A/N: Hey once again guyz! So I hope everyone ushered in the new year with lots of smiles and good cheer :D so long thirteen hello fourteen! This is my new years present to all of you who still keep up with this story and love to read it, thanks for being so sweet :) so like I've said this story is completed now, I may still tweak the last chapter but all in all complete! I hope you enjoy these last few chapters and that things come together nicely for you by the end :)

With special thanks to my beta :) and I'm sorry if this is small but I hope you enjoy it anyways!

Celest ^I^

Amy watched as rain pattered against the glass windowpane, her thoughts wandering over the events of the past year. Knowing about Jazz and Missy had been a slight shocker to her, but compared to everything else it wasn't that big of a bombshell. If she was being honest with herself, and everyone around her, she kind of saw signs that the two were about to get back together before it even happened. She was happy for her friend, as long as Missy didn't do anything. And if Missy did happen to harm her friend in any way … well, the smiting card was always on the table for Jazz to use.

She had learned after that night, when she had talked with Pandora that Gabe had gone back and reset the timeline so that Sam had his brother back once again; he was very mysterious about the whole thing in general, as if he hadn't really agreed with the decision even though she had thanked him for doing it.

In answer to that, he had scoffed at her and rolled his eyes. "You may not be thanking me for that for much longer." When she had asked him to elaborate on what he meant, he just wiggled his eyebrows at her and gave her a cryptic smirk, none of which helped her. When she realized that he really wasn't about to be forthcoming she had dropped it, thinking that eventually everything would be made clear.

Things between the two of them had been somewhat tame, which irked her to the ends of the Earth and back again. Every time she tried to initiate more intimacy, like that night back when he had marked her, he had pushed her away. She had a funny feeling that it had to do with his true identity; however, she had promised herself that she wouldn't pester him for details and wait for him to come to her on his own time.

Although she found that somewhat sweet that he didn't want to be intimate with her without her knowing the full details about him, it also pissed her off some days, but she could never stay angry at him. It came and went so quickly that it was as if she had never felt it. You could say her new year's resolution was to be more patient and this was testing her to the extremes.

She had also been giving more thought to the conversation that she and Pandora had had in that small rickety shack just over a year ago. Although she had to concede to herself that even after months of deliberation over the idea she was still no closer to fully understanding if Pandora was telling the truth. However, Amy did notice certain characteristics about herself that Pandora had brought into question.

She wasn't quick to anger, she had no jealousy to speak of, and she was quiet and contrite. And while maybe that hadn't looked like such a huge issue to people on the outside, she realized that she really was lacking something. Ever since that meeting with Pandora, she had felt a similar hole, as if she had wanted to find a missing half. Strange that she had never felt that way before, but maybe Pandora's continued presence, she couldn't help but think, was awakening something from within her.

Biting her lip, she gently smacked her forehead against the ice-cold glass as she watched the traffic go by down the street far below. They had decided to live in a high-rise condo for the time being. And while she had become used to their lavish lifestyle, she still had moments in her days when she couldn't believe that this was her life now.

"Hey you, instead of moping over there, knocking your head against the glass, why don't you come and help me bake some cookies before Lance burns down the kitchen?" asked Jazz from the counter across the room. It was an open floor plan, so everything was within the same room, except of course the bathroom and bedroom, which were off a small hallway.

Sighing, she stood up and walked over to the kitchen. Stopping at the island, she watched as Lance turned a spoon in the thick gooey batter. Reaching over, she grabbed some chocolate chips and popped them into her mouth like popcorn, savoring the sharp flavor of the chocolate as she chewed and swallowed the tiny morsels.

Jazz rapped gently on her hand as she went back to the bowl for more. "Ah, ah, ah, save some room for the actual treat," Jazz said with a wink. She took out a batch from the oven and slid another tray in. Placing the hot tray on top of the oven to cool, Jazz looked over at Amy. "So, what's up, girl?"

Amy looked up and shrugged. "Nothing much. Why?"

Jazz scrutinized her, and then inconspicuously looked over at Lance. The two of them shared a long look before Lance shrugged. Amy would have missed the whole exchange had she not been studying them through her peripheral vision. She knew they were worried about her. Ever since her encounter with Pandora, she had been thrown off; the whole idea of them being two halves to a whole had consumed her. She had done extensive research but never heard of anything like this happening. After a while, she was forced to concede to herself that she was probably the only one this had ever happened to.

"Amy," Lance began hesitantly, "you've been oddly shut out since that run in with Pandora almost a year ago. Gabe seems alright, but you seem … lost."

She looked up at Lance and tried to offer him a small smile to help assuage his encompassing worry over her attitude. He didn't seem to be very susceptible to her efforts, though. Sighing, she tiredly rubbed her hand across her brow.

"It's just...I've been doing a lot of thinking," she confided to them hesitantly.

Lance and Jazz exchanged a bemused look between the two of them. "Well it's not like that hasn't been obvious," Jazz said in her same teasing voice. "Mind telling us what about? I made some cookies," she finished as she wafted a cookie in Amy's face.

Amy chuckled at the effort of her friend and took the offered chocolate delight. Biting into it, she had to bite down a moan as the sweet chocolate and the soft doughy creation melted in her mouth. Jazz may be annoying on some of her days, but no one could deny that she made one hell of a mean chocolate chip cookie.

"It's about Pandora," Amy began slowly. She swallowed the rest of her cookie and wiped her hands on a napkin sitting pristinely on the counter top. "When I had that talk with her that day, she told me some things about us that, needless to say, rocked my world." She said this jokingly; however, Lance and Jazz looked at each other somewhat worriedly.

Amy rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Do you want me to tell you?"

"Yes. We've only been dying of curiosity for a year already."

Snorting in amusement, she grabbed another cookie off the platter, that Jazz had placed at some point on the counter, and began breaking off tiny bite size pieces.

"Well, she didn't do anything to physically harm me, if any of you are worried about that. Umm, how do I begin this?" Amy stopped as she mulled the whole event over in her mind. "She told me that the story about her is not entirely true."

Jazz rolled her eyes. "Amy, no offense or anything, but did it not ever occur to you that she was lying?"

She nodded. "It did at first. But after the talk, I'm not so sure anymore."

Lance cocked his head to the side, seemingly perplexed by the way this conversation was beginning to turn. "What did she say?"

"She said that she was never trapped in a box, that she was actually the woman who opened the box. Zeus cursed her, instead of not doing anything to her like the legend allows us to perceive, and she's the way she is ever since then. It wasn't a choice of her own doing."

Jazz frowned at that. "Well, that's not that huge of a difference in the story. Okay, so she's not what was in the box, but it doesn't mean she's any better than what was in it. She still encompasses all the negative emotions that run rampant on this Earth. I'm confused as to where you come in to this scenario."

Amy sighed in frustration as what Pandora said flooded her senses once more. The whole conversation was still relatively vivid in her conscious even though a year had passed. "She said that me and her are two halves to a whole. In other words, I'm her missing piece. I'm her hope."

The kitchen was silent after she told two of her oldest friends this. Jazz seemed to have frozen where she was standing; her eyes glazed over as if she were in deep shock or deep thought by this revelation. Lance was chewing on the tip of his thumb, a frown creasing his visage so it looked like he was a thousand years old. Well, he was a couple hundred anyways.

Lance swallowed hard. "Does Gabe know about this?" he asked, his voice sounding harsh and cracked.

Amy nodded her head. "He knew the same day it happened. He hasn't forced me or anything into any decision about this. All he said was think carefully."

"And you think she's telling the truth? Pandora, I mean," Jazz said as she linked her hands in front of her.

Amy bit her lip nervously at that. "I don't really know," she replied, shrugging, "Part of me thinks she's being genuine, but the other half of me wants to reject her." She paused. "I think she is being genuine, though."

Jazz merely stared at her and sighed. "Well, if you think she is, then fine. I can only speak from my past experiences with her. And I don't think I have to tell everyone here how much of a bitch she is."

Amy and Lance both chuckled at the little elf's outburst. "No, don't worry. We got it loud and clear," Lance reassured her.

"I don't know if I should be insulted or not. Because if she is telling the truth, then I'm her, or she's me, however this exactly works."

Jazz smirked at that and nodded her head. "Excellent, but I agree with Gabe on this one. Only you can call the shots for this, none of us are capable. But I strongly advise you to not do anything stupid unless you're sure. Like a thousand percent sure. And if it helps you any you're the better half by far."

Amy smiled gently at her friend and stuffed a cookie in her mouth. Jazz glared at her. "Don't worry Jazz, I won't, and thanks."

Accepting that, Jazz began to chew on her cookie, closing her eyes in bliss. Amy and Lance rolled their eyes and snickered. "Shut up," Jazz mumbled from between mouthfuls.

Lance pulled up a chair and sat down at the counter. "So any ideas on what might be able to help you decide faster on this issue?"

Amy frowned as she tapped her nails against the table. "No. I mean, I know there has to be something but I'm just...ugh."

"Maybe don't think about it too much," Lance tried to suggest helpfully. "You're putting too much brain power and stress into finding a solution for this mess. Instead, maybe try relaxing and it will sort itself out in due course."

Amy shrugged tiredly. "You might be right, Lance. It would be nice if I just had a distraction or something."

Lance snorted at her omission. "Be careful what you wish for, girl. You may get it."

At that moment, the front door banged open and Jazz leaped a foot in the air. Her half eaten cookie fell from her mouth and scattered all over the floor. Gabe and Missy strolled through into the kitchen, looking harried and anxious. Amy's eyebrows arched at their disheveled appearance.

Jazz was pouting down at her lost cookie scattered all over the tiled floor, while Lance merely looked somewhat amused. "What's with the abrupt entrance?"

Accepting the cookie as a lost cause, Jazz grabbed another one and began to wolf it down just as enthusiastically. Missy shook her long blonde hair back from her face.

"We have a problem."

Lance snorted. "Yeah, okay."

"No, we seriously are in the fucking shitter right now," Missy rebuked him, glaring at the three of them as if they had done something heinous. "The seals are breaking."

The three of them sat in silence, the only sound being Jazz's occasional crunching. It seemed that Missy didn't get the desired reaction from them because she looked at them flabbergasted. Amy and Lance just looked at one another in confusion. "What seals?" Amy was finally able to ask.

"You know, the seals," Missy tried again. Sighing in frustration, she rubbed her hands over her face. "Oh my god, I would have to be dealing with some of the stupidest smart people on the planet. The seals are what keep Lucifer in his cage. Yeah, so that means if they're all broken then he comes free. Usually the heralding of the breaking seals means that the apocalypse is about to happen."

At that, Jazz spat her cookie out of her mouth, hitting Lance squarely in the forehead with pieces ricocheting off onto the floor. And at that precise moment, the smell of something burning seemed to permeate the kitchen. Jazz shot up from her seat and whirled behind her.

"Oh my god, no!" she shouted in despair. "Never mind the world's apocalypse! My cookies just burned! That's tantamount to a disaster!"

Amy merely smacked her forehead onto her hand.

~x~

One Hour Later

~x~

"Okay, wait, let me get this straight. So, you're saying," she pointed at Missy, "that Lucifer is trapped in a cage down in hell and that these seals, that are being broken right now, are his locks to this cage?"

Missy nodded. "Yes, once they all open he's completely free."

Amy frowned at that. "Why now?"

Missy cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

"Well, why right now?" Amy asked throwing her hands up in frustration. "Why now instead of, say, a thousand years ago? Or a thousand years in the future? What's the difference? There must be something that is making this start now."

Missy shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I have been hearing rumors…"

"Rumors? From who?" asked Lance suspiciously.

Missy waved in a general direction up in the air. "I've been tuning in to angel radio for the past little while and keeping tabs on this issue. So far, they're losing and that worries me and makes me suspicious myself."

"Why's that?" asked Jazz from across the table.

"Because the angels? They should be able to win this and guard the seals, it's too easy. Lilith is breaking the seals faster than you can even imagine and it seems like they're not even putting up a fight."

"So they're allowing it to happen," Lance finished for her.

"Precisely," she said, pointing at Lance. "I think they want this to happen."

Amy bit her lip. She glanced over to Gabe to see the trickster sitting quietly at the table. He hadn't said a word the whole time since being back and it made her instincts itch. Something wasn't right with this.

"What else have you heard?" she asked Missy.

Missy arched an eyebrow. "You know, if you just flipped the switch and concentrated you would be able to hear it too. Anyways, from what I gather, the reason for this starting is that Michael's and Lucifer's vessels are both alive and kicking. Their true vessels."

"Their true vessels?" asked Amy, never having heard the term used before.

"The vessels that were specifically designed and engineered to house them completely. Every angel has a true vessel on Earth, and not everyone on Earth can house an angel. It's a very delicate process and one that, if done properly, creates a vessel for the angel that allows them to stay in their host for as long as they please. It usually travels through bloodlines, but there are freak occurrences every once in a while. Makes you wonder what bloodline these vessels come from that can house these two archangels."

"How do we stop this?" whispered Jazz. Her eyes were worried, and Amy could see the usually stunning and vibrant emerald green eyes cloudy and murky.

Missy sighed as she sat back. "I don't think there's any way we can, to be honest. This is going to run its course one way or the other. I think the best we can do is just sit tight and hold on to something."

Amy shook her head, refusing to accept that answer. "I refuse to believe that we all have to sit here and get slaughtered because of a bitch fit with two brothers. After everything you just told us, Missy, there has to be a way to stop this. I don't believe that there isn't a way to; and I'm not just sitting here and watching this planet be turned into a rumble arena."

She walked out of the room, her body quaking with anger and desperation. Lance was right. She should have been more careful what she wished for.

A/N: Hope to get the next chapter up soon everyone!