"Run Esther!" Abel shot the reanimated vampire corpse tearing at Esther's sleeve; the Hunter's head was severed clean from its neck. Esther ripped the monster's hand away from her as the headless body convulsed.
The priest rushed over to her and grabbed her by the wrist. "Stay behind me," he ordered. "We have to make it to where they are keeping Tenchi hostage. Do you know where he is?"
"Yes!" Esther quickly glanced around until she spotted a door labeled Engine Room. "He's in there-" the red-head screamed when another Hunter leapt at them.
Knocking the Hunter to the ground with a pistol whip, Abel told Esther to go ahead of him. He fired two shots into the side of the Hunter's masked face. The priest followed Esther into the engine room and slammed the door shut behind him. He braced himself against it as he reloaded his pistols; buying time for him to catch his breath and to give Esther a greater head start.
The Hunters rammed the door, knocking it off its hinges. Abel whipped around and continued to fire until there was no more movement in front of him.
He suddenly heard Esther scream. "I'm coming Esther!" The priest bolted down the hallway, jumped down several metal stairs, and sharply turned into the engine room.
Several of the living vampires protecting Tenchi's unconscious state had cornered Esther. As the first vampire leapt forward, Abel ran up to her and bluntly kicked them square in the chest. He fired a bullet deep into its skull.
The rest of the vampires attacked at once, but Abel quickly cut them down. He reloaded his weapons, put them back in their holsters, and then checked Esther's state. "Did they hurt you?" he bent down and offered his hand to help her up.
"Father Nightroad watch out!" Esther reached out to him, grabbing a pistol in its holster and awkwardly aiming at the Hunter that had surprised them. Closing both eyes, she pulled the trigger. When she heard a loud thump, she gingerly opened one eye to find the undead creature twitching on the floor with a massive hole in its chest.
Abel momentarily glanced over his shoulder to make sure the Hunter would not get back up and then lifted Esther to her feet. "Good shot," he gave her a quick nod before inspecting the containment apparatus Tenchi was held in.
The large glass container was hooked up to a computer; which was also keeping Tenchi in his unconscious state. Abel started typing furiously on the keyboard to break the computer's code. "Damnit," he slammed his fist into the keyboard after he received the access denied message for the fifth time. "I need a password to get him out of there…"
"I might know it…" Esther made the priest move out of her way. "Dietrich programmed this…" she tried to think back to what he had typed when it was first installed. Closing her eyes she pictured Dietrich hovering over the keyboard, sarcastically making a joke to Esther while she was still under his control. "I remember it-" Esther typed in the word peace and hit the enter key.
"That bastard's cruel idea of a joke…" Esther mumbled.
Pressure was released and the container began to open.
"You are very noble," Cain mused quietly. "Sacrificing yourself for them like this…" he smiled cruelly at her. "You'll break my poor brother's heart," he laughed.
"I'll wipe that fucking grin off your face before I'm dead," Ryoko snarled. "That should make Abel real happy." There was no use in denying, Cain was speaking the truth. Even if Ryoko was functioning at full capacity, she would not be able to defeat Cain alone. The plan was for the space pirate to weaken the demented blonde angel enough so that Abel could finish the bastard off once and for all.
"Do you need any assistance my lord?" Isaak asked again on the intercom from the control room.
Cain paused, rolling his eyes to the back of his head and sighing loudly, "For the final time – NO! If I can't beat this harlot on my own, then I might as well still be dead!"
Out of the corner of her eye, Ryoko caught sight of a familiar figure in stealth mode. There you are Tres…about fucking time. He stopped at the edge of the shadows and stared at the sight of the risen Cain. The droid kept frozen, most likely calculating if he would be successful in obtaining a kill shot from his position.
It was too dangerous for Tres to make a move. Cain was almost functioning at full capacity now.
Ryoko mouthed the word "Isaak" to Gunslinger without Cain noticing. Hopefully the elder vampire would be an easier assassination target.
The priest gave her a quick nod in response. He revealed a seven-inch blade from his back pocket and stuck it between his teeth before slipping back into the shadows.
"Are we going to finish this or what, fuck-face?" Ryoko cracked her knuckles and gave the angel a defiant look.
"Ugh," Tenchi groggily glanced around at his surroundings. His brown eyes stopped on Esther's smiling face. "Esther…? What happened?" He rubbed his eyes and suddenly noticed a silver-haired priest standing behind Esther. "Who…?"
"We have to hurry," Abel readjusted his glasses, "Ryoko won't be able to hold off Cain for much longer-"
"Ryoko is here?" Tenchi suddenly perked up.
"She came to rescue you," Abel muttered dryly. I can't see why though. You are definitely not a strong-looking fellow… "Now let's go!"
The airship suddenly shook violently; knocking them all off balance and sending them to the ground.
"That can't be good," Esther rubbed the back of her head gingerly.
"The shields are down…the Iron Maiden is taking her chance to knock us out of the sky."
Esther stared at Abel wide-eyed, "You didn't tell them that you snuck onto this ship?"
The humble priest shrugged innocently, "That tiny detail might have slipped from my mind-" The Iron Maiden fired another shot at the enemy airship. "We have to keep moving…maybe we can contact them through the control room."
Tenchi hobbled behind Abel, who had quickly moved out of the engine room with a dark look on his face, and Esther. Taking notice of Tenchi's slow pace, the redheaded queen slowed down and held Tenchi's arm to help him down the hallway a little faster. "What is going on?" he whispered to her.
"Dietrich is dead…I killed him," she smiled at him. They were almost caught up to Abel, who had stopped abruptly in front of them. "But not before an old enemy of ours was put back together… Ryoko was holding him off until…" Esther stopped dead in her tracks.
"Nice of you to finally rejoin us…I was starting to get bored." Cain stood in front of them with his boot on Ryoko's barely conscious, bloodied body. Blood – most likely belonging to the space pirate – covered the floor of the airship. "I took care of your partner…" the blonde villain signaled to a slumped body belonging to Tres, "but unfortunately not before he took out Isaak." The control room's half-broken viewing window was splattered with blood. Glass had shattered all over the floor. "Oh well," he chuckled softly to himself.
"Let her go Cain…" Abel's voice was dripping with acid. He aimed his pistols at his older brother, "LET HER GO!"
"How does it feel Abel? To have the woman you love die right in front of you because you lacked the willpower to unleash the true monster within you..." Cain's pale lips turned into a vicious grin as he dug the heel of his boot deeper into Ryoko's chest. His tongue traced the edges of his lips when more blood poured out of the corner of the space pirate's mouth. "Can you hear her lungs slowly being crushed?" the Crusnik leaned closer to hear her painful breaths, "Such a beautiful sound, isn't it brother?"
Rage consumed Abel as he watched her pathetically struggle to remove the vampire's boot from her chest. "A-a-" Ryoko couldn't breathe in long enough to say Abel's name. Don't do this…he is too powerful… Tears poured down her cheeks.
Cain began to laugh hysterically. "What is that?" the crazed angel leaned closer to hear Ryoko's failed attempt to speak. "He's not going to save you. Better save your last breath my dear-"
While Cain was busy mocking Ryoko, Abel had activated his crusnik powers at full power. Blood rage consumed the black-winged priest as he body slammed the blonde crusnik off Ryoko's chest.
Cain barely dodged the sharp red edge of Abel's scythe as he realized what was finally going on. "Welcome back brother!" he grinned mischievously.
Abel gripped his scythe tightly in his hands with his blood red eyes glowing, "Go to hell and fucking stay there this time!"