Chapter 23: Battle of Two Evils

Someone was knocking on my door, "go away Jeremy…" I mumbled forbidding my eyes to open.

"Hm?" Jeremy responded still half asleep next to me, and then I began to remember what day it was.

"Door..." I had hoped that he'd be gentleman and open it since I didn't feel like getting dressed...or moving an arm for that matter.

"Lamp…" he responded toying with me.

"Who is it?" I shouted, "And what do you want?"

It was Lexa, "get your asses up! We're leaving in ten minutes."

Her voice wasn't pleasant to my sensitive ears; I noticed Jeremy wasn't moving: 'damn he already went back to sleep?' Turning onto my side I put an arm across him and rested my head on his chest.

I must of woke him up 'cause his hand went to my hair, "She says ten, but really she means thirty," he smiled.

"That's good…you can shower first then," one eye opened to see his reaction.

"I was thinking maybe we should shower at the same time…would save us some time and you wouldn't have to complain about me stealing your precious hot water."

Jeremy really wasn't making that an option; he got up and pulled me out of bed slinging me over his shoulder.

After our longer than planned shower we both rushed to get ready. As I was putting on eye shadow Jeremy was standing behind me as I looked in the mirror, "what? You ready?"

I finished and turned around, "happy birthday baby," he smiled and his hands went to my neck as he put my gift on.

I was a little embarrassed having forgotten my own birthday because of all that was going on. "Aw...it's beautiful," the diamond heart pendant was just the right size and it sparkled under the lights, "I love you so much!" I gave him a hug and a kiss; it was the first gift I had gotten from him since the Christmas before the team fell apart.

"We better get going before they decide to leave us behind."

I put on my large ass kicking boots and grabbed my black jacket, "Now I'm ready."
Samuel and the others were waiting by the Helix when we got there; Adam was talking with him about the plan.

"Good luck guys and be careful," he said before going to the computers to monitor everything.

There wasn't much talking because we all knew this was going to be a tough challenge for us since Ashlocke probably knew we would be coming. Jeremy made sure to sit between Samuel and me; he still didn't trust him at all now that he was healed.

"Okay…let's get this done and over with. No one make any stupid mistakes and help each other out," Brennan said in an attempt to pep talk us.

"Yes captain Mulwray!" I laughed but no one else did, 'cause unlike everyone else I was in a pretty pleasant mood from getting the necklace. For the rest of the flight I had my head on his shoulder and a hand on the necklace.

We landed a couple blocks away from the location and Jesse pulled up the map of the building Gabriel was in.

We all gathered around Jesse to see what he was going to say, "There are only two ways in besides the roof access. Now Lexa and I are going to phase in over here to catch these guards by surprise so Samuel can get in with Brennan through this door. Shalimar is going to use the roof access, Valerie and Jeremy will go in through the second door in the back. We weaken them, it weakens Ashlocke. Everyone got it?"

After everyone agrees we headed out to face our toughest challenge as a whole team.

From at a short distance Jeremy fired a blast at one of the guards to convince the two that they had to go in for change of guard. Once the two went inside we ran to the door and I caught it before it could close and lock shut.

"After you…" he said to me and I walked in kicking a guy in the head that had his hands up to fight.

"Pathetic…" Strand members were falling to the ground unconscious from Jeremy's blasts as he did combat with others. Together we battled our way closer to Ashlocke's room. We met Shalimar, Lexa, and Jesse on the way…we figured that Brennan was still with Samuel.

We found Ashlocke's door already blown off with Brennan guarding it from Gabriel's people getting in.

"Hey…" I said to him letting the others go in while I watched their backs. Peeking in, the room was already destroyed beyond recognition. Furniture was on fire and water was leaking from the bathroom area…that was enough to keep Brennan and I out of the room, his fear of water and mine of fire. This was Samuel's fight anyway; we were just here to take care of the minions.

There was a loud crack that made all of us jump and look; Gabriel had sent Samuel through the wall into the next room.

Jeremy came over to us, "guys this isn't looking good, Ashlocke is kicking his ass…we need to help him."

"Yeah…" I took off running down the hall and kicked down the door to the room that Wes had been thrown into. To my advantage Ashlocke had been standing there and the flying door hit him in the back, making him lose his grip on Samuel to send him to the ground.

His feral eyes glared into me, "That hurt…now it's your turn."

I got in a stance to fight him, hoping to distract him long enough for Samuel to recover. I gave it all I had, but that was never enough against him; he was faster, stronger, and his psionic abilities made it difficult. Behind me I could hear Brennan charging up to I have my back but Ashlocke blasted him out the entry way and over the railing.

"NO!" I shouted looking at Jeremy, the drop was two floors and landing on the hard cement could have possibly killed him. Jeremy had already taken off to go see how he was….Ashlocke wasted no time cornering me. But suddenly he was attacked by a large tiger, it was Samuel. The tiger had its claws drawn into Ashlocke's back, causing him to scream but he managed to get him off his back and as the two fought I went into the hall to recover.

The others gathered and told me that Jeremy had taken Brennan to the Helix. It was clear in their expressions that it didn't look good.

"You working for Adam now? The very guy who made us these monsters?"

I could hear Gabriel talking to Samuel. This was getting ugly, if Sam knew that Adam was…well Adam we were screwed…The more Ashlocke talked the more uneasy we became and Adam was telling us to leave. But we needed to stay because there was still a chance that Samuel would trust us…since Adam did restore his powers. While Wes was changing back into a human form Ashlocke attacked him with a large blast.

All Gabriel could do was laugh, "That will teach you to choose the wrong side!"

He looked over at us then turned and walked out. Lexa was ready to fire a laser at him but I stopped her, "no…we'll lose." I went over to Samuel and put my head to his chest, his heart beat was slow.

When I took his hand he looked at me, "I'm sorry…I let you guys down."

Shaking my head I replied, "You gave it your all." Samuel nodded and I could see the pain in his eyes.

"Was he…telling the truth?"

I gripped his hand tighter, "yeah…Adam did….but he's not an evil man, and he knew you wanted him dead but he still tried to cure you Sam. He believed you'd do the right thing." "Yeah." Samuel turned away from me and not long after that he died.

It was a tough birthday that year….Brennan had a broken arm and rib, we had a small ceremony for Samuel…adding his name to the rock that had Emma's name. We considered him a part of our team because he put his life on the line to battle our toughest enemy and saved my life when Ashlocke had me cornered. The others hadn't forgotten that it was my birthday and I told them that the party was off, so I called Raphael and cancelled…he knew something bad happened so he wasn't too mad at me. Everyone had been drained, worried about Brennan and disappointed that Ashlocke had gotten away again. I was still kind of in a haze from seeing Samuel die that I wasn't in the mood for a party.