Nicole rushed into the Black Badge Divisions offices to find Wynonna, Dolls and Doc standing together looking worried. Doc had his arm in a sling and when Wynonna turned towards her she saw she had three deep looking scratched across her cheek.

"Hey, I came as quickly as I could, What's going on?" Nicole asked in confusion

They all turned towards her but said nothing until Wynonna stepped forward "It's Waverly…."

"What - what do you mean? What's happened? Where is she" Nicole was getting worried

"She's in Dolls' office…. but she's not…..herself" Wynonna said moving closer to Nicole "She…she shot at me and Doc, and hit Doc" Wynonna said gesturing to Doc, who lifted the arm that was in a sling

"What?" Nicole smiled disbelieving "Waverly wouldn't…"

"Well she did. She also did this" Wynonna pointed to her cheek "and it really freakin' hurts, I can tell ya"

"That doesn't make sense…." Nicole said still not quite believing them

"Look, something happened to her out by the Ghost River Gate and she's….well, we don't know what…" Wynonna shook her head and shrugged

"What do you mean, you don't know? What happened?" Nicole was really starting to get worried and wanted some answers

"Come on, she's in here" Wynonna said walking towards Dolls' office "But…she isn't herself. At all. So be prepared for that, okay?"

Wynonna opened the door to Dolls' office and let Nicole walk in. As she did she saw Waverly sitting, arms and legs tied to a chair in the middle of the room. She had her head down, but lifted it as they entered the room, that's when Nicole saw her eyes, they weren't the sweet brown eyes she was used to looking into, they were completely black except for slightly lighter iris's. It also looked as if the black was leaking out and marking her face around her eyes. Nicole has never seen anything like it.

"Ah, there's my angel" a strange hollow sounding Waverly said. Nicole stiffened at being called that, she had never told anyone but Waverly about her heritage and she didn't have any intentions of telling anyone else, especially Wynonna, certainly not at the minute anyway. But when she looked quickly at Wynonna she was just rolling her eyes at what she must have thought was just a pet name.

"Waverly?" Nicole asked as she walked up to her, slowly leaning down to look into her face

"Well… No, I'm afraid not, Waverly isn't here any more" the hollow voice said with an evil grin

Nicole looked at Wynonna from where she stood next to Waverly "What the hell happened?" she asked angrily

"Ironically the person we'd need to figure that out isn't available….." Wynonna gestured to Waverly "The best we can figure out is that she's been possessed" Wynonna shrugged sadly leaning against the doorframe

"Possessed?" It laughed darkly "No" it smiled "that makes it sound like i'm sharing this body. I'm not. This tight little body is mine now, your sister.." It said to Wynonna "…your lover.." It said looking up at Nicole "Is no longer in here" It smiled as it watched Nicole walk behind her and around to the other side "But I remember everything, I know everything she knew…. everything." It smiled up at Nicole and winked, Nicole wasn't sure if that was some sort of threat. It kept looking at her as it continued "I remember getting shot, that was fun. I remember making out with you in that filthy barn, also fun. And i remember that sexy little moan you made when - "

"Okay, okay" Wynonna interrupted holding a hand up "I don't need to know about my baby sisters sex life, thanks"

It laughed loudly, it was a sound like nothing either of them had heard before, Waverly's laugh was infectious, sweet, endearing. This laugh was none of those things, it was dark, menacing and it sounded wrong coming out of Waverly's mouth "Sex life? Please, what with that bitch of a dead sister interrupting us and this one…" she nodded up at Nicole who was still behind her "..stopping because she didn't think I was ready" she finished in a childish voice "Your sister didn't have a sex life…" it stated bluntly

Nicole had blushed bright red as Wynonna looked at her.

"…which is disappointing" the thing continued "after being a fucking tentacle monster for a couple hundred years I really didn't get much pleasure, sexual or otherwise and I was hoping for some sort of action as a human…preferably violence…" the hollow voice sounded disappointed "… some eye gouging, that would have been nice, strangulation… oh, gutting someone, i've missed that close up violence, there's only so much pleasure you can get from squeezing someone to death with a massive tentacle all the time…"

"Tentacle monster…?" Wynonna repeated. She looked like she was actually thinking, then she quickly rushed out of the door, letting it close behind her.

"Hmm, looks like she may have worked it out with that little clue, considering she's so stupid, I thought it might take her longer" it said laughing a little "hmm, just the two of us now, huh?"

As Nicole walked around in front of the thing inside Waverly it carried on "How about you untie me, hmm? I can have a look and see if you've healed that nicely positioned bruise of yours" It smiled, its fingers wriggling

"You obviously aren't as smart as Waverly if you think i'm going to untie you.." Nicole said as she studied it.

It shrugged "A girl's got to try"

Nicole knelt down in front of Waverly and looked at her face. It was Waverly's face that's for sure, but it definitely wasn't her. Nicole refused to believe that she wasn't still in there. She wouldn't give up that easily, she'd be in there fighting, Nicole was sure of it. She looked her in the eyes and the strange grey iris's looked back at her with amusement.

"Waverly?" She tried to see if there was any kind of reaction

It laughed slightly at her.

"Waverly?" She asked again raising her hand to touch Waverly's cheek

It snapped it's face out of Nicole's reach quickly "Don't fucking touch me you filthy halfbreed" it said with disgust

Nicole was shocked by the venom in its voice and moved her hand away quickly, but she also noticed fear in its eyes for a split second. What did something like that have to fear from her? She thought for a second while she watched it regain it composure. Then she thought of something. It had mentioned her being an angel in some way or another three times, literally calling her one when she walked in and just then, in a rather unsubtle insult, maybe it feared what she was, what she might be able to do to it.

While she was thinking it regained it's confidence and started talking again "I was so disappointed when they knocked me down and tied me up, I really wanted to enjoy this body, I bet you do too huh? well we can…"

Nicole interrupted "Y'know what's really going to disappoint you?" She asked in a low voice moving her face closer "When I kill you" she whispered looking it directly in the eyes

It looked slightly taken aback by the seriousness in Nicole's voice and eyes, but it tried to play it off "If you kill me, you'll kill her" the hollow voice threatened

Nicole looked it straight in the eye again "I thought you said she was already dead?" She said calmly smiling. It looked shocked and worried. It really wasn't as clever as Waverly.

That was all Nicole needed to make her mind up. Sure, she had never done this before, but she'd thought about it a lot over her lifetime.

"Waverly" Nicole said directly to it "I love you"

With that and without thinking too much about the consequences Nicole stood up, reached down and placed her hands on Waverly's face and neck just along the jawline. She concentrated harder than she had ever done before, she didn't know if this was even going to work, she had never tried to heal anyone else before and she didn't even know if 'healing' Waverly would actually get this thing out of her, but how could she not try?

It only took a second for Waverly to start to scream. It was a blood curdling scream that was a mix of Waverly and this monster inside her. Nicole's hands had started to glow the bright blue-white that she was used to seeing, but they were burning Waverly's face, Nicole could see Waverly's skin around her hands turning red, she didn't like to think she was hurting her, but surely this was a sign that it was having some sort of effect.

Nicole squeezed her eyes shut and gave it everything she had, she started to feel an immense pressure in her head, and her hands and arms started to feel like they were on fire. But she knew she had to continue, if what she was trying to do was effecting them both in such a strong way, it must be helping.

But when the screaming stopped suddenly and everything went silent, she feared for the worst. She opened her eyes, but found that she couldn't move the rest of her body. As panic started to set in Nicole saw something out of the corner of her eye; a blue light.

The room looked exactly the same as usual apart from a sort of haze, it wasn't thick, but it was enough to make the room look wrong, sort of blurry around the edges. The blue light that appeared started to grow and get closer to her and started to change slowly into… what was that? a person? with…wings? As the figure got closer Nicole's heart started pounding, She recognised the person.

"M-Mother?" She whispered

The figure hovered to the left of her and smiled brightly. Nicole's eyes started to fill with tears, she never thought she'd see her mother again, but there she was, bright white and blue, with the most magnificent wings Nicole had ever seen

"Mother"

"Little one" The angel said softly, smiling

Tears started to roll down Nicole's cheeks "Mother" She smiled through the tears. She wanted so much to touch her, hug her, but she couldn't move at all. Could she have actually died? was she in heaven? or on her way there?

"Look at you, all grown up. And you haven't changed a bit. Always so kind and strong and true" She smiled, her voice was soft and so soothing "I am proud of you, my love, spending your life protecting people, you were always so good at that" She smiled again "but tell me, sweetheart, are you sure this is what you want to do?" Her mother asked

Nicole was confused for a second. She looked down at a frozen screaming Waverly and figured that was what her mother meant "What, save her?"

Her mother nodded

"Yes, of course it is…"

Her mother smiled again "Even if it could kill you?"

Well at least she wasn't dead already. Nicole didn't even have to think about the answer though "I have to at least try. Ma, I love her"

Her mother smiled brightly again and reached out to touch Nicole's cheek, Nicole closed her eyes at the touch she had missed so much. "Ma…"

"Oh, my beautiful child" Her voice had to be the most glorious thing Nicole had ever heard "Concentrate again, my love, and I will help you free her"