Behold, Chapter Twenty-Three!

Finally, we get to fight Soad!

Honestly, I don't like how this one turned out compared to the other fights these guys have had. I blame it on the large-scale location these guys are in this time.

Anyways, I'd like to thank my readers and reviewers. Without you, Hellcat would be very sad inside. :3

Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "I'll fix it." *Nails the door shut* "There ya go. :3"

RissA15: I'm just going to go hide….

DisneyXDGirl: "I found you something else to stab, but I want to wait until the end of the chapter to give it to you. :3"

DarkestKing: "You know that I can get all of these you offer easily on my own. :3"

Let's do this, guys. Hellcat?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"This is how sudden things happened that haunted forever."

Daniel Woodrell, Winter's Bone

"Those who choose differently must suffer the consequences. They must take the pain their decisions bring."

Sachin Kundalkar, Cobalt Blue

Chapter Twenty – Three - Sacrifice

Bree

The chaos that ensued when a pack of rogue demons attacked spread as rapidly as wildfire. Literally; Soad was lighting every building he came across on fire.

Bree was running herself ragged as she put them out by creating a vortex. She might have been the fastest person alive, but even she had a limit. For every fire she put out, Soad lit two or three more.

And, as if that wasn't enough, Soad's impromptu army was doing damage on their own. They tore fences and sheds down while sharpening their claws on the outside walls of various homes and businesses. Some even took it upon themselves to drag the occupants out into the street to "play."

Here was where it helped to have a pied piper of demons. Adam would talk the creatures into letting their victims go.

Meanwhile, Chase, Douglas and Leo were searching for Tasha and Mr. Davenport amongst the mayhem. Leo clutched Azazel's Bane in his hands like it would transport him away from the entire situation if he squeezed on it hard enough. Chase was snapping and snarling at imps to move them out of the way, his fangs bared. Douglas held tight to The Arm of Raziel, his knuckles actually turning white. "Oly, Yahn! Find Tasha and Donnie."

Both imps jumped out from their hiding places behind him and scrambled into the crowd, searching for the wayward couple. Ysthry started to circle above the crowd, scanning everything with her keen eyes.

For a fleeting second, Bree wondered how skeptics were going to explain this one away. It would be hard to play it off as a bizarre mafia attack or something.

Douglas started to look increasingly troubled as seconds passed. Don't misunderstand; everybody looked terrified. However, the expression on Douglas' face generated an uneasy feeling in the pit of Bree's stomach. As she watched, he tried to tighten his grip on The Arm of Raziel even further, as if it was the only thing anchoring him to the earth. Maybe it was: He looked like his mind was a million miles away.

"Mom!"

Leo's excited cry snapped Bree out of her musing state to find Leo gesturing wildly through the crowd. Nearby, Tasha and Mr. Davenport were scrambling towards them, ducking low to avoid flying debris. Leo almost bolted towards them in obvious relief, but Ysthry stopped him by barreling into his chest and forcing him to stumble back a bit. Before Bree could find out what the imp was even doing, the world seemed to explode. Bree found herself thrown backwards several feet, her flight ending in her sliding along the pavement as she landed on the road near the park. The unyielding surface scraped away her skin in so any places that she couldn't keep track. However, it didn't matter. Adrenaline numbed most of the pain.

Her ears ringing, Bree scrambled to her feet and looked around. The approaching nightfall made everything harder as dark shadows crawled out over the area, hiding everything they could. Harder to deal with than that, though, were the now hundreds of people who were now affected by this effect. Strangers screamed and ran by, some of them injured in the explosion. A few were clutching injuries and calling out the names of their loved ones, seeming to ignore the demons playing around them.

At least the news wouldn't have a problem passing the whole thing off as a terrorist attack now.

The first person Bree saw – and cared about (the scene was now far too large and chaotic for her to be playing hero) – was Chase, covering his ears with a pained expression. Near him, Leo was lying flat on his back, Ysthry sitting on his chest. Douglas was stumbling around a bit by them, shaking his head to regain orientation.

She didn't see anyone else.

"Azazel's Bane!"

Soad's low voice reached her through the crowd, sending chills down her spine. She saw him striding towards Leo, his single eye lit up with glee. Near Leo, Azazel's Bane was gleaming in the grass.

If Soad got it, then they were all screwed.

Bree readied herself to charge for it when she noted a second equally-terrifying sight: A large demon bearing down on Chase. The two – Azazel's Bane and Chase – were too far apart for her to save them both, even with her superior speed.

She only had a split-second to decide between saving her little brother or stopping Soad from gaining invulnerability.

Her heart leapt into her throat as she made her decision. Charging forward, she scooped Azazel's Bane off of the grass and out of Soad's clutches just as Chase let out the most horrifying scream of pain she had ever heard.

Some sister she was.

"Last day of the rest of my life; I wish I would've known 'cause I would've kissed my mama goodbye. I didn't tell her that I loved her and how much I care, or thank my pops for all the talks and all the wisdom he shared. Unaware, I just did what I always do every day, the same routine before I skate off to school. But who knew that this day wasn't like the rest? Instead of taking a test, I took two to the chest…."

P.O.D, "Youth of the Nation" (Song trigger warning: Suicide)

"...You murdered and you stole, you mocked the hope I gave! Though I'd prefer a happy end no man can cheat the grave. I know what they'll remember in the words of every song. What will they say about you when I'm gone…?"

Heather Dale, "Hero"

Chase

Could I just say that having half of your tail and a good chunk of your leg muscle completely ripped away from you fucking hurt?

Luckily, I managed to notice the afrit in time to dodge and avoid losing my leg entirely.

The problem with that, though, was that I was still losing blood rapidly. The afrit seemed satisfied with the wound – I would likely die within the next ten minutes or so – and went on to a better target, leaving me to bleed out as opposed to giving me a quick death.

Lucky me, right? Instead of having my throat torn out, I got the joy of bleeding out. How generous of him.

"Half-Breed!"

Oly popped out from behind me while a hand came down on my shoulder. "Hellcat!"

Yay! Douglas didn't die! I leaned on him a bit. "Is everyone else okay?" I asked.

"Leo is unconscious, but fine," Douglas answered. "Bree is up and running. I don't know about Donnie, Tasha or Adam."

I nodded grimly. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know that, either," Douglas answered.

"I think Soad found a natural gas line and lit it up," Oly supplied helpfully.

I found myself leaning on Douglas a bit more as I nodded, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over me. "We're not going to win this, are we? Soad's going to destroy the world."

Douglas bit his lower lip, obviously conflicted about something. After a second, he looked at me. "Go make sure Leo is okay and put pressure on your leg."

"Master? We're ready," came Yahn's voice from nearby before I could respond. The imp jumped onto Douglas' shoulder.

"Ready for what?" I asked. When Douglas didn't answer, I pinned my ears. "Douglas –"

"He's going to destroy The Arm of Raziel by releasing the imps inside," Oly explained for him. "Since no one can use it, it's the only thing we have left that can destroy Soad."

My breath caught in my throat. "But that's a suicide mission!"

Douglas fixed me with a hard look. "I started this the day I agreed to give Krane bionics. I'm going to end it the only way we possibly can."

My head was spinning now, but I couldn't tell if it was from blood loss or the thought that Douglas was prepared to die to stop Soad. "You could use Azazel's Bane," I protested.

"It will absorb too much power," Yahn responded quietly.

"It's the only way, Chase," Douglas said quietly, not using my nickname this time.

I watched as Bree started towards us, Azazel's Bane in her hands and Soad shooting energy bolts at her repeatedly, each one rendered harmless by the amulet. Making one of the hardest decisions I ever had to in my life, I called out, "Bree! Go to Leo and make sure you, he and Ysthry are all touching Azazel's Bane!"

Bree frowned. "But-"

"Just do it!"

She hesitated, but turned and headed towards Leo. She crouched beside him and situated the amulet so that she and Ysthry were touching it while it draped across Leo's hand. Douglas thumped my ear. As I pinned them and hissed, he snapped, "Go with them!"

"No," I responded. "I'll die before any kind of medical help gets here, and you know it. I want to go out on my terms."

Douglas stared at me for several seconds before he sighed heavily, knowing that I was right. He offered the staff to me. "You're a brave kid, Chase."

I rested my hands on the staff as Oly climbed onto my feet. With Soad still launching useless attacks at Bree, Douglas began to speak in that strange gibberish that Summoners used. The wards that had contained the imps within Azazel's Bane for so long began to fade away. I could feel the little demons' excitement as they realized that they would be freed. And there we stood together for a moment as he released ward after ward, bind after bind until we knew that only one or two held the staff together. "Let go, Chase," he requested gently.

I released The Arm of Raziel as he did the same, now only holding the staff in his right hand. He looped his free arm around my shoulders and sighed. "It's been a hell of a ride, kid," he said sadly.

I nodded, leaning heavily against him now. My leg was sticky and wet as blood ran down it, but that no longer mattered. At that moment, only one strange thought bothered me. "Douglas? What happens after we die?"

Douglas smiled. "Christians say that you go to Heaven. My religion says that we go to Summerland, which is essentially the same place. But wherever it is, I bet it's better than this dump."

I grinned. "So, I'll see you there?"

"I'll see you there," he answered with a nod. With that, he started to release the final bind on the staff. And, as the world around us vanished in the brightest flash of white I had ever seen, a final thought crossed my mind.

I really wished that I had been able to see Hessdalen Valley and Røros one last time.

"If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?"

Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

"I guess that's just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up."

Lauren Oliver, Delirium

Adam

His cast was nothing but shards on the ground, shattered when the explosion sent him flying into a tree. Despite the fact that the healing bones had popped back out of place and sent waves of pain from the tips of his fingers to his shoulder – and several other scratches and bruises – he was relatively unscathed.

Adam had a feeling that he was only making his broken arm worse, though, as he was using both arms to sift through the rubble that had separated him from Tasha and Mr. Davenport. Whether or not that were just unconscious and had landed somewhere farther away or were buried under pieces of twisted metal and broken drywall, Adam wasn't going to let a broken bones stop him. Adrenaline numbed quite a bit of the pain while he ground his teeth, fighting to ignore each little shift the bones made beneath his skin. Honestly, if his mom and dad were suffocating under debris, digging them out was worth the pain.

For all his effort, though, he had wasted his time on the pile.

Tasha was the first to find him. She was stumbling, an angry gash on her forehead that formed the origin of a thin stream of blood that ran down her face. "Adam," she coughed, wincing. "Where is everyone else?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

"I'm right here."

Mr. Davenport's voice was a relief to hear. The man was pulling himself upright with the support of a car, a nasty wound spanning the width of his chest. However, since he could still breathe, it probably wasn't too bad, right?

"I see Chase and Douglas," Tasha declared, pointing.

Sure enough, both Chase and Douglas were standing about fifty feet away, leaning on each other. Before he could call out to them, though, The Arm of Raziel exploded in Douglas' hand, both vanishing into the epicenter of a blindingly bright light that engulfed Soad and several other demons as well.

And, as fast as it appeared, it was gone.

A shallow crater marked where the light had touched, the only evidence that anything had happened at all. If he hadn't seen it, he never would have guessed that the light even touched anyone. There were no bodies; rather, everything that had been in the light's blast had simply vanished, as if they were vaporized.

Including Chase and Douglas.

Tasha let out a strangled cry as Mr. Davenport yelled something Adam couldn't really hear. He was too busy with the stupidest, most childish, and most important thought he could have been having at that moment: He thought of the shards of his broken cast.

Chase had never signed it. And now, he never would.

"…Let your life be your dream; integrity, honesty. It's too late for me. Don't look back 'til you're free to chase the morning...Yield for nothing..."

Alexa Vega (feat. Sarah Brightman, Nancy Long), "Chase the Morning"

"Zara! No! You killed them off?!"

O_o Why are your eyes all red, Adam?

"That was my little brother, bitch! Hey, DisneyXDGirl, I don't know what target Chase found for you, but I vote that you use Zara."

"I second that."

Bree! Stop!

Okay, so maybe I deserve some stabbing. :P

However, before you get endlessly mad at me, remember that there are one or two more chapters to this story, and I promise to make it worth your while.

So, until then, lock me in the torture chamber or whatever you tend to do whenever someone kills Chase.

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*