Chapter 26

Sorry this one took a little longer to get up, it was a busy weekend=)

Anyway getting near the end, second last chapter! Just a slight warning, there is violence and gore and is a little graphic. Please read and review!

They looked at each other. It was too much, it was emotionally too much for Raphael to take. He felt devastation take hold of him and throw him out to sea. Leonardo put a hand on his shoulder. He looked at his brother. "I can't lose her Leo, I can't."

"Are you two coming?" Michelangelo asked grimly, Capricious Death blazing in his hand. He grimly looked at his brothers. Raphael gave Bloody Rage to Leonardo and ran with Donatello to his workroom. He grabbed the bow and Donatello ripped apart the gas tank of the shell cycle, a gun in each hand.

"I hate guns." Donatello grumbled as they caught up to Michelangelo and Leonardo as they ran from the lair. They had to find her, had to help her, even if saving her was futile.

They reached the opening of the lair and stopped. There was a man floating in the air above Goddess. He was handsome with short brown hair tanned skin and brown eyes. He wore a fancy, well tailored black and white pinstripe Italian suit. There was something about him, almost that used car man feel. Something slimy and malicious and deadly rolled behind his smiling brown eyes. Power radiated off of him and it was all Raphael could do to stay on his feet. Whoever this guy was, he was giving off the same power that Gabriel had, but because it wasn't as concentrated in a small area, it was dissipating more into the surrounding area. But the power was still oppressive and almost consuming.

Goddess stood in tattered bloody clothes, the wind whipping her hair around her in a glorious silken cloud. "So you are the leader of the rebels K'emeth?" She asked.

"Of course I am." Replied the man smoothly. Two other men hovered slightly behind him. They looked like bodyguard goons, being thick and stocky, forgettable to look at, and probably able to bench press cars in their sleep. They wore Italian suits as well and dark shades. "Bet you thought it was Azazel." He smirked. "Oh don't get me wrong, I got him to place the Binding on you, but of course the order came directly from Lucifer, or at least that is what he believed."

Goddess paled. "So now Lucifer will be chasing poor Azazel while I kill you, claim the title of The Killer of the Golden Goddess, and take over Hell, and then, let the Apocalypse begin!" He said rubbing his hands together gleefully.

"But you are the highest ranking demon of Lucifer's army, why would you...?"

"Because, Hell has been in a hand basket ever since your little visit to us. Many of the demons that have been created are...lacking. Even Lucifer himself has changed. He has been distracted of late, too obsessed with you and that damn sword of yours, which I will also take from your dead body, and use against the masses of demons and devils who oppose me. I even have some of the Fallen on my side as well. I bet you recognized some of Beelzebub's demons." He looked at her, malice glittering in his eyes. "Lucifer has grown soft, it is time for a new regime." He waved his hand negligently. "I did try to kill you. Imagine my surprise at finding that you still lived. Of course, as I said, this almost works better for me, as I will be able to bring what is left of your battered body back to Hell, along with your sword and show the masses that it is I, not Lucifer who should lead Hell. After Lucifer failed to kill you the last time you were in Hell, and decimated almost the entirety of Hell's Legions, my success and his failure, should turn any who still mistakenly have loyalty to Lucifer, to me."

She just shrugged unconcerned. "Of course this battle will be rather disappointing for me. You have practically faded. How disappointing. But I may still be able to have some fun." He smiled evilly then flicked a glance at Raphael and his brothers. "Kill them, bring me Andora." He said as around 100 demons appeared from thin air. They were on the ground in front of them. They looked like some bad science experiment where someone had the brilliant idea of mixing a few different animals together and seeing what you got. And what you got was stupid and ugly. Unfortunately for them stupid and ugly didn't mean they weren't fast and deadly.

Raphael pulled the string of the bow back and shot it at K'emeth. The arrows aim was true, but the demon held out a hand and the arrow hit a shield dissipating. Raphael grimaced in pain from the price of the arrow.

"Why am I not surprised that you didn't listen to me." Goddess growled. "Don't attack K'emeth, he's too strong, if you want to fight, fight them." She said pointing at the mass of demons charging towards them. "Don't forget to avoid their blood." She said as she charged into the mass of demons her faded sword held at the ready. They followed. Michelangelo and Leonardo began cutting a swath through the screaming mass. They tried avoiding the spraying blood as best as they could, but they could not avoid it all.

The demons were fast. Raphael could no longer count the number of arrows he had shot into the throng. He and Donatello had developed a system where he would freeze the demons and Raphael would dispatch them with the bow.

Goddess suddenly appeared by his side. She was covered in blood. She took the bow from his grip. "You will be unable to ever use this arm again if you continue Raphael. She placed Bloody Rage into his hand and she was gone. He charged at a demon who had appeared behind Donatello. The blade sliced at the blackened twisted body of the thing. It screamed at him as it managed to pull away in time for the blade to only nick it. It looked almost insect like, but with chicken feet. A long insect-like arms lashed out at him. He managed to dodge, but the demon was gone, no not gone, moving faster than he could see. He turned trying to find it. He fell as he felt the scrape of claws on flesh and then the demon appeared in front of him screaming in agony as its body was halved.

Michelangelo helped him up, Capricious Death blazing in his hand. They looked over at the destruction they had caused. All of the demons were dead. Or he supposed not really dead, just sent back to Hell. He looked at his bloodied arm. It was a mass of shredded flesh that blazed with pain. He tried to ignore his arm as well as the many burns that covered his body from the demon's blood. He looked up at K'emeth who was watching them.

He began laughing. "Well that was entertaining." He said smugly. "Futile but entertaining."

The goddess looked up at K'emeth. She was struggling to remain upright. Her soul was only the faint outline of a sword. She looked over her shoulder at them. She smiled a sad smile then turned her attention back to K'emeth.

"Here is the deal K'emeth, my life for theirs. You give your solemn oath to leave them alone, forget you even saw them, that includes your demons as well, and you get me." She said.

"No!" Leonardo screamed. "We can beat him, we can win!" Leonardo's blood dripped to the ground from his wounded arm.

K'emeth laughed ignoring Leonardo. "Well now, that doesn't seem like much of a deal." He said voice oily and cold, looking at Leonardo."You won't be any fun for me, you're practically already dead, just a talking corpse really. Oh but that is all you really are anyway. But I think it would be fun for you to watch these...creatures, you are trying to protect die before your eyes. I would like to hear you scream in agony before I rip you limb from limb. After all I do so miss the sound of your screams." He smiled a sweet smile of innocence. "Oh yes I ordered your torture when you were in Hell. I still remember the sweet sound of your screams as the demons ripped each tiny piece of you off, and how you screamed when they began eating all those pieces. But the true rapture of your screams was not attained until they ripped you open and began dragging your organs out. Of course I was very impressed you even managed to survive. After all even the strongest souls can barely survive that kind of torture without breaking, and you actually had a body. I very much wanted to know how much damage you would be able to take before you finally died. It was however unfortunate that the demons were stupid enough to leave you most of an arm and your legs with which you made your escape." Raphael was beginning to see spots in front of his eyes and the bile was hot in his throat.

"So do we have a deal or not?" She asked, voice steady. Her soul began to gain solidity. It was still faint, but it looked like through sheer force of will, she was giving herself strength, just to protect them. Raphael felt insignificant and unworthy of such devotion to saving their lives. K'emeth sneered. She moved then, one minute she was standing in front of them, the next she was gone. She reappeared farther from the entrance of the lair and more to the left as if dragging the eye of the demon away from them. In each hand was a screaming demon bodyguard. They had lost thier human appearance. Oily black skin covered a vaguely human body. Insect like wings flapped uselessly. She was holding each of them like pieces of luggage. An arm straight through the chest of each, a hand gripping each spine. "This is my last offer K'emeth. Your oath, and you will have my life, or I will take yours." She said, eyes a steady green, but absolute menace dripping from each word.

K'emeth laughed. "Oh, I think not. I think I will kill them slow, maybe recreate the torture I put you through. Of course they won't last as long as you did, shame really, but one must be content to live with life's little disappointments" He said as he snapped his fingers. Suddenly it was as if a veil dropped and thousands of demons floated in the air behind him. The sheer force of their power staggered him. Unlike the demons that had just attacked them, all of these demons had wings of some sort, and were vaguely humanoid in shape, and that is where the similarities stopped. Some were so gruesome to gaze upon that Raphael's mind was unable to even process the horror of the image. Raphael felt himself fall to his knees, crushed by the futility of their fight and the magnitude of the power the demons possessed. He tore his gaze away from the mass of writhing shapes and looked at his brothers, all of whom were on their knees, staring at the death that awaited them. They hadn't known, hadn't understood what it was that she was trying to protect them from, but how could they know, how could they even comprehend?

"A 5000 demon Legion, just for me? All high ranking demons too, why I don't know what to say, it's the best birthday present two goddesses could ever ask for." She said with a grisly smile. "I would just like to point out that I did give you the choice, and you really should have taken it."

He laughed. "Arrogance such as that is truly worthy of Lucifer himself. I shall enjoy this."

She laughed then, and the sound sent a shiver of cold fear down Raphael's spine. It was the type of laugh that reminded him of the fact that he was a mere mortal and should be cowering in a cave somewhere as primal forces howled, ripped, hunted, tormented and destroyed unsuspecting mortals. "Do you think that such a one as you could ever truly destroy me without me allowing you?" She said in a voice filled with disgust. The demons continued to scream their agony in her grip. They thrashed and tried to tear themselves fron her grip, but her grip remained firm. If this bothered her at all she didn't show it. Gone was the laughing smiling woman who had given them her love and joy, instead a brutal killer stood in her place.

K'emeth sneered at her. "My Binding has killed you, you have nothing left. So you can still fight, do not think you can frighten me."

"Your Binding," she said voice dripping with contempt, "is nothing to me. I could have broken it anytime I desired."

"You lie." He said.

"You know I cannot lie, so I am telling the plain unadulterated truth." She said viciously.

"Don't get me wrong, I am impressed you managed to survive so long, all gods who have ever been Bound have died instantaneously. After all, a god without his powers cannot exist, a gods power being essentially what the god is and without being what you are, ceases to be. But if you could have broken my Binding anytime you wished, why not do it immediately? You have been dying for what, two months now, and offered your life as sacrifice. If you could have broken the Binding you would have." K'emeth sneered back.

"Circumstances have changed, you have forced me to break the Binding," She smiled at him darkly. "And all it will cost me is a human soul."

Raphael looked at her in confusion, but Donatello and Leonardo seemed to understand. "You can't!" Donatello screamed. "We aren't worth it, please!"

The wind began to whip around them more strongly as Donatello looked at her with a bleak realization in his eyes.

"I don't understand." Michelangelo said fear in his voice.

"She's going to sacrifice her soul." Donatello said his voice desolate. "She broke her soul into pieces so the goddesses couldn't get at it. Ryn is probably already gone, just the sword remains. She consumed the demon soul which threw her out of balance, cracking the crystal seal within her mind, and if that weren't enough to entice the goddesses to wake, she is throwing her soul into the mix for good measure. One or the other of the goddesses will consume her soul, and they will rise." He said bleakly.

"But she said she couldn't let them out until they would no longer fight." Leonardo said fear in his voice

Her sword flew from her hand and floated in front of her, it began to blaze. "You see I didn't really want to sacrifice this soul, but it seems that I have no choice."

"Looks like they promised to play nice." Michelangelo said grief and terror in his voice.

"You can't be serious." K'emeth sneered. "That soul is ancient, but even a soul as powerful and pure as that one cannot break the Binding."

"You're right of course, it will indirectly break the Binding however." She said with a devious smile.

"I can't believe you would be willing to sacrifice something so powerful for a few measly freaks!" He yelled at her. "Your own life I could understand, but them!" Disgust and repugnance oozed from his lips.

She broke the spines of the two demons in her grip. The sound of bone breaking echoed through the night. The demons screamed louder, thrashed harder. They ripped and tore at her arms and legs with claws and teeth, babbling in a language they could not understand, and still she held them firm. She looked down at the thrashing demons, slammed them into the ground, placing a foot on each body. Then she pulled, ripping the spinal columns from their bodies in one percise swift movement. There was an eruption of blood, bone, and organs as flesh peeled away from bone. Their faces peeled away from their skulls. She held a writhing, screaming, bloody spinal column with skull in each hand. She threw them to the ground, lifted a leg and stomped on each screaming, writhing head. Blood, brain matter and flesh exploded from each skull. Raphael watched this in horror as the contents of his stomach threatened to revolt. "I am merciless" She said defiantly. A red orb floated from each crushed skull. "You will die by my hand K'emeth!" She shouted at him.

Then several things happened at once. Her soul blazed then disappeared, she consumed the two demon souls, and K'emeth ordered his demonic Legion to attack.

The goddess screamed as a magic circle blazed around her. A staff appeared in each hand. She was crouched down eyes in shadow. She began to blaze as the circle blazed blue and red, as if the power of the circle were fighting with itself. Then it blazed to life in a purple fire that was blinding. The blaze broke and she crashed together the two staffs to create one. Golden power blazed and burned up her arms as gold armour rode over her body. Gold gauntlets encircled her hands and arms plated armour covered upper arms, flowing into shoulder guards. Her hair and ears turned pure white, but were then hidden beneath a helm with golden curling horns. White feathers burst from black membrane to be encased in razor edged silver metal. A silver and gold breastplate covered her torso. Golden thigh guards appeared, and golden sandals appeared on her feet lacing up to her knees. Plated armour continued down her tail which became webbed on the end. A white cape formed around her shoulders, and a white linen skirt appeared around her waist.

The demons who had been in the process of attacking the goddess were incinerated when the circle broke. Simultaneously a circle enclosed them, sparing them the same fate. Her power made Gabriel's crushing force seem like a drop of water in a vast ocean, the demon's a tiny trickle of a creek, and her power was still growing. The ground beneath her feet crushed in upon itself forming a crater. Magic sparked and flowed and crackled around her.

She was almost too much to behold. She was radiant, and powerful and how could he have known? How could they have grasped that the woman they had known was a mere shadow of what she was. Raphael had always wondered why she wore so little armour, like a man's fantasy woman. Now he realized that her armour was his equivalent to jeans and a t-shirt. This is what she wore into battle. This was the Goddess of Magic, and she was beyond words.

She vanished and like the moment of silence before a storm it was deadly quiet until the screams began and the sky opened up raining down caustic blood. The blood hit the dome that encircled them and it burned gold.

She appeared in front of them awash in blood. She looked over her shoulder at them with fathomless green, amber and blue, tri-coloured eyes. "We see." She said as she turned away. I was then they felt the drawing of a great amount of power. The demon Legion was in chaos, K'emeth was screaming orders, trying to be heard over the panic and screams about The Golden Goddess. K'emeth felt the power she was drawing to her. "You wouldn't. You'll destroy the world." K'emeth shouted at her.

"Yes" She said with a voice devoid of emotion.

"But I guess she didn't get them to promise not to destroy the world." Michelangelo said in fear.

The power peaked "Death..." She began. Demons screamed in terror as they tried to fly from her power. With one hand she held a crackling ball of white power, in the other she held her staff. The staff was bladed, having a giant scythe-like axe blade on the end. She pointed the staff at the demons and swiped it across the sky. The sky trembled then ripped open exposing an orange sky with triple suns. You could just make out giant flying creatures circling in the sky, bare mountainous peaks jutted out like jagged teeth against the hellish skyline. "...and Destruction." The power shot forth hitting demons and incinerating them. The Power rolled, expanding outwards destroying everything in its path. The flying creatures, the tops of the jagged peaks were gone, no explosion, nothing, just gone.

She launched herself at K'emeth whose form changed into a hulking red skinned demon. Horns jutted like antennae from his head. Black armour covered his body, bat-like wings jutted from his back as a sword appeared in his hand. She drove him back with her staff, pushing him towards the tear in the universe. She made a motion with her hand and the world in the sky closed taking with it the power she had pitched into it along with herself. The darkened sky of twilight returned and the shield surrounding them dropped.

"Goddess!" Raphael screamed into the night. His rage resurfaced only to sputter and die as horror and grief consumed it.