And so the three of them fled the school building, armoring up after making sure no one was looking, and flew to an old warehouse in the middle of the woods. It was a dingy, gray, two-story building, which looked seemed to serve no purpose save storage. There didn't seem to be much, but tucked away in a few of the darker corners "Lance, what's a gotten into you?" Asked Ilana as they landed and turned off their armor.

"I don't know; I-" he began. Then suddenly, he knees buckled, and he collapsed. His eyes glowed blue when he stood to his feet. He spoke again, but his voice was icy and demonic. It sounded exactly like Thanatos.

"PRINCESS ILANA OF GALALUNA! AS YOU MAY HAVE ASSUMED, I, THANATOS, AM NOW IN COMPLETE CONTROL OF YOUR GUARDIAN, LANCE. I ACHEIVED THIS BY ENTERING HIS MIND AND TELLING HIM I WAS HIS SUBCONCIOUS. AS OF THIS MORNING, I HAVE BEEN IN CONTROL OF HIS ACTIONS, AND HE HAS BEEN ACTING UNDER MY ABSOLUTE COMMAND! ALL OF HIS ACTIONS TODAY WERE CAUSED BY ME! AS I CONVINCED HIM THAT I WAS HIS ALLY, MY INFLUENCE GREW STRONGER IN HIS MIND, AND NOW, DESPITE HIS DOUBT, HE UNKNOWINGLY LOWERED HIS MENTAL DEFENSES BY TRUSTING ME EVERY WORD, AND I HAVE JUST NOW GAINED CONTROL OF HIS BODY! WOULD YOU ATTACK THE SOLDIER WHO HAS SAVED YOU DOZENS OF TIMES?" Thanatos finished his monologue in a mocking tone.

Ilana turned on her armor again. "You think I'll let myself get beaten by a demon-possessed Lance? Think again, Mutradi!" she cried. "I'm gonna kick you out of Lance's body, one way or the other, and we'll destroy you together!"

Thanatos laughed. "WE WILL SEE ABOUT THAT, GALALUNAN," he replied. "BY ACCESSING LANCE'S MEMORIES, I HAVE LEARNED THE MANY STRENGTHS AND FEW WEAKNESSES OF THE MANUS ARMOR! YOU CANNOT STOP ME WHILE USING THAT JUNK METAL!"

"We'll see about that!" said Ilana defiantly. No one called Corus junk metal! She went over to Octus and whispered, "While I distract Thanatos, you see if you can't analyze some way for us to remove him from Lance safely."

"Affirmative," replied Octus.

"I'm ready, Thanatos!" she cried.

"VERY WELL, THEN. ENJOY YOUR FINAL MOMENTS," the demon replied.

And with that, a fight ensued.

Ilana began by firing a laser at Manus. Thanatos was surprised, and as such, he could not dodge the attack. The laser stung the armor, but had no effect on him. The only way for Ilana to damage him was by hurting Lance himself. She fired another blast, and Thanatos used Manus' rockets to move out of the way, but with great difficulty. The laser blasted a hole through the warehouse. Manus unsheathed its axe, and Thanatos swung at Ilana from the side. But she used Corus's jets to fly out of the way. They both used their jets to hover at one spot in the air, and continued their fight hovering above the ground. Corus fired another laser, knocking Manus backwards into the wall. But he quickly recovered and swung his axe in arc, sending it crashing into the top of Corus' head. Corus, as a result, was slammed back onto the ground. But Ilana could still fight, because Corus had landed face-up. When she did not rise up immediately, Thanatos did not check to see if Ilana was unconscious. Now was Ilana's chance! She quickly charged up a massive white laser from the heart on Corus' chest and fired it at Thanatos. It had Manus at full power, and he crashed down on the ground. Ilana flew over to the collapsed Manus robot and prepared another laser blast, but before she could fire it Thanatos delivered a kick with Manus' large metal foot. Ilana's Corus robot crashed into the wall of the warehouse. Thanatos used Manus' machine guns to open fire on Ilana. She tried to set up an electrostatic wall, but the force of so many bullets caused it to shatter. Ilana felt as if she was being pelted by thousands of tiny hammers, all trying to destroy her armor. She lifted her hands and formed a protective bubble, (better known as a force field in science fiction) which was more resilient than her protective walls and covered everything within a few meters of her. The machine gun bullets could not penetrate it. So Manus rushed over to where he had dropped his axe. He picked it up and started delivering blows against the force field. Even after several blows, it did not shatter. But it was only a matter of time before it would...

Octus, who had been analyzing the Manus armor which was now being controlled by Thanatos instead of Lance, delivered a powerful electric shock straight into the back of the robot, short circuiting it. It shut down, disappearing in a flash. And then it was only Lance standing there, his eyes still glowing blue. Thanatos had not left. Octus was shocked. "The electricity should have forced him out," he said to Ilana, who had turned off her force field.

"FOOLS! YOU CANNOT..." but Thanatos stopped. Then, he howled in pain, and the veins on Lance's neck strained. Lance spoke again, but it was with his own voice. "Get out of...my head! Aughhhh!"

"Lance! You can fight it!" Ilana encouraged. Turning to Octus, she asked, "Is there anything we can do?"

"No," he replied. "We cannot kill Thanatos unless we kill Lance. Only he can drive Thanatos out of his mind."

And inside Lance's mind, he felt as though he were fighting for his life. It was a mental struggle. Lance closed his eyes and yelled.

"You...leave...me...alone...go...away...I...know...who...you really are...you won't get...her...she weakened you...I can...fight back now...get...out!"

And then Lance screamed at the top of his voice. "LEAVE...ME...ALONE!" he cried. And the demon obeyed.

Ilana and Octus saw what happened. Thanatos left Lance's body, and they saw him for the first time. Lance looked up as he was floating away.

"We've got to kill him! Come on!" He yelled.

"Lance, your breathing rate and blood pressure are at abnormal levels. And you may still be in shock from such a traumatizing experience. I suggest..."

"NO!" Yelled Lance, and he flew out of the warehouse to chase after Thanatos.

"Let's help him!" Said Ilana. And so the two of them flew close behind.

Lance caught up to Thanatos. Ilana and Octus were fairly far behind. He saw him vanish into Lake Sherman. Lance knew that the only thing down there was the corpse of a giant long-limbed Mutradi they had fought long ago. Before he could think of any reason why Thanatos should go there, Thanatos emerged, having grown twenty feet. Thanatos flew out of the area with Lance using the jets of his Manus robot at maximum capacity. But he failed to catch up to him. Thanatos flew over to the woods on the outskirts of the city. He suddenly dove down upon approaching swamp like area. Lance knew that this was where another dead Mutradi they had fought was killed. Lance remembered that that Mutradi and taken control of Ilana, she became the same species as it. Kind of like a zombie...only super athletic. Lance had difficulty killing it. But that was all in the past. He saw Thanatos swoop down and place his claw on the corpse of the creature, which was now rotting from decay. Then suddenly, Lance saw Thanatos grow another twenty feet in size. Now he was three times as big as Manus. But Thanatos didn't stop there; he flew farther and came upon the corpse of another Mutradi, the Dark Shaman, a wizard who had once given Lance and Ilana nightmares. Lance tried to stop him as he placed his claw on the wizard's corpse, but Thanatos, who was now quite large, swatted him away. When Thanatos was finished with whatever it was he was doing, he grew even larger. He was now twenty feet shorter than Titan. If he got one more body...Lance waited for Ilana and Octus to catch up. But by that time, Thanatos had left. "We need to form Titan! Lance called out. "Don't ask why; just do it!" And so they did.

Lance took control of Titan and flew to the next place Thanatos would go: a large field with windmills which had another dead Mutradi, a giant, white, dog-like creature with six legs. It had also been a difficult opponent, Lance recalled. Titan tried to catch up, but they were too late. Thanatos was now just slightly larger than Titan. He slashed a shadowy claw at Titan, forming a scar on Titan's chest. Titan delivered a punch to Thanatos' stomach (Or at least where it should have been), but like the gas cloud they had fought before, the fist went straight through. And our three heroes didn't want a repeat of that fight. "It seems to be immune to every attack we have," said Octus.

Thanatos suddenly grabbed Titan in its ghostly claws and slashed Titan from top to bottom. Titan tried breaking free, but Thanatos had a strong grip. He threw Titan aside, having it destroy a few windmills. But Titan got back up. Lance had one idea. "Initiating Alpha Cannon!" he ordered. But when Titan fired it at Thanatos' body, the blast just went straight through the ghostly Mutradi. "THERE IS NO HOPE!" said Thanatos. "NOW YOU WILL ALL DIE!" he cried, punching straight into Titan's heart, shattering Titan's outer armor some more. As Titan stood, stunned, Thanatos sent out beams from his mouth, and they crashed into Titan's machinery. But Ilana did some quick thinking. They already knew that Titan could fire blue lasers that were similar to the lasers of her Corus armor. If Titan could fire those, could also fire a massive beam from its chest, like Corus could? Ilana knew she had to try it out. She focused all the energy in Titan towards its heart, and Titan fired sure enough. The blast struck his glowing, red eyes. "AGH! MY EYES!"

Titan got up and fired one of its Cosmic Arrows at his eyes. Thanatos fell backwards. "Aim for his eyes!" Cried Ilana. She had discovered his weakness. "I'll do it!" said Lance. "Initiating Sym-Bionic spear!" he commanded, and Titan unsheathed its spear. Titan used it to stab into each of Thanatos' eyes. "AUGGHH! I'M NOT DEAD YET!" Thanatos cried. He slashed at Titan again, knocking him down. His eyes reappeared, and Thanatos then sent more blasts from his mouth, and they crashed once more into the fallen robot. But Titan got back and used its sword to slash at Thanatos, trying to aim for his eyes. Thanatos kept dodging the strikes. He eventually flew off, with Titan in pursuit. After pursuing him for quite some time, Titan threw its sword, which hit Thanatos' eyes after going through the back of his head. Thanatos fell back once again, face-up. Titan then fired its blue hand lasers straight at Thanatos' face. They burst from the massive energy concentration. When this happened, Thanatos vanished, without a trace.

School had ended by the time they returned, and the three Galalunans got detention until 5:30 in the afternoon. But Lance thought it was a reasonable sacrifice to pay for everything he had done.

Lance was suspended after the teachers heard about what he did for 3 days. When they allowed him back at school, he saw Kristen and Ian. What could he possibly say to them? Ian would never forgive him, but maybe Kristen would. He now realized that just because he liked her appearance didn't necessarily mean he would love her. But could they at least still date? "Kristen," said Lance, "I'm sorry about what happened a few days ago. I...was really stupid and not myself that day. If you don't ever want to see me again..."

"No, wait, Lance! To...tell you the truth, I kind of...liked the change," she said quietly. "I mean, I don't want you to that every day, but you really surprised me by doing something unexpected. By the way," she whispered, "You're a great kisser." She gave him a quick kiss, and left. But then he called out to her. "Kristen!" She came back to where he was. "I'm glad you liked...what I did, but I don't think it was appropriate. I want to take things slowly, you know? Just like I promised last week. Not rush into this. I mean, I want to get to know you better before we start getting seriously in love, ok? I want to make sure that...you're the right girl for me."

"Aww! That's so sweet of you, Lance! I get what you're trying to say. It's okay. But I decided I don't care what we do. As long as we're together, that's all that matters."

"Well, that's okay, but there's something else about what happened that day that I need to tell you. I really wasn't myself yesterday. Something...kind of came over me. I don't know how to explain it. It wasn't desire, or anything for that matter. It felt more like...someone."

Kristen was a little confused. "Well, it doesn't matter. Whatever it was, it's out of your system now. Let's just move on." She gave Lance a quick kiss, and walked away.

Lance still thought about their relationship as went on with his day. Was Kristen really the right choice for him, or was it Ilana, like Octus had said? Kristen was gorgeous and seemed to identify with him, but Ilana...well, she was just...sweeter. And she had saved him from Thanatos. And come to think of it, she was pretty cute, too, like Kristen. No, wait, Ilana didn't like him like that. He shifted back to Kristen. What would Kristen do now that she thought he had suddenly become the "bad boy" that everyone once thought he was, the social mask he had unwillingly created for himself in an attempt to hide his grief?

What did you think of my OC, Thanatos? His name is supposed to be Greek for death, by the way, although he actually doesn't have much to do with that. I will be adding a few OCs from time to time, but none of them will rob the focus off of the canon characters, I assure you, and there certainly won't be any Mary Sues!

Please leave a review; substantial ones are preferred!