From the doorway of Samedi's altar room, Angel, Charlie and Cassie stepped into the hallway. Angel took in the sight of the slaughtered guard laying in two halves on the floor, closed his eyes and shook his head. He opened them and looked at Cassie, "Rygen's gone, right?"

"Sent the fucker back to hell!" Cassie nodded, "And with Samedi dead, he can't come back."

"Good!" Angel gently knelt to avoid getting any guts or blood on him, or anymore he already had from his beatings, and carefully slipped the guards rifle out his cold fingers, "Cause except for Charlie, I hope I never see another demon for as long as I live."

"I'm not a demon."

Angel and Cassie looked at each other and then to Charlie. Angel looked apologetic, "I didn't mean it that way, Hun."

"I know." Charlie smiled softly, "I wasn't offended." She stepped up to Angel and kissed him for assurance and explained. "I'm hell-borne. I have a soul, and I'm unique among my people. Not a demon, but something much, much more."

Cassie licked her lips, "I gotta ask; what happened to you when Samedi bound you? What you became was…"

"I don't know." Charlie frowned, "And it's something I hope to ask my father, some day. What I do know, is that I have control over it, for now. And we have more important problems to worry about, right now."

"You're right." Cassie nodded and looked down the hallway, "Let's get to the foyer, and I'll head down to rendezvous with the team and organize our escape and you two take care of that son of a bitch."

Angel checked the gun, and looked at his sister, "I don't know. Maybe we should just go with you, first, to make sure you're safe."

Right then, two of Bible's men came charging down the hallway, guns up and pointed at the three. One shouted loudly, "Stay where you are!"

Cassie rolled her eyes, which flared with green energy and she waved her hand at the guards. The two men shouted in shock as they were flung up into the air and thrown backwards some ten yards. They crashed to the floor, their guns scattered away, and they looked up in fear as Charlie took on her full demon form and swarmed over them. She hissed at them "Run, assholes."

With haste, they obeyed and scurried off, occasionally tripping and falling as they tried to get away from the swirling mass of Charlie's demonic form, and she grinned as she shifted back to her hybrid form. "I'll never get bored of seeing the fear on those prick's faces."

Angel stepped up to her and next to Cassie and shrugged, "Never mind. You're good."

"Damn right I am!" Cassie looked at her hand, "But I have a lot of research to do. I didn't feel this powerful until I ran from the altar room earlier. I knew I was growing in power, but this?"

"Focus on the mission." Angel took point and ushered them along, "Those were only two soldiers, which tells me Bible's forces are depleted, or otherwise re-positioned for a second attack. Charlie and I need to get his attention, carry out our plan and end this. Cassie, on my six. Charlie, cover us from above!"

Charlie shifted back into full demon form and took to the ceiling, her body twisted upside down and matched Angel's speed, ready to ambush anyone that got in their way. A few minutes later, the three reached the foyer and Angel darted his eyes about, and confirmed it was clear.

Cassie pointed up the stairs, "Bible greeted us from up there, so his office or whatever should be down the hallway." She looked down the hall towards the entrance to the outside, "With all those explosions, there's little doubt that Shrapnel has an escape already cleared. I'll head out to meet them."

Angel handed the rifle to Cassie, "For the next part of the plan, I won't be needing this."

Cassie took the rifle, slung it over her shoulder and pulled Angel into an embrace, "Be careful, brother."

He hugged her back, tightly. "You too."

Cassie stepped back and looked over to Charlie, who was still hovering on the ceiling, her red eyes moved all over, in deep sentry mode. "And you, dear sister, be safe."

Charlie's red eyes turned to Cassie's and bled away to reveal Charlie's soft yellow eyes, and her human voice came out of the black mass, "We promise, sis. Go help the children. We got this!"

With a salute, Cassie turned and ran down the hallway. Angel watched her go, and he didn't feel any fear for her. No, it was whomever got in her way he pitied. He shook himself to get steady, took a deep breath and looked over his shoulder. "Okay, I'm ready."

Angel watched the black mass that was his girlfriend explode outwards and come down over him, and he disappeared inside the swirling black as she swooped them up and over the railing.

Cassie moved swiftly down the hall until she reached the entrance and stopped, pressed herself against the wall and listened intently to the sounds outside. Sirens were going off and there was some distant shouting, but it sounded to her as most of it was panicked soldiers running away. None of them expected demons, she bet, and were not trained for this. Prepping the rifle, Cassie stepped outside and took stock of the fallen bodies, and quickly accessed Snapshot's work. She turned and ran along the wall until she got to the corner, peered around and smirked. Aside from the various bodies, all of them Bible's fallen soldiers, the coast was clear, and she ran with all due haste down the side wall of the compound.

With the compound as long as it was, clearing some one hundred plus yards took about than five minutes, with periodic pauses to listen for opposition, and she finally came to two large broken sections of outer wall, sized up Shrapnel's work and moved further until she reached a blast hole in the side of the compound. Rifle pressed to her shoulder, she turned into the hole, ready to blast anyone she didn't recognize and heard a yelp of surprise.

"Jesus!" Snapshot shouted, his gun trained on Cassie in response. "You scared the shit out of me!"

"I'm just glad you have more control than most with their weapon." Cassie grinned as she lowered her rifle with Snapshot mirroring the action.

"I do know how to control my trigger." Snapshot gave a wink.

"Is no situation safe from your flirts?" Chatterbug punched his shoulder.

"Not if you keep setting them up for me."

Cassie sighed, but internally she needed the humor from him. It told her he had faith in the situation, and that eased her fears. She blew him a raspberry, stepped past him and looked down the stairway, "What's the sit?"

All serious, Snapshot slung his rifle and joined her at the staircase, "They're coming. Just taking it slow just in case. I've been covering up here, but you're the only one I've seen."

Cassie nodded, heard voices coming their way, and tensed with her finger pressed next to the trigger of her rifle. When she heard the voices of children, she sighed in relief and slung her rifle. Seconds later, Panther appeared with a young woman who trailed close behind, also armed.

"Chatterbug! Snapshot!" Panther grinned, "We got them all!"

"Thank the Goddesses!" Chatterbug grabbed Panther and hugged her tight.

Panther accepted the hug for a moment, then stepped back and nodded to the girl, "This is Molly. One tough bad-ass. She took out the last soldier and has protected the kids since they got here."

Molly's eyes were serious as she guided the children past her to collect around Chatterbug, Snapshot and Panther, but she nodded towards Chatterbug, "You got us a ride out of here?"

"She's also to the point." Panther quipped.

"There's jeeps outside, scattered along the compound's outer walls, plus a couple here on the inside." Snapshot answered.

"How many kids we got?" Chatterbug watched as they all converged, and smiled warmly as she saw Brute carrying the last, smaller girl in his arms come up the last few steps.

"Twenty three." Molly answered, "Plus me. How many soldiers did you bring?"

Brute looked at Chatterbug, "Angel? Charlie?"

"Taking care of business." Chatterbug's voice was firm, but he heard the tinge of worry.

"They'll be fine." Brute said with certainty and turned his attention to Molly, "Seven."

"Seven!?" Molly scoffed.

"If you only knew who was in the seven." Chatterbug smirked. "Come on, we have thirty-some bodies to move out of here, so we're gonna need at least six jeeps."

"Shrapnel's injured." Snapshot finally revealed, and they turned to him, "He was attacked by Charlie, but somehow she managed to tranquilize him, nothing more. I just didn't know she looked like that."

"She doesn't." Chatterbug said as she motioned the kids to follow Panther outside, "That's a discussion for another time. Since he's out, and Charlie and Angel are busy, we'll have to go with four jeeps. Get the kids along the outer wall between those two jeeps and we'll collect the others and move them out."

Snapshot pointed to the jeep on the left. "Shrapnel's in the back of that one, out of sight."

Brute came up and peered outside at the jeeps and assessed the surroundings, then he looked at Molly, "You lead."

Without a word, Molly stepped past Chatterbug and Brute and motioned the kids to follow her. Brute nodded his head to Panther and Snapshot to go mid pack and he turned to Chatterbug, "You take the six. I'll cover."

Chatterbug pulled her rifle off her shoulder, nodded to Brute and moved out through the hole in the side of the compound. In moments, they had moved the kids quickly to safety between the jeeps.

Panther moved to the back of the one jeep and lifted the tailgate. "Oh, fuck." Her voice wavered at the sight of her friend. Her voice, though, stirred him and he opened his eyes. And he screamed.

"NO!" Shrapnel cried out, "P-please no!"

"Shhh!" Panther leaned in and put a hand on Shrapnel's chest, "It's okay, Frank, you're okay! It's me, Lisa!"

"Ch-charlie!" Shrapnel looked around the jeep, eyes wide.

"She's okay." Chatterbug poked her head in with a soft, reassuring smile, "We got her back. She fought the binding and just tranked you. She saved you, Hun."

Shrapnel dropped his head back. "I th-thought I w-was dead for s-sure!"

Molly popped her head into the jeep from the side, "Who the fuck is Charlie?"

Panther looked at Chatterbug, who gave Molly a mischievous grin, "She's my brother's demon."

Molly raised a skeptical eyebrow, but she heard the little girl she'd held speak up behind her, "Told you it was a demon."

Molly's expression changed from the tough, no nonsense woman who had looked over the children to one of awe, "A real demon?"

"Yes." Chatterbug replied seriously, as she looked past Molly at the compound, her confidence and worry in a constant battle for dominance, "And our best chance of ending all of this, once and for all."