Inside the manor, the world outside suddenly became very, very quiet. Zeke, and his twin brother Alexander, dared to get near one of the second floor windows to stare out at the darkness. Minion, who had returned to the Manor not half an hour ago, had moved to clean all the blood and bits of flesh that had imbedded itself in his suit. That meant he had closed himself off in the lab, but had told them in case of emergency to call him as soon as possible.
"It's stopped." Zeke whispered to his brother. Angel, the young girl who's mother was somewhere out there in the middle of the city, hurried up to join them and peer out at the night. Of course in the distance the skyline of Metro City illuminated the dark skies, and gave away no hint of a war that was taking place. If you didn't know any better you could almost call the sight beautiful.
"You three get away from there!" Alice rushed forward, and grabbed their wrists, pulling them away from the window. "It's not safe. Angel, come here." she instructed, and the blonde girl hurried up to the woman but not before casting another glance out of the window.
"But listen!" Zeke insisted.
Roxanne moved closer to the window, and listened as the little boy said. For the last couple of hours, outside there had been shrieks and screams, combined with childish laughter. Now and then she heard the howls of a wolf in the distance, but she knew who that was and so the sound brought on no feeling of threat or fear. However, while that feeling of dread, was still hanging in the air. That horrible rich, sinking feeling would no doubt never leave the air this late night. Either way, she gave a small, shaky smile.
"I think that's a good thing, don't you?" she asked.
"It might be a small victory." Alice whispered, holding the boys close still as Angel sought shelter behind her. "But we still have to be on our guards, Lady and my husband are still out there as is Ethelwine and everybody else."
"I understand, really I do." Roxanne replied before she turned away from the window and approached the woman. "But if this gives us some kind of respite, if even for a minute I'm willing to take it, aren't you?" she asked.
"Yes, yes of course." replied Alice. "I'm sorry. Tonight hasn't been easy on anybody so far, least of all us."
"I know." she sighed.
Downstairs the front doors suddenly swung open, and the women and children rushed to the top of the stairs and stared down them to see who it was. From up here, all they could hear was footsteps from one singular person entering the Manor. Roxanne, holding her sword in hand, made her way down the stairs quickly and quietly. Seeing how late it was, there was no shadows giving away who it was, but when she rounded the corner she gasped when she saw who it was.
Megamind was leaning against one of the walls looking worse than she had ever seen him before. He had bruises and deep lacerations to his face, and she could see his blood (and possibly defeated vampires blood too) smeared on his clothes. The worst of it was two pools of blood leaking down his arms. Following the blood trail with her eyes she saw how one of his hands appeared to be all but ripped open, resulting in a horrible looking wound. His clothing had been ripped, torn, and sliced at, and it looked like his right ankle had been bitten almost down to the bone. Just how he had walked here at all, unassisted, was a mystery.
"Megamind!" Roxanne gaped, rushing down the stairs to him.
"Oh my God." Alice rushed after her to help and being a doctor she knew she had a job ahead of her. "Come here you poor... what on Earth happened out there?"
His green eyes moved from Roxanne who had been gingerly helping him to move across the floor. Hearing the question he looked at Alice for a moment, and tried to answer, honestly. He tried to tell the two of them about the vampires who had jumped him in the suburbs, how Minion had helped him, and how the Children had been using his own Father as a puppet in their stupid game of War against the Family... and how he had killed his own Father. Try as he might, the words just wouldn't come.
Too much had happened, though. Too much pain to get across with pitiful words. So only tears and exhaustion left him. Tears ran down his face, stinging his cuts as his shoulderes shook as the sobs left him.
Roxanne, for a moment, was in shock. She had never seen him cry before and it was a jarring thing to see. Despite having seen him in all manner of moods, joy, happiness, bliss, angry, frustration and determination (not to mention how he handled himself when around the rest of the Family0 she had never seen him utterly shatter before her like now. She wanted to ask what was wrong, why was he crying, but Alice gave her a look that said not to. This wasn't the time nor the place when he was this badly injured.
The sound of metal clattering caught Roxanne's attention and she looked down at the ground as Alice led the sobbing man away, and she saw two swords lying on the floor. Both of them were soaked with blood, leaving stains on the pristine carpet. No doubt Minion would have to see to the stain removal from the carpet.
Megamind hadn't left with two swords, had he? He'd left with the one he had showed her weeks ago. The second was new, and it was stained with blood just like the first. Even though she had never seen the sword in person before she could not help but recognize it. Megamind had detailed it to her in the past, telling her of the beautiful old design, and how it had a cross hanging from its hilt. The sword of his Father. The sword his Father had promised him if he ever bested him at sword fighting before he vanished, taken by the vampires into the darkness of the world.
Roxanne didn't have to wonder how he had gotten hold of the sword anymore, seeing them here and his tears on his face told her everything. Instead she gently picked up the two swords, treated them as if they were veterans of war, and carried them solemnly through to the dining hall and lay them on the table.
"What's that Roxanne?" Zeke asked, having hurried forward with his twin and Angel to peer at the swords she had set on the table. "Oh wow!" he gaped, "Is that...?"
"It is." Alexander whispered. "It's his sword."
Angel reached forward to touch it, but the brothers grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away before Roxanne could voice her warning.
"You're not allowed to touch it." Zeke said quietly. "That's uncle Ethelwine's sword now, and it looks dirty. If you cut yourself with that sword you could become a vampire."
The little girl nodded, and Roxanne knew that she was in good hands with her cousins who could explain things to her. It was better that way, since Angel no doubt would listen to her cousins better than to her, who she had only met the day before. Hearing her name being called by Alice, Roxanne went to assist her in putting her boyfriend back together.
It was after two in the morning and so far Roxanne had helped Alice, Lady, and her father Anthony deal with many injured Family members who came through the door. There were simple injuries, but of course there were the horrendous ones like the poor man who had lost his entire right arm to a Berserker vampire. He had gone into shock, and Anthony had spent hours on him trying to save him.
Roxanne, though, was more interested in the blue man who was already standing and walking around.
He hadn't said a word since coming out of being tended to. Megamind had stitches at the back of his head, his hands, and his ankle which had almost been ripped down to the bone. She had helped Alice with him, and had been surprised to discover Megamind had spent many hours taking his own blood in case of an emergency and he would need it. Turns out his blood was while similar, was also just as different to human blood. If he received a blood transfusion he could become incredibly sick, possibly even die. Now, though, he was standing in the library and just how he could still walk was a mystery to her, but Alice had told her Ethelwine could always deal with vast amounts of pain as if it was nothing.
She couldn't leave him alone for long, though.
"Megamind?" she asked softly as she approached him in the library.
He didn't answer her at first, instead he continued to look down at the book he was holding in his bandaged hands.
"Megamind, please. It isn't... easy what you had to do tonight."
"Understatement." he replied quietly, but with a small, sad smile on his face as he looked at the book in his bandaged hands.
"But your Father's at peace now. That's what matters, isn't it?" she asked softly, moving towards him and traced her finger against his unbruised right cheek. He sighed, and shut the book before leaning into the small touch, and reached up with a hand to grasp at her wrist gently. His eyes slipped shut and he suddenly looked far more exhausted than she thought he had seconds ago.
"It is." Megamind mumbled. "But there's something... I have to do."
"What now?" she asked, exasperated. "You felled the ten Children, killed at least twenty or more vampires tonight, and freed your Father's spirit. What else is there possibly left for you to do tonight?"
"Save the woman I love."
Roxanne looked as confused as she felt. "What?"
"One of the Children told me something I didn't know." he whispered quietly. "You were controlled by Hal, weren't you?"
"...yes...?" Roxanne asked quietly, obviously uncomfortable with the topic of conversation.
"What did he do to you?" Megamind asked.
"You know I don't want to answer that-" she started.
"You have to. Did he touch you? Kiss you?" his tone surprised her, and Roxanne realized that this wasn't something they could not talk about.
Shivering, Roxanne told him. How Hal had charmed himself into her apartment, how he had played on her emotions, and how she had hugged him. His hands on her body, his lips against hers and it was obvious she didn't like talking about it. She wasn't even aware that she was hugging her arms to herself until his arms wrapped around her shoulders, and she quickly held him. "It was like a nightmare."
"I know." Megamind whimpered. "But I need to save you. You've been controlled once... and they could do it again, easier than before."
"W-what?" Roxanne asked, feeling her heart freeze in her chest. What did he mean by that?
"Any vampire could just take control of you, now that Hal has. I need to fix this."
"How?"
"Exorcism."
Roxanne stared at him blankly.
"What?" she asked, eyes wide. "Exorcism?" that was not a safe thing to do, if ever. She had done a few articles on exorcisms taking place by the deeply religious people, thinking they were helping their mentally sick family members but only went on to worsen their mental states.
"I have to perform an exorcism. Hal is... he's still in here." he reached up and pressed his finger to her forehead gently. "Imagine your mind as a house. Hal's been able to break in, and he's still lurking around in there. If any other vampire happened to come on by, he would throw open the front door to allow them to walk in and take control of you. I need to get in there, kick him out, and lock your doors to all vampires again."
The idea that Hal, or a remnant of him, being inside her brain was almost enough for Roxanne to want to throw up. However she fought that desirer back down her throat and shuddered in horror, breathing harshly.
"I know how to fix it. I can get him out of you, forever." Megamind whispered.
"Please. Please oh God. I don't want... I don't want to be controlled again. Never again!" Roxanne pleaded, hating the panic in her voice but unable to stop it. "It was horrible, I can't have it happen again!"
"It's okay. It's okay... come with me." he took her hand into his and led her from the room. Roxanne watched him carefully, since while she was obviously concerned for what he had just told her she still worried over him. Megamind looked exhausted, and those bandages on his blue skin stood out harshly. Yet Alice had done a marvellous job of stitching up his hand and ankle, now though, they both needed time to heal. Time, as it seemed, was hard to come by.
She soon found herself lying on a four poster bed, staring up at the ceiling in the bedroom which she had been calling home for the past few weeks. Megamind stood by the bed, holding the beads in his hands but nothing else. A part of her had expected him to hold a Bible, or something of use. She wondered just what it would be like. Would her head spin around like in that horrible movie? Would Hal's voice come out of her mouth? Oh god if she threw up pea soup or did horrible things with a crucifix she'd...
"Forget that movie." Megamind's voice spoke to her softly, calming her nerves easily. "That's 100% Hollywood. Now..." he reached out and placed his hand to her forehead and smiled down at her. "Relax."
"Easier said than done." Roxanne mumbled up at him, hands resting on her stomach.
"Go back to this morning." Megamind spoke softly again, "Laying in your bed with me. There was nothing wrong with the world. All we knew was each others body in that moment in time. No vampires. No war. No death. Only us. Only our love." he paused for a moment and gave a weak laugh. "I sound like somebody out of a romance novel, don't I?" he asked.
Roxanne shared the small laugh and reached up and covered his hand with her own, before kissing his palm. "S'all right Romeo... given the situation, you can be forgiven." she whispered.
"Oh good."
She let her eyes shut, and she sighed heavily as she allowed the memory return just as he had instructed. The early morning light, the smell of sweat and bodies in the air and the warmth of his body close against hers. Nothing at all between them, the air still rich with the sense of their love. Roxanne could almost feel his hands running down her body in slow, easy circles and it brought on a deep sigh of content from her lips. The memories, these thoghts, brought her a great sense of calm and sudden exhaustion. She was so exhausted that she didn't even notice the door to the room creak open.
Zeke, Alexander and Angel watched through the door. They had over heard about an exorcism, and wanted to watch. Maybe she'd do something cool like levitate! That'd be awesome to watch, but they couldn't let uncle Ethelwine see them or else they'd be in all kinds of trouble and-
"You can come in."
His voice startled the children, and Alexander began to back away quickly while Angel gripped at Zeke's shirt and tried to hide her head in his back.
"It's all right." Megamind said, turning his head to look at them and smiled slightly. "Come on."
"Really?" Zeke asked.
"You might have to do this one day." Megamind said as he caressed Roxanne's cheek gently. "Be quiet, though... I can't afford to be distracted while I'm doing this." he knew what could happen if he failed. Hal could become that intwined with Roxanne's mind that he could never properly be locked away. He heard them enter the room and shuffle up against the wall besides the door that they had come through. They looked tired, but still highly interested in what was going to happen here so much so it woke them up.
Megamind eased himself into a chair besides the bed and held the beads of his Father in his hands tightly. They had been blessed by so many men and women, dipped in oils, water, flashed through fire and brought a strength nobody could truly understand or try to.
"O Lord, by your might defend my cause, hear my prayers, harken to the word of my mouth..." he began, speaking softly and quietly in the dim light of the room. "Defender of the human race, look down in pity on this your servant, Roxanne Ritchi..."
He shut his eyes and when he opened them he was still in the room, but it had undergone a sudden and horrifying transformation. The curtains were now shut and torn in multiple places, there were no lights on, no children. On the floor was old wood, stained with blood, and with obvious cracks and even whole planks of wood missing in action. The room smelt of decay, as if nobody had been in the room for years.
Looking to the bed, Megamind discvered even the blankets and pillows looked like they were over one hundred years old. Roxanne's sleeping form, eithr way, lay on them and he stared at her body with a sense of shock. She looked absolutely beautiful, and peaceful, like she had looked this morning. Her beauty was like a shimmering light in the rooms doom and gloom, so much so it almost made him blind to the man who was sitting besides her on the bed. It was Hal, and he didn't seem to even know that Megamind was in the same room as him at all. He was watching Roxanne sleep, and didn't look at all like he had looked when Megamind had met him at the gala. He looked slimmer, now, more in shape and possibly handsome yet at the same time he looked just... wrong. The man suddenly smiled and Megamind saw sharp teeth as the man reached out and boldly caressed her cheek with the back of his hand.
"An honest woman fallen prey to unclean spirits." Megamind continued, not questioning how he came to be standing at the foot of the bed, wearing a brown hood that covered his entire body.
Hal suddenly sat up on the bed and hissed violently at the intruder in his domain, a man he knew despite having never seen him before. He smelt famliar, his blood smelt strange, but knew despite all odds.
"Though serpents rise up against me, and devils seek my life watch over me. Durga, lend strength to my arm and fill my hand with weapons..." Megamind suddenly pulled a flaming sword created of nothing but fire from his robes and held it aloft in front of him in the darkness that now retreated from his sword. Hal screamed at the sight of it, and brought up an arm to protect his horrible face from the flames that burned his eyes.
"...THAT I MAY TURN BACK EVIL UPON MY FOES!" Megamind screamed now, voice filling with strength he hadn't possessed before. "TO CAST THEM OUT OR BY YOUR WEAPONS DESTROY THEM!"
Hal screamed again and backed away from Roxanne's body and began climbing the wall, trying to get out of the light caused by the sword. His feet and hands clung at the wall as he climbed it, eyes having grown used to the flames despite the pain, and snarled at Megamind.
Still Megamind continued. "BAAL-HADAD! FIRE OF HINNOM! LOFAHAM! SOLOMAN! IYOUEL! IYOSENAOUI!" he screamed the names of the Gods, and he felt strength enter the sword and his arm, sending large flames licking towards the ceiling, lighting up the entire room and no longer did Hal have anywhere to hide.
Alexander, Zeke and Angel watched as their uncle of high renown continued to sit besides the sleeping woman, making no attempt at moving. She too didn't appear to want to levitate, spew green pea soup, or anything cool like that. Still, he continued to speak in hushed tones, running his fingers along the beads of his necklace in quiet concentration.
"Here the lightning the Cyclops made by Zeus, to drive Typhon, the Dragon, into the depths of the Earth..."
"Nothing's happening." Angel spoke.
"Shh!" Zeke put his finger to his lips.
"Do not think to despise my command because you know me to be a sinner," Megamind continued to speak softly in this room but in the room of Roxanne's mind and soul he was screaming at the top of his lungs.
"IT IS THE LORD COMMANDS YOU!" he screamed as Hal flew from one wall to the other, screeching in terror and horror at the flames, and the demands being made of him. "EA! UTU! SHAMASH COMMANDS YOU! SAINT MICHAEL AND HIS LEGIONS OF ANGELS COMMAND YOU! ANU AND HIS COURT OF HEAVEN COMMAND YOU! THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS COMMANDS YOU!"
Megamind suddenly, finally, moved towards Hal with the flaming sword. Hal, once again, doubled over and covered his poor eyes from the flames and the commands. He had finally fallen from the walls, and had shrunk in size. No longer was he tall, strong or handsome. Nor was he the way he looked before, it was as if a balloon that had been partly deflated. His skin was saggy, his eyes black, and he was shuddering and convulsing. Megamind walked towards him, the flaming sword still held above his head but making no move to swing it at him, no matter how badly the desire within him to slice this man's throat was. That wasn't part of the ritual.
"I CAST YOU OUT, UNCLEAN SPIRIT! BY THE MYSTERIES! BY THE COMING OF THE LORD FOR JUDGEMENT! HARKEN THEREFORE AND TREMBLE IN FEAR, YOU ENEMIES OF THE FAITH, YOU FOES OF THE HUMAN RACE, SEDUCERS OF MEN, BETRAYERS OF NATION, I CAST YOU OUT! ALONE WITH ALL YOUR LIES, SNARES, FALSE PROMISES, AND EVERY SPECTER FROM HELL!"
Zeke sighed, growing bored. Nothing cool was happening at all.
"This really is boring." he muttered. Alexander cast his twin an angry look, and he mumbled another apology. Their uncle had said this was very important, something integral, and something they had to understand and know of.
"I adjure thee, ancient serpent..." Megamind whispered, yet in Roxanne's mind, he was continuing his advance on the shrinking form of Hal, flaming sword roaring from the faith and anger in the air.
"TYPHON! EREBUS! DRUJS! ABOMINABLE CREATURE! BACK! HE CASTS YOU OUT!"
Hal was now backed into a corner, with nowhere to go. He was sobbing, but still angry.
"HE CASTS YOU OUT!" Megamind screamed. "HE, FROM WHOSE SIGHT NOTHING IS HIDDEN! HE WHO EXPELS YOU WHO PREAPRES YOU FOR THE BOTTOMLESS PIT! BACK!"
"No, no... It wasn't... meant to be this way..." Hal pleaded angrily. "She's mine, she was meant to be mine..."
Megamind longed to tell him otherwise but to derail from the scriptures, to answer his pleads with words other than those written down, would destroy the ritual and loose Roxanne to him possibly forever. "BACK!" the alien thrust the sword forward again. "I CALL UPON THEE THAT DIDST ESTABLISH THE SEA AND THE DRY LAND, THAT DIDST DIVIDE LIGHT FROM DARKNESS, EYE OF THE WORLD, LORD OF SPIRITS," suddenly a door erupted in front of Hal, called forth by Megamind. It was pushing Hal out of the room entirely into a smaller room that had just now begun to form behind the red head. And no matter how badly the remnants of the demon was trying to remain within the main room, close to Roxanne, its eternal jail would be this room. His power wasn't that strong, not yet. It never would be, now. The life was being drained out of him, burned away by the flame of the sword that very well might be Michael the Archangel's own.
"SHUT THIS DOOR IN THE FACE OF THINE ENEMY!" Megamind pushed the door shut and it slammed on Hal. "BIND IT WITH MIGHTY LOCKS AND CHAINS, FIRE, AND SIGNS!"
"He's doing something!" Zeke said.
Indeed he was. Megamind, moving of his own accord, reached forward and traced his fingers on Roxanne's chest. He was drawing a design and the children were shocked to see steam slowly lift from where his fingers touched her. The sign was exactly the same as the one Megamind drew with the sword on the door, of what looked like a table to some drawn from the side, but it was curved. Beautiful as it was mysterious.
"As smoke is driven away, so is he driven. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before the Gods."
Megamind withdrew his hand from Roxanne, just as he withdrew from the door that he had sealed shut with the same sign. There was no sounds behind the locked door, and suddenly the wall that the door had been created on began to close over the door, eternally locking Hal away. He broke into a small, shaky smile before his eyes rolled back into his head. In the real world, his eyes did the same thing, and he collapsed to the floor.
"Uncle Ethelwine!" the children gasped since their uncle suddenly collapsed. Angel ran off to find Lady or Alice since they knew he had suffered a lot the past night and this might be in relation to all his injuries. If he knocked his head in the wrong place he would be on his back for days and they couldn't afford somebody like him to be out of commission. Zeke and Alexander sat him up carefully against the bed, and had to give a heavy sigh of relief when his eyes slowly slid open.
The shadows and the horrible beast that had been Hal, once, was gone. The strength and power in his arm and body was fading, but it was not feeling he would ever forget.
They yelped as he suddenly dragged himself to his feet, and climbed onto the bed. He could hear their questions as to whether or not he was okay, but he hadn't the mind to speak to them just yet. His main priority was Roxanne, who was still laying asleep on the bed. Megamind lay besides Roxanne, hand shaking, as he looked down at her. Upon her chest, looking like an old scar though she hadfa only just acquired it seconds ago, was the mark. He watched as it slowly faded into nothing, and her eyes suddenly shot open. She looked at him, eyes wide with fear and uncertainty.
"Megamind?" she asked quietly.
"It's done." Megamind told her quietly. "You're safe, now. I promise."
Even if she had no memory of anything happening... she knew he was right. She broke out into a sudden smile, laughed weakly, and hugged him tightly to her body that was his and his alone, as tears ran down her face.
To be continued