After that last chapter, who's expecting a fight?

It's not in this chapter. This one's just revving it up.

In fact, I'm not endlessly fond of this one. But it's here and the next chapter is gonna rock, so what can ya do?

I would like to thank all my readers and reviewers. :3 Apparently, the fangirl army has moved on to a new target. Yay!

Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "Then threaten them with a visit from Hellcat. He tends to shut people up."

"…Shut up, Douglas."

Gg180000: I'm getting to the Charmer thing. xD

AllAmericanSlurp: "D: Where's my sarcasm in that conversation? I have tons…and I would love to be scratched between the wings." *Purrs*

DisneyXDGirl: *Dives between the katana and Douglas, his wings outstretched and his tail lashing* "Wait! We need him! After the story, go nuts."

"…You should be a nurse, Hellcat. You're so fucking caring!"

DarkestKing: "I'm sorry, are you trying to tell me what to do? Lord Soad cannot be contained by the whims of someone I've spoken with a few times. As for destruction, I am pleased by this. :3"

So, let's get on with it! Lord Soad?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers. And I own her, so everything that's hers is mine."

"Freedom lies in being bold."

Robert Frost

"Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction."

Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Chapter Twenty-Two – This World is Mine

Chase

I wanted to kick Oly. Seriously, I just wanted to beat some modernization into her. It took about twenty minutes for her to learn how to use a phone. Twenty minutes! And it was because she wouldn't stop asking questions.

"So…which end do I talk into?"

"The bottom one. Just hold it like this."

"And I press the buttons to get Bree on the other line?"

"Yes. Wait, don't push random buttons!"

"But I'm supposed to push the buttons!"

"Specific ones! In order!"

Long story short, I was never teaching another imp how to use the phone.

However, for as long as our ordeal lasted, Bree arrived in less than thirty seconds with both Azazel's Bane and The Arm of Raziel. "Has Krane done anything?" she asked immediately upon stopping in front of us.

I shook my head. "I have no idea. We haven't seen him because someone –" I looked pointedly at Oly – "didn't know how to use a phone."

"Kiss my ass, Half-Breed," Oly huffed.

"Focus," Bree hissed as she handed me The Arm of Raziel.

I shook the staff at her. "Why did you bring this? How did you even get it past Tasha?"

Bree shrugged. "If we needed Azazel's Bane, maybe we would need The Arm of Raziel, too. Besides, Tasha and Mr. Davenport went for a walk to clear their heads a bit. Apparently, staying at home was making them anxious."

I nodded, lowering the staff. "Then let's go kick Krane's ass."

Bree looped Azazel's Bane around her neck and nodded. "What's the plan?"

"Wing it!" Oly declared, leaping away from the phone and charging out the door.

After a second, I shrugged. "We wing it."

Bree rolled her eyes, but followed anyways as I trotted from the room and into the hallway. As quietly as we could, we approached the door that lead to the Council meeting and, most likely, Krane. Hopefully he hadn't killed anybody in the time we had wasted. That would just suck.

Oly waited by the door, her arms crossed as she tapped her foot impatiently. "Hurry up, idiots," she hissed. "Do you want him to kill everybody?"

I resisted the urge to kick her, instead opting to growl. "Let's just get this over with."

Bree rolled her eyes again and pushed past me, opening the door a crack and peeking inside. Almost immediately, she backed away, her face paling with horror.

"Bree? What's going on?" I asked, dread rising in me. What had caused a reaction like that?

"Krane and some other guy," she whimpered. "So much blood."

Whoa, what? "Did Krane kill someone?"

Bree shook her head. "I think he's hurt, too. He's twitching on the floor."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Oly asked, jumping onto my shoulder.

Isn't it?

I lowered my ears, ignoring my voice. "I don't know. But we should probably find out what's going on in there."

When Bree nodded, I opted to be the one who opened the door this time. Carefully, I turned the knob and pushed the door open only to be hit with the almost overwhelming scent of blood. Summoner Hall lay amid a pool of liquid crimson, obviously murdered somehow. Krane, however, was on his feet. Whatever had been wrong with him earlier had obviously passed. Subconsciously, I checked the planes. The jackass I couldn't stand was obviously glowing – I'd take him on later, though. More importantly, Krane was glowing, lit up like a torch. Ignoring us, he let out a dark laugh that sent chills down my spine and caused the fur on my tail to fuzz up.

Lord Soad! My voice supplied. The great Lord Soad is here!

No fucking way. No one could be that arrogant, that stupid –

"Lord Soad!" Ferran declared, bowing.

Krane, for all his intelligence, was a fucking moron.

Much to Bree's surprise, I dropped to my knees and bowed low before Soad, Oly jumping off of my shoulder to do the same. Bree might not have understood it, but Soad made Joraed look like me on the power front.

Soad – in Krane's body – looked around at everyone. "Now, where am I?" he asked, his voice far deeper than Krane's had ever been.

Ferran straightened out slightly. "This is a meeting of the Summoner's Council," he explained, his words dripping with disdain. "You wouldn't remember, Lord. You ate the mortal's mind, destroying his memories."

Of all the scenarios I had come up with that resulted from letting a demon inside of you, I hadn't come up with that one. My voice had, though. So the idiots who had let a demon inside of them were long dead now. That seemed like a fact worth knowing, right?

Soad looked around some more before growling with annoyance. "I can't change forms in this body," he huffed.

"My lord, humans are not made of essence," Ferran explained.

Soad snorted loudly. "I suppose it is a fair sacrifice for free will in this world," he said at length. He strode forward, looking everyone over. The Summoners – Leo, Douglas and Adam included - all seemed to shrink back from him as he approached. He passed them slowly, grinning at their fear. Finally, on the other side of the table, he stopped and turned to face them fully. "The Council," he began, his voice falsely sweet. "The ones who were supposed to make the rules and enforce them. The ones who thought they could control us." He laughed, which was the demons cue to laugh which him. I dutifully chuckled on the floor. Honestly, he was right: What hope did mortals have of controlling something far more powerful than themselves?

Arrogance has always been a weakness of mankind, my voice agreed.

Soad grinned. "Your kind are nothing but fools, and you who think they can control us are more foolish than the rest! A few of your members even invited us willingly into themselves, thinking that they could keep us contained. You are nothing but Yalan ustaları, masters of lies."

I caught Oly nodded at this.

After a moment of silence, Soad began to walk the perimeter of the room, where we demons remained bowing. He allowed his eyes to rest on each one of us, as if sizing up his competition. He paused at me. "Mələz? Curious."

Recognizing that he was calling me a hybrid, I nodded. "Yes, Lord Soad."

"How did this come about?" he asked, tilting his head.

I shook my head. "I'm not sure."

"And do you regret it?" he asked gently. "Do you ever find yourself wishing that you were one or the other? Do you ever want to fit in to a single role instead of two?"

I thought about it. Given the chance, would I give it up to be human again? I would be less dangerous to those I cared about. I glanced at Adam's broken arm, feeling guilt rise up in me a bit. If I had just left that stupid portal alone, than none of this would have ever happened. I would be at home with my family, and everyone would be much, much safer because of it.

But, if it had never happened, my voice reasoned, than nothing that lead to this moment would have occurred.

I wished that I could be rid of my voice, but it was right. If I had left that portal alone, we wouldn't be here. I never would have been summoned by Douglas, and nothing that happened after that would exist.

"I regret nothing, my lord," I finally answered. "Everything is for a reason."

Soad seemed amused by this answer. "You are content to let fate drag you through time?"

I shook my head. "I am content with where it has left me now."

Even if it was in an extremely dangerous situation.

Soad nodded thoughtfully before he started walking again.

Bree dropped to her knees beside me, bowing herself now. "Are you really content?" she whispered.

"Are you not content?" I challenged quietly.

After several seconds, she answered, "If I could change anything, than we would have lived different lives this past month or so."

I nodded. "Exactly."

She glanced at Soad. "So, what do we do about him?"

I sighed. "The only thing I can think of is to hit him with The Arm of Raziel," I responded. It should have been powerful enough to take him out. "The only problem is that we can't use it. You saw what happened in Italy when Douglas and Mr. Davenport tried to use it."

Bree frowned. "But what if you could use it?"

"I can't activate it," I answered. I didn't know how to use the words to fire the stupid thing up.

"But Douglas can," Bree reasoned. "If you can get him to activate it –"

"Soad wouldn't give us the opportunity," I hissed.

"But what if Adam could distract him long enough?"

"We would still have to get to Adam," I pointed out.

Bree rolled her eyes. "I am the fastest person on the planet."

I glanced at Soad, who had made it to his Circle again. He stopped to speak with an afrit, who was trembling. "Don't get killed," I responded finally.

In an instant, Bree was on her feet and across the room, whispering in Adam's ear. Soad glanced around at the breeze she had created only to narrow his eyes at them. "What are you two doing?" he huffed, striding towards them rapidly. "I didn't say that you could gossip amongst yourselves."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Half-Breed," Oly muttered beside me.

I hoped so, too. Adam looked utterly terrified as Soad approached them. Yahn jumped up from bowing on the floor and dove behind Adam as he basically squeaked, "I'm sorry."

Soad paused. "A Charmer?" he noted, almost purring.

Adam nodded, paling visibly. Behind him, Bree slid Azazel's Bane off of her neck and passed it to Douglas, who appeared very confused as Bree started to whisper the plan to him.

Soad grinned. "Tell me, then: How is it that you first discovered your gift?"

Come on, Adam, I thought. Think of something!

"Well," Adam began, his voice shaking, "I was walking home from school –"

"What is this 'school'?" Soad interrupted.

Adam frowned. "School sucks," he answered. He launched into a rant about how boring school was compared to everything else, which was somehow enough to keep Soad captivated.

Awesome!

I scrambled to my feet and scurried to Douglas, who had passed Azazel's Bane to a visibly upset Leo. Resolving to discover what his problem was later, I let Douglas take hold of The Arm of Raziel. Keeping my hands on it, I watched for any signs of opposition as Douglas began to whisper rapidly.

Only Ferran had the nerve to move without asking Soad's permission. Frowning, he started towards Douglas and I. I pinned my ears, but resisted the urge to jump down his throat as Douglas started speaking faster. The Arm of Raziel started to warm up underneath my fingers, a sign that it was coming to life. Hopefully, I could control it. If not, than Soad was likely to murder us all for even trying anything. Ferran drew closer, growling now as he walked. Douglas better hurry, damn it! I wasn't aiming to be eaten today!

Suddenly, the staff started glowing a bit. I felt like I was about to be thrown across the room as the imps inside it started to stir, which resulted in my panicking a bit. I could feel them fighting me, fighting Douglas. Even together, we couldn't control it!

Well, goodbye, cruel world. Maybe existing in Soad's belly wouldn't be so bad.

However, we were saved by an unlikely hero. Just as Douglas managed the last words, Ferran snatched the staff away from us.

So, instead of us being thrown back, he was.

With a yelp, Ferran went down, sliding across the floor as he let go of The Arm of Raziel. The staff clattered loudly as it landed, echoing throughout the room and forcing even Soad to pay attention now. He glared over his shoulder at Ferran, who was trying to get up. Without a word, Soad raised his hand and shot off a bolt of energy far brighter than anything I could ever generate. With a loud scream of agony, Ferran and his body disintegrated and came to rest on the floor as a dusting of ash.

Yay, Ferran died! I won!

My elation at Ferran's demise was short-lived, though. Soad turned his attention to us. "Why the hell was he fucking around?"

I lowered my gaze reverently. "Ferran was a moron, my lord."

Soad nodded. He then brushed past us, obviously done with Adam. Jumping onto the table in a surprising show of agility, he raised his hands high. "Well, Grand Council," he mocked, "You will be honored to know that you're the first ones to die." He grinned. "This world is mine now, as it always should have been."

"Wait, Lord Soad!"

At Yahn's shaky voice, Soad glared at us.

Hiding behind Adam's leg, Yahn started again. "My lord, these people think that they are heroes. Wouldn't it be better if you killed them last?"

Clever little Yahn. Buying us time by acting like he wants us to suffer. I almost hugged him.

Soad considered this for a moment before grinning maliciously. "You're a cruel one, imp."

"Thank you, my lord," Yahn squeaked.

Soad raised his hands again. "Thanks to this clever little beast, you now get the honor of dying last. You'll see everything destroyed with the knowledge that you're helpless against it." He gestured broadly. Who wants to join me? Who wants to perish with their masters?"

Almost every demon jumped to their feet, either eager for conquest or fearing for their lives. Honestly, I was shocked that Oly stuck to us. Global domination seemed right up her alley. A few Councilors tried to order their demons back, but Soad stopped them with a loud challenge that seemed to shake the very foundation of the building. "Tell them what to do, mortals! I dare you!"

The oh-so-brave Councilors fell silent, sheer terror on their faces.

Soad jumped off the table. "Very well. The rest of you shall watch as I tear the world in two." With that, Soad strode forward and threw the doors open, his small army of demons following without being ordered to.

Several moments passed before anyone had the courage to move. Who knew if Soad would change his mind? However, not even paralyzing fear lasted forever, as an apprentice proved when she broke the silence. "Summoner Hall killed us all, didn't he?"

Murmurs of both agreement and disagreement filled the room. For some reason, a few Councilors refused to see that both Hall and Krane had caused this. Krane had the idea, and Hall set it in motion.

Of course, none of them knew about Krane until he had shown up a short while ago.

Oly started to pull on my tail to get my attention. "What now?"

I lowered my ears a bit. "I don't know." Those words were physically painful to say, but they were true. "We couldn't control The Arm of Raziel together, and neither could Ferran. We can't use it.

Adam scooped up the staff as Councilors began to figure out just which demons had remained loyal to them. A few bolted out of the room to call loved ones while others prayed. Still others debated why this was happening and whether or not they should have gotten into summoning in the first place. The Council was supposed to set and enforce rules of summoning. However, when something went wrong, they devolved into useless idiots without a battle plan.

Useless, the lot of them.

"Look," Douglas began, taking charge of the situation. "Obviously, we're on our own here." He glanced around at the various Councilors and rolled his eyes. "I don't know what we're going to do, but I know that we can at least go out with a bang, right?"

Go out? Run! This man intends to get you killed!

I ignored my voice as Leo spoke up, his voice shaky. "How?"

Douglas shrugged. "We have The Arm of Raziel and Azazel's Bane. Let's follow Soad and see what we can come up with between here and there."

"Where is 'there,' anyways?" Bree asked.

Oly shrugged. "Probably the closest place to burn. Likely the park around the corner." She smiled a bit. "That place would go up like a tinder box."

Bree suddenly paled. "Mr. Davenport and Tasha are at the park! It's where they were going to walk!"

Adam winced, still holding the staff. "Then we should probably go. Now."

What? Zara, don't end it there!

Too bad. :P The chapter was getting long.

Anywho, Soad is gathering an army! :O *gasp* Who's ready to bow down before their demon lord?

No one? Good. :3 Because he'd likely just eat you.

Anyways, the fight you were probably expecting is going to happen in the next chapter, so stay tuned! Until then, feel free to review. Or don't. I don't give a crap. :P

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*