboy shouted. He grabbed us like we were luggage.

He hauled us into a cavern. John stood at the mouth of it, staring. Trying to find Shadow in the chaos outside.

"She's gonna blow John, get down!" Hellboy shouted.

"How do you know there's going to be an explosion?" He asked.

"I'm like my sister, an agent of chaos. I may not be a mage, but I know what she's about to do. It's kinda weird. We would have been twins if she had been born with me, but instead, whole bunch of other stuff happened, and she's this combination of my father, the demon, and my mother. We're connected on all three fronts. And she's gonna take him out!"

Moon stood, supported by John, as a flash so bright went through the sky, I thought I'd be blind if I survived. The sound wave hit us next, causing a cave in and knocking us all out.

The battle was over. Who, if anyone, had won?