All characters belong to Sega/Archie except my OCs.

Ch. 24 Losing Your Memory

Call all your friends

Tell them I'm never coming back

'Cause this is the end

Pretend that you want it, don't react

The damage is done

The police are coming too slow now

I would have died

I would have loved you all my life

Where have you gone?

The beach is so cold in winter here

And where have I gone?

I wake in Montauk with you near

Remember the day

'Cause this is what dreams should always be

I just want to stay

I just want to keep this dream in me

Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up

All the best of what we've done is yet to come

Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up

Just remember who I am in the morning

You're losing your memory now

You're losing your memory…

The first thing I saw when we reached the battlefield were tons of injured – or dead- forms on the ground. The sight made me feel sick. I don't know how I managed to hold my stomach but I did. I followed Scourge was we flew over most of the field. Many of our flanks flew down lower to engage into battle with some of the Angels. I flinched as I saw one of the Dark Angels popped off one of the enemies' heads. Scourge grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. I looked up at him to see he was staring at me with sympathetic eyes. I nodded to him to let him know that I was okay. I would deal with these scenes. I had to.

As soon as our feet hit the ground when we landed, our group was attacked by Angels. Our allies readily jumped into battle while others were caught off guard. They were tackled down but immediately killed whoever had attacked them. I had learned over training time than Dark Angels were faster than Angels and therefore had faster reflexes. Half of these Angels didn't stand a chance against what Lucifer was putting them up against. I was suddenly pulled against Scourge's body, one of his arms caging me against him. I snapped out of my thoughts in alarm to see that some of the Angels had been charging towards us. Scourge saw them beforehand and used his dark fire to kill them. I looked over his shoulder to see that more had come to join the party. Since Scourge couldn't see them, I used my own power to blast them myself. Their screams of agony made me feel bad but I didn't feel any regret in killing them. I knew that it was either kill or be killed. Besides, I was no longer a mortal. These Angels would kill me without a second thought.

Scourge grabbed my wrist and dashed off into a run with me in tow. It wasn't exactly easy to keep up with him since I was blasting all the Angels who threatened to get in our way combined with the fact that he was running super-fast. Still, I kept my pace with him. I wasn't exactly sure where the altar was but I'm sure he was guiding me there. It wasn't as if we could run out this battle and start over. Yes, it would be easy to forget what we both were and just run away but we couldn't do that. He couldn't do that.

"Watch out," Scourge yelled as he moved me out of the way of a gold fire that was coming my way. As soon as he put his eyes on me, his focus being sidetracked, arms went around him. My eyes widened in realization that the Angels were now trying to attack us. One of them pulled Scourge away from me while a female one tackled me to the ground. I knew I could take care of the female later so I watched Scourge as he took on two male Angels that were around his age range physically. They were trying to hold him in a position where he would be still but he wasn't having them. He wiggled in their grasp to the point where he freed his arm and swung one hell of a punch at the one boy. I bet people from across the field could hear the crack of his skull from the impact. Scourge then kneed the other boy in the ribs in which another crack was heard before he grabbed his head and snapped his neck effortlessly. The boy whose head he had cracked tried to get Scourge from behind but Scourge did a back kick and took the boys head off.

"You still have time to change your mind, ya know. Join our side," the girl Angel who was pinning me to the ground said. I looked up at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Like hell," I replied before punching her in the nose. She gasped in surprise but I kicked her off of me. I glanced at Scourge to see that he had more company to deal with. Seems as if I had time to take care of the little blonde who had attacked me. She glared at him as she stood up from where she landed when I kicked her. "Come on, bitch." She growled and came running at me. I ducked as she tried to punch me and kneed her in her gut. She grunted but not before I hit her with my elbow. Her temple cracked under the impact, instantly killing him. I looked to where Scourge was to see he was nowhere in sight. I was about to yell out his name when I felt arms around my waist. Not the feel of his arms either. A surprised scream left my lips. A chuckle vibrated in my ears.

"Easy now, girl. I won't hurt you. Just as long as you agree to commute to our side," a husky voice said in my ear. I struggled to push his arms off of him but this dude was really strong. The fact of that scared me somewhat.

"Get off me," I yelled.

"No. Not until you tell me what I wanna hear."

"Scourge! Scourge!"

"Oh that's right. You are that asshole's girl aren't you?"

"That asshole's gonna kill you for putting your hands on me." The Angel laughed.

"Is that so? Well I fail to be-" His voice got cut off in a gasp, almost as if it was choked off. His grip on me loosened before he fell to the ground at my feet. I saw that there was a sharp arrow dug into his back. I shuddered from the lifeless look in the beautiful Angel's eyes. I felt familiar arms wrap around me. I leaned into my boyfriend's chest, slowly looking up at him. Concern was etched all over his face as he scanned my body.

"Are you hurt," he asked me. I shook my head. "Good. I'm not letting you out of my sight again. Come on. Let's get this over with before any more distractions come along." I let him pull me along as we began to run through the battle. Whenever an Angel came toward us, a Dark Angel would jump in the way to save us time. I couldn't think during the impulsive run. What with all the death going on around us, all the noises of battle, all the screams… I squeezed my eyes shut. How I wished all of this would just stop and be over. Scourge and Lucifer both told me that this would be a fairly short battle for me but yet it didn't seem as if it would be short enough.

"Stay right here," Scourge said as he pushed me against a tree on the sidelines of the battle. I grabbed his hand as he took a step away from me.

"Wait, where are you going?" His cold ice blue eyes looked to me as his mouth tightened.

"Taking care of an old problem. I'll be back. Just stay here."

"Don't do what I think you're going to do," I said, keeping a hold on his hand as he once again tried to turn away from me. "Please don't. For my sake."

"You're going to kill him anyway so what's the difference?"

"I just don't wanna look at you and know that you killed my best friend."

"So what? You're going to look in the mirror every god damned day and know that you destroyed a whole race of those pain in the asses. Now, Angel Boy is mine. At least he can be killed by someone who he knows hates him."

"But-"

"No buts. Either way he dies today."

"But Scourge," I whimpered, letting my voice get soft. "I at least want to say goodbye." Scourge narrowed his eyes at me, suspicion starting to fill their ice blue beauty. The fact that he still didn't trust me made me feel a bit betrayed but I managed to brush it off. Right now, you couldn't really trust anyone. But I was being genuine about this. Cody was my best friend. He has had my back for years and the least I could do was give him a formal goodbye. I owed him that much.

"Rosy," I heard my own voice say from above me. Scourge and I both looked up to see Victoria up in the tree branches, staring down at us in curiosity. At least she was until she saw Scourge's glare get placed upon her. Then she seemed to back up from us.

"Victoria? What are you doing up there," I asked her. She shrugged a shoulder carelessly.

"Cody told me to wait here so I did. He told me to look for you too but I found you so…"

"And where did he go?"

"To go fight I guess." Victoria looked to Scourge who was staring at her. It wasn't a stare of admiration or lust but instead it was intense. Almost as if he was reading her. Victoria slowly inched farther away from us, causing me to get a bit confused. I get she was afraid of Scourge but he wouldn't hurt her now, would he?

Suddenly, I felt Scourge leave my side. I turned to see he had been tackled by Cody who was now trying to throw punches at him. My stomach went up in sparks in response to seeing my best friend but my stomach turned at the fact he was trying to kill my lover. Scourge easily turned the tables on Cody and began to punch his face in with no mercy. Cody eventually kicked Scourge off and flew into the sky. Scourge followed after him, throwing fire balls at him. "Rosy," I heard Victoria call as she jumped down to my side. "Come on. We can get you to the altar and do the chant while Scourge is distracted."

"What," I asked her as I turned to look at her. I now noticed that she had died her hair so that it was a light honey color and that her pale skin was tanner. She reminded me of my mother.

"You are siding with us, aren't you? You're just fooling Scourge. I mean, you have to be…"

"No. No, I don't think I am." Victoria's eyes widened at me.

"Rosy, please. Please don't do this. You have no idea what those demonic things have planned for Earth. They will run it down to the ground."

"But how do I know you Angels will protect humans? Besides, Scourge and I will be the rulers. He promised me that if I wanted peace then I could have it."

"He is lying to you, Rosalinda! How many times do Cody and I have to tell you that? He does not love you!"

"But I love him! Isn't that enough?"

"No! And you know it's not! Once he gets what he wants then he'll probably kill you. He will run this world by himself and really let Hell become reality. You don't want that. Rosy, I know that you love him. At one point, I did too. But you should know that I didn't just abandon him for Cody just because I fell in love with someone else."

"Then why did you do it? Why did you abandon him? Why did he kill you after you did it?"

"Because I found out what his plans were for me and for this world. He doesn't care about anyone except Dante because that's all the family he has. He wants to destroy everything. One day, he's going to overthrow Lucifer and make Hell his kingdom. He doesn't want a queen by his side, he wants a puppet. And right now, Rosy, he is using you as his puppet to make the first step in his takeover complete. Please know that I am not saying this to hurt you. I'm just trying to be honest with you. Now, I'm not saying that he doesn't love you somewhere deep inside of him but whatever feeling that is – it's not dominant. His humanity is long gone and if you can't see that then I don't know what else I can tell you."

"How do I know you're telling the truth," I asked, fighting back the tears that harbored behind my eyes. She grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze.

"What reason do I have to lie? I won't be destroyed because I have part of them in me. I'm trying to protect you." I sighed, slowly nodding.

"Okay. Let's get to this altar before Scourge notices."

"Before I notice what?" I turned quickly to see Scourge standing there, an evil glare pasted on his face. My heart broke to see his serious injuries. His face was covered with bloody wounds as well as his torso. How long had Victoria and I been talking that Cody could do this much damage to Scourge? How much damage did Scourge do to Cody? The thoughts of answers to that questions made my heart sink even more.

"Nothing. Victoria decided to join our side. The stronger power we have, the better-"

"Stop," Scourge commanded, his voice cold and hard. "Just stop." Victoria pulled me closer to her as Scourge took a step forward. "You, you really had me fooled didn't you?"

"Scourge, I'm not-"

"I said shut up," he yelled. "I am so sick of you and these excuses. Hell, I don't even care if this war goes on for the rest of eternity."

"What are you talking about," Victoria shakily asked. "Where's Cody?"

"Cody's not important right now. He might be alive. He might not be. How about you go check?"

"I'm not leaving her?"

"Fine. I guess I'll just kill both of you."

"Kill," we both exclaimed in unison. An evil smirk came upon Scourge's face as he stepped even closer.

"You two didn't really think you could win, did you? Think about it. I'm bonded with one of you. I knew about the plan the second Victoria brought it up." He averted his eyes to Victoria. "Now, I'm giving you ten seconds to run. It'd be a shame to not have a toy to play with once I'm done with her."

"You're not touching her, you bastard," Victoria yelled, putting herself in front of me. A dark chuckle left Scourge's lips as his eyes turned red.

"We'll see about that now won't we?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he shot out at Victoria. She tried to move but he grabbed her long hair and yanked her back to him. His hand was now holding a black fire in which he put onto her stomach. She screamed in agony. That was it. I wasn't going to stand there and watch her being tortured again. If she was going to die then I would rather have her die knowing things would turn out the right way.

I jetted off into the woods, letting my instinct take over. Hopefully I knew where I was going. Maybe it wasn't towards the altar but it was towards somewhere that would help me. I ran as fast as I could, knowing that it wouldn't be long before Scourge would be on my tail. I never seen him look that demented before. When his eyes had begun to turn red, his face began to crack up. Almost as if it were turning into the face of a demon. Maybe that was what he was. Or at least what he turned into. Somewhere deep down inside, he had feelings. His humanity wasn't fully gone. I had faith that it couldn't have disappeared. It just couldn't have…

Rosalinda…

Oh no. Not right now. I was so close. The trees were starting to lead to a clearing. The altar had to be up there somewhere. Please let it be up there. I accelerated, determination filling my body. I could make it. Almost there…

I felt a sharp pain in my side as I was knocked off my feet. I gasped in pain as I landed on my back. I looked down to see a long, deep cut in my side. What the hell… His chuckle echoed through the woods, causing me to get scared. I struggled to get up but as soon as I got to my knees, a sharp blow to my head knocked me right back down. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," I heard him say from above me. "You could have had it all. You could have lived. But no, you had to let that stupid bitch get into your head." I slowly turned over to my back so that I could look up at him. I didn't recognize his face. While he was still beautiful, he looked like a demon. The red and black eyes, the sharp teeth set in a half smirk, half grimace, the cracks in his skin. This was not the man I knew. Instead he was replaced with the one I hoped he never was.

"Scourge," I whimpered, my head throbbing from his hit to my head. I think he cracked my skull. "Please no…"

"You disgust me," he said as he kicked me in my ribs causing me to scream. The asshole fucking broke one of them. I could feel it piercing my lung. "You led me to believe that you loved me. That you would do anything for me. I guess I can't trust any of you sorry ass bitches anymore."

"I do love you Scourge," I said, my voice even fainter than it was before. He got down on his knees, putting his hands on my cheeks. My head throbbed even more since he moved it too fast.

"Then why are you doing this to me? Why are you choosing them over me? Why do you always take their word over mine?"

"I…I don't know."

"Baby…" He stroked my face. "I love you so much but why do you make me feel so awful?"

"Do you…do you really love me?" Scourge's red eyes stared down at me with a cold emotionless look.

"Yes. Somewhere."

"Were you planning to kill me after this war? Does your future not involve me?"

"I was planning a lot of things. Some I was not so sure of. But if I get you to this altar and you end this in our favor then I promise you: we will be happy together. We can forget about all of this. We can start over. I can love you better."

"How do I know you're not lying to me?"

"You don't but that's the beauty of trust, isn't it?" I shook my head, tears falling from my eyes. Not just from the physical pain but because of the heartache as well.

"I'm sorry but I'm not going to help you. If you're going to kill me then kill me. All I ask is that you don't torture me. I'm in enough pain already." Scourge shook his head at me.

"Stupid, stupid girl," he murmured. He raised his hand but I opened my mouth before he could hit me.

"This is not who you are, Miguel. I may not know the boy who lives in you but I know he's not this. He is the complete opposite and you know that."

"Miguel… That boy who lives in me. Yea, his name is Miguel. But you wanna know something, Rosalinda? He died… He died a very, very long time ago."

"No…" Scourge sighed, kissing my head softly.

"Goodbye Rosalinda." He raised his hand again. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact. I felt Scourge's hands leave my face before I opened my eyes. Victoria now stood above me. She quickly helped me up despite her fatal stomach wound. Painfully, we began to run towards the clearing. Indeed, there was a huge altar in the middle.

"Cody, where is…" I started.

"Stalling Scourge. Don't worry. It will all be over soon." We reached the altar and got up on the top of it. Since we were both so hurt, we laid side by side and put whatever strength we had left into each other to power the spell. My eyes fluttered shut as I thought of Scourge. He had been my first love. Maybe my only love. Although I fell in love with the one who was not him, I still loved him and I know he loved me too. I opened my eyes just once to see the bright aura our power was giving off. As I said the words of banishment to all things demonic, I felt a tear roll down my face. A big white dome came around us and spread out towards the field. I bet it went around the whole world. Destroying every evil thing out there. I murmured a goodbye to my lover with my eyes closed and more tears prepared to fall. I knew that when I opened my eyes, he would be gone.

There's that... Next chap's the last one guys... The song was by Ryan Star btw...

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