A/N: Well. This update took longer than expected. My heart was pounding and I was almost in tears when I finished this chapter. God, I sound like such an idiot, don't I? Anyway, read on, my friends. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Mediator… nooooo.

This Is Now, For Now

Chapter Ten

The first thing I did was I tried to locate Jesse in the madness. Because, seriously, who knew what the hell was going on?

Maria was screaming bloody murder, practically ripping her head off in anger, and glaring the sharpest and longest knives that would kill the fastest at Paul Slater. Josefina was staring up at me as if I was… well, a ghost, to use an old term. I was on the ground, finally, and frantically looking around for Jesse.

And Paul? He was yielding a backpack and black attire, staring up at me with those piercing blue eyes. Between Maria and Josefina and Paul, who I was still sure my brain created as a mirage to ease the pain of dying, I was lost in a sea of sounds and sights.

But then I felt a hand grip my upper arm. I turned to the right, and almost cried out at the sight of Jesse. Jesse, as a ghost, just like most of the years that I had known him, except with the same clothes, a tux, that he had on today. A flood of emotions came rushing back to me, but two dominated.

One, nostalgia. Two, what was he doing as a ghost?

Paul Slater charged forward, picking up a sword that Father Dominic swore was only for religious purposes on the altar and yelling, "Suze! Jesse! Get into your bodies!"

But Josefina recognized what she was capable of doing faster than me or Jesse did. She darted forward with desperate speed and slipped into my body. I was too stunned to do anything as Jesse gripped my shoulders and pulled me back, away from Josefina, just in case she was coming to attack me instead. But she didn't. She only wanted one thing.

My body started to stir, and I stared down in horror when I saw my own green eyes staring up at me. Which was weird, since I was staring back with those same green eyes. And everything I was reflected back at me. I couldn't think of anything but the fact that Josefina was in my body, and I would likely never get it back.

"Look out!"

Two claws came flying at me, but I only had a second to realize those claws were manicured and attached to a tanned hand before Jesse tugged me farther back, pulling me away from Maria's frenzied attack. Paul swung the sword, missed, and Maria cackled with delight.

"Paul Slater," she said, breathing heavily, "is that you? Oh, we meet again, now do we? I have to thank you, being you who brought me from the dead."

"You're about to go back there," Paul said and took another swing with the sword. I'm sure Father Dom only thought it was for religious ceremonies. Right.

Jesse and I were on the ground, and I was standing at the foot of my body. Josefina was just awakening inside, sitting up, taking in the surroundings.

"All of you, all of you will be in hell tonight!" Maria screamed. She was going insane, I was sure. "Just like Diego! You'll all be gone!" And quick as a fox, she leaped forward, grasped the sword in Paul's hand, and took an offensive stance with it.

Josefina was up now, gaining her footing. She whispered, "A body. An actual body! Nombre de Dios, this is amazing," which I barely heard over Maria's screams and Paul's grunts. Jesse's body was lying on top of hers, and she shoved it aside, a good couple feet away from the blanket, and sat up. I knew he wouldn't get in it now, because there weren't any other souls and he was so used to being a ghost that he probably could fight better as one.

I felt Jesse tug my arm. "Paul needs help. I'm going in."

I nodded and turned towards him. "I'm a ghost now. I'll be fine, you know, no worrying about poor little old human Suze." I smiled painfully for extra measure, but I was trying to plan how to get my body back. Josefina seemed like a girl with a fight, especially now she was fueled with actual muscles and bones.

"I wish it weren't so," he whispered, then dashed in and gripped Maria in a headlock. She writhed and screamed, her blonde hair flying out everywhere, while Paul grabbed the sword and held it up to her neck.

"Okay!" Maria screamed. It echoed off the walls. I couldn't take my eyes off of the one point in her life when she was outnumbered, couldn't tear my eyes away to look at anything but her. The moment where she would be done. Forever.

"Okay, okay!" Maria yelled. "Let me go! I'll leave you alone, let me go!"

"Ha, yeah, right," Paul said. I saw a long gash on his bicep that was bleeding profoundly, and his forehead was shining with sweat in the moonlight. It was hard to see practically anyone but Jesse and, well, me, I guess, because we were surrounded by that oh so special ethereal glow, but it looked like Maria was panting with a wild look in her eye.

"We're not letting go," Jesse growled. "This was your plan. Yours! You and Josefina deceived me, deceived Susannah. You'll be given a proper exorcism to rot in hell with el Diablo for the rest of eternity."

I was positioned safely away, by the pews, watching on with a terrified stillness. Maria's rapid breaths slowed. Paul allowed himself to take down the arm holding the sword and check the blood for a second. It looked like Maria's nails really were claws.

I wanted to help, but I couldn't do anything. I didn't have a weapon. I knew what I had to do, but the Bible was lying down the row of pews, from when Jesse had attacked Maria and cut the exorcism. I needed to exorcise Josefina and Maria, but how could I get both of them under a black hole that would take time to conjure? They were human now. Even though bodies bruised, they fought hard.

Maria cackled away, clearly insane now. "Oh, no, you won't!"

"Yes. Your end is near, Maria de Silva," Paul said gravely and prodded the sword into her stomach – not enough to hurt, just enough to let her know what's going on and who was in charge.

"And yours is too!"

Josefina's leg kicked Jesse square in the back, so hard that he fell to the ground and released Maria in one flourish. She, in my body, stood behind Jesse. God, I had hoped the look of pure hatred she was wearing on her face was never worn on mine. It was terrifying, and made me fear for Jesse's life, even though he couldn't get hurt.

Paul barred his sword, at the ready, as Maria came flying at him, screeching and ready to bare her claws. But I knew that Paul wouldn't kill her – or, rather, her body. Because that was Kelly Prescott, and I'm sure he'd find her up in the spectral plane after this was all over.

Jesse was on the ground, and Josefina put one boot right on his cheek, smashing his face into the stone and dirt of the church. I ran forward, not even thinking, my heart panging at the sight of Jesse defeated, but stopped when I saw, in awe, the Bible in her hand.

"You aren't doing anything without these. Take another step forward and they'll burn," Josefina said in my oddly high-pitched voice. And to empathize her point, she knocked a candle over onto the blanket that my body had laid on, and the flames erupted wildly.

How had she managed to get it? It was in the pews, a good hundred feet down the aisle. The church must have been too dark for me to see her slinking around, since she didn't have that light spectral glow Jesse and I had.

Spectral glow. He was a ghost. He could teleport out of her! How he had always shimmered and glimmered before slipping out of my room. He could do it now, so easily, get away from here, save himself. I couldn't leave Paul here, and most certainly I wouldn't leave Jesse, but he could go, and then Paul and I could take these two crazy bitches on, and bring his body to him, which was lying a little to the left of the fire, later.

Josefina leaned her face down near Jesse's, while keeping her boot on his face. "What's that? Say it louder, mi hermano, I can't hear you!"

"Jesse!" I screamed. "Jesse, transport away! Teleport, do something! Get out of here! Save yourself, do something, Jesse!"

But he was fading fast. The pressure of Josefina's boot, the scene of Paul and Maria's bloodshed, and the newly made smoke were clogging up his senses. He was losing the will to fight. But his reply, the strongest one he could muster, barely said, "I cannot leave, Susannah, with you in this danger. I won't."

I was nearing into hysterics. He had to get out of here, he had to be safe. I called out to him, "Jesse! Leave! I'm begging you! Save your – "

But I was knocked backward from finishing by a flying Maria. She was straddling my chest, crushing me, and I was on the ground, my back unable to feel the coldness of the stone. Her grin was maniacal. I struggled to see around her, to find where Paul was, why he had let her escape, but her face breathed down into mine.

"Oh, no, Suze, you're staying right there." Her breath was horrible, as if she had blood in her mouth for a while. "You're going to sit there like a good girl while we exorcise you to hell. How does that sound?"

"Paul – " I tried, but her bloody hand came crashing down on my mouth.

"Suze…" I heard the faint reply. It sounded weak, sounded as if he was fading fast. I tried to keep the mental images of Paul's head being pierced with a sword out of my head, but who knew what was going on while I was seeing my love crushed by Josefina's boot? Goddammit, Jesse needed to get out of here. Why wouldn't he leave?

"He's not closer to hell than you are, but he's pretty damn close." Maria cackled, answering my fears. "He'll be gone from blood loss in an hour."

I wanted to scream, to struggle and kick and fight, but Maria was on top of me. I thought about teleporting, but how? And I couldn't leave Jesse here, anyway. And then I saw why he wouldn't leave. Was I willing to leave the love of my life in the hands of two bloodthirsty relatives? Oh, definitely not.

"Don't punch her, Maria!" Josefina suddenly cried out. I couldn't see her, but I knew my – now her – voice well enough. "We want her to be alive. Alive and well to see what happens when she's banished to hell. We want her to greet the underworld with a beautiful smile, don't we?" Her voice was frantic, talking fast, nervous, for some reason.

A wide cackling grin spread over Maria's face. "Oh, yes, we do." She roughly shook my shoulders, pulled me up, pinned my hands behind my back while I was struggling to stay on my feet. But I didn't really need the extra restraint. I was weak from the fight, from the bruises, from the blood, from my raging emotions.

Jesse was still cramped under Josefina's foot. He was struggling, but it wasn't helping much. She was strong now, as a human, and loved the rush of the adrenaline that touching and feeling gave. This would make her twice as strong as any supernatural being. Jesse's body lay only feet away. He needed to reach it. Nothing was helping his situation.

Especially when I saw Paul on the ground on the steps leading to the altar, a huge gash on his chest and head, gushing blood onto the floor. His lazy eyes rolled in their sockets to gaze at me with a desperate but determined stare. I bit back tears. It was over. Paul was down, Jesse was down. Then I was mostly definitely down.

The flames were burning bright now, and the smoke was starting to choke me. I tried to breathe through my nose, but the smoky air made it hard to get enough oxygen, so I opened my mouth, tried to breathe, felt my throat sting. And rinse and repeat the cycle. Josefina stood in front of the flames with Jesse under her foot. It actually looked like she was a gateway to hell. Which was funny, because when she started reading the Bible after she got Jesse up off the floor and into Maria's headlock, she really did look like death.

Jesse and me, our hands behind our backs, shoulders touching, weak, no power left, Maria holding our hands with furious strength, us too weak to fight back. Jesse said something, but I couldn't hear over the roar of the fire. I looked at him as Josefina chanted the words, and the black fog started to swirl overhead, Maria ready to throw us in at the perfect time.

"I love you," he said, louder this time. "I love you, Susannah. I'm proud of you. Of what you are. And I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, Jesse." If I could cry, I would've, but being a ghost kept the tears from falling down my face, so I only felt them on the inside. This was really over. The last time I would ever see him. My death. It didn't take long, only eighteen years, didn't it?

"And… I love you. Jesse, I've loved you all along. Why do you think I was so mad? Because I loved you too much and I couldn't deal with it when you were gone and… now you're here, and… it's…"

"Over," he finished, but it didn't sound like doom, but more wistful, as if he wanted this to be over for me. "Goodbye, Susannah." And I knew that if we didn't have Maria behind us, he would have given me a sweet parting kiss.

"Goodbye, Jesse," I said, voice cracking. "Goodbye, I'm sorry, goodbye, I love you, goodbye."

We stared into each other's eyes, and let the moments pass as Josefina read in a language we didn't understand, and just savored the moments we had left, because what else could we do? I cried, and cried, and cried on the inside. I'd always thought I'd die with dignity, telling my family jokingly that I'd see them in the underworld before falling peacefully asleep forever.

But when the love of your life and one of your best friends dies with you, I don't think you can help yourself but cry. For the past, for the present, for the nonexistent future. While evil lives on, and you, you and everyone else, has to die, and leave the world to collapse like an unstable building, you can only stand there and weep, for everyone, everywhere, everything.

The flames seemed to lick the black hole that was swirling, twisting in front of it. I knew Maria wouldn't take a step closer, or Josefina, in fear of being sucked out of their bodies. So they would push us in at the last minute. Which seemed to be soon, by the way the red eyes of evil spirits loomed down at us in a menacing glare. I would soon be one, too.

Josefina's voice stopped speaking, and she turned towards Maria with a giddy grin on her face. "It worked, it's done!" she called. "In, you go!"

"Any last words," Maria hissed on our ears, "before you go back to hell, where you can rot like my husband did all these years, you bitches?"

"Yeah. Good night, Maria."

I heard the swift swing of a blade, a gagging sound. The grip on my hands released, weakened, retreated. I took the chance to wriggle out of it and take a good couple steps from the exorcism, checking to see if Jesse was there and okay. He was released too, and looking at Maria with a grim expression. I turned my head, and almost reeled back at the sight.

The silver blade of a sword was sticking through Maria's stomach. Her eyes were glassy, not seeing, glazed over, as her dress started to soak with blood, and she fell to her knees. And when she did, I saw Paul standing over her, drawing the sword out from her body, and letting her crumple at his feet.

My mouth hung open. I felt numb. Maria was dead. Maria de Silva was long dead and gone. I felt like screaming, but Jesse ran over me and grabbed my arm, bringing me back to reality, and realizing I felt really sick. I willed myself not to puke.

And then when I looked around the room and saw Josefina's shocked face, I knew it wasn't over yet. Which was why I shouted, "Jesse, quick!" when I saw her lunge for his body.

He was faster and closer, getting into his body, slipping back into it like a glove before she could toss it into the flames. With Maria gone, Josefina was lost, scared, and unsure. She backed off, whimpering, as Jesse stood up, stretched his limbs, and gripped her shoulders.

"You are mi hermana, Josefina," Jesse said to her, "but you don't belong here."

"No, no, Suze!" Josefina cried, turning to me. "Stop him, please stop him!" Tears were streaming down her face. "This is my second chance! I'll be good, I promise, but don't let me die again, I want to live!"

I stared at her, hatred in my eyes, and met her gaze. Hers were my own green ones, staring back at me. We might have had the same eyes, but we didn't have the same brain. I shook my head, once, and said quietly, "Jesse. Up and away."

Her eyes widened, took one glance at the swirling and ominous black hole, and she turned to Jesse. "Please, Jesse, save him! I'm your sister, you love me, you have to love me, do you think Mom and Dad would like this? When you die, it'll be all over for you. Please save me, and God will take mercy on your soul for almost killing me. Jesse, don't do this!"

He looked at her for one long moment. My heart beat wildly, thinking he might spare her. But then he pushed her forward until she was under the hole to hell. She screamed, writhed, pleading, desperate for something to hold onto, someone to save her. But she was past that, and her soul rose upward, and my body fell backward, and she looked like that sweet old Spanish sweetheart I had met at the beginning of the summer again.

But now I knew better. She wasn't.

The hole swallowed up as she entered it, and there were no more screaming demons, no more cries of tortured souls. I took a breath, coughed from the smoke. Leaped into my body as soon as the hole was closed up. I felt reality take over, and I woke up with bruises everywhere. I felt grounded again, like I could stand and I wouldn't fall. But I didn't know if that was from gravity or passed danger.

As soon as I was able to move, I ran over to Paul, who was stark white and beginning to fall to his knees on top of Maria. I took his arm, laid him down, spoke to him. "Paul, Paul, hang in there, you're okay, you're going to live, Paul, okay? You're not dying, you're not leaving us!"

He was past hearing. It took all his last energy to drive that fatal sword through our worst enemy. Now he was going to bleed to death, die like Maria had said when she was still here. I felt a choking knot in my throat and started crying actual tears.

"Paul, no!" I screamed, hysterical. "Paul, don't go! Please, you're okay, Paul, tell me you're going to be okay! Paul… Paul…" His eyes rolled back into his head and he closed his eyelids.

"Paul… Paul… Jesse, help him," I cried. "Help Paul!"

Jesse laid one hand on my shoulder, his face grave over Paul's, staring with a tortured look down on our friend, best friend, who had saved our lives. "We need a doctor," he muttered.

"You're a doctor!" I cried, my tears falling onto his face. "You want to be a doctor! Help him, he doesn't deserve to die, not along with Maria and Josefina! He saved us, Jesse, we have to do something!"

The smoke was clogging my brain, my nose, my throat. I was finding it hard to breathe. There was a whisper in my ear, maybe a siren in some far off place, and the roar of something, but I couldn't figure it out, because even though the night was so bright, it turned dark and black all too fast, and I couldn't see anything anymore.

A/N: One more chapter, the epilogue, to go. So sad. :( Anyway, please review! I'd appreciate it. Can we make it to 100 before the end of this story? :D