Jacy: And here's Part Two, where a couple of new characters are introduced.

Kain: And although it isn't as long as the last chapter, the ending is important!

Wolf: Let's get a move on, you two!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana and Azimuth belong to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

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Chapter 16: Memory Lane, Part Two

Kain found himself back in one of the make-shift hospital rooms in the back of the mall, sitting on the bed while Hanna wrapped bandages around his chest. She'd already disinfected it and did her best to close it, though the black-haired man still felt as if he was being shot through the chest again. He noticed a bottle of painkillers being pushed into his hand and looked over to see Hanna was the one doing it.

"I think there are others who need these more than I do," he told her despite his want to seize them, trying to place them back in her hand but she wouldn't take them.

"You were shot," she said firmly, "and everyone else had their more serious wounds healed. Take the damn pills since you're so hell-bent on going to take on Merikh!"

Kain was silent for a moment as he looked at the pill bottle in his hands before he spoke quietly, "You don't want me to go, do you?"

"I nearly lost you almost as soon as I got back!" she shouted, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she looked at him, "And now you plan on going to take on one of the most powerful people on the planet wounded! I can't lose you…not again."

He watched as she began to cry, and placed the bottle of painkillers next to him before he placed his hand on her chin and brought her gaze up to meet his before he said, "Do you remember when we first met?"

"I had to go into Jacy's head to make sure he could be trusted," she murmured, her eyes getting a bit hazy as she remembered. Kain absent-mindedly buttoned his shirt back up as he, too, was lost to the memory.

Flashback…

"Are you sure this is the only way you can check whether or not I can be trusted?" A much younger, sixteen-year-old Jacy asked. His hair was still in its shaggy brown state and his eyes were still the familiar dark green, but he didn't have the facial hair he would have five years later, nor did he have as much muscle, either.

He had to kneel as a younger, smaller, and more innocent looking Hanna placed her hand on his forehead. She had her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail while her blue eyes were full of hesitance at what she had to do. She wore an oversized white shirt that covered her other hand while the one on Jacy's head had the sleeve falling to her elbow, revealing more of her pale skin. She wore a pair of loose-fitting grey sweatpants as well, making her small frame seem even smaller. Behind her stood an older man that Jacy would come to learn was named Harry. He wore a ruffled and dirty suit, his tie loose around his neck and a sub-machine gun clasped tightly in his hands.

"Jacy," the familiar voice of Kera spoke to his side, and he turned his gaze to she was standing there with a look of calm, "Pull down the barriers that I taught you to put around your mind, you'll only hurt yourself if you try to block her out. This is Hanna, and she is one of the most powerful psychics and telepaths that I've ever met."

Kera's green hair was loose and fell to her shoulders, and her blue eyes were simply composed and calculating. Her clothing seemed to ripple with energy, though remained perfectly still. She wore a plain blue t-shirt and a pain of faded jeans, as well as a pair of black boots. All of it hugged her form nicely and Jacy was reminded of her beauty, but quickly pushed the thought away before he did something stupid.

"Fine," he sighed in resignation, feeling a strange tingling sensation as he brought down the barriers around his mind, "But if she strays anywhere she doesn't need to then I'm going to get her out if it kills me."

"I won't," Hanna said softly, shyness in her tone, "So, please don't fight. You won't kill yourself, but you might end up breaking your mind to pieces."

He wasn't able to respond before his eyes rolled back into his head and his body went limp. What no one else saw was that the sixteen-year-old found himself standing in a strange place that felt strangely familiar despite that he never remembered being here before. He looked around and it resembled the famous painting that he liked to call 'Crazy Stairs,' but there were also doors scattered everywhere while all the different staircases went off from the platform he stood on.

"I was wondering how long it would be 'till you finally had to come here," a familiar voice said from behind him. He spun around to see the familiar form of Kain walking towards him, his arms behind his head, and he spoke again, "Though, I would've liked to know that you were bringing such a pretty one with you."

"What are you—?" he stopped as he noticed Hanna standing at his side, her arms down with the shirt covering both of them. She had reddened a bit at the black haired man's comment, which only made him smirk and his red eyes glint in amusement.

"I'm here to make sure he can be trusted," she said softly, though the indignant tone behind it was clear as day, "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"His name's—" Jacy began to say, but the red-eyed man cut him off.

"I can introduce myself, thank you," he said, an air of annoyance to his voice, "I'm Kain, and the old dog watching us from behind you is Wolf."

He smirked as he heard the indignant response from the canine, "I'm not a dog; I'm a wolf, dammit! And just because I came before you did doesn't mean I'm old!"

"You two never change," Jacy sighed in annoyance, rubbing his forehead, "Can we just get this over with?"

"What's the matter, Jay?" Kain asked mockingly, grinning, "Impatient to get back to your girl?"

"Sh-shut up!" he stammered in response, his face heating up, "It's not like that! She's a friend!"

"Whatever you say, Jacy," he sighed, coming to a stop in front of the two, "What does the beautiful girl want as proof that you are trustworthy?"

Hanna blushed furiously and turned her head away before responding, "My name is Hanna, you know. If you'd asked, I would've told you. And I need to find the basis of his entire mind to make sure he does not have any thoughts of betraying us!"

"Well, Hanna," Kain responded, placing his hand on her head and kneeling down so their heads were on equal height, "Finding that isn't going to be easy. As you've probably noticed, his mind doesn't quite work like everyone else's. In fact, it's a little disorienting with the way the staircases and doorways move and change."

"What?" she asked before the sounds of stone grinding against stone was heard and all of them looked around to see that everything was, indeed, shifting. Staircases moved from side to side, or even up to down, and so forth. The doors that either floated, or sat on different areas that the stairs led to, changed into different types of doorways, and some even vanished entirely. This kept going until the entire place was completely different.

"The place is like a madhouse," Wolf said as he walked out from behind Kain despite having been heard from behind Jacy and Hanna last time, "It's impossible to keep your sense of direction in this place, so getting to your destination will mean several detours."

"Wait, isn't this my mind?" Jacy asked, causing everyone to look at the brown-haired teen, "I mean, can't I just think about us being there and we'll be there?"

"In any other case, yes," the canine responded while Kain returned to his normal height, though his hand didn't leave Hanna's head, "But where she wants to go is unreachable that way, so we have to go the long way or we won't get there."

"Or," Kain said, a humorous grin on his face as he looked down at the short, blonde seventeen-year-old, "You can take our word that Jacy is no threat to you or your interests, as well as not tell anyone about us."

"I…" she hesitated, looking away in uncertainty, "I don't think I can promise that. This is…Harry needs to know about this."

"Oh?" the black-haired man asked, a look of mock-surprise on his face, "Is your friend interested in history, especially World War II? Even so, he probably wouldn't have heard of the Black Eagles."

"Black...Eagles?" she asked, curiosity piquing while Jacy simply sighed in irritation as he readied himself for one of the red-eyed man's stories about him and his unit, "What's that?"

"It was a group of Black Ops soldiers that were sent behind German lines to destabilize the economy and cause mayhem," Kain explained, smirking as he remembered all the carnage he caused, though not once did he or his comrades purposely harm an innocent, "I was one of them. We were a close-knit group of guerilla fighters and we did a lot of the dirty work that the upper brass wanted done there. The catch was we had to abandon our real names and create false ones, though we kept our ranks. None of us knew each other's real names, but in time our false ones became as recognizable as our originals. Mine was Kain Zaron, ranked Major. "

"Wow," she said, eyes sparkling in wonder while Jacy let out a snort of derision, "How come you aren't famous?"

Kain's smirk disappeared and was replaced by a firm frown as he responded, "After one of our more successful attacks on the Nazi capital, we were careless. We didn't know we had been followed by an incredible accurate sniper until it was too late. He picked us off one at a time until only I and my superior, General Theodore Brand, were left. I'd been shot in the leg and he was too far away from where I was taking cover to do anything. He tried anyway and yelled at me to get up, and that's what killed him. The sniper knew where he'd been hiding and was waiting for the moment he made a misstep and came out of cover, and it happened when he called out to me. I watched the last of my comrades fall, and I saw nothing but red. I grabbed the rifle that I had dropped when I'd been shot trying to take cover and dove away from it. I shot randomly into the tree line, and luck was and wasn't on my side. One of my shots managed to hit him, but so did one of his. I heard the bullet rip through my chest and the thud of him falling before nothing was left. When I could finally see something, I found myself here and here I've been ever since. I guess since the government saw us as a failure, they saw no reason to tell the public about us, especially since they won the war anyway."

The blonde girl didn't say anything as the man began to shake with anger and depression; instead she wrapped her arms around him in a comforting hug. She only came to about his mid-chest, though that wasn't really that big of a problem. It caught him by surprise, however, and he had no idea what to do for a moment before he embraced her and felt everything melt away but for the feeling of her hugging him. His eyes closed halfway while hers were shut tightly as she fought back tears.

"I'm sorry for all the pain that you've gone through," she murmured gently, squeezing him tighter, "even though me saying so doesn't take any of it away. I'll believe you that Jacy is a good person, but I want you to promise me something."

"What is it?" he whispered, unable to hide his smirk at seeing that Jacy had turned his back on the two of them and was rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, while Wolf absentmindedly scratched behind his ear with his hind leg.

"Promise me that I'll get to see you again?" she said, pulling away slightly so she could look up at him with hopeful blue eyes.

"If I'm so lucky," he responded, causing Hanna to blush at his compliment. She looked away in embarrassment before Kain spoke again, "Now, you better get going."

She nodded hesitantly before quickly moving and planting a soft kiss on the red-eyed man's cheek. Before he could respond, however, she and Jacy faded away as she stopped using her ability to project the two of them there. He slowly brought his hand to the place her lips had touched while Wolf walked over to his side.

"Now who's the one with a girl?" he teased, sitting down next to him.

"Shut up, fur ball," he shot back, glaring down at the snickering canine.

Flashback End…

"You were so shy," Kain murmured as he came out of his memory, unsurprised to find that Hanna had crawled into his lap while he was distracted. Her head lay against his chest, her eyes closed in satisfaction while her hand gripped his shirt tightly.

"And you were bigheaded," she pointed out, smiling teasingly. They both chuckled a bit at her comment, glad for the closeness of the other.

"I guess we did each other a favor, then," he said, sighing at the feeling of her so close to him, "But, I suppose I'm still a bit stubborn and arrogant because I'm going and I will be coming back."

She nodded slowly, understandingly, before looking up at him with hopeful eyes, "How long before we leave?"

Kain couldn't help the knowing smirk from spreading across his face as he responded, "I'd say we've got a few hours."

She leaned up so that her lips were next to his ear before she sensually murmured, "Then you're all mine 'till then."

"I'm yours always, Hanna," he told her, before their lips connected in a flurry of love and passion.

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Kera had remained in the same spot with Jacy's head on her lap, waiting for the man to regain consciousness. There were other's around her, holding and sobbing into the bodies of people who had perished before the sphere of energy that Blane created could heal them. She felt the tears she'd been holding back begin to slide down her cheeks as she saw that Acelan was among the dead, with Marie crying over his prone form.

Her attention was pulled away from the grieving Elemental Marked One by the sound of coughing and movement from the unconscious man whose head was on her lap. She looked down at him to see his eyes beginning to open, the dark-green of his irises showing through the small slits that his eyes had opened up to. Able to make out Kera's face through his blurry vision, he gave her a weak smile.

"How are you feeling?" she asked concernedly, but managing a small smile back at him.

"Like I took on a tornado and a life-draining vampire at the same time," he chuckled, his eyes glinting with amusement as he opened them a bit more, "And won."

"Blane survived because of everyone," she told him, frowning slightly but somehow managing to appear relieved that he was well enough to joke, "but you gave him more than just life; you gave him your ability. I didn't even think that was possible!"

"It probably isn't permanent," Jacy pointed out, shaking his head, "Though it'll give us a small advantage when we attack Merikh."

"I take it you heard that Blane made the call to arms, then?" she asked, a little bit of sadness in her voice.

"In my last few moments of consciousness, yeah," he said, smiling sorrowfully, "And I'm going with him, I need to see this all the way through."

"You don't need to do anything!" she told him, pleadingly, "You've already done so much already; let the others handle things."

"You know I can't do that Kera," he told her quietly, "It's my duty as not only the Creation Marked One, but also as one of the last living members of humanity to make sure Merikh is dead for sure this time."

"You nearly died saving Blane," she said, tears welling up in her blue eyes, "And now you're going off to go fight a battle that you very well might lose, already. I don't think you could handle life without the constant threat of dying."

"That's not true," he said, sitting up and placing his hands on her shoulders, "I'll be perfectly happy to settle down with you and our unborn child once I'm certain Merikh is dealt with. We'll go to the country somewhere, where there's plenty of room for them to grow. I promise you, Kera. It's my turn to protect you, to make up for all the times you protected me."

She smiled weakly back at him before they hugged one another; both sighing in contentment at being held by the one they loved most. It wasn't to last, however, as a familiar voice spoke up to interrupt their moment.

"Though I'm glad to see you awake," the well-known voice of Smoke said gruffly from behind the two, "You have a couple visitors at the front."

"What?" Jacy asked, confused and surprised, "Who'd be crazy enough to brave all the undead and monsters to get here, let alone find us to begin with?"

"Go ask them yourself," the old soldier said brusquely, "I'm not your damn messenger. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and deal with our dead while you're busy."

The old man in camouflage proceeded to walk over to where Marie still cried over Acelan's body, and began speaking softly to her. It wasn't surprising to see how the Elemental Marked One hugged the soldier and sobbed into his shoulder, although he wasn't her real father, he had adopted her long before the shit storm that was the planet right now hit the fan.

"C'mon," the Creation Marked One said, getting to his feet and holding out a hand to help Kera up as well, "Let's go see who our mysterious guests are."

She took his hand, nodding, and he pulled her to her feet. Afterwards, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and the two made their way over to the front of the armored mall. Once there, they were shocked at who they found waiting.

One was a man with short, dirty blonde hair who stood at around the same height as Jacy and had hazel-blue eyes. He had the build of an athlete, and wore a green short-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans, with a pair of black combat boots as well. He had a katana at his waist and held an MP5 with his left hand over his shoulder. He had a Glock 19 holstered at the other side of his waist, as well as two extra clips stuck into his belt next to the gun.

The other was a man with close cut black hair with a goatee of the same color on his chin and dark eyes, and was also around Jacy's height. He was built like a linebacker and wore a black t-shirt advertising Voltaire with a black leather jacket over that, as well as a pair of blue jeans and hiking boots. He had a much longer katana made for two-handed wielding at his waist, while a hunting rifle was slung over one shoulder and an AK-47 over the other. He held a holstered S&W Sigma in his right hand down by his side, the holster at the opposite side of his waist than the blade with two extra magazines next to it.

Both wore grins on their faces as Jacy said incredulously, "Connor? Jeremy?"

"In the flesh, little brother," the blonde, Jeremy, chuckled.

"Didn't think we forgot about ya, did ya, Jace?" Connor said, shaking his head in amusement, "After all, we went through hell and back to track you down, you really don't stay in one place for too long. Once we figured out where you were, we decided to come lend a hand."

"But what about our families?" Jacy asked, looking back and forth between the two, "You two were supposed to keep them safe, remember?"

"They're safe in the mountains, Jacy," Jeremy said, "'Sides, they can take care of themselves. After all, Josh is sixteen and more than capable of shooting a gun—"

"And Ariel's eighteen and wouldn't be much of a meal, anyway," Connor added humorously, "Not to mention our parents and my grandparents have adapted enough to be able to hunt and kill anything they need, plus any zombies that manage to get up the mountains."

"How did the two of you get here, anyway?" Kera spoke up, reminding everyone she was still there, "And find us, for that matter."

"We stole one of the still-working planes from the airport," Jacy's older brother said simply, "Fortunately it was one of the smaller passenger planes that only hold a handful of people so it didn't need much fuel. We only had to stop once to refuel, and that was in Nebraska."

"But finding you was a whole different story," the black haired man said, holstering his hand gun, "We knew you would probably be as far away from us as possible to keep anyone from finding out about us, but you also couldn't stay in one place for very long, either. So, we guessed you'd probably be on the East Coast somewhere, and constantly moving up and down the coast every week or so. The only reason we were coming to New York was because it was the easiest place to start looking. What tipped us off that you were here was the giant sphere of light that wiped out every zombie within a mile radius. We figured it was one of yours."

"It was a friend of mine, yes," Jacy said quietly, "It turns out my powers are a lot stronger than I thought. The one who did it was a character from that story I wrote six years ago."

"You mean the one with that half-dragon guy?" Jeremy asked, surprised.

"Yeah, it was him," the Creation Marked One nodded, "And he nearly died as a result."

"Well," Connor said, looking at his friend, "What's the plan?"

"The 'plan' is for you two to go back to Montana while I end this once and for all," Jacy said, his eyes narrowed.

"We spent the last year-and-a-half looking for you," Jeremy said, crossing his arms over his chest in irritation, "If you think we're just going to leave—"

"Look," the brown haired man interrupted, "fighting zombies is one thing, but going up against that madman and his allies is a whole different story. I'm not risking the two of you getting killed, I've lost enough already."

"I'm your brother, and Connor's your best friend," Jeremy told him seriously, "If you're going to go fight the guy who caused all this, then we're going with you, end of story."

"Yeah," Connor agreed, nodding his head seriously.

"Jacy," Kera murmured softly, "They're determined to fight beside you 'till the end, you have no right to deny them of that."

"I have every right!" the green-eyed man shouted, surprising everyone, "No one else needs to risk their lives for me, I won't let people suffer because of my mistake of not making sure Merikh was dead."

"Jacy, it wasn't your fault," his lover told him, her blue eyes alight with a surprising fierceness that caught the Creation Marked One off-guard when he saw it, "None of us could have foreseen that he would survive his wounds, nor falling from such a height."

"I should have," he said bitterly, turning away from her gaze and that of his sibling and friend's as well.

"You're always so damn stubborn!" she said, grabbing him by his shoulders, "Stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, we're your friends, your family. It's why we're here, to help you by taking some of the weight onto our own."

"She's right," Jeremy said, causing the brown-haired man to look at him, "We may not have gotten along so well before all of this, but even then I had your back. I still do little brother."

"I came to throw my boots in with a friend," Connor said, grinning warmly, "A good friend, in fact. One that I swore to always help whenever I was able to. Don't tell me you're going to make me a liar."

"Everyone here is with you, as well," a familiar voice spoke, and Jacy was unsurprised to see a familiar grey canine make his way over and sit down by his feet. Wolf's amber eyes were full of calm speculation as he continued, "This battle will make the last with Merikh pale in comparison, we all know that much. But everyone here also knows that we are the only ones that can stop him so that the survivors can rebuild, and that gives them hope and unparalleled determination. The other Councilmembers have unanimously agreed to let you, or anyone you deem better, become the sole leader for this fight. They all know a solitary leader would be best for this, but we also need one who will let people fight. Will you?"

Jacy looked at the faces of everyone around him and saw that they would all fight no matter what his decision was. He knew the risks they would be facing, how many people were likely to die for the single shard of faith that had always driven them: that they were the only ones standing between what was left of humanity and the army of dark creatures that Merikh led. The prospect of losing people he'd come to call, not family, but damn near close and trusted with his life scared him. But he didn't let that fear influence his decision, instead it helped him realize what to do.

"I will," Jacy agreed, nodding slowly but confidently, "and anyone who wishes to fight at my side is more than welcome to. This time, I won't offer him the chance of mercy. This time, Merikh dies."

As if to solidify his statement, Kera grabbed him by the back of his head and brought him into a passionate kiss. Wolf chuckled as he walked off, shaking his shaggy head in amusement at the two. Connor and Jeremy exchanged a glance of confusion before finding other things besides the couple more interesting.

After a moment of thought, the dark-haired man spoke up, "Was that dog talking?"

Jeremy responded with a shrug of his shoulders while Jacy and Kera both laughed into the kiss they shared.

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Jacy: And there's the end of Memory Lane, and the grand finale is in the making and will be out soon.

Kain: And by that he means whenever he gets off his lazy ass to write it.

Jacy: Oh shut up. And to anyone who's wondering, yes I do have an older brother and a best friend that Jeremy and Connor are based on. They are, however, different in several ways and the names were changed so no one would know who they were. Anyways, I'm going to wrap this up because none of you are probably reading it anyway.

Wolf: See ya!