At Heart's Edge

Ch. 1

I slid my right foot so that it was away from my left one, lowering my center of gravity. The dew covered grass squeaked as my bare foot slid across it. I tucked my arms at my side and bent them at the elbow so that my fists were at each side of my hips. My mind drifted back to my training where I practiced this stance technique rigorously. My eyes slowly shut as I concentrated. The wind blew and a trickle of sweat rolled down my back and soaked into the already damp belt that held my torn and weathered black slacks in place.

A cricket chirped and the water roared threw a nearby river. My hands warmed as a red grow developed around them. I slammed my fists together and the glow glistened into a golden shine. Pivoting on my right foot I leaned back slightly and twisted at the hip as I brought my hands to my right side. My middle and index finger on each of my hands extended as I crossed the remaining digits. I snapped my eyes open as I shouted "Energy Wave!" and thrust my hands forward with my index fingers aimed like a gun out in front of me. Normally I do not say the name of the attack while using it, however I'd been taught to associate the moves with verbal command during practice. supposedly it makes using your chi easier. or atleast make it take less concentration.

A spinning wave of gold energy flooded from my fingertips and charged forward through the forest. The energy wave is a fairly weak attack but it did the trick as far as training went and due to how long I had been training it consumed most of the power left in my exhausted form. When the gold light of the technique faded a long narrow crater was left in its path. All the trees it had collided with were ether reduced to ash or flung aside. Some nature lovers were going to be mighty upset about this. I rolled the tension from my tight shoulders as I tried to relax before walking back to my bag and taking a drink from my water bottle I had set on top of it. I eyed the sun that had finally peaked from beyond the distant mountains on the far side of the forest I'd been training in.

I'd been out here since nightfall.how long had it been? I dug in my bag for my cell phone and hit the button on its side to display its digital clock. 8:00a.m. so it's been a good nine hours. "That's good enough." I took my sleeveless red shirt from the bag and slipped it on before flinging the bag it's self over my shoulder and heading back to the hotel I was currently residing at.

The Lurking Shadow was the name of the hotel and bar an old friend of mine owned. He'd been letting me stay there rent free, and the setting was to my tastes so I found it quite comfortable. The four miles to town was a short jog if I kept a good pace. With one last look around at my surroundings I set off for my temporary home. I took a moment to crack my neck as I stood outside the Lurking Shadow. The largest mountain in the distance caught my eye. Lights flashed rapidly for a moment then stopped. With a sigh I turned back to the large wooden mid-evil like doors in front of me and stepped inside.

I knew who's territory that mountain fell under. A bloodthirsty mutant who answered to the name Alec. He murdered my best friend Vic awhile back, along with his entire family. Ever since that day I swore to bring him to justice.well atleast send him to hell. I watched the waitress approach me as I settled in at a table in the far corner of the poorly lit bar. Her name was Beam and at the moment I was wondering how long she would stare at me before asking me what I would like to drink.

Her hair was straight and blonde. It was cut at an angle descending from the nape of her neck to her breasts. I didn't find her attractive, though I knew that people probably did, in an innocent girl mixed up in the wrong sort of crowd kinda way. Her eyes were green, she was lean and fit (probably from some cheesy workout video or just from the fact that she was tall for her age) and dressed in the usual uniform for waitresses that worked at the shadow. Short leather shorts, and a button up short sleeve black shirt.

"Your Raze's friend.K-Kash. You're a Voltage Fighter aren't you?" She stumbled on my name.

I always enjoyed the way people spoke of me with a hint of fear and curiosity. "Yes, that's correct." I replied with a slight smile.

The fact that she had heard of me was less than suprising. Us Voltage Fighters are extremely famous in the underworld and seeing as how she works in a place like this she was bound to have heard some stories. The thing about the Lurking Shadow is that its not you're ordinary bar where just any poor bastard comes to drink away his troubles, this was a place of business. Mercenaries from this town and others come here to find jobs and discuss things with others of the same trade. And seeing as how I was a mercenary of the highest regard and reputation, people new me.which sometimes gave me more negative attention than positive.

She stood there, starring again. I was starting to get annoyed with the way she kept doing that.

"Well aren't you going to ask me what I want?" I rolled my eyes and leaned forward so that I was closer to her. "Or do waitresses serve an alternative purpose these days?"

She blushed and looked away. "Oh.Yea, sorry. I must have zoned there for a sec." She slapped her self on the forehead with her notepad and stuck out her tongue. "What would you like?"

"Cute." She blushed again. "Just bring me a cherry false fate and a peace of strawberry up side down cake." I leaned to the right and gave Raze a little wave.

He was the owner and bartender so he was usually residing behind the bar. "That's a manly meal isn't it." Beam prodded automatically.

"Hey its not a matter of masculinity honey, I'm just a man who knows what he wants." I laughed and leaned back in my chair.

Beam smiled and asked if I would like to wait here and see her after her shift ends in a little while. I don't like letting anyone think they could pursue me but for some reason I was curious about what else she had to say. "I won't leave this chair with out your permission." I gave a wink and a slight grin to encourage her. She smiled and went to fetch my order and tend to some other customers.

My gaze lingered on her for a brief moment before scanning over to the other guests. Most of them were sitting in small groups having hushed conversations, or were sitting alone and deeply concentrating on their drinking. Beam came back over and set my food and drink in front of me with a little wink that I guessed she'd just adopted from my mannerisms, then she turned and walked away with a bit more sway in her back side than I recalled earlier.

In my opinion at seventeen years old she was much to young to be flirting in such a way. I sipped my drink and watched the other mercenaries go from table to table trying to find tips on jobs and gathering the latest rumors. A few came in and stumbled up the spiral staircases that led into the hotel rooms. I always wondered why Raze allowed them to stay here. To say the least Mercenaries were an unsavory bunch to be harboring for more than a brief couple of hours.

The main door creaked open and a confident looking man entered. He was muscular with spiky blue and brown hair. Shorts and a sleeveless button up shirt completed his attire. My little brother also had a bag like mine hanging over his right shoulder. I caught his eye with a wave and he walked over and sat across from me. "Well looky here, both Voltage fighters at one table, something bad must be afoot." He grinned.

"My thoughts exactly." I raised my glass and took a sip. "But you should keep statements like that on the down low, you don't want any of these other cut throats thinking that we have a job planned that will need two of us."

"Why do you think they would attack us and try to steal our non-existing job?" he asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"No, but if they think I have money they'll be hitting me up for a loan for the rest of the month." I cut into my cake. "Not to mention Raze may decide to start charging me rent."

"Oh god forbid you have to pull your own wait." Ren chided.

"Exactly." We both laughed for a moment before continuing our conversation.

"So how long are we going to stay out here?" Ren asked before waving down one of the waitresses and ordering a hot chocolate.

"Well I've been having fun training in the mountains and were not so low on cash just yet. I figure we could stay a couple more days."

Ren thought on it for a moment while he waited for his drink. "Yea but business is just so slow here Kash, I know we still have money but man what about the boredom." He made an exaggerated jester of hanging himself.

"I know what you mean brother." I nodded. "Give it awhile longer then we'll return home, besides we've been gone for almost a month I'm sure Nox is going insane back at the Edge of the World."

"Yea, buy now she's probably giving all of our student's the third degree about where we might have gone, not to mention the thousands of messages on my phone, and by now I believe its safe to assume that your phone can hold no more?" He was only half joking.

"Yea.maybe we should go home tomorrow." I finished the cake and slid the plate to the edge of the table to be taken away.

"Well in the mean time I'm going to ketch some shut eye." Ren groaned and headed up the stairs to his room.

With Ren gone I began scanning the room again my eyes lingered on the large mural painted on the far wall. The picture was of a Castle at the edge of a cliff in a storm. There was a large red moon in the background, a sanguine mood. The red moon was a universal symbol of the Fay, Inhuman creatures that roam the human world.

In front of the mural there was a small stage with three microphones, three guitars, and a drum set. The bar was to the opposite side of the room. Beam was lingering there talking with Raze. I assumed her shift was coming to an end. She took off her button up shirt and handed it to Raze to put behind th 343f510d e bar, underneath it she wore a black spaghetti strap T-shirt. She came over to my table and set down across from me with a smile.

"So why did you have me wait for you?" I asked with a smile of my own.

"Oh.well I was just hoping to talk to you for awhile." She ringed her fingers nervously. "I'm new here and was hoping you could spend some time with me." She eyed me nervously as if half way expecting me to laugh at her or just get up and walk away. I was tempted to do both.

"Time?" I raised an eyebrow and ran a finger around the brim of my glass.

"Well the guys here are sort of." she started then seemed to loose the word she was looking for.

"Jerks." I added for her.

"Yes, but you seem different somehow." She trailed off again.

"Well let me ask you this, are looking for a friend, a body guard, or something more personal?" I leaned back in my chair, balancing on the back two legs.

"I was hoping maybe all of the above." She blushed and smiled awkwardly.

"I'm afraid you have the wrong idea about me." I laid my hand on the desk so that the gold band around my ring finger was in plain sight.

"Oh. I didn't take you for the marrying type." She seemed surprised and a bit taken aback, as if not use to rejection.

I thought on her a moment. "Trust me, you have no idea what "Type" I am. You're a cute kid, and if your half as smart as you look you'll get your paycheck and leave this place before you get into real trouble. The pay isn't high here without reason. Most people won't work in a place like this one, do to the kind of people that gather here." I stood slowly and rested a hand on her head. "Take it easy kid." I turned and headed for the door.

"I've got another shift tonight, you'll be back wont you? I mean your living here right?" I simply waved without a look back and stepped outside.

Judging by how sunny it was I guessed I'd been inside for almost two hours making it about ten or so. I pulled my sunglasses out of my bag and pushed them on. I glanced up at the mountain again and decided I'd take a stroll up there. Smoke swirled from about half way up the face of the mountain. No doubt it was the result of the lights I had seen up there earlier. I could smell something that smelled strangely of burning skin and hair. As I strolled toward the mountain the odor became increasingly foul.

My curiosity getting the best of me I broke into a jog. With the quick pace that I had I was able to arrive at the mountains base in mere moments. The ground wasn't nearly as steep as it appeared from the distant town but there were a few vertical cliffs of limestone. I approached the first cliff of limestone and could tell that whatever was burning was definitely up there. The cliff was around twenty or so feet high and slick as tile so climbing it seemed to be less than a likely way up. I knew that I could probably manage to jump it but not wanting to waist that much strength I opted for an easier method. There was a nearby red wood tree growing just a few feet from the cliff's side and growing much higher than the cliff its self.

I rested my right foot on the tree and pushed off and up, then kicked off the limestone with my left foot; by repeating this I reached the cliffs top in a brief moment. The smell that greeted me made my head swim slightly. I pulled a black bandanna from my bag and fastened it around my chin, mouth, and nose. I'm sure if Ren were here he would say I looked like a bank robber, of course then again the smell would be having the same affect on him.

The smoke and smell had been coming from a screamer. Screamers were powerful demonic creatures that tare a path into our world by using their right blade like hands. Ounce here they take the form of hurt animals or lost children. When an unsuspecting do gooder comes to their aid the creature would return to their true forms and devour them in various gruesome ways.

This screamer was covered in holes that were still burning his flesh. I watched the fire holes spread and the fire consume the creatures flesh till there was nothing left but a pile of foul smelling ash. I new who had done this, it was one of Alec's weaker elemental attacks. It was called spreading meteors.

I felt breath on the back of my neck. Warm and damp. Slowly turning to look at the beast that had crept up behind me, I could smell the blood that was dripping from the half-wolf's fangs.

Who had he killed? I wondered to myself. The blood was definently human. The wolf swiped at my throat with a fist full of menacing claws. I tried to lean back out of range of his hand but he had swiped low with his other hand too. Noticing my error I leapt into a handspring away from him. Slipping on some blood soaked rocks I fell to my knees. My right shin had been caught by one of his claws. It was bleeding freely now.

The smell of my injury inticed him further. He lunged for me. Being already on the ground I laid back and tucked my knees into my chest. He landed on top of me snapping at my face, and spraying me with blood and spit. I kicked my legs out and the beast flew through the air and slammed into the tree I had used to get up the cliff face. He fell forward and the way down his head and only his head caught the edge of the cliff. The collision didn't even slow him down as he fell toward the hard earth beneath him.

I hear the thud as he hit the ground. I stood shakily, favoring my injured leg as I made my way the edge of the cliff, and leaned over and looked down at the man, which had recently been the half-wolf. His neck was broken. Knowing what had been making the smoke my curiosity was satisfied. I leapt down the cliff and started back toward the town.

Ch. 2

I had just entered the village when Ren and Raze came out of the lurking shadow.

"Hey" I shouted running after them. They stopped and turned around.

"Yo Kash, we were just heading to the restaurant down the street." Ren Said.

"You wanna come with?" Raze invited.

"You know I'm game, but why are you going to a restaurant when you serve food at your place?" I raised a questioning eyebrow.

Raze laughed. "You know you're the only one fool enough to eat the food I serve."

I blinked absently for a moment as they both turned and to walk away. "Hey what's that suppose to mean?" they didn't answer but continued to laugh. "HEY WHATS WRONG WITH YOUR FOOD?" I shouted after them as I took off at a quick pace to catch up.

We walked a good ways down the road to the Hot Pot. It was basically a burger place but they had a great salad too, so it was the ideal place for guys like us who like a good balanced meal.of course by us I mean Ren and I, Raze's a pig.

The place didn't have any waitresses or waiters like the lurking shadow. Here you had to place your order at the counter then when the food was ready your number would be called. Ren and I ordered a double cheeseburger, a chicken salad, apple pie for desert (al-amode), hot chocolate (with free refills) and ice water. Raze ordered a double cheeseburger and large fry.

It was Raze's turn to pay but seeing as how he had been giving me free room and bored for the good part of a month I took this opportunity to be a nice guy and paid for all of us. In situations like these we took turns paying or just split the costs evenly between us. The small portions of money we carried on our persons weren't too significant any way. We kept all of the money we make from our mercenary missions in a bank back home in the united states where were all from, or at least that's where we grew up.

I took my wallet from my back pocket and opened it. I flipped threw the bills absently knowing that everyone in the restaurant was starring at the many hundreds that I flipped threw to get to the measly couple of twenties that were still left in the back. I took one out and threw it on the counter. "Keep the change." This town was a poor one, this probably was the major reason a lot of its members ended up being mercenaries, and after seeing the sort of money we carried around the occupants of the restaurant were looking as if they had seen the holy light of mount Olympus residing with in the leathery confides of my wallet.

"How do a few kids like you have that kind of money?" The ol' lady behind the counter eyed us suspiciously.

"I'm not a kid, I'm twenty five for god's sakes." I shook my head.

"These are the two best mercenaries in the whole damn town." Raze threw two big python arms around Ren and I. "That's how."

That got a laugh out of her. "Oh yea?" She leaned in and gave us a suspicious look. "What makes you guys so good?"

Ren grinned and bobbed his head to the side. "Well miss it may have something to do with this." Ren held his hand out palm open.

Vapors began to form and swirl in his palm before finally forming together in a small ball of ice. That got a gas out of the woman. He could have stopped there but he loved the attention. He made the ball float and spin around his fist and as it did so it changed shape into random snowflakes, spikes and other icy objects till finally stopping it in front of the woman. There the ball took its final form, the exact image of the woman who dared to question his ability.

"Oh my god.now I know who you two are. You're Ren and Kash." Her eyes grew to the size of saucers. "You're the Voltage Fighters!"

"You got it." I aimed a finger at the ice sculpture.

Red lighting fired from my fingertip and exploded the figure sending ice showering over the counter. "That's enough you two." Raze shoved us off toward a table before taking our number from the very shaken cashier and heading over to sit with us.

"Oh by the way Kash, I was training on the far side of Alec's mountain this morning." Ren started as soon as we'd all settled in our chairs. "Well I was crossing it when I came across a dead screamer. It was full of holes. I thought it had been shot at first but the rocks behind it also had holes in them. I continued on and then I saw another screamer rushing at this bald guy. He raised his hand and small rocks tore from the soil and orbited around his hand for a moment before shooting off toward the advancing demon. They tore threw its body and killed it leaving a trailing of burning flesh behind them. It was truly impressive. Then he vanished just like that. Can you believe it?" He finished with a sigh as if he'd been exasperated from the story.

"Yea, I can believe it all right. That explains the corpse I found up there earlier. That's Alec's spreading meteor attack." I said, with a disgruntled shake of my head.

"That Alec sounds like trouble." Raze tried to enter the conversation.

"Yep. So Meteor is Alec's element aye? Well how can he just disappear like that?" Ren asked with an increasing amount of interest.

"Well he can't.disappear I mean." I smiled. "He simply ran off. He moves that quickly when he wants to." Ren blinked a few times before leaning back in his chair and frowning.

"If that is the case then how are we supposed to defeat him?" Ren was looking slightly frustrated. "I had thought we were going to be able to kick in the doors gun's blazing but this seems a bit out of our league."

"Ha, out of our league? Shit, he can move so fast that you can't see him aye? Well, so can my bullets." I did my best confident bravado but I knew the odds weren't in our favor.

"562!" the cashier shouted, "order up" Raze got up and with a quick pace fetched our meals. We didn't speak much during lunch. Raze, because he didn't know much about what Ren and I had been discussing and Ren and I were in deep contemplation of how we planned to defeat Alec.

We knew our time was beginning to draw short. Alec had given us till we'd reached adult hood to prepare for our fight. We were now in our mid-twenties, so at any time he could come for us ready for his fight.

To say the least we were becoming a bit high strung. Part of me wanted this fight to never come; yet part of me trembled with anticipation. The thought of a powerful opponent made my mouth water. Wanting to think about something else I scanned the room for something or someone of interest. There were a lot of pictures. One of them I noticed was the traditional portrayal of dogs playing poker.

This atmosphere was much different from the lurking shadow. People here were laughing and carrying on while they ate and enjoyed each other's company. I noticed a couple of guys were eye balling us with more than the normal level of concentration. The cashier and several people were whispering to their neighbors, most likely just raving about the two famous mercenaries that had waltzed in here for lunch.

We finished our meals and made our way to the door before we could get any more undesired attention. Raze and Ren were talking about a video game as we walked back to the hotel and bar. We were half way down the road when we realized we were being followed. We slowed our pace and turned around. The two guys that had been eyeing us in the Hot Pot were standing behind us and holding knives.

"We're not afraid of you Voltage Fighter punks. You mercenaries all think your so tuff. Just give us your money and bags and we won't be forced to carve you up." The large one of the two grunted. Ren's fist began to glow.

"No." I whispered. "They're not worth the energy. Besides we do not want to make a scene here. Just do what they say and I'll take care of it." Raze and Ren nodded and tossed their stuff over to the two thugs.

"Now its your turn red." The man glared at me.

"Yea sure." I bend down to my bag and slipped my hand inside of it as I lifted it.

I felt the grip of my Angel. I squeezed the handle, as I tossed over the bag the pistol slid out and aligned with the man's scowling face. The guy noticed the weapon and his face flashed from anger to surprise as my Angel's bullets tore threw both his eye sockets and blew away the back of his skull. Surprisingly in a stunning act of courage.or stupidity the other man rushed forward with his knife. Ren stepped up and came down with an ax-kick that brought down the man's hand and knife down on his own stomach.

He doubled over and fell to the ground with a light thud. On ether side of us a dead man laid sprawled on the ground. Raze, Ren and I walked over to our bags and retrieved them. We turned and began to head back to the hotel. Raze took the two men's knives and money.

We walked the rest of the way in silence. Mostly from lack of things to discuss at the moment, and not from the two men we had dispatched. Sadly killing is like most things in life, the more you do it the easier it gets. Not to say that the moral weight of it changed or the how wrong it felt was necessarily different, but you grew use to the weight.

Ounce we'd entered the shadow we made our way to the stairs, about half way up a scream rang out. We ran up to the room where we could here that the screams had come from. I kicked in the door and ran inside. There was a hooded figure holding down a woman with a single hand. I could see the tube like claws protruding from the hooded figure fingertips and instantly recognized them as Alec's.

I drew my Angel for the second time that night and fired into his torso and into the hood's shadowed face. Blue blood splattered out of the coat. He abandoned his victim and flew out the window. Ren and Raze ran to the window while I went to the woman who I recognized as Beam. Her clothes were shredded. I rapped the trench coat from my bag around her to cover her up. She was unharmed except for a cut on her arm. It had some black liquid dripping out with her red blood.

"You just couldn't listen to me and leave could you." I whispered, mostly to myself.

"W-what was that thing?" She groaned.

"He's a mutant who goes by the name of Alec and he's one hell of a powerful creature.the most powerful I've seen." I answered solemnly.

"He's gone." Raze sighed as he dropped to the ground on his haunches.

The run had worn him out. Words appeared in black smoke like energy in the open window. It read "Her Death Is Assured."

"Wh-what does that mean?"

"You've been poisoned." I examined her wound. "If Alec doesn't cure you with his blood you will die."

"What about this?" Ren pointed at some blue blood, which had soaked into the carpet.

"No we can't possibly get enough from there." I shook my head.

She began to cry. We looked from one another. It was beginning to get a little uncomfortable now.

"How long will I have if I can't get the cure?" Beam sobbed.

"A week or so." Raze knew because Alec had poisoned me when we were younger.

He had needed someone to steal a certain jewel he had developed a taste for, the sapphire heart. Obviously I had gotten it for him seeing as how I'm still alive here today.

"Don't worry I'll get you his blood." I sounded a bit more riches than I meant to. It was probably an empty promise any way.

Ch. 3

We decided we would go to sleep and in the morning we would go and scout out Alec's house. Raze and Ren went to their rooms and I told Beam she could come and stay in my room tonight if she would like. Back in my room I did the gentleman thing and let her have the bed while I crashed on the sofa.

In the morning I awoke to the sweet smell of French toast. Beam was in the kitchen and due to today's plans I figured it best dress for the occasion. I slid into my room and pulled on my red leather trench coat, black silk sleeveless, red slacks, black leather boots, and black leather gloves that had metal plates on the backs. I brushed out my red and black hair in the mirror. The front of my hair rested just below my nose and gradually got a few inches longer as it went back to my ears. Then the back of my hair hung down to just above my waist. From the ears back I tied it up into a tail then put another small tie close to the bottom so that it stayed together.

I leaned into the kitchen and seeing she had set two places I came in and set down. "Well aren't we looking spiffy this morning."? She grinned broadly.much to broadly for someone who was dying.

"You better believe it." I winked and awaited my meal.

She set down after serving the food and we started eating. "So what do you think will happen today." She asked.

"To tell you the truth I have no idea. Alec is not exactly what you would call predictable." I answered earnestly.

We finished eating and went down stairs. Ren was sitting at the bar wearing similar clothes to mine except where mine were red his were a dark blue. Raze was at his usual place behind the bar serving the very few customers (three) that came here at this hour. Beam went over to talk to Raze. I assumed to make sure she could have the day off. Ren walked over to me with a broad smile on his face and threw his arm over my shoulder putting me in a sort of weak headlock.

"So how was she?" he laughed.

"How was she what?" I asked confused.

"You were staying in the same room last night weren't you?"

"Yea so?"

"C'mon you know what I want to hear. Did she make a lot of noise or what.?"

Beam came back over to us.

"C'mon you guys I want to get out there. Lets go!" She smiled and headed out the door.

Ren let me go. "Completely mental that one. I swear." He shook his head in disbelief as we walked out into the morning sun.

Ren and I took our sunglasses out from our pockets and pushed them on. Knowing that if we ran to the mountain (Alec would have less of a chance to see us) Beam couldn't keep up so we began to walk there.

We came to the first cliff and, Ren rebounded up the same way I had come earlier. I then gingerly taused Beam up to him and then followed in suit. We did this a couple more times before I got annoyed at how long it was taking and just picked Beam up and began leaping up the cliffs with her. Ren was of course right on my heels.

Alec's castle was at the top of this mountain and we could see the summit clearly from our current position. The large fifteen-foot brick wall that surrounded the structure and its manicured lawns hid most of the castle. We approached the wall and used a nearby oak as a perch to see over into the castle's yard.

There was a pair of monstrous creatures that stood about the same height as the wall. They seemed to be in the process of decaying and there fingers were sporting hook like claws that I couldn't help but imagine would do some horrific damage. A few half wolves were snarling over what seemed to be the remains of a human torso.and left thigh. I could imagine where the blood on the wolf I had fought earlier had come from. Last and probably least were three armed men positioned at the door, and judging by the natural expressions they wore concerning the horrific scene laid out before them, I would say they weren't new recruits.

Beam looked as if she was going to faint at the scene before her, to say the least there was no remainder of the cheery smile she had worn just recently. "Well I'd say that's fairly tight security." I checked the Angel at my right side and the Devil fastened under my coat and over my left rib cage.

"Definently tight but nothing that I would call bullet proof." Ren rubbed his left thumb over the grip of his Ghost and drew Soul from his right side and gave the revolver a few spins before tapping the side of his nose with the end of the barrel and giving me a wink.

"My thoughts exactly brother." I drew my Angel and clicked it over to semi-auto before cocking it.

"What should I do?" Beam seemed to have awoken from her trance.

"You?" I cocked my head to the side. "You sit here like a good little girl while your big bros. take care of the terrible monsters hiding in your closet." With that I leapt over the wall.

"Yea what he said." Ren followed in suit.

I landed on the grass with a light rustle and leveled my gun at the men in front of the door. Expecting someone to scream "ALERT!" or something of that fashion I was quite disappointed to find them showing me little interest. Of course while the men seemed unshaken the spiders in the parlor had turned to Ren and I with an alarming amount of interest. The three wolves quit arguing about the torso. Two of them began slinking our way while the other seized the opportunity to dive into the now available meal he'd been defending.

The two monstrous corpses began to moan with effort as they frankenstien walked toward us. "So which two do you want?" Ren and I slowly turned back to back.

"Well since I'm facing the big ones and your facing the little ones.naturally I want the little ones." Ren deduced.

I hung my head. "But of course." With that we spun to our opposite sides and began heading for the creatures.

"This will be much to easy." I quickened my pace toward the towering beasts. As I neared range they both reached out for me with their menacing claws.

I leapt to the air and spun while stretching my feet toward the heavens and leveling my gun at giant monster head height. My Angel squeezed off two rounds that caught each giant an inch above their ears. I landed on the wall edge behind them and turned to watch the show. Surprisingly the two monsters had managed a couple more steps even though their brains were on their shoulders, but they were falling now.

Ren looked at each of the snarling wolves and tried to decide the best course of action.then he noticed the sun had gone a bit dim. "Son of a biscuit." The giant's shadows were growing on either side of him rapidly, and in response Ren broke into a sprint and passed between the two wolves that in response were looking after him in a stunned fashion.

"Well burn my biscuits, what are the chances." I said to no one imparticular as the two giant demons managed to fall on top of the confused wolves with a crunching sound and a couple of short lived yelps, it seemed I'd taken out Ren's opponents in a sort of domino effect.

"You nearly killed me!" Ren shouted.

I laughed and hopped down from the wall. "Yes." I headed over to him. "But I didn't."

"Yea you always say that." He shook his head and looked over at the half wolf that was chewing on his forfeited meal.

"Kind of cute." I scratched the side of my head with my gun's sight.

"Sure, if you're Stephen King." Ren squeezed off a round into the wolf's head and watched as it convulsed into a human form.

The sound of sliding metal brought my attention to the human guards who were leveling their weapons at my brother and I. "Oh, sorry I had forgotten about you guys." I held my hands out in an apologetic manner as Ren was thumbing back the hammer on his Soul.

"Don't move!" They ordered.

"Actually the term is FREEZE!" Ren raised his weapon and aimed in between all of the men. Blue mist began swirling into the gun's barrel.

"Drop It!" The guard in charge ordered.

Ren grinned menacingly. "Not likely." The Soul fired as we both dived to our opposite sides.

The enhanced bullet exploded into a scatter of icy shards as soon as it left the barrel littering the guards with wounds. Ren and I put our hands down and spun onto our feet. "Nice." I commented at the tattered bodies and the barely standing doors they'd been guarding.

"Shall we?" Ren held a hand out toward the entrance.

I started to take a step toward the doors. "No, wait we have to get the kid." I spun on my heel and headed back toward the oak where Beam was still perched.

Beam took a bit of coaxing but after a moment I'd convinced her that if she jumped down I would catch her and not just let her bounce off the grass. "So now that our party is complete. We may enter the dungeon." I turned to the castle. "Theme music please."

Ren sang a little duntada duntada duh and we were off. Ren gave the nearly destroyed doors a light shove with his foot and they crashed to the tile floor behind them with what seemed to be an alarming amount of dust.

"Looks like someone fired the cleaning lady." Ren gagged at the dust as he stepped inside.

Beam and I followed at a short distance. The castle's lobby consisted of a bar, black and white checkered tile, two large staircases that led to the same door, and one door below the staircases. I had been here, or atleast it felt as though I had. Victor's house back in Texas was set up in an identical fashion. Victor's killer was sitting at the bar enjoying a glass of OJ. Even after all the commotion outside and Ren kicking in the door he seemed perfectly at home.

He gave us a neutral wave of his left hand as he slowly turned on his barstool to face us. He gave an exaggerated yawn. "Its about time the Voltage Fighters arrived." He looked at Beam, who was halfway cowered behind me, and this time he did look surprised. "Wow I wouldn't of thought she'd have enough money to hire the likes of you." He tipped his glass toward her before drinking the last of its contents and setting it behind the bar.

"She didn't have to pay us." I glared at him from across the lobby. "We couldn't just leave her to die from your disgusting poison."

"Oh.come now Kashata you don't expect me to believe that do you?" Alec asked rhetorically.

"I don't believe I gave you permission to address me in such a manner." I tucked my coat behind the grip of my Angel. "If you don't show me proper respect I may have to wash your mouth out with silver."

"That's right Kash hide behind the weapons of man." His eyes flicked from my hand to my gun then over to Beam. "Dear child, I fear I must be the one to tell you the truth about your heroic mercenary friend here. Once upon a time he did things that makes the likes of me seem like a de-clawed kitten." He drummed his clawed hand on the hard wood of the bar to show his pun. "Of course that's before he began associating with the likes of you. By the way are you aware of the meaning of his name, Kashata, it means the dark one." He stood slowly as if worried I'd do something to interrupt his ranting if I thought he meant harm. "And you've no idea how dark he can be."

Beam coward closer to me seeming unshaken by his efforts to ruin my name. On the other hand Ren looked ready to do murder.

"I've had enough of you Alec. It's time to die!" Blue ice like energy began to coral around Ren's entire body.

"Funny isn't it." Alec took a small step back. "You warriors.so proud to live.and so proud to die, but perhaps not just yet." He snapped his fingers and three men dressed in black appeared beside him.

"What's this?" I let my coat fall forward over my gun. "Afraid to fight your own battles?"

Alec shrugged and grinned, showing my attempts at getting a rise out of him were fruitless. "It's simply a test, if you can't beat them you have no chance against me." Alec took a step behind the three men. "You boys play nice now." And with that he vanished.

The men all assumed the same stance, there right foot on their left knee and their hands pressed together in front of their chests. All of their hands began to glow blue. They relaxed and stood normally with their hands retaining the glow.

One of the men walked over to Ren. The men appeared to be identical. They had black hair, brown eyes, they were around five feet tall, and thin as twigs.

"C'mon tiny I'll give you a free shot." Ren laughed.

The man smiled and rabbit punched Ren in the chest. Ren flew threw the air and slammed threw the brick wall of the castle beside a side door that was now the only door still standing. "Shit." I shook my head and wiped the hair out of my eyes. I waited a moment then there was a knock on the door.

Everyone in the room exchanged glances. "I believe that's for you." I smiled at the man that had hit Ren.

The man starred blankly for a moment before slowly making his way over to the door and opening it. Ren stood there. He smiled at the man and held a brick out in front of him (which I assumed had come from the wall he had busted threw) and dropped it. The man looked down at it and Ren hit him with a viscous upper cut. Both men rose into the air. Ren spun in a 360 and landed back on the tile floor, the other man landed on his head, which was twisted at a gruesome angle.

Ren spat down at the man. "How you like them apples?" he taunted before executing some precision moonwalking. "Well it looks like I win." He grinned and took a few steps toward his next opponent. "Guess it's your turn."

Beam took a seat at the bar and watched us attentively. The two other men rushed at Ren and me. I was backing up as I dodged the guy's moves. Ren on the other hand was attacking his opponent relentlessly. He backed me up to the pile of bricks that had fallen from Ren's previous flight threw the wall, and of course not wanting to see exactly what those glowing hands of his could do I began kicking the bricks off the ground and at the man's head. He had now stopped approaching and was shattering the bricks with

his glowing fists. The man was doing quite well but I was getting bored with the activity so while I kept kicking the bricks at him I bent down and picked up one.

I began kicking the bricks as quickly as I could and he barely was able to keep up with me. I pitched the brick at his stomach while he was immersed in the activity at hand. The brick hit its target, and the man dropped to his knees. I walked over to him and drop kicked him in the face. My fight was over. I decided to join Beam at the bar while I awaited Ren to finish his fight.

Ren had run out of steam and now he was backed against the wall dodging the man's attacks. He surely was in need of an assist. "Psst.over there." Beam whispered to me as I approached.

She pointed over to a fourth man who was sneaking around towards Ren. "I got it." I changed direction and grabbed the man by his collar and belt. I hurled the man threw the air into the back of Ren's opponent.

The two men slammed into the wall. The man Ren had been fighting hit it face first and cushioned the impact for the man I'd thrown. He stood up shakily and pulled off his wig, and contacts. The man had blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hey that really hurt Kash." Zion said as he cracked his neck and rubbed his head.

Zion was the Voltage Fighter's agent so to speak. Basically he spent his time finding jobs for us to do and taking his cut of the profit afterwards, a sort of finders fee if you will. Normally we meet with him atleast ounce a week but it had been awhile since we'd seen him, now we knew why.

"Well, Zion." Ren turned a wary gaze on him. "Explain."

Zion had seemed to have forgotten us and was starring at Beam. "Oh yes, sorry, well I was here looking for jobs a couple weeks back. You see Alec had contacted me about business concerning the two of you." Ren and I nodded, not being surprised. "Anyway discussions went sour and I fled into the castle, not wanting to be found I disguised myself as one of these fellows." He motioned to the unconscious men. " And have been stuck here ever since, these men never separate. All they do is train. Which, by the way has taught me some new techniques.who's the girl?" Zion's eyes had made it back to Beam.

"She was poisoned by Alec, and Kash promised her we would cure her." Ren jerked his thumb in my direction.

"So is she paying well?" Zion was quick to return to business.

"No.now can we just go." I walked over to a staircase.

"What do you mean "We" I'm not a mercenary I'm an agent." Zion pleaded.

"Well you're working with us today." Ren grinned.

"Oh I think not." Zion protested as I snatched him up by his collar and made my way to the bottom door.

"Oh I think so." I shoved him inside. "And by the way, Zion, it's good to see you alive. Hopefully I'll be able to do so again." With that I shut the door.

"Well I guess Beam is waiting here." I made my way behind the counter and to none of our surprise there was a pump shotgun behind the counter. "Here." I handed it to her. "That's the dangerous end point it at things you want to go away." I skipped up the stairs. "Ren you're with me." We stepped threw the door, just to find two more. "Or not.see you on the other side." We took our separate rooms.

Ch. 4

I walked into a red room. There was absolutely nothing there. The walls were woods that had been painted a dark red.or stained. The ceiling was sheet rock and the ground was concrete. The opposite door was around fifty yards across the room. This room was huge. It was the equivalent to half a football field, or fifty yards for people who have no taste for sports. I was feeling very lucky that I chose the empty room.

I began a relaxed stroll over to the door. Of course with my luck not holding up, half way there an arm reached out of the solid concrete and swiped at me. I did a few back flips and stumbled to the ground. The monster climbed out of the concrete and bared his teeth. The demon was ten feet tall, with long claws, red eyes, huge black wings, a forked tail, and fangs that would make a sabertooth cry.

"This seems like an appropriate moment to scream like a girl and run away.EEP!" I spun on my heels and sprinted back to the door I had come from which was of course locked. "SHITOI!" I did a 180 and sprinted past the demon and tried the door on the far side which was locked.so of course being the calm and controlled man I am I continued to scream and pound on the door furiously.

The demon approached me with drool dripping from his snarling face. "Well I suppose I'm left with little alternatives than this." I drew my weapon and stepped slowly to the left to avoid being cornered. "Well C'mon the beasty." The demon lunged forward with an outstretched hand. I leapt over it and fired into its upper arm. The bullets sank in but not deep enough. He brought up his arm and slammed me into the ceiling.

A mass amount of sheet rock and I fell to the ground with a thud. The creature kicked me (honor obviously not playing a large roll in his battle ethics) with enough force that flew across the large room and slammed into the not so nearby wall. Wood cracked around me. "Damn." I spat blood to the floor. I raised my Angel shakily and fired off two rounds the first bullet ricocheted off the creatures head and was lost in the ceiling, while next entered where the demons heart should be but not deep enough to reach its target.

"Well hell.this isn't fun is it?" The demon smiled as if to contradict my statement.

I dropped my gun back into its holster. "Yea keep smiling beasty." I slid my right hand into my trench coat and slowly drew out my fourteen inch 70 cal. Devil. The weapon was automatic and forged in black titanium. The Roman numeral thirteen was embroidered on the grip. "It looks like thirteen's your unlucky number demon." I aimed the massive pistol at the creature's face. "Angel may have left you standing, but my devil will see you falter." The Devil roared as the demon's head and a good portion of his upper torso was reduced to a noxious red substance that splattered the concrete floor. There was also a new way to exit the room and the castle.

I drug my self onto my feet and put away the Devil before limping to the door that was still locked. I plopped back onto my haunches and decided to wait this one out.

Ren stepped into his room and the door locked behind him. "Well I guess there's no turning back now." He said.

The room was pitch black except for a torch on every wall and two by the other door. The room appeared to be the same size as the one I had been in. not that he could see the room really, and just as the monster had ambushed me Ren was attacked half way to the other side. Ren felt something hit him and he fell to the ground. Blood was dripping from a cut on his forehead.

"Damn it!" he shouted as he got up and backed away from where he had been.

He was hit again; this time there was a gash across his arm and blood dripped down to his fingertips. "Well then, maybe it's time to shed some light on this party."

He stood up and presumed a similar stance to that one I had been using during training yesterday morning. His body began to blow blue and ice began forming around him in sharp shards that slowly began corralling around him. Ren's eyes shined a crisp blue and blue in his hair grew brighter and hardened into stiff frozen spikes. The blue light he was emitting lit up the surrounding area.

The creature was exposed in the circle of light. It appeared to be some sort of giant frog with a demonic bladed tail. The frog like creature's tongue shot out of its mouth and rapped around Ren's wrist. Its tongue swelled and shrank as the blue energy went through it and into its own body.

Quickly the frog realized its mistake and attempted to release Ren, who in turn grabbed the frog's tongue forcing it to continue the absorption. As the frog was force-fed the icy energy its body temperature dropped and its organs and blood slowed till even its heart didn't have the energy to beat. Ren's icy touch of death had stolen away the life from the frog's eyes. Which were now glazed over and cold.

"Foolish creature." As Ren spoke his cold breath was visible in the air.

He made his way to the door and stepped out. Once outside he saw that I wasn't there so he opened my door to see if I was all right. "So it was locked from the outside." I shook my head and stood up.

"Um.no." Ren raised an eyebrow.

"I just tried it and it was locked." I said.

"Did you try pulling toward you?" Ren grinned.

".I hate you so much." I stepped past him into the next room.

Zion's room was white and of course the usual size. There was a beautiful woman wearing a blue evening gown. She had long blonde hair and she was very pale. He started to walk straight towards the woman, to say the least he wasn't expecting such a dainty woman to be able to fight him. Her hair began to float in the air. He stopped and watched the hair whip in the air as if to swat some sort of imaginary flies. The woman's hair began to braid it's self into long snake like braids.

"Shit.I don't like the way this is going." Zion got into his fighting stance.

Four braids shot threw the air and tied themselves around his wrists and ankles. Another braid of hair flew threw the air and shot threw Zion's left shoulder. He cried out but there was no one to hear him. Zion's hair began to stand on end and his hands began to glow blue. He twisted his wrists and grabbed the braids.

They snapped under the power of his energized grip, next he snapped the braid in his shoulder and extracted the hair from the wound. Before he could break the braids that bound his ankles they yanked his legs out from under him. Zion slammed to the ground, blood splattered from the wound in his shoulder.

He sat up and broke the braids. "Great four down and six to go." Zion dragged himself up to his feet shakily.

He came at her with one arm-hanging limp at his side. Three more braids shot at him and he shattered them. She shot the remaining three in a spiral. He managed to destroy one of them, but the other two entered his left leg and rib cage. Blood drenched the blonde hair that was sunk into him like a dagger, but he was at her feet now. The remaining braids shattered as he squeezed them. Zion jumped up at her with his remaining energy and grasped her throat. She barely managed a gargled scream before her head fell lifelessly to the floor and rolled in a slight circle. He drug himself to the door with two long blonde braids still hanging from his leg and rib cage, blood ran and dripped off the ends of them.

Ren and I stood in what appeared to be a gigantic control room. It was something you would expect to see at the Hoover dam. There were huge steel pipes connecting the walls to the ceiling and the ground to the wall. There were super computers everywhere. Monitors blinked absently. To my right Ren stood and like a hundred times before we were ready to do battle with the enemy. I heard a sound as if a body had fell unconsciously to the floor. Zion was lying on the ground to my left, his door still open.

"Zion!" we shouted in unison.

There was no response. We rushed over to his side. His room was now empty, as were they all. I pulled the braids, which had struck and injured him to this decrepit point of existence. He was now somewhere between life and death.

"Damn it.he's not like us he may not be able to survive such severe injuries like these." I frowned at my comrades. "Ok Ren, we better rap this up fast." He nodded and we both set off across the room.

"De-JA-vu." I thought aloud.

Alec appeared on one of the pipes that ran a few yards out of the wall then went up into the ceiling at a right angle. He was leaning against the curve of the pipe where it went upwards. He was wearing jeans and black sip up boots. He had a long sword attached to a studded belt that was fastened around his waist. He drew his sword and swung it down. A long cut appeared on the ground where Ren and I had been standing before we jumped out of the line of his attack. I drew my Angel and emptied the clip at Alec. He spun the sword at such a speed that the bullets ricocheted across the room. I slid a fresh clip into the pistol and returned it to its holster.

"Damn it Alec it isn't fair, fight with your bare hands." I covered my gun with my coat and shook my fist at him as I said it.

"Ha, what's a matter Kashata you feeling frustrated?" I didn't answer. "Well fine then." He threw the sword and it stuck into one of the concrete walls. "Now run!"

Alec began summoning tiny meteors from the concrete walls and floors and firing them at Ren and I. Ren ran right and I ran left. I couldn't see where Ren went as I dived behind a control panel. My back was to the panel and I was waiting for something.anything to happen. A meteor tore threw the control panel about four feet away from me. I heard shots, then another came threw. He was moving towards me with the meteors. I rolled to the other side of the twelve-foot long control panel.

He hadn't noticed. Alec was still shooting towards the other side. I peaked around the edge. I couldn't see Ren but there were several holes along the wall opposite of me.

"Ok I've had just about enough of this hiding bull shit." I stood.

The control panel was only large enough to hide me from the waist down. With a quick swirl of energy red electricity curled around me, the black parts of my hair turned a crimson red, and my eyes shined red and electric. With the sudden flare of electrical power all the lights in the room dimmed for a moment and the panel I was hiding behind was sent flying across the room and into another panel. Ren leapt out from behind the other panel right as both of them exploded against the wall.

"Watch it Kash!" Ren yelled across the room as he resumed his powered up form as well.

"So there you two are. I suppose both of you are finished hiding your yellow bellies." Alec smiled and jumped to the ground.

I growled and the ground split under my feet. I sent a bolt of lighting at Alec exactly as Ren sent a flurry of ice shards the two elements merged and barreled down on Alec. He held up a hand and the blast exploded on contact with his palm slicing and burning it in many places. Blue blood ran freely down his arm. He pulled a vile from his pocket and filled it with the blue substance.

"Hear this will cure her.given you get out of here alive." He corked the glass tube and tossed it over me.

I caught it and stuck it in my pocket. He ran for us and we stood our ground. He turned left to run at me. I jumped in the air and threw a kick at his head. He leaned back and I missed. I landed with my back to him. He kicked me and I flew into the wall beside Zion. Who was barely conscious at the moment?

"Kash?" he groaned.

"No, I'm not hungry, just get me a soda pop." I shook the birds away from my head and ran for Alec.

Zion gave a harsh laugh. "Soda pop?"

Ren ran at Alec when he saw his back turned. Alec spun around and clothes lined Ren. I took advantage of this opening for some revenge. I kicked him into a large pipe that was connecting wall to floor. Ren pushed off the ground and hit Alec in the stomach with his feet as Alec turned around. Alec doubled over and I did a front flip with one of my legs straight out so that my heel would strike the back of Alec's neck. A reveres flash kick.

He slammed to the ground and bounced with the force. Ren and I did some quick backhand springs a few yards away from Alec and got back into our fighting stances.

Alec slowly got up. "Your doing quite well.you have my praise.now here is your reward!" He ran at us and vanished before he was even half way over to us.

Ren and I managed a "Shi." before we were hit.

Alec hit both of us with both of his fists in the stomach. We doubled over gasping for breath at each side of him. Then he dropped down on one knee and as he did he elbowed both of us in the spine. We hit the ground face first. We recovered quickly and rolled onto our feet. I scanned the area for Alec. He was gone.

"Where did he." Ren was cut off by a viscous kick to the throat that sent him skidding across the room and slamming into the wall with a harsh thud.

"Ren!" I shouted after him. He managed to get to his feet, but only to pass out and fall back to the ground. He was out.

I turned in circles slowly wonder where the attack was going to come from. A fist pelted me in the face I lost my footing but just for a second; I managed to stay standing. I drew my Angel and held it limp at my side. I closed my eyes and tried to listen. A hard kick to the gut, I dug in with my boots but still slid back a good three yards.

Alec appeared at my right his leg already pulled back for the kick to my face. My head was hung forward and my eyes closed. Angel was just a few inches away from his nose; red electricity was curling around its barrel. Alec's head snapped forward as the electrical bullet exploded out the back of his skull. The bullet and Alec's gray matter acted like a propellant that pushed his head forward. Think of it as letting the air out of a balloon. He fell forward and vanished.

"The building is going to self destruct." A voice rang from somewhere in the depths of the vast room. Ren and I ran over to Zion.

"Ren get Zion out of hear, I'm going to get Beam and get the hell out of this place as quick as we can. Now go before it's to late!" I ran to the door. "Damn it, it's locked!" I cursed

"Did you try pushing out?" Ren asked.

The door swung open. Twitch "AHH I HATE THIS FREAKIN PLACE!" I Sprinted threw the room and back to the lobby where Beam was waiting. Ren and Zion were hot on my heels.

"Beam on my back now!" She hopped onto my back and put her arms around my neck. I hooked my arms under her legs and took off out of the castle, leaping over the wall and hopping down limestone cliffs on the way.

About half way down the mountain I waited for Ren and Zion to ketch up. "Well.it hasn't exploded yet," I thought to myself as Ren approached with Zion flung over his shoulder.

"Oh-no he's hurt. This is my fault. I apologize." Beam slid off my back and ran over to Zion.

The next thing she did caught me by surprise. She stuck her hands into each of his wounds and began to mover her fingers like she was trying to find something. Blue sparks began to flow and bounce from her shoulders and down her extended arms. The sparks flowed into the wound and then rolled out like water from a fountain. The wound closed around her hands, then her fingers and then completely.

Zion set up and put his face in his hands. He looked at me, Ren, and then Beam, who had blood dripping from her fingertips.

"Would someone mind telling me what the hell is going on?" Zion was feeling where his wounds had been.

"I healed you." Beam smiled and skipped cheerfully back over to me.

"Hey don't you think you owe us an explanation?" Ren questioned.

"Well my father was a healer and my grandmother before that, and her father before that and so on. So naturally I took on the family tradition." She smiled and twisted a finger in her cheek.whatever that means.

"Riiighttt." Ren shook his head. "Well let's head back to the hotel. We can fill Zion in on the way."

"Aww but I liked riding on Kash's back." Beam whined.

"Look I don't think my wife would appreciate me carrying you just for fun. I only did it then because I thought we were in mortal danger." I stated taking a few steps away from Beam to show that I didn't want any unnecessary contact with her.

Ren leaned over to whisper in my ear. "You know I could carry her."

"That sounds like a grand idea." I raised an eyebrow at Beam. "Ren can carry you.

"Well I suppose." Beam gave a smile in approval.

Ren took off down the mountain in a sprint with Beam holding on. Zion and I started down the mountain only to be stopped by a cloaked figure appearing in our path. I slid to a halt. At first I thought it was Alec but the cloaked figure had gigantic bird wings coming out of it's back like an angel. The creature opened its arms as if to show that it was not carrying any weapons and meant us no harm. Its hands were white and human in appearance.

"State your business on this mountain." It demanded

"Why should I?" I asked

"I warned you about the castle." It answered in its voice that seemed carefully in tune.

"Yea the one that still hasn't exploded."

"That is besides the point, now tell me." It insisted.

"Fine, we were hear to retrieve an antidote for a girl named Beam and to avenge a friend of mine."

"Very well. If you are an enemy of the dark then you are a friend to me."

"Well I wouldn't say that." I smirked. "I'm nocturnal by nature."

He seemed to not take in my response but instead continued talking. "When the time comes do not enter the unknown, do not chase the trader that will soon be among you, an enemy from the past can not be a true alley in the future. If you chase him eternal damnation will await you. Good luck Fay who choose humanity." The being vanished without another word.

Ch. 5

Ren and Beam awaited Zion and I out in front of the Lurking Shadow for almost a half-hour before they arrived. "You guys have a nice walk?" Beam asked.

"Oh yea we had a grea." I held up a hand to silence Zion and looked at me.

Ren raised an eyebrow in response. "I sense a disturbance in the force." Ren and I said in unison before dropping to the ground.

"What are you guys do." the castle exploding on the mountain cut off Beam in mid sentence.

"Ooooo, you guys are good." Zion whistled.

We pushed ourselves back up onto our feet. "Oh yes were hard-core." I said as I brushed off my coat.

We all rushed inside as pieces of brick and wood from the explosion pelted the town. Afterwards everything seemed broken or on fire, and the fire seemed even more menacing as the sun lowered behind the mountain and darkness set in. It was eight thirty according to the clock by the stairs.

"I think I'm gonna make it an early night." I yawned and stretched. "Being bad ass all day kinda makes me sleepy."

"Good to see your modest as ever Kash." Zion laughed. "I guess I'm going home. Am I to take it the Voltage Fighters will be returning to the Edge of the World soon?"

"Yes we'll be heading back soon." Ren started up the stairs.

"Well then I'll know where to find you." Zion gave a small halfhearted wave and slid out the door.

"Alright guy's I'm off." I hopped up the stairs after Ren.

I pulled the door to room thirteen closed and slid the bolt home. Not that it would truly deter anyone that would be coming after me, but at this point it had become a habit. I tossed my coat over a desk chair that was sitting by the door. Another old habit of wanting some quick reinforcement for the dead bolt. Angel and Devil were subject to a quick cleaning before being set carefully on my chest while I lay back and proceed to imagine pictures in the sheet-rock ceiling.

It was odd, I had been tired just a while ago but as the night went on I found my self-becoming increasingly restless. Finally after what had seemed like an eternity I hopped off the couch, allowing my guns to fall into my hands as I came up to my feet. There was a flicker of light in windows. I had left them open the day before to get a breath of fresh air, and now a crisp breeze blew the curtains open and allowed firelight to creep into my room. I drew the curtains to each side.

People were swarming the streets. Children playing, men talking to each other about the damage their homes had suffered from the castle debry, and women were discussing the strange explosion and it's ominous meaning.

I slid one foot onto the window edge and jumped out to the ground below, just nearly missing a cat that had came by hunting one of the many field mice that wondered into the town from the neighboring wilderness. For an odd reason my energy seemed to surge forth from my body. I looked into the sky. All the stars were visible and there was a full red moon. a sanguine moon.

I felt my hair pop the band that had been constricting it. A gleam ran threw its lengths as the black changed to red and it flowed loosely out behind me. As I made my way down the streets not many people noticed me, though the ones who did seemed a bit shocked and their gazes lingered more than the normal amount of time. My eyes shined red and the tips of my ears poked threw my hair.

"Kash!" A voice shouted threw the crowd. I turned just in time to see Ren pushing his way to me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, not at all surprised to see him.

"Same as you." He grinned and took in, what he knew was an undesired change of my appearance.

"Oh yea? And why am I out here?" It was a rhetorical question.

"Duh." He jerked a thumb up at the moon and pointed a finger at me. "He follows me." Ren spun on his heels and jumped up to nearby roofs top.

"Right." I sighed and followed.

"Its strange you know?" Ren started shortly after I'd landed and we'd begun walking across the length of the roof.

"Oh yea? And what's that?" I asked.

"All that fighting we did today. well as powerful as we are. you know we could have been killed in that explosion. I mean we were probably the world's greatest mercenaries and we would have been wiped out by no one. just bang, gone. Someone warned us though. helped out and asked nothing in return.

"I remember what you told me once. No one is truly good nor selfless as long as people are lacking divinity. as long as they can not. will not understand." He kicked the cement edge of the building and sent a shower of chipped concrete down onto the street below.

"Yea I know brother, and I'm sure that who ever or what ever that was will come back to bite us in the ass." I stepped forward so that I was standing by the same edge as he.

"Can I ask you something?" Ren gazed absently at the sky now.

"Sure thing, shoot."

"Why do we fight creatures like Alec? And don't say money because I don't see a dime and I was almost killed today. We fought because he was evil? We strove to stop the death that flows in his wake? These humans the he kills have never shown you kindness. yet you insist upon trying to save them from this monster. who you probably have more income with."

"Never show me kindness? Haha you've seen the way these women act when I'm around, they love me. and the men. well their jealous." I grinned and gave a shrug.

"Yes they love you, but when you were. when you were young and were just a kid did they love you then? Of course not, when you had nothing they wanted they shunned you. Now you have power, fame, looks, and they adore you. Open your eyes Kash. It's not you they love. It's the front you put on. they don't even know wha." I cut him off with a glare.

"Just tell me why you care Kash, why did you put us threw this today. I would follow you threw hell and back because I know that as long as I run with you it will all turn out ok." He finished careful to not get carried away again.

"Ever since I was young I've been treated as an out cast among the kids in my school" I kneeled on one knee by the edge and looked down on the people busying themselves. "They would treat me like crap and shun me. I always had the power to force their adoration but I didn't want it that way. I wanted them to see me and be satisfied with that. I was nieve." I looked over at Ren

He was still starring up at the stars. So I continued. "I always thought of them as fools and would tell myself that they did not know any better than this. As I got older I realized more and more that they were simply ignorant animals and should be put down.

"When I was barely a teenager I had some friends. Some were human and some were not. we didn't have much in common but I'd thought of them as true friends. That's when, for a moment I understood that people weren't all bad. Of course this story is suppose to continue with me learning a lesson about the nature of people and how they are all good inside and that they've just inherited a sort of defense mechanism that causes them to lash out and do hurtful thing. Now as much as I'd like to say that there are enough truly good people to make their species worth saving. that's not what I'm going to say.

"People are more like cockroaches. we could try to wipe them all out but there would be little point. More likely than not all we would succeed in doing is killing enough of them so that we lose the comforts they provide, such as gasoline, electricity, television, and other such things. Those we would be rid of but they would most likely still survive to annoy us further.

"So it's better they know us, fear us, and provide us with all that we desire. and in return we spare their lives. and stop creatures like Alec and the demons that invade our world. before they can screw up our system." I grinned absently.

Ren looked at me for a moment considering. "Big talk from a hired gun."

"Shut up." We both laughed for a moment, having the seriousness that had settled on us finally lifted.

We leapt from building to building in silence for a while, till we had circled the town and returned to the roof of the Lurking Shadow. Ren headed for the door that led down to the rooms beneath our feet.

"Hey hold up for a second." I called after him.

"Yea?" He looked puzzled at the sudden dialogue.

"Let's head back to the Edge tomorrow. Nagi is going to kill me I'm certain." I hung my head in pretend shame.

"So why do you want to go back?" Ren laughed. "Sounds good man. hey what do you think of me asking Beam to join us?" Ren gave me a sideways look.

"Don't make me laugh." I held up my hand brandishing the gold band around my ring finger. "As if you need my permission."

Ren grinned. "Right, the best thing to happen to men everywhere."

I lowered all fingers but one. Ren laughed and headed down into the building. Luckily the way my brother and I did things there was never any need for packing, seeing as how we carried all of our possessions in packs. Of course Beam, who had survived her first brush with the dark side of the world, was thrilled at the idea of accompanying us to the Edge of the World, and of course come morning we were waiting on her to finish packing.

"Finally can we go."? I moaned as Beam finally made her way down the stairs.

"Yes I'm ready." She rolled her eyes.

"Excellent." I touched the tips of my fingers together menacingly, and stepped outside to wait for Ren and Beam.

"So how we getting there?" Beam asked as the pair joined me. "I didn't think planes traveled to the edge of the world." She added.

"Yea they don't." Ren stepped back from me as I rubbed my hands together.

"Kash's secondary element is how we make our way." As a response to Ren's statement I slowly pulled my hands apart.

Black lightning streamed between my two palms and as I turned them out in front me the lighting stretched to a single point on the ground.

"What's he doing?" Beam asked alarmed.

A black whole began opening in the ground as I put more distance between my hands and the lighting danced between the whole's edge and my palms. Once the whole had reached a good yard in diameter I stopped my hands and stopped its growth.

"The element is darkness baby." I winked. "We travel by wormhole."

"Is that safe."? Beam leaned cautiously over the whole, peering into the swirling nothingness beyond.

"Sure if both halves of you reach the same place." Ren laughed.

"Your not serious." Beam spun around to face Ren.

"Hell. I might be." Ren gave an evil smirk and gave Beam a push.

Beam windmilled her arms for a moment before falling back into the whole. "See you on the other side." Ren jumped in after her.

"Right." I lifted my arms above my head and stepped in with the lighting keeping me tethered to the wholes edges.

As I dropped threw the other end of the worm whole the black lighting that attached me to the whole disappeared and the tunnel closed. I landed with a splash; the scent of lemons stung my nostrils.

The room was dark and chilly. There was lemon juice almost up to our knees. "Next time I drive." Ren spoke from my right side.

"Tell me there's not a moose in here."

"Fine I wont, say it, but that's a large furry mammal, glowing green, and with big antlers." Ren said.

I sighed. "Why do we even have this room. we never use those expensive ass bullets anyway."

"Yep. can we leave now? I clipped my toe nails today and this is stinging." Ren hopped from one foot to the other.

There was a scream and a splash. Apparently the moose had taken a liking to Beams brand of hair spray. I torn open another whole as Ren hoisted Beam over his shoulder and leapt threw it. This time it was all sandy beaches. We'd come to the edge of a large island. In front of us there was a small sign that read "Turn back now, you've reached the Edge of the World, here there be Monsters."

"Home sweet home." I grinned.

We headed down a small cobble stone path that lead from the sign threw the forest that lay behind it. A half-hour down the path (that felt like a half day do to Beam's whining about how the lemon juice kept stinging her eyes) we reached a large cement wall that seemed to go on forever in ether direction. The path led to a large gate in the wall. There were three men standing at the top of the wall and two standing on the path in front of the gate.

The two men on the ground were armed with Bullet Edges. The weapons were a sort of pistol/sword hybrid. The sword blade sprouted from the guns trigger guard to the bottom of the gun grip. The blades were a yard long and carefully designed not to obstruct the trajectory of the bullets fired. And the men up top were armed with your standard high-powered rifles. As we approached the two men stepped to the side and the men on top of the wall shouted down to the other side.

The large gate slowly swung inward allowing us passage. Inside there was what looked like a large Collage. There was a large fountain straight out in front of us and there were trees purposefully planted around to give shade to students that set underneath them. The building behind it all was several stories high and built with an artist's touch of detail and elegance. The walls were shaped to resemble a church with pillars and large windows. With each floor the building slopped more and more in on it's self. Until finally a single large circular room stood on the top.

I could see a young woman pacing back and forth in front of the large window that allowed visibility over the entire island. She was dressed in formal slacks with a white undershirt tucked into them. Over it she wore a leather knee length coat. Her hair was a golden shade of honey that flowed down to her mid-back, and her eyes were a stunning green. Expensive and stylish eyeglasses were balanced half way down her nose.

She wore a look of contemplation and irritation upon her visage. "What's he looking at?" Beam was looking over at me.

"Hell if I know. I don't have his eyes but I'd bet Nagi is up there." Ren gave a laugh and took Beams hand. "A grand tour, I believe is in order." And with that he led her away.

I tore my eyes away from the leader of this place and gave my surroundings another quick ounce over. There was a pair of teenager's sword fighting vigorously under a tree to my left, and many other students submerged in books lounging about the area. One of the students (that looked to be promising) was willing one of the nearby trees to go threw the different seasons. I watched a moment as the trees leaves changed colors and fell to the ground just to have new ones sprout in their places.

"You be sure to clean up those dead leaves now." I spoke in mock aggravation.

The young lady spun to look at me so quickly she nearly lost her footing. "Oh, professor Kusanagi. I didn't know you'd returned." She sounded stunned but relieved.

"Yes I just got back a moment ago." I walked over to her slowly. "Why do you sound so relieved to have me back?" I questioned.

She turned a bit red. "Well you are my favorite teacher sir, and besides lady Nagi has been quite snippy since you've been gone." She glanced up at the top room.

"Yes well, I suppose I should go see her." I nodded and looked back up at the room. "Though to be honest I was hoping to put it off for a bit." I turned back to Spring. "Not that I do not want to see Miss Nagi, but I believe she may be a bit cross with me."

"Oh I'm sure she will be very happy to see you sir." Spring smiled at me.

"Well I suppose." I gave her a pat on the head and took a few steps away before tarring open another black hole and stepping into it. I rose from the other end of the passage in front of Nagi's desk. The whole closed beneath my feet returning the ground to the soft plush red carpet it was originally.

"Hello honey." I gave a cautious smile.

Nagi turned to me. Her eyes gleamed over the edge of her glasses with menace. "Honey?" She stepped carefully around her desk so that she was eye to eye with me. "You've been gone for seventeen days and all you can say when you finally return is "hello honey" Do you know how I know the exact number of days you've been gone?"

I took a small step back. "I would assume its because you counted love?" A small voice in my head made a sound of pain and informed me that maybe this was not the best time to be a smart-ass.

"Yes I counted, just as I always count when you do this to me." She started toward me and I started backing up. "Why you insist on driving me mad I will never know. You know that I can not sleep at night without you, and you promised me that you would not stay any longer than just a couple of days when you had to leave for one of your "jobs" you promised me." Tears were swelling in her eyes. and I'd backed into a wall.

She continued forward and pressed up against my chest. She laid her palms and the side of her face against me. "Why can't you just stay with me. I just don't want to be with out you." she sniffled.

"I know honey." I rapped my arms around her. "I'm sorry."

Ch. 6

Nagi stepped back away from me and hastily brushed the tears from her eyes as Ren and Beam entered the room.

"Not interrupting anything are we?" Ren looked back and forth between Nagi and I.

"No its fine come in." Nagi said as she leaned back against her desk and crossed her arms. "Who's the girl?"

"Oh this is Beam." Ren introduced his guest.

Beam strode over to Nagi and held out her hand. "I'm very honored to meet you. Ren says you're the leader of The Knights of Sanguine Moon."

"You smell like lemon." Nagi raised an eyebrow.

"Yea Kash here opened the wrong tunnel." Ren prodded me with an elbow.

".The moose I take it?" Nagi shook her head.

"Yep." Ren and I said in unison.

Nagi strode around to the other side of her desk and looked out onto the yard below. "I think it's about time to test the students that are up for graduation." Nagi turned back to us. "I believe I can trust you to handle this Ren. Kashata and I will come and supervise." Nagi thought on Beam for a moment before deciding not to address her.

She walked to the door and waited for Beam, Ren, and I to follow. We went down to the bottom floor, not the first floor where Ren and Beam had entered the school but one floor below where the evaluation area was. We came down the stairs and were emptied out into a hallway, at the end of the hall we were at the top seat of an exact to scale replica of a Roman Coliseum. Down a hundred rows of concrete steps there was a large football sized oval floor of sand.

In the center of the oval there stood three students in their late teens/early twenties. Ren gave a powerful front ward leap from the top row and with a 360-degree front flip landed a few yards away from the students and slid the remaining yards to them. "So you think your ready to be mercenaries?" Ren gave a sadistic grin.

One of the three stepped forward. "Sir with all due respect. At one point I did believe such a thing, but under further consideration. I have soiled my self and with your permission, would like to return to class."

"Permission granted." Ren stepped aside and allowed the student to leave. "Anyone else?"

The two remaining students considered each other for a brief moment. "Nah, were good."

"Then lets begin." Ren stepped back and gave the students the signal to begin.

The two spread to ether side of Ren and flared up their energy. The student to the right was male, had brown hair that was cut in a military style haircut. He was dressed in blue jeans and a red tank top. To the left Ren had a young woman with shoulder length blonde hair. She was dressed in Capri pants and some sort of button up feminine blouse. Each student's element began to come to the surface. The young mans body began to envelope in flames. It looked as if he was externally combusting though his clothes and skin didn't burn.

Wind began to whip around the woman, her clothes and hair violently streaming back and forth. Ren grinned as his hair went icy. "LET'S GO!"

The man stepped back and thrust his arms forward sending a stream of fire hurtling toward Ren. At the same moment the woman walked backward in a small semi-circle as she windmilled her arms backward. Streams of wind flew from her arms and sliced toward Ren.

Ren stretched his right arm out toward the man and his left toward the woman. A large chunk of ice fired from his right arm and straight threw the center of the flames, while a wind and gravity mixed around his left arm forming a strong current in the air causing the blades of wind to reverberate back toward the one who conjured them. The blades of wind slammed into their owner shredding her clothes and sending her sliding threw the sand narrowly stopping before making crushing contact with the concrete steps.

The fire managed to reduce the large chunk of ice to water just as it reached the male student. Sadly the fire did not manage to evaporate the large amount of water now barreling toward the fire elemental. The water collided with him and sent him sopping went into the concrete steps.

"Well that was easy." Ren turned to the girl who was getting to her feet slowly. Her pants were reduced to shorts with a lot of rags around her ankles and her shirt was missing in all but its entirety. Only the girl's hands held up the pieces that were left. "So I don't suppose you'll be continuing." Ren grinned as the girl turned red as a tomato.

The boy drug himself to his feet. Blood was running freely from his forehead where he was suffering a rather large gash. His right arm was broke just below the shoulder and again at the elbow, it lay lifeless at his side. Fury was in his eyes but the rest of his face was cold and expressionless. Steam curled off his body as the water evaporated. His clothes whipped around him as the wind elemental's had, the wind ignited into flames and a twister of fire surrounded the student.

The roar of the flames alerted Ren who turned to face the new development. "Your secondary is wind huh?" Ren leaned into his defensive stance. "Using both elements together, your knew element is Inferno." Ice began forming in chunks around Ren. Each chunk floated a couple feet away.

After the shards of ice had completely formed they began spinning around him at steadily increasing speeds. The tornado of flames grew slowly as more wind and flames joined it. Ren continued adding ice to his defense as well.

"How can Ren make the ice move like that without even touching it?" Beam wondered allowed.

"He's not using his ice element, he's combined his first and secondary elements to form Glacier." Nagi answered.

"First and secondary?" Beam was lost in the terminology.

Nagi sighed at the effort it was going to take to explain. "Basically everyone is born with an element, this element is derived from your genetics and is called your primary element. Your secondary element however has little to nothing to do with your biology, and is derived from your personality."

"I see, so what are your elements, Miss Nagi?" Beam inquired.

Nagi considered not answering for a moment before deciding that it could do no harm. "My primary is Darkness and my secondary is Water."

"So what is your combined element?" Beam was finding herself quite interested in the elemental world. of course that wasn't suprising considering the arena that was becoming increasingly filled with torrents of flames and large spinning glaciers and snow.

Nagi looked over at Beam with a slight bit of irritation. "Dark Waters."

I glanced over at the statement. "Is it dangerous?" Beam continued questioning.

"Let's just say, it makes this battle look like a pillow fight." Nagi gave a half grin, and pushed her glasses back up her nose.

Beam being truly scared now turned back to the battle. The wall of fire and the wall of ice had grown to collision now and mass amounts off water were powering to the ground only to instantly be turned to steam. Bits of sand were forming into shards of glass deeper in the inferno, and Ren's skin was blue and his clothes covered in ice. The heat was beginning to make my hair wave and stick to me, not to mention I was beginning to get sweaty. Sadly for us the hot air was rising and we were high up.

"This is becoming tiresome." I pushed the hair back out of my eyes.

"Just bare with it." Nagi gave me a short look. "I'll tell you when to end it."

The two elements strained for footing but nether seemed to gain ground. The female student was sitting with her legs crossed, her hands together in front of her (still holding her shirt in place) and wind was twisting around her.

"What is that girl up to."? Nagi was starring at her quite intently. "Oh no."

Streams of fire began spreading slowly around the girl. She was invoking Inferno as well. She was weaker but much more concentrated than the other student was and though it was taking her elements time to find their pattern soon she would be a threat as well.

My right hand twisted into a fist and red lighting began to spark around it. "Should I stop this?" I asked Nagi.

"Not yet.I want to see how Ren deals with this."

"You're going to put him in danger?" Beam seemed concerned.

"Of course, that's how he'll get stronger." Nagi glanced over at Beam.

"But what if he isn't strong enough?" Beam was glancing back and forth between Nagi and me now.

I frowned at her. "Then he'll be burned." I answered solemnly.

"And then Kashata will stop the fight." Nagi crossed her arms and set down with her legs crossed.

I remained on my feet, ready to stop the battle.

The girls Inferno now raged against the opposite side of Ren's glacier, and now the flames were gaining footing. The Glacier's edges were slowly closing in on Ren and as they did so he willed the temperature around his body to lower further. In moments Ren had been reduced to a small field close to his body, his body it's self was covered completely with ice and the flames were beginning to lick at him. I could see the water trickling down his form as the flames wore on him.

"I've had enough." I took a couple of steps down before Nagi spoke.

"Kashata I haven't given the word yet." I turned and leaned forward and looked her in the eye.

"Despite our differences he is my brother and I will not allow him to be fried while I stand idly by." She said nothing.

I turned and walked down the steps and set off into the inferno. The flames licked at me but they could scarcely raise my temperature. I had surrounded myself in the corals of my red lightning. The electric bolt temperatures were more than a hundred times hotter than the sun and these flames couldn't hope to penetrate them. I approached the girl and met her determined eyes.

"That's enough." I held out a hand and pointed my index finger at her face.

The lightning swirled and formed a sphere of red orb lightning. "Anymore and I will kill you." She hesitated a short moment before letting her energy fall and settling onto the nearby seat. I strode across the coliseum and repeated the demand to the infuriated male student. he however resisted it a bit more.

The orb glistened in front of the boy's face and he glared back determined. "You refuse?" I questioned evenly.

He gave no response. Very well then, I dropped my hand to the side and let the orb return to the spiral stream around me. "So be it." I slammed a fist into his already damaged face.

While not hitting him hard, there was still plenty of force in the attack to slam him viscously into the cement steps for a second time. The back of his head hit hard and blood splattered from the impact. He was instantly unconscious and with the loss of clairvoyance came the loss of power as his elements died away.

With the fire gone Ren burst from his icy shell and collapsed to his knees. "Bout time!" He panted.

"What you were doing fine." I laughed.

"Oh yea, dandy." He shook his head and stood.

Nagi descended the stairs clapping. "That was quite impressive, all three of you." Ren gave her halfhearted thumbs up. "And you miss."

"Samantha, Samantha Green mam." The female student answered.

"Samantha, you graduate with flying colors." Nagi withdrew an envelope from her back pocket and handed it to the thrilled girl. "That envelope contains the time and place where you are to report for duty, do not be late."

"Yes mam." The girl gave a quick solute and ran off up the stairs.

"Is he dead?" Nagi asked me.

"Um. not quite." I scratched my head. "He needs his arm set and a mass amount of stitches but assuming he wakes up he'll be fine."

"Well if he wakes up have him get this note so he can graduate and join the service." Nagi tossed the note on the boy's unconscious form.

"That's a bit cold." Beam frowned.

"That is none of your business, young lady." Nagi snapped and headed up stairs.

"Be careful not to speak out of term Beam, Nagi's not in the best of moods right now." I gave a shoddy apology for my wife and headed after her.

Ren picked up the unconscious student and headed to the clinic to have him patched up.

Nagi and I returned to her office to find Zion lounging in one of the chairs. Nagi went around to her seat and swung into it. "Yes?"

"Straight to business as always aye, Miss Nagi?" Zion smiled

"Judging by the folder under your arm I'd say you're here on business."

Zion grinned and set the folder on the desk. "You've got me there."

"Zion it's scarcely been a day." I walked over to the desk. "What are you doing here?"

"As your wife has so cunningly deduced. I've got a job for you."

"You know I've just gotten home. It's not like you to be so quick to tare me away again." I picked up the folder. "So what makes you think I'll take a job so soon?"

"Well that's just it." Zion steepled his fingers. "Its about home."

"What do you mean?" Nagi leaned forward over her desk.

"I mean Texas. Your old home Kashata. Victors old house. Someone wants to hire you to retrieve a certain jewel that is inside the house for them."

"Oh yea, what's that?" I opened the folder to see a picture of a large heart shaped sapphire. "The sapphire heart." Zion and I said in unison.

"How is this possible? I gave this to Alec more than ten years ago." I said.

"Well apparently he's misplaced it and someone wants it." Zion rose to his feet. "You don't suppose Alec wants you to retrieve it a second time do you?"

"Impossible." I tossed the folder onto the table. "I blew his brains out. There's no way."

"The job pays three hundred thousand dollars." Zion nearly drooled on the words.

"I don't care about the money." I considered a moment. "But I will go. out of curiosity." I walked over to stand beside Nagi. "Besides if there's the slightest chance he's still alive, I'll see him dead. again."

"Well said." Nagi smiled. "And I'm going with you."

"Oh, like hell." I shook my head.

"Like hell nothing, I go with you or you don't go." Nagi put her foot down. literally; she'd liked to break my toe if there weren't steel plates in my boot.

"Fine then I'm not going." I nodded and walked around to the opposite side of the desk.

"Yes you are, if you don't take this job I will." Nagi picked up the folder.

"Give me that." I yanked it away, and we stood there for a moment in silence. "Very well." I hung my head in defeat.

"Yay." Nagi gave a little clap and a twirl.

It was the cutest thing I'd seen her do in awhile. I couldn't help but smile. To tell the truth all of the tuff fronting she does around the students at the Sanguine Castle kind of made me forget how she really is.

"Well Zion I suppose I'm hired. We'll leave first thing in the morning." It had been the second time I'd said it in as many days.

"We're hired." Nagi chimed in.

"What are we hired for?" Ren's head popped inside the door.

Ch. 7

"Why is she here again?" Nagi eyed Beam as we all gathered on the beach at the Edge of the World.

"Because I brought her along and she's my responsibility." Ren answered assuredly.

"Yes well don't think I don't know about your little piggy back rides." Nagi glared at Beam.

"Kash is quite strong, and sweet." Beam smiled at me, Ren gave me a half glare, and Nagi was giving Beam a full Glare.

"So." I tore open the black hole. "Who's up for having their bodies reduced to atoms?"

"Yep." Ren hopped into the whole.

Beam, not sparring another word, followed and then Nagi. I gave a sigh and followed suit. We came out on the other side at the end of my road.

"Well ladies and gentleman, follow me." I walked over to a small panel that was sticking from the ground a few inches from the pavement. In front of us stood a large Iron Gate. I punched in the short four-digit code and the gates creaked open. We walked a hundred yards down the ruff path to the first house.

The house was large and elevated into the air on top of five brick pillars. There were several two-story garages. "That's my parent's house." I indicated as we passed by. Beam made a low whistle to show that she was impressed with the prestige of the home.

The next house we came across was a large Victorian with a rap around porch. This house was raised as well. "That would be my Aunt's home." We emptied on to a short road that led to yet another home. "Brother and Sister's home." Then we'd finally reached my old house.

It was almost identical to my grand father's except it was two stories and underneath it there were several sports cars and super bikes. "Last but most certainly not least my home sweet home." We all stopped for a few seconds; this team Beam had gave a deep breath and a "Wow."

"Yea not to shabby." I grinned and took a few steps to the side of the house. "And check out the view."

Directly behind the large house there was a large hundred-acre lake. A dock was stretched out directly in front of the house's second floor balcony. There was a small boathouse with a few jet skis floating inside of it.

"Well I want to see this. Let's go." Beam ran up the large set of stairs that led to the front door.

"Do we really have to keep her around?" Nagi whispered to me.

I shrugged and started up the stairs. Beam waited by the door with a broad smile on her face. I pulled my key from a pocket inside my coat and opened the door. Ren stepped by me, taking Beam's hand as he went, and headed inside. "Make yourselves at home." I rolled my eyes and waited for Nagi to join me at the top of the stairs before following the others.

My house's interior was very similar to Alec's and Victor's in design, except there was a kitchen where they had a bar, and the two staircases led to a large room which took up the entire second floor. There was no wall between the room and the stairs.

"So what's up there?" Beam asked cheerfully.

"You'll see." Ren and me said in unison.

"For now, I'm starved. Anyone up for some food?" I asked no one imparticular. They nodded and we went into the kitchen to see what was there.

"Refrigerator raider. Refrigerator raider." Ren was singing a song from an old TV commercial with his head wedged in the refrigerator door. Of course there was nothing to be found. I hadn't been to this house in the good part of a year, so naturally take out was the key.

"It will be a few minutes." I hung up the receiver after ordering some Chinese.

"So. how about that room?" Beam was leaning out of the kitchen trying to see into the upstairs.

"Uh. yea All right, let's go" I left the kitchen, and ascended the stairs.

On the second floor there were curl bars, treadmills, dumb bells, bar bells, and other body building items. In the center of the room there was a large ring with a padded floor. The ring was quickly distinguishable do to the red line that separated it.

"This is the training room." Ren tipped back and forth on his heels. "Sooo. Kash you want to go a few rounds?" Ren grinned at me.

"A few?" I smirked. "Assuming what? That you last threw the first one?"

"Hey I'll be more than happy to give you a nose job. free o' charge." Ren waltzed over to the farside of the ring.

I followed to stand at the side closer to the girls. We stepped in and gave a slight bow before hopping back into our fighting stances. Nagi turned on a quick paced song that had become The Voltage Fighter's sort of theme song.

"Here we go again, another time but it feels the same." The song started.

Ren charged forward at me. At about ten paces he jumped. In midair he spun in a three sixty with his legs stretched out in the splits. The move was impressive, but too slow to work on me.

A surge of red electrical energy enveloped my hand, and when Ren's leg came around I had it. My charged grip was around his ankle. Ren cried out as the electricity surged threw him and blistered the flesh. Nagi tapped the bell that was by the ring's edge with her toe. I let him go and took a few steps back away from my wounded opponent. I slipped my hands into my pockets as a show of confidence.

Ren got to his feet, favoring his uninjured leg in a show of tolerance for the pain. He tucked his fists at his sides and began to glow blue, with his hair freezing over. Ren did this for almost a full minute then he charged me again. It looked as if he was doing the same attack again as his legs straightened in mid air. I thought to reach for the leg again then stopped myself, Ren wasn't that stupid. As if to respond to my thoughts Ren twisted from the artistic spin to a rapid barrel roll. His leg outstretched and came down at my head at an incredible rate of speed.

With out withdrawing my hands from my pockets I did a quick step that brought me under him and to his far side. I leapt in the air and spun in a quick 360 and kicked Ren hard with a straight kick. He flew threw the air, exiting the ring's boundaries and crashing into a nearby bench press. Him and waits crashed to the floor.

Nagi walked over to Ren and slapped the floor three times. The match was officially called in my favor. Ren was left with a few bumps and bruises and one nasty burn, but no worse for ware. I grinned and walked off down the stairs. Beam rushed over to heal Ren. He pushed her away.

"It's not necessary." I told her, seeing the bewildered look she was wearing.

Ren limped behind me. He was now favoring his injury, because there was no need to act tuff. He plopped down on the ground and tore off the scorched off half of his pant leg. The doorbell rang. I was only half way down the stairs but I leapt off at the promise of food. Landing on the tile floor below with out a sound I strode to the door. A sixteen-year-old teenage boy stood there, awkwardly holding the large amount of food we'd ordered. His beat up car (probably the only thing he could afford off of his first job's salary) was idling ruffly behind him. "Foods here guys." I shouted over my shoulder.

"Wow that was fast." I gave the kid a wink as Ren took the food from him. "That thing must really move." I joked

"Oh. yea it tries." He scratched his head nervously.

"I bet." I pulled out my wallet. "How much was it?"

"Forty six dollars" He tried to sound business like.

"Right." I pulled a hundred-dollar bill from my wallet and handed it to him.

"Sir I can't break this." He started to hand it back.

"You don't have to." I laughed. "You must have been pushing some high Rpm's to get here that fast. I'm just trying to make up for your gas." I slid back inside and shut the door.

Ren was wrapping a make shift bandage (the burnt piece of pant leg) around his ankle. We all gathered around the table and ate, while we did so we flipped threw the very small amount of information that was in the folder Zion had given us. basically it just had what he'd set with a picture of the heart. Afterwards we set around and discussed random things, and I took a knife from one of the drawers and proceeded to clean underneath my nails. This went on for an hour or so before Beam asked to see Ren's ankle, he said it was fine but she kept on.

Finally after she had had enough of Ren's excuses she grabbed the bandage and yanked it away. The wound had completely healed its self. She stood up so abruptly her chair toppled over.

"How's that possible Ren?" Beam tried to keep a level voice and it almost worked, except her lip was quivering.

You wouldn't think it would be such a shocking assurance, but I suppose when your use to a world where the good were vulnerable and the monsters were strong, this was a bad omen. Ren stood and took a few steps toward her. She raised her right hand and supported it at the wrist with her left. A glowing white ball of light appeared in her palm.

"Stop!" she ordered. "Don't make me do this. please." Ren stopped in mid step.

I stood and was behind her with the knife I'd been using to manicure my nails while we'd been talking pressed to her throat before she ever saw me take a step. "That's enough, lower your arm beam." I whispered in her ear, she didn't.

I applied some pressure to her throat with the blade. "Please Beam." This time she did as I said.

I dropped the knife and was back in my seat before it hit the floor. "What are you guys?" The question quivered from her lips.

Ren began to speak but I cut him off with a glare. "Let's go. Now." I motioned silently to all of the occupants of the kitchen to fallow me.

Everyone followed me to the door except Beam. I turned to look her in the eye. "You too. Right now." I waited for her to follow.

She came but with more than a little bit of reluctance. We walked down the steps and toward the forest. A good hundred yards into the woods I stopped.

"Ren you deal with this. I'm going to go on ahead with Nagi." I looked over everyone with a small amount of heat in my eyes.

"Kash please." Ren pleaded quietly.

"Deal with it." I took Nagi's hand continued on.

Beam had begun to look increasingly panicky. "What's wrong Beam?" Ren asked.

"Are you human?" She backed up slightly.

"Yes. or at least mostly." Ren's eyes shined blue under the shadow of a nearby oak tree.

"What are you going to do to me?" She stuttered.

Ren moved closer to her. Apparently to fast for her to see because she was extremely shocked that he moved atleast two yards away to about two inches from her face in the time it would take someone to snap their fingers. She moved to back away. Ren grabbed her by the wrists. She struggled a moment then stopped.

"I will not hurt you. please relax." He tried to look reassuringly.

She attempted to knee him in the groin. Obviously she thought it would work like in the movies and he would release her so they could have a nice chase scene. He moved her right leg (The one she had tried to knee with) to his left side and pushed her backwards so she was pinned between him and oak behind her.

Ren had accidentally moved them into more contact than previously intended. She stayed very still do to the position she was in. he moved both her wrists so that he was holding them in one hand and stepped back. "I have no intention on hurting you Beam. or at least if you do not do anything to further irritate Kashata." He whispered in her ear.

"You would hurt me if he demanded it?" Beam tried to sound insulted, but wasn't truly shocked.

Ren looked at her with amusement. "Of course not but did you not watch our fight? I couldn't stop him, though I assure you I would try." She nodded, accepting that.

"Just stay beside me until we get back with them." Ren slowly released her and backed away.

She slowly stepped beside him, and they started for Victor's. They'd walked a few yards in silence before Beam spoke. "You and Kash are brothers right?" Ren nodded.

"So you're the same?"

"What do you mean?" Ren asked without looking over at her.

"I mean. well you said you were mostly human right?" Ren nodded again. "So he is too." They walked on a bit further in silence.

"Let's just say, were only related by maybe an eighth."

"But how's tha." Ren cut her off with a wave of his hand.

They'd reached a rusted bob wire fence. The large castle identical to Alec's lay directly in front. Ren walked over to the huge front doors with Beam nervously following. "Well here we are. Let's go inside." Ren kicked open the door and entered the lobby.

There was a door and a bar to the left. To the right the same doors and stairs that were in Alec's stood. The door slammed shut behind them. There were four windows in the room, but the windows and doors were barricaded in a matter of moments as large metallic shutters slammed down over all of them.

"Damn it. I'd call that locked in." Ren stated the obvious and Beam rolled her eyes at the unnecessary comment.

"Welcome to your tomb. so to speak. Would it really be called death to someone of your kind? You monsters will not leave this castle. You will be destroyed. soon." A voice echoed from the intercom system that ran threw out the castle.

"What the hell. I'M HUMAN JERKS!" Ren shouted.

"Mostly." Beam mocked him.

"Well I suppose we wait for Kash." Ren plopped down on a barstool.

"Yea I guess so." Beam agreed as if she had say in the matter.

"Wait here something's wrong." I stopped at the rusted fence, with Nagi beside me.

"What is it?"

"I'm not positive, but something is out of place."

"So are we going?" Nagi seemed impatient.

"Yes, I suppose we have to." I stepped over the wires and headed for the castle doors. Nagi followed me closely, not wanting me to think she was at all intimidated by what I'd said.

The door was obviously inaccessible and so were the windows. "Damn it. we won't be able to get in easily. Were going to have to get up to the balcony." I pointed up at a platform that was a good hundred feet up.

"Black whole?" she asked.

"Nah that would be a waste." I grabbed her around the waist and with a loud roar and rush of wind we were on the balcony.

"Nice jump." She complimented.

"Thanks." I drew Angel from its holster and fired two rounds threw the glass doors that separated the balcony from the nearby bedroom. Glass showered into a pile on the ground.

"Shall we?" I stepped threw the door.

There wasn't much just a bed, a dresser, and a few pictures of foreign places.

"Did you hear that?" Beam stood up and listened.

"Yea we better go check it out." Ren walked to the bottom of the far-left staircase.

"Well let's get out of here." I walked over to the door and tried the knob. Locked. No surprise there, I aimed my pistol along the doorknob.

Ren and Beam entered the hallway. There were no lights in the corridor. Then gun shot and a flash, followed shortly by metal and wood hitting floor. The door creaked open.

"Well it's a good thing I always carry me skeleton key." I laughed and stepped into the hallway.

"Yea? Why didn't you just try pulling in?" Nagi laughed.

I glared at her. "So heard about that did you." Nagi continued laughing.

"Hey! It's Kash." Ren ran down the hallway. "Hey. did we beat you here?" He leaned forward to see the busted glass that had given us entrance.

"Yea, nostalgia here wanted to go see his old swimming whole before we came." Nagi jerked a thumb at me.

"I see." Ren scratched his head. "So your both ok then?"

"Oh yea were just peachy." I rolled my eyes and holstered Angel, before heading off down the hall to the lobby.

"What's with that?" Ren raised an eyebrow at Nagi.

"Oh just another locked door." They both laughed and set off for the lobby.

"Well we're all here." Ren said.

"Once again you state the obvious." Beam was getting back to being comfortable suprisingly fast.

"Hey maybe we can." some sort of attack interrupted me. A stake was protruding from my chest. I gasped for air and fell backwards onto the staircase.

"Kash!" Nagi screamed and ran to my side.

Blood seeped from the sides of the mahogany stake and flowed onto the floor, spreading around Nagi's knees.

"It's ok. the stake. is not iron ore. or silver. it will not be fatal. but of course I could bleed to death." I pulled the stake from my chest.

More blood spread across my body.

"Beam heal his wound!" Nagi shouted the order at her.

Beam took a few steps back away from the bloody scene. "I'm sorry. but I can't." Beam kept walking backwards.

Nagi was looking as though she was trying to decide whether to be infuriated or scared. "He saved your life, you can't let him die!" Nagi pleaded.

"But he's not normal." She turned away and closed her eyes, trying to pretend this wasn't happening.

"You damn human." Nagi began crying and trying to hold in the blood with her hands.

My vision blurred slightly and the room began to look as if it were the ceiling of the twist a-whirl at some theme park. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Nagi's white hands covered in my dark blood. When I awoke it appeared as though I was in some sort of crater.

Fog rolled over the edges of the indention and dissolved as it reached the middle where I was laying. I checked my chest for the wound but it had vanished. I sat up and took in the surroundings.

A winged figure stood at the edge of the crater, it appeared to be the same creature that had spoke to Zion and I. It slowly descended the crater side to where I was standing. I leaned back on my right foot and gripped Angel.

"There will be no need for that Kash. I've brought you here to speak to you." The creature spoke in a voice that seemed to come from all around me.

"Yea? Well if you only wanted to talk then why the hell did you bring me here?" I asked.

"Well I couldn't very well enter that place without everyone in the room knowing I was there. I only wish to speak with you." It spread and closed its wings as if it was stretching.

"Well won't they notice that I've vanished?" I slowly pulled back the hammer on my Angel.

"You are not really here. This is the astral plane. You're consciousness is all that's here. Neither of our bodies is truly here. We can only talk, there is no way for ether of us to harm one another." I had never heard of any of this and I sure as hell wasn't going to take his word for it.

I jerked the Angel from its holster and fired a slug at the creature's face. It entered the face of his hood. Nothing happened. The creature didn't even jerk.

I sighed. "Well your story checks out. So what is it you wish to discuss?" I stood up straight and tossed the imaginary weapon over my shoulder. It disappeared before hitting the rocky soil.

"Kash you are a murderer." It sighed.

"What! What in the hell are you talking about?" I clenched my fists tightly and my knuckles turned white from the motion.

"Kash you are a killer. You've killed thousands of men when you went by the name of Kashata, and now you kill for money."

"Well I'm not all Kashata anymore, I've changed. And as far as what I do on jobs, that's all on the head of my employers." I justified my actions to someone I didn't even know. isn't something I normally bother with, but this guy was getting to me.

"I'm sorry Kash but you are still Kashata. and as far as delusion goes, that is only temporary. Soon you will be the same old Kashata." I made a move to defend myself again, but he held up his hand to silence me. "Do not argue with me, when you died your soul lingered until your body was returned to this world and then it came back to you. As you said the only thing that has changed is your childhood, what made you how you are, but your memories are returning and soon you will once again be who you were. who you truly are. a killer.

"When this happens you will be faced with three choices. To revert back to a killer, end your own life, or free your energy from your body." He ended his speech and crossed his arms as if he were waiting for applause.

"Free my energy from my body? What the hell does that mean?" I growled at him in frustration.

"It can scarcely be put into words. it is total and utter freedom. No restraints. One man had achieved this before and he died."

"If this is so damn great then how and the hell did he die?"

"Simply when you can do anything the hardest thing to do I something." After his statement he began to fade into air.

"What the hell does that mean?" I screamed into the air. "He died of being a lazy ass!" I awoke and was back on the staircase.

"Don't worry Nagi it is not necessary." I appeared as though I had awoken at the same moment I had first passed out.

Ren pulled a small circular suction cup out of one of his pockets. It was translucent and the size of my palm. He wiped the blood away with his shirt and pushed the cup over the wound in a quick fluid motion. The cup filled with blood but none escaped its sides.

The creature's words echoed in my ears. From before and from just recently. "Do not enter the unknown, do not chase the trader that will soon be among you, an enemy from the past can not be a true ally in the future.

If you chase him eternal damnation will await you all. free your energy." He spoke of the future. but how would he know this? And what does all of this mean?

"Kash can you sit up?" Ren asked.

"Y-yea." I sat up slowly. Ren pulled an ace bandage from his pocket and fastened it over the cup and around my back.

"Well that should do it. It will be fine in an hour or so." Ren stood p and wiped the blood from his hands onto his pants.

"I guess we should just wait here for his wound to close. If Kash can't fight we're in for some trouble." Ren walked behind the bar and pulled some bottles and shot glasses from the shelves. "So who's thirsty?"

"I don't drink." Beam slid onto a stool.

"Well then we've got sprite. and water.. What'll it be?" Ren winked.

"Sprite." Beam caught the can as Ren spun it down the bar.

Everyone was beginning to relax while they waited for me to regenerate and get my strength back up. Ren and Beam were talking at the bar and Nagi was sitting with me on the staircase and I was just about to ask her just how worried about she'd been (just for the sake of teasing her) when for the second time in the last half hour I was interrupted.

One of the shuttered windows shook and made a sound like a pile of bricks dropping down a tin roof. Someone was beating against the metal.

"Alright you bastard. If I can't bring you down I'll right threw you." A voice shouted from the other side of the shutter.

I stood and drew Angel. Ren made a very similar motion. A yellow blade of what appeared to be some kind of laser or physical energy sliced a large oval in the metal then retracted. The metal was kicked to the floor. Ren and I gripped our pistols tightly and rested on the triggers as we waited for what or who was coming threw the now open window. A young man stepped into the room.

Ch. 8

His right arm was concealed by some kind of technology. It appeared almost like a gauntlet, except it ended with a rounded metallic slit. He was dressed in a silver sleeveless trench coat, sleeveless white shirt, blue jeans, and black boots like mine. He had a large laser rifle strapped over his left shoulder. His eyes were yellow and his hair white. He gave a slight jerk in surprise when he noticed the two guns aimed at him.

"Wow! Err.wrong floor." He turned to jump out the window.

I fired to the left of his right foot. "Not so fast stranger."

The man didn't move. I walked over to him and put my gun against his ear. I grabbed the rifle's strap and lifted it off his shoulder.

"Nagi come and take this." I shouted over my shoulder. She did as I instructed. "Now the thing on your arm."

"No." The man whispered.

"Hey I'm not asking you, I'm telling you." I pulled the hammer back on my Angel.

The man didn't move.

"Alright fine then I'll just take it." I reached for what I assumed what his weapon.

"NO!" He dropped to the floor and kicked my legs out from under me. I slammed down on my back and my breath escaped me.

Ren cocked the hammer back on his Soul. I stood up slowly.

"Apparently you're not getting the seriousness of you situation." Ren gave the chamber of his revolver a spin and leveled the gun at the boy's head.

With a quiet hum the yellow blade, which had been the one that cut the hole threw the shutter, immerged from the device on his arm. Ren fired a round, which clipped the man's ear. Blood ran down the earlobe and trickled onto his shoulder.

"No don't shoot. I can handle this myself." I raised a hand, signaling Ren to lower his weapon. "C'mon boy lets see what you've got."

"The names Simon, and don't call me boy!" Simon lunged forward, swinging the sword horizontally at my chest.

I easily dodged under the blade and with a quick thrust of speed I was behind him. Simon stumbled forward a few steps out of confusion.

"Simon your going to have to move a lot faster than that if you want to hit me." I laughed, in hopes of enraging him and causing him to fight better.

"Aright then I've got something for you." Simon's yellow blade retracted, and then he began jabbing as if he was a pro boxer training.

"You can't win trying to box." I told him.

"Yea well that's what you think." Simon threw a quick right jab.

I didn't move or make any attempt to dodge. There was obviously no way his punch could reach me. At the end of Simon's jab the yellow energy blade shot out quickly. Luckily the hum of the blade alerted me of my prior miscalculation. The yellow blade barely burnt the end of my nose as I leaned back away from him.

"Well this is a dangerous way to limbo." I joked as Simon's blade retracted back into the device.

"Now you die!" Simon bounced back and forth on his left and right feet like a pro, and then began jabbing and coming toward me.

"Yea, I've heard that before." His yellow blade never made contact with me as I bounced backwards, to dodge his attacks. "As much as I'd like." I ducked the yellow blade. "To keep playing this game with you I really do have other things that need attending."

"OH-yea?" Simon gave a good effort at punching faster.

"Yep." I ducked and leapt forward at Simon.

He let out a sharp gasp as he was lifted into the air. I was holding on to the front of his belt and was holding him in the air by my right hand. He kicked and flailed his arms, trying to get his bearings but it was to late for that. I easily flung Simon threw the air with a flick of my wrist. He landed on top of Ren who let out a curse in surprise. The fight was over. I began to walk over to Nagi when Simon began to stand.

"Hey don't relax yet. This fight is not even close to finished." Simon demanded.

Ren slammed the grip of his pistol into the back of Simon's head. Simon dropped to the floor unconscious.

"The hell it's not." Ren rubbed his head where Simon had collided with it.

"Tie him up Ren, we'll hear him out before we decide how we should deal with him." Ren did as I said.

"He doesn't look dangerous. Do we really need to tie him up like this?" Beam frowned at the unconscious Simon.

Ren grabbed a bottle of water from behind the bar and squirted it into Simon's face. He awoke and yanked at the ropes that were binding him.

"What is this?" Simon looked a bit frightened but defiant.

"What the hell do you think? Tell us why you're here and we'll decide what happens from there." Ren ordered as he slid into a barstool next to Simon's weapons.

"Why should I?" Simon glared back.

"Hmm.that's an interesting question.how about because you're tied to a barstool in a room full of people who could construe many terrible ways of separating you from your limbs." Nagi delicately explained the situation complexities.

Simon swallowed. "Well.truthfully its just plain undignified revenge I'm seeking here." He shrugged away his confession.

"Ok, revenge for what?" I hopped up on the bar.

"My parent's. A man named Alex or something killed them when I was twelve years old. Since then I've been trying to hunt him down. I got a tip that I'd find him here, and as you already know when I got here I found you instead."

"Alec." I clenched my hand into a fist and slammed it down onto the bar. The wood broke and crunched in around my hand.

"So your strength isn't normal. I could have guessed by the way you threw me earlier." Simon sighed and shook his head.

"Well Simon you can rest assured. Alec is dead." Ren informed the youth with a wink.

"Dead, how?" Simon questioned him.

"I blew his brains out of the back of his skull." I gave a half grin.

"Where's he barried then?" He questioned further.

"Well Err." I scratched my head. "His body kinda disappeared."

"HA!" Simon gave a harsh laugh. "The he's still alive."

"What part of "blown brains out" doesn't seem fatal to you?" Nagi started in on him but I raised a hand to hold her off.

"Look he's dead, but if that's not good enough for you, you're welcome to join us as we search this house." I offered humbly.

"Well I'm certainly not going back now, so I guess I'm with you." Simon agreed, as Ren untied his ropes. "So what are the chances of me getting my weapons back?"

"I'd say fair." I taused the rifle and gauntlet back to their owner. "Now that were all one big happy family, I suggest we press on." I led them up the stairs and down the hall.

We passed the door that Nagi and I had come threw originally. At the end of the hall there was a steel door. It looked like something that would be on an industrial freezer. I yanked and tugged on the handle but even with my strength the door wasn't moving.

"Nope this isn't happening, and I don't think my Angel can chew threw it ether." I tapped the gun on my right hip.

"Well perhaps I can be of some sort of assistance." Simon sliced a large hole in the door like the one in the shutter, with all the trouble of a hot knife threw butter. "Shall we?" Simon gave us a wink before kicking in the hole and stepping onto the foot think door that was now like a step.

We walked down an identical hall to the end. There was another steel door blocking our way. Simon did away with it as before, this time however the hall opened into a huge coliseum. "Hey just like back home." Ren grinned.

"There's in no freaking way in hell." Simon's eyes were the size of saucers.

"Welcome to hell bubba." I gave Simon a slap on the back.

"Welcome challengers!" A voice echoed from a sky booth.

"Alec?" I shouted over the roar of the many thousands of spectators that were in the coliseum's seats.

"Indeed." Alec replied.

He was obviously speaking into a microphone, because there was no strain in his voice.

I turned to Simon. "Simon, I believe I owe you an apology. Having your brains blown out is obviously not as fatal as it was back in my day.. And I believe I owe many other people apologies for messing up there faces and hair. if I'd known you could survive it I would have been more consider it and shot them in the heart." I spun on my heels to face back in Alec's direction. "HEY YOU FREAKY S.O.B. HOW ARE YOU ALIVE! I BLEW YOUR F.ING BRAINS OUT!" I shouted at him.

"Ha. I don't know what's with you people and thinking my brain is in my head." He laughed.

"Christ." I hung my head and ran a hand threw my hair. "Ok my bad! So am I going to get another chance to dispose of you this evening?"

"If you wish to kill me you'll have to defeat your opponents." At Alec's word three men and a woman emerged from the opposite end of the coliseum.

"And what makes you think were going to play this idiotic game of yours?" Ren retaliated.

"Simply because of your hate. You can always leave of course, but this very well may be your only chance to fight me."

Ren lowered his head in acceptance.

"Alright then let's begin. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to THE DARK TOURNAMENT 2013. Representing the realm, the home team. The Voltage Fighters.and the leader of The Sanguine Knights." Alec's voice boomed from the sky booth. "Kashata Kusanagi, the team captain, Renavoid Rusyn, Simon Frost and Nagi Kusanagi.

"Representing the Demon World, the visitors team, the Flying shots. Jason Duntos, team captain, Ash Blue, Sidney Cane, and Christi Cane." With the finish of Alec's introductions the audience erupted with applause.

The people across the coliseum bowed proudly. Obviously they had wanted to be included in this event.

"The first fight shall be.Kashata Versus Jason." Applause erupted once more. I squinted across the coliseum as one of the other team's members began to stride toward me.

"Good luck Kash." Ren slapped a hand on my shoulder.

Nagi leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Alright I'm ready to die." I gave my wife a wink and set off across the sandy terrain.

"Do not worry if you are hit, or injured in any way I shall assist you. With my assistance you can defeat him easily." A voice whispered inside of my head.

"What th.?" I had never heard voices before so it was definitely not expected before a fight.or at anytime for that matter.

Jason began to come into view as I closed in on him. His skin was blue and he had three fingers and three large claws like toes. Tow large demonic bat wings rose from his mid back. Long black hair ran down his back. His eyes were black as pitch. Jason was dressed in black shorts and golden gauntlets. He held out his hand to me as soon as we were close enough for the gesture to be effective.

I hesitated at the idea of grabbing his hand but I didn't want to come off rude so I grabbed his hand and firmly shook it. Jason gave a quick bow then walked a few paces away.

"So shall we begin?" Jason's deep voice boomed across the distance between us.

"Yea, of course. The first move is yours my friend." I replied.

Jason began to work his wings and drift into the air. He rose rapidly to one hundred feet. He was perfectly horizontal with the top of the bleachers. I yanked my angel from its holster and fired rapidly at him. He evaded the attacks then went into a swan dive.

About ten feet down he froze. I waited for something to happen but he didn't budge. His wings weren't even flapping; it was beyond me how he stayed air born. The crowd had also fallen silent. I put my gun away and took in my surroundings. Nothing had changed or atleast not very much. Everything looked as it did before but no one was moving, not even breathing.

I listened carefully but their hearts had even fallen mute. After what had seemed like an eternity of absolute silence I heard a familiar voice. The winged creature from before was sitting at the top of the bleachers.

"So we meet again." He shouted down to me.

"Well maybe if you didn't keep doing things like this I could avoid meeting you so much." I glared up at him, but at this distance I'm not sure he could see me doing it.

He stood and began walking down the steps to where my friends were standing frozen in time. I took a few steps forward, but he motioned for me to stop. He took off his cloak and tossed it over Ren's head. His eyes were blue and he had blonde hair that was cut at a slant at his shoulders. He wore white pants, golden boots, gold gloves, and a white short sleeve turtleneck shirt. He kissed Beam. I imagined her waking up like one of the princesses out of a storybook.

"So Kash, have you freed your energy from your body yet?" He smiled then began to walk slowly across the coliseum floor toward me.

"Why have you done this?" I raised my hands to indicate the frozen people.

"Just to show you this." He held his hand up to is face.

I waited for him to do something. He didn't move for a few seconds, and then I was being belt across the face with a golden-gloved fist. I spun to the ground and hit hard.

"Are you angry?" He put his hands into his pockets.

"No." I liked the blood that was running from my busted lip.

"Well I'll just have to work on that won't I?" He gave me a viscous kick to the ribs. I flipped onto my back.

I coughed blood onto my chest. My chin and bottom lip was thickly covered in the substance.

"I." He stomped hard on my stomach.

Another torrent of blood escaped my throat. Now I was getting angry. He went for another kick at my ribs, but I spun onto my side and kicked his kneecap. It snapped backwards and he hopped back a few steps on his good leg. I slammed my fist down on the sandy floor hard enough to lift me up to a standing position. My eyes went yellow and my teeth jagged.

"I was curious how long it would take till you snapped." At the last word he popped his knee back into place, putting his pun into play.

I lunged for him and sent a fist full of claws at his throat. He leaned back and kicked my legs out from under me. I caught my self with my hands then did a hand spring onto my feet.

"You're good but your not yet what I'm looking for." He slammed his fist into my face again, this time sending me soaring into the far coliseum bleachers.

I felt the warm blood flow down the back of my hair from a gash that resulted from the blow with the edge of a concrete step. My vision blurred for a moment and returned to normal. I no longer wanted to defeat him. I just didn't want him to exist anymore. My teeth and eyes returned to their usual characteristics.

"Oh?" He smiled curiously.

"I will reduce you to nothingness." I made the statement with utmost certainty.

"Try me then Kashata!" He slid into a fighting stance.

With incredible speed I had never experienced before I darted across the field and smashed into the man's chest with my right shoulder. I could hear his breath escape him.

"You truly are the Forsaken Angel." He breathed before flying into the distant concrete wall.

I slowly and confidently strolled over to him.

"So are you ready to die? You two bit fortune tellers never did entertain me much." I reached down and grasped him by the throat. He had no weight as I lifted him into the air.

"Kashata." He gasped for breath. "Protect Nagi." He finished.

My head punted and my vision blurred again. I collapsed down onto my knees. "Damn you.what did you do to me?" I whispered

"I.did nothing to you.I just wanted to show you that the small line between you and your pure self is thinning." He leaned back against the wall, which was still crumbling from his collision with it and tried to catch his breath.

"Oh yea? Well it wasn't exactly easy for you to make me like that." I brushed the dust that was still lingering on me back to the floor.

"Yes well that may be so, but before now you could get beat to death and you wouldn't act that way.it's your memories Kashata they make you who you are and they will make you.you."

"I suppose so."

"Well I just needed to show you that what I was saying is the truth." He stood and started walking toward the exit.

"Wait a second." I shouted after him. He turned and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Who the hell are you anyway?"

He smiled and replied. "My name is Gabriel. take care of my son." Then he disappeared.

Ch. 9

With Gabriel's departure time returned to normal, I had just enough time to put out my arms before Jason slammed into me. Jason grabbed me by my lower arm and I grabbed his. We slid backward. I dug my heels into the earth, trying to stop us from sliding.

"Enough." I grunted and my hair shined red and red lightning crackled into life around my skin. We stopped instantly.

"So you have changed.Alright then." With those words Jason's arms went limp and he slammed his head into mine.

I released him, Jason backed a few yards or so away and waited. Stars dotted my vision for a moment. I stood shakily as my lighting swirled around me. Another small red light zoomed into the dance with my own electricity, though this light didn't seem electric just pure like physical energy. The small light flickered and hovered in front me then it raced back and forth faster and faster till there was a four foot red blur in front me then the light slowed, and as it did a sword came into view beneath the bright blur. The light slowed and twirled around the weapon. The sword had an ornate black stone handle. There were carvings of lightning bolts running down the palmels length and at its base the Roman letters XIII were carved in it. The blade was double sided, one side silver and the other black, the silver side had a black lightning bolt in it's center and black side had a silver XIII in its.

I reached out and took the weapon with my right hand. Half silver for the Fey of the dark, and half Brimstone for the fey of the light, the same voice sounded in my head. I reached for the light with my empty hand but before I could grasp it changed from energy to a small red stone. The stone dropped and I caught it. Jason was starring with wide eyes. I tucked the stone away into my pocket and gave the sword a quick few spins. I looked up at the shocked expressions on the audience's faces that matched Jason's so well.

"Well what are you waiting for brother?" I laughed at him.

Jason blinked as if awakening from a trance then jumped into the air flying straight for me.

I smiled wickedly. "Idiot." I whispered.

Then stepping left to avoid his attack; I spun my new weapon with the silver edge at the ready.

The incredibly sharp blade sliced off Jason's right wing without even a slight hesitation. This in turn caused Jason to twirl and plummet to the ground behind me. I slowly turned to face him, and pointed my sword at the fallen warrior.

"Is that all?" I taunted.

The flesh around his would sizzle and pealed back exposing his bones. I could see the anguish painted across his visage. The silver was causing the reaction. "I will kill you." He sobbed.

"You will try. and then you will die." I held the sword aloof at my side.

He stood slowly in silence. "Say good bye you monster." He said it as if it were an oath more than anything else was.

Golden armor spread from Jason's gauntlet and covered his entire body. "Impressive." I grunted as Jason started to walk toward me.

Jason was around ten yards away from me when I attacked him. My double-edged sword began bouncing off his body. I was swinging the weapon with enough might to move him from side to side but I couldn't pierce the armor. Jason grabbed the sword by the blade and yanked it from my grip. Stunned I was easily kicked through the air. In mid flight Jason threw the sword, and with a sniper's accuracy the sword sunk into my chest and burst threw the back of my coat.

He began walking toward me. I was lying on my back; the sword had me pinned to the sandy floor. I could see the black handle protruding from my chest as if I was its sheath

"Didn't anyone ever teach you how to use a sword?" Jason mocked me.

"Ha.a sword?" well I guess its about time to remind this guy that this is the twenty first century, don't you think so Devil?" From the confides of my coat, I slowly drew my long black pistol.

Jason took a step backwards. "No bullets can penetrate my armor."

"Yea well these aren't just any bullets." I reached over with my left hand and cocked my weapon. "My Devil will send you back to hell." The blessed bullet that fired from my gun tore threw Jason's armor like paper.

While it didn't have the same effect it did on the fey back at Alec's castle it did leave a whole threw Jason's center that I could put my leg through. Jason lay sprawled out on the floor, a large pool of blood spread from his wound. I pulled the sword from my chest and walked over to the fallen warrior. The armor was gone, and the fight was over. I slid the Devil back into its holster over my ribs. Get away you bastard!" The girl from his team had rushed over while I was watching his armor retract.

I winked and began to walk back over to my friends. I smoothed my hair back and dusted off my clothes.

"That was an amazing fight Kash, I don't believe I've ever seen anyone take a sword to the chest so well." Ren slapped me on the back. "And where'd you get that sword man, its freaking awesome."

"Yea that's the thing. I have no idea it just." I took the gem from my pocket and with a quick red flash the sword was gone. The amulet all though remained in my hand.

"Sweet! Its compact." Ren grinned.

"Yea, I suppose so." I nodded.

"You better let me have that before you lose it." Nagi held out her hands.

"Aww. I won't lose it." I whined.

She gave me a stern look. "Ok.yea your probably right." I set the stone in her hands. She placed in her coat pocket and padded me on the head.

"Congratulations Kashata. The first point goes to your team." Alec's voice boomed once again over the noise of the audience.

A scoreboard brandishing both team names dropped from the bottom of Alec's sky booth.

"The next fight shall be. Renavoid Rusyn versus Ash Blue."

Applause erupted from the audience as one of the Flying Shots took flight and soared over the center and landed. Somehow this seemed to anger Ren for he started over to the fight without as much as a so long.

When Ren was only a few paces away from Ash e stopped. He was eyeing Ash due to the fact that he did not look at all like the other Flying Shots. His skin was human color, his wings were gold and angelic, and his hair was white. Ash's eyes were gold with white pupils. He wore black pants, white boots, a black vest with out an under shirt, and he had a white bandanna with a gold gem in it's center.

"What are you?" Ren asked.

"Well I suppose I could ask you the same question." Ash replied.

"I'm seven parts human one part Fey, your turn."

"I'm not sure. I was born in the Demon World, but I do not look like they do." He gestured toward his teammates. "My mother, father, and sister do though."

"I don't suppose it matters." Ren drew his Soul and leveled it at Ash's chest. "It's really nothing personal." Ren pulled back the hammer.

"I understand." Ash nodded.

Ren squeezed the trigger. It appeared as though the fight was over. Ren emptied all six rounds and Ash was not dodging. When the weapon was empty Ash held out his right hand. There were six large slugs sitting in his hand safe as can be.

"That's impossible." Ren managed before ash leaned forward and spread his wings out behind him.

A golden laser shot from Ash's bandanna and went straight threw Ren's chest and out his back. Ren collapsed unconscious onto the ground, the shocking pain from his wound must have caused his brain to shut down. The fight was over and my brother had lost. Ash taused a white rose onto Ren's chest and walked back over to his team. The Flying Shots cheered and shook hands with Ash. Nagi, Beam and I rushed to Ren's side. Beam needed no request to heal this time.

Ren sat up. "I-I can't believe it. He beat me. I don't know what happened." He bent down and picked up the flower.

Ren started to hand the flower to Beam when a second laser exploded the rose in the center of its buds. The pedals drifted, scorched, to the ground and vanished.

"It's only for the dead!" Ash shouted across the field

"Well this was a good show. Not a long one, but still a good one. Also, congratulations Ash Blue you set a new record with a knock out in one minute and two seconds." Alec announced.

"That's a tie score ladies and gentleman. So let's continue. The next fight shall be Simon Frost versus Sydney Swing." Alec laughed at something and spoke to someone who was apparently behind him.

"Why do I get the feeling their laughing at me?" Simon headed off to meet his opponent.

Sydney pulled two long curved swords from their sheaths at his hips. He held the left one pointing behind him and right one pointing ahead.

"I'm not going to use any martial arts so don't bother getting into a fighting stance or anything." Simon told his opponent before he stopped walking.

"Very well, but what are you going to do? Throw the fight?" Sydney asked curiously.

"I don't quit without making Swiss cheese out of my opponent first." Simon threatened.

"Beg your pardon?" Sydney didn't understand the Swiss cheese comment.

"Oh you'll be begging." Simon hoisted the laser against his shoulder and squeezed the red button like trigger on the weapons handle.

A sliver dollar sized laser shot from the gun and buzzed toward Sydney's chest. He crossed the swords blades to guard him self. The laser hit the blades and began pressing both Simon and Sydney away from each other. The both put a leg aback behind them to steady themselves. Sydney began to walk forward slowly.

"That machine can not hold me at bay for much longer." Sydney took shaky step after shaky step toward Simon.

"Oh yea? How about this then?" Simon swung the rifle to the left.

The laser tore threw Sydney's shoulder and arm. Simon released the trigger as his opponent's arm fell to the floor. He pressed the blue button on the handle and another laser came on. This one was merely a light.

"The next shot will end you." Simon put the laser aim on Sydney's head.

Before Simon could press the red button and kill Sydney a small steel disk flew from the crowd and sliced threw his wrist. The laser gun plopped onto the ground with Simon's hand still gripping it. The hand held down the button, and with no one to steady it the gun was free to twirl around the coliseum.

Its first victim was Sydney who was cut in half at the hip. The next casualties were uncountable as the weapon cut a bloody trail through the thousands of spectators in their seats. This went on for a few more seconds of continues firing. I raised up a wormhole to redirect the fire away from Beam, Ren, Nagi, and I, but Simon was out in the open. The laser twirled to Simon as its beam began to shorten. It sliced across Simon's chest cutting his shirt open, but the laser had grown so short that it didn't reach his flesh.

"I knew I forgot to charge its batter." Simon sighed before collapsing to the ground from blood loss.

"I can't heal this." Beam whined. "I need a whole this is. there's no sides."

The rest of the group and I were gathered around our fallen friend.

"Simon.this isn't looking good but somehow you'll make it." Ren tried to comfort his new friend, all though he did not believe his own words.

"Indeed he will." A voice came from behind us.

Ash Blue had approached us from behind, silently.

"I could fix him if you will allow me to." He spoke slowly and clearly as if he was choosing his words very carefully as if explaining something to a child.

"Why should we trust you?" I stood and me this gaze.

"Well I don't suppose you have any sort of reason to trust me.although I do not think you would rather him die. Do you?" he asked me with a level tone.

"No!" Simon tried to shout but in his weakened state he could barely get his voice over normal volume. "Get your as out of the way Kash. I do not wish to die in this god forsaken place."

I stepped aside. Ash set beside Simon and lifted his arm. We watched curiously as Ash placed the hand back where it had originally been. He bent his head so that the gold jewel was directly above the severed area. The jewel began to glow and what appeared to be glitter rained from it onto the wrist. Simon's wound healed and he sat up looking partially refreshed.

"There. Oh and they threw the disk." Ash pointed to a group of men dressed in black cloaks. Then he returned to his friends.

"Wait here." I stood and began walking toward the men he had pointed at.

"It appears we have been discovered." One of the men whispered to his comrades.

"Yes, I believe that you are correct." They agreed.

The men tossed off their cloaks revealing armor with stakes and knives strapped to their wrists and around their waists. The armor was that of mid-evil knights.

"Destroy the Fey!" They shouted and began running down the steps toward me.

"Clowns." I drew Angel from its holster and discharged it with deadly accuracy.

The bullets tore threw each of the man's antique armors like ten foils and left softball sized whole in their wake. They crumbled like marionettes with their string cut. Now that I had dispatched the hunters there was no longer anyone except my friends, what was left of the Flying Shots, and a few hundred corpses. The spectators that had not been killed had fled in fear of further laser assault.

"Now what Alec?" I shouted up at his sky booth.

"Well we can not very well continue now can we?" Alec jumped from his booth and landed softly on the ground. "So I suppose I should be leaving. You can show yourselves out." He turned away from us.

"Hey now hold on just a damn minute. What about our fight?" Alec turned and smiled.

"How about I kill one of you now and we can catch up later." Alec turned and smiled.

"What if we kill you first?" Ren asked.

Alec rolled his eyes. "Then you win stupid."

"And there's one more thing." I took a few steps. "We've been hired to retrieve something that I brought to you years ago." Alec eyed me with faint interest. "The Sapphire Heart." That got him.

"Oh really?" Alec with drew the artifact from one of his pockets. "You mean this ol' thing?"

"So.do you just happen to always have it on you or is this just a really weird coincidence." I shook my head.

Alec smiled. "I always carry it. kind of a good luck charm. hoping that one day I'd have the power necessary to use it." He stared down at the jewel with unfulfilled dreams. "But I haven't. and fear I never will. At this point if I'm not powerful enough now, I'm not sure any amount of power could actually make this thing do. whatever it is it does."

"So should we battle to the death for it?" Ren tucked his coat behind the grip of his Soul.

"Don't be absurd." Alec laughed. "I'll make you a deal. Well leave it up to fate."

"And how is that?" I asked.

"A simple game of fetch." Alec held out his hand and the heart sturred.

"What is this Alec?" Ren had his hand on his pistol.

"I may not be able to use it yet, but I can use this small homing ability it has." The heart floated a few inches above his hand and began to shine and spin. "You see, all one must do is apply a bit of energy to it and the heart believes its in danger."

"Are you trying to tell us its alive?" Nagi had joined the conversation.

"In a manner of speaking.atleast it has a need to exist." The heart spun to the point where it almost looked like a solid sphere, then it was gone. "And when it thinks it's in danger it returns to its rightful owner." Alec stretched and put his hands in his pockets. "Neat huh?"

"You son of a." I started.

"How about that little fight you wanted. or atleast it's time for me to kill one of you."

"Well we were hired to retrieve the heart from here. if its not here I suppose then it will not be our fault that we failed. no skin off our noses." Ren deduced.

"Alright then. Let's do it!" I fell back into my fighting stance.

Alec put his hands out in front of him. "Kash I'm going to use one of your tricks." An extremely bright flash of light erupted from his palms.

While we were all temporarily blinded by the flash of light we were all helpless to defend ourselves. I could hear screams and Alec's laughter. When my eyes finally adjusted the first thing that came into focus was Ash Blue on his knees crying by what appeared to be burning logs. The smell however proved that the logs were in reality the bodies of Ash's remaining friends. I ran to the far side of the coliseum.

"What happened?" I kneeled beside Ash.

"Alec.Just k.killed them.he just." Ash sobbed into his hands.

"Kash!" Simon shouted.

"Shit! Now what?" I ran back to my friends.

The first thing that occurred to me was that Ren was standing apart from the rest. I came over to where they were gathered and waited for them to move so I could see what had happened. When they parted the body of Beam lay motion-less on the ground. A long jagged cut stretched across her throat. Her eyes were wide and creamy with death. I blinked absently as my mind processed what had happened.

Ch. 10

"What.Alec." I'm not sure why I needed to say his name. as if we didn't all know damn well exactly what had occurred.

"Yes Kash. The coward blinded us, slit her throat, and ran." Zion spat into the ground.

"Ren.it's your call brother.what do you want to have done." I turned to my dumbstruck brother.

"I would like to take her back to the town. she deserves to be put to rest where her family is. it's my fault she's here. I'll take care of it." He took a moment to process what he himself had said, then took Beam into his arms and left us.

I said nothing; there was nothing for any of us to say. I headed back over to Ash. to tell the truth I wish I could have put more distance between the situation and me. as if it would help anything. Ash had climbed to the top of the coliseum steps and now seemed much calmer that he'd been before. in fact it was as if nothing had happened at all.

"Ash are you all right?" I asked him.

"Yes, I'm Alright now, but I have no idea what I'll do now." He seemed deep in thought.

"Well I suppose you should return home." I suggested.

Ash snapped out of his daze and stretched his wings. "Yea, I wish I could Kash, but Jason was the only one of us that could form the passage between our worlds. and you saw to it that he won't be helping me get home. so guess I'm stranded."

"If that's the case.then why not come with us." I offered. "If you like. The Sanguine Knights Academy could always use another professor, and with your power I'm sure you could make some fine mercenaries out of the students at The Edge of the World."

Ash considered this for a moment. He probably was partially trying to decide if I was joking, and partially trying to figure out what I was talking about. After a moment he reached up and took the bandanna from his head, the jewel remained their embedded in his skin like a third eye. "Hey that jewel looks just like the one I've got." I padded my pockets. "Nagi has." I shook my head.

"Yes, it's the same as your red one. I'm the voice in your head." Ash smiled as if he was revealing some big gag he'd pulled on me.

"Yea.so w."

"Yes I'll join you guys. thank you." Ash stood and held out his hand.

I stood and shook it. Ash and I stood for a few seconds and took in the coliseum and the nameless and numerous victims that were strewn about. "We can not let things like this keep happening just for that bastards entertainment. We have to find him and put an end to his evil once and for all." Ash had made his vow and no one could talk him out of chasing Alec to the end of the earth. and I don't me to Sanguine Castle.

I knew this and nodded with agreement. Simon and Nagi started over to where Ash and I were sitting.

"Now what are we going to do?" Carol whispered to Simon as they walked.

Simon made a fist with his right hand. "I'm still going to find and kill Alec. and now I would assume Ren is also after revenge. and Ash." Ash nodded. "What about you Kash?"

I grinned. "I've been wanting a peace of that S.O.B. for almost a decade. you know I'm in."

"What's all this mean?" Nagi asked.

"It means we'll be hunting him. no longer waiting till the next time fate causes our paths to cross. I say we destroy him no matter who or what gets in our way." Simon's mans were shaking in determination. "So what's next Kash?"

"I suppose we wait at my house till Ren returns. Oh-yea and Ash has decided to join us, I believe he will make one hell of an interesting professor at the castle."

"An enemy to an ally aye?" Nagi eyed him suspiciously.

"He's stranded here honey, and he will not exactly be fit to work anywhere else in out world. Besides we share a common foe and is not the enemy of our enemy our friend?" I patted her on the head and headed down the steps. Nagi and Ash followed closely.

"Yea Alright, but stop talking like that Kash!" Simon called after me. "And wait for me!"

Could Ash be the enemy from the past Gabriel had spoken of? Shit, if he is and everything Gabriel said was true then. then this is all going to be my fault. I thought.

We walked back through the two corridors, down the staircases, hopped threw the shutter Simon had cut, and through the forest where my house stood.

"Here we are, home again home again." I began up the steps to the front door.

We slid inside and Nagi gave Ash a short tour, and I grabbed the phone to call Zion and inform him of the bad news concerning the heart. He wasn't to happy to hear that he'd be missing out on the money but all and all he understood the extenuating circumstances that kept us from achieving out mission. In fact he was so understanding that if I didn't know better I'd say word of the tournament had spread faster than it took us to walk home, but that was absurd.

I leaned in from the kitchen as they descended the stairs from the training room. I had a large red apple that I'd found in the fridge (someone had been using my house) in my right hand. I took a large jagged bite from the fruit. "So why don't you come and have a sit down." I laughed and several bits of apple flew out of my mouth. "Ooops."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to speak with your mouth full?" Ash asked.

"Yea, my mother. I didn't much listen to here ether." I slid back into the kitchen.

"Yea." I head him say.

Simon was leaning back in a chair with his feet propped up on the table, and Nagi hopped up onto the kitchen counter. I went over to set beside her. Ash set across from Simon at the table. I finished my apple and was pondering a useful way to rid myself of it. The back of Simon's head was looking like a good place to put it. I pulled back my arm for the pitch and.

"Kash don't, it's just mean." Nagi placed her hand on my elbow.

"I'm not going to hit him." I smiled and threw the core.

With Simon leaning back in his chair only the back of the chair's legs were touching the ground. My apple core struck one of the back legs causing Simon to fall onto his back. He lay there starring up at the ceiling."

"Kash!" Nagi hopped down off the counter to make sure Simon was all right.

"What? I didn't hit him." I laughed, and leaned back against the wall.

"That's a hell of a way to treat your friends Kash." Ash laughed.

"No Ash, this is how you do treat your friends. Kash and I have just met but this is his way of showing me that we're friends. It's what he and his friends do. I guess." Simon folded his arms behind his head. "You're my new friend right Ash?" Simon smiled.

"I suppose I am." Ash agreed.

"Good." Simon swept his leg into Ash's chairs legs.

They cracked and Ash fell back onto his shoulders. He lay directly across from Simon.

"Oh I see." ash stood up and brushed the non-existent dirt from his pants.

Ash picked up a shattered piece of wood and threw it at one of the tables legs. The table fell over onto Simon's chest.

"Ouch.bastard." Simon hopped to his feet and tackled Ash, sending them both slamming threw the kitchen door across the balcony and a good ten-foot fall to the ground.

Nagi and me ran to the balcony edge. Mercilessly they were unharmed and fighting at the edge of the water.

"How do you hang out?" Nagi and I said in unison before jumping off the balcony to join the playful fighting.

We went on that way for a couple hours, and then we were just wrestling and the sun was coming down. "Just give up Damn it." Simon groaned.

"Never!" Ash refused even though there was an arm around his neck and an elbow grinding into his spine. Simon shifted some more weight behind him and pushed his elbow harder down on Ash.

"Ouch! Ok-ok I give." Ash apparently had reconsidered how long never was.

"Well it's about time." Simon released him and stood.

Ash stood and stretched. The two of them watched me pin Nagi to the ground.

"So you going to give up now or what?" I smiled at her mockingly.

"How.are you.not out of breath?" She panted.

"Come now you should know that I will not get tired as long as I'm entertained, and you're very entertaining." I switched her wrists, which I had been holding to the ground, to one hand so I could move the other freely.

"What are you going to do now?" She asked.

"Well that depends. are you going to give up or not?"

"No, I never give up."

"Oh yea?"

"Yea."

"Alright then." I slid my free hand under her head and lifted it slightly.

"What are you.?" She began. I cut off her speaking when I kissed her.

"I think maybe we should just Um, mosey along don't you?" Simon turned to Ash.

"Y-yea." He nodded quickly.

Simon and Ash began walking toward the road into town.

"So how did you get mixed up in all of this anyway?" Ash asked as they walked.

"Well." Simon shifted his hands into his pockets. "When I was young Alec killed my parents. I was twelve so that was a good eight years ago. During the six years that followed I trained in any and every way I could to try and strengthen myself. After I felt satisfied I begun my search. I ducked into every crowd that tampered with demons and looked for any tid bit of information I could. most of the search was sadly fruitless.

"Well one day I met a man. not a powerful man but a well informed one atleast. Anyway he pointed me an obscure direction. the past. He said at this point in time."

"Wait a second." Ash cut him off. "What do you mean "the past"?"

"That's. Um complicated." Simon scratched his head uncomfortably. "Basically I'm not from. here." He motioned to his gauntlet. "This isn't exactly the sort of thing you pick up at your local sword shop."

"Indeed." Ash nodded.

"You believe me?" Simon eyed him cautiously.

"Ha. yea I believe you. look at my life." He flapped a wing and spun into the air. "Time travel by breakfast." He gave a wink. "What I'm mainly concerned with is the fact that Alec is still alive in your time."

"Yes well he is. so back to my explanation. He said in my time that Alec was unstoppable. and the only ones that could stop him had disappeared. in this time." He shrugged.

"I see." Ash seemed to drift into thought a moment. "So what now." Ash shook his head, to bring himself back into reality.

"I don't know, what do you want to do now?" Simon grinned

"Hmm. What is there to do, I'm new to this world remember?" Ash reminded Simon.

"Oh yea. Well we can skate, see a movie or get some food."

"I am hungry." Ash spread his wings and gave a hard downward flap. He twirled through the air and landed a few yards ahead.

"Alright but you'll have to put this on." Simon handed Ash his trench coat.

"Why?"

"To hide your wings tinker bell. Humans will think you're a servant of god." Ash gave Simon a puzzled look. "An angel nimrod."

Simon explained irately, Ash didn't understand but wasn't going to argue so he put on the trench coat and they walked to Denny's. The dinner was boring at best. They both had steak and eggs then left.

"Well that was. Um uneventful, but still incredibly tasty. So now what?" Simon asked, patting his stomach.

"How about a movie?" Ash asked.

"Dinner and a movie with a guy? I think not my friend."

Ash shrugged. Another thing he did not understand.

"Well I suppose we should go home then." Simon decided, so they headed back the way they had come.

It was well into the night when they entered the house. They crept into the kitchen. The green glow of the oven clock announced it was ten forty-five. There were two plates and a pair of wine glassed in the sink.

"Well it looks like they have already eaten and went to bed." Simon said as he stuck his head into the refrigerator.

"Yep." Ash agreed.

"Common let's just crash in the living room." Simon said as he went over to the couch, plopped down, and flipped on the television.

"Good old Loony Toons. Got to love them." Simon yawned before drifting to sleep.

It seemed as if it were only a few seconds until Ash was shaking him awake. "What the hell?" Simon rubbed his eyes.

"We've got trouble. Get up." Ash seemed calm enough.

"What's this about Ash?" Simon yawned.

"Look." Ash pointed to the television.

There was a burning building, a woman speaking to the camera, and ambulance sirens screaming in the corner of the screen. It said, "live" at the bottom right of the picture.

"Damn! Is this local?" Simon rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Yes it's right here in our town."

"Alright go wake Kash and Nagi up. They'll be in his room. It's right through the door between the stair cases." Simon motioned to the door he was talking about. "He showed it to me while you were upstairs getting the tour."

Ash ran into the room. The windows were shut tight with metal shutters, and the ceiling fan had no bulbs in the fixture. There was a large lamp on my bed stand and it had the only bulb in the room.

"Wake up!" Ash shouted into my face.

Nagi opened her eyes and set up.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" She shouted and yanked the blanket up to her neck.

"Look wake Kash up, and hurry." Ash waved his arms to insight urgency.

"So did you tell him?" Simon asked as he stepped into the room.

"He's asleep, Nagi's waking him." Ash told Simon while they faced the wall to allow Nagi to get dressed.

Nagi shook me awake and informed me of Ash's excitement. I pulled my clothes on and went into the living room to find out what the hell was going on.

"I'm not sure, but we really should check this out." Ash turned and left the room

"Check what out?" I yelled after them.

We entered the town and made our way to the building, which I found was actually the local grocery store. There were many ambulances packed in front of the burning building. The police had set yellow caution tape and saw horses out to keep the crowd at bay.

"Well I don't think were going to be able to get any closer." Simon crossed his arms as if that was that and it was time to go home.

"Hey you guys see that?" Ash pointed into the alley by the grocery store.

"It looks like blood to me." Ash decided.

"Yea it is." I nodded. "I can smell it."

There was a large puddle of blood inside the alley. It looked like the substance was also splashed across the walls.

"Should we check it out then?" Simon asked

"I suppose. Come on." The others and I set off for the dark alley.

There were trashcans and old newspapers thrown about randomly along the walls, a drain was giving off a dark mist across the ground. As we walked the mist parted around our feet. As we grew closer to the blood on the wall the splash began to take the form of words.

It read: FIGHTERS, I WILL CONTINUE THIS SLAUGHTER. LESS YOU CAN STOP ME. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, GAME ON!"

Underneath was a large "A".

"Alec!" I punched the wall sending shattered brick flying into the building.

Threw the fist-sized hole you could see burning shelves of food and other supplies. I turned to leave and the firelight flashing from the hole revealed the corpse of a young woman, her neck was broken. Blood ran from her now color-drained lips.

I winced a little at first, but I was use to things like this by now. She appeared to be in her late teens. There were coupons scattered beside her purse. She must have been shopping.

Exe squinted threw the scope of his rifle. He could plainly see Ren accompanied by one other guy.

"I appreciate you helping me with. this whole thing." Ren wiped the perspiration from his brow.

Between taking care of Beam's burial and explaining things to her family his day had been at best quite ruff. Raze had heard of Ren's return and the misfortunate happenings that had led to it, and had taken it upon himself to give his long time friend a hand.

"It's no problem Ren." Raze slapped his young friend on the shoulder. "I'm just sorry at how things turned out for you two."

"Oh-how easy it would be." Exe whispered to himself as he positioned the cross hairs in the scope onto Ren's forehead.

Ren held his hand up, motioning for Raze to stop, and cutting off any further conversation. "Were being watched." Ren informed him.

Exe clipped his laser aim onto the rifle's barrel and turned it on. A bright red beam connected the laser aim to Ren's forehead.

"How right you are." Exe shifted the stock of his gun from his shoulder to underneath his arm as he walked from his perch on top of a nearby hill to where Ren and Raze were standing, the entire time keeping the laser stationary on Ren's head.

"Well-well look who it is, my old nemesis Exe, and what brings you to this neck of the woods? Come to kill Kash and me again? I thought you were dead. I guess I didn't kill you quite enough the last time we met." Ren did his best to stay calm and keep a level tone, but he obviously was extremely nervous about that gun that Exe had cradled under his arm.

"Indeed, I would love to turn your head into a canoe Ren, but sadly I'm not here to harm you. I come in peace this time."

"Yea? Well you've got a funny way of showing it." Simon motioned a hand at the sniper rifle.

"Well if I had approached you unarmed you would have shot me without letting me without letting me explain my presence." Exe justified his paranoia.

"True." Ren agreed lamely.

"Look. Forgive me for being blunt, but I need you and your friends to help me, and rather you guys know it or not you need me." Exe lowered the rifle slightly, now the laser aim was pointed at Ren's stomach. Not a kill host but it would still hurt quite a bit.

"Well I'm listening. What do you want?" Ren crossed his arms and waited for Exe to continue.

During the conversation between Ren and Exe, Raze had fallen silent. At this point, probably due to the fact that it didn't seem like anyone was going to be shot. atleast at the moment he shifted his wait and let out a breath he'd been holding in. Exe shifted the rifle over to Raze's chest. They stood there for a moment while Exe sized him up.

"Satacosca has returned." Exe said, shifting his eyes over to Ren but leaving the rifle poised in place.

"What!" Ren exclaimed.

"Yes I know you have fear of him, and you are very right to. It gets worse though." Exe continued. "Satacosca has returned for one reason and one reason only. To join forces with the current big baddy. Alec."

"But why the hell would he want to do something like that?" Raze asked, now having his interest peaked.

"Well isn't it obvious. He wants revenge on the Voltage Fighters for banishing him back to his own realm so many times before, and he craves power. He has in his possession a magical item known as the Sapphire Heart."

"Aww.DAMN.DAMN.SHIT.OI!" Ren twitched. "Well that explains who hired us to get it. but with the heart returning to it's rightful owner how did Satacosca. son of a."

"Yes he's the rightful owner of the heart and I'd bet he knew exactly what Alec would do when you came for it." Exe smiled slightly at the fact that we'd been fooled.

"That bastard." Ren clenched a fist in front of him, probably imagining the damage it would do if collided with Satacosca's face.

"Clever isn't he." Exe nodded.

"No, he got his heart and we didn't get our money, that pisses me off."

Raze laughed at the cause of Ren's anger. "It's good to see you've still got your mercenary priorities, I was getting worried with all this free work you and Kash have been doing lately."

"Anyway, Satacosca has built an army of one hundred thousand Vashneds. These are an ancient form of fey that had, till recently, been sealed in a small glacier covered crater in the North Pole of our world. In the time they were sealed away the evolved into the perfect predators. In fact they appear similar to giant bat like creatures."

"First of all if there so powerful how can Satacosca control them and second of all why would he have us get the heart just to team up with Alec?" Raze questioned.

"Well he can't control them. well not yet, but once he and Alec are merged he will have the power necessary to command this army, and as far as why he sent you to retrieve the heart from Alec. got me, seems silly." Exe gave a shrug.

"What do you mean merge?" Ren raised a brow.

Exe sighed as if he were tiring of the topic. "The Sapphire Heart's power is the ability to merge two people into one, and their powers are doubled, and abilities stay intact."

"Fantastic. and what does he plan to do with this immense army he will be dictating?" Raze asked.

"The usual, wage war on humanity. This will begin world war three. A species war." Exe slung the rifle's strap over his shoulder, and then turned away from the pair. "I'm willing to help you in any way that I am able. I have never been a very good person, but not even I can stand idly by while both humans and devils wipe each other from the face of this planet."

"We should return to Kash's house as soon as possible." Raze nodded.

"What do you mean Raze." Ren turned to his friend. "You're not mixed up in this."

"Not mixed up in this?" Raze looked hard at Ren. "This isn't one of your little jobs Ren, this concerns everyone, and I was a mercenary too remember. It hasn't been that long since I retired, I can drag up my skills to assist in this."

Ren grinned. "You know I'm glad to have you with us." Ren turned his attention back to Exe. " Exe. look man if were going to be. umm working together and watching each other's backs I suppose we should let by gones be by gones and se aside our differences." Ren held a hand out to Exe.

"Yea. I suppose." Exe took it. "Atleast until this is all over. then we'll see where we stand." The two men shook and headed back up the hill where Exe had been perched.

"We can take my jet to Kash's house. Come on." Exe called over his shoulder.

"YOU HAVE A JET!" Raze exclaimed.

Raze turned to Ren. "He has a jet!"

Ren laughed and started after Exe.

"He has a jet." Raze repeated to himself again, shaking his head. "Damn, wait for me guys, I want shotgun!" Raze ran after them.

The three of them climbed into the cockpit of what appeared to be a stolen military fighter. Equipped with twenty some odd missiles, twin rail guns, and what appeared to be two gigantic missile shaped bombs.

"Umm, those nuclear man?" Raze asked.

"Uh, yea. at least big enough to commit one hell of a war crime. look this jet is only made for two but one of you should be able to fit in the cargo hold." Exe motioned for Simon to climb on in.

"Oh.great. so much for shotgun." Raze rolled his eyes.

The three situated themselves and headed for home.my home.

Ch. 11

"Why in the hell are we in the sewer?" Alec asked himself.

"Sir, with all do respect, the sewers are a hell of a lot safer than any other way we can travel." One of his men said.

"Sure if you're an alligator.and it stinks." Alec shrugged and sighed. "I'm getting out of here." Alec climbed the first ladder he saw and emerged in a damp alley in between a McDonalds and a Foleys department store.

Alec took a deep breath of fresh air and walked into the nearby parking lot. Alec's five. friends followed him.

"Let's go get something to eat." They walked into the fast food joint and over to the counter.

Alec ordered his food and went to a booth nearby. The young cashier stared him for a while but soon went back to his work. People have grown suprisingly use to seeing strange things.

"Hey check out blue boy." Alec motioned to a man that was coming threw the doors.

The man was dressed in a blue trench coat, blue slacks, blue dress shoes, a blue silk shirt; he had blue hair, blue eyes, and blue gloves. Alec and his friends ate and watched the man in blue watch them.

"Can I help you friend?" Alec finally called to the man.

"Indeed.indeed I believe you can." The man said, handing Alec a card from his pocket. "My card."

Alec took the card reluctantly.

It read: "Satacosca: warmonger and friend to anyone who can help me meet my own ends." Another word appeared. "Alec."

"Who are you?" Alec inquired curiously.

"You have a bad memory Alec." Satacosca said as the card erased its self and a new word appeared. "Satacosca."

"And how could I help you?" Alec asked.

"Well. what do you want?" Satacosca slid into the booth.

"An easier question would be a good start."

"Well then what else do you want?"

"Everything."

"Well then we have much to discuss." Satacosca reached into his coat and withdrew a heart shaped sapphire. "Like this for starters."

"Where did you get that?" Alec fought the urge to snatch up the jewel.

"You sent it to me, and I sent you the knights." Satacosca returned the heart to the confides of his coat.

"Why?" Alec leaned back into the cushions of his seat.

"Well you were thinking of a way to lure them to your little tournament, so I took it upon myself to assist you. the heart, well I didn't obviously need them to get it for me, seeing as how I was planning to seek you out anyway. Though I did want it in my possession again, just in case I needed it. I do here you are quite powerful. and I wouldn't want to come here defenseless." Satacosca smiled at a joke only he got.

Alec leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at the stranger. "And why have you sought me out?"

Satacosca smiled and leaned forward as well. "To give you everything you want."

"Why are you in my house?" I asked.

"Well if you lower that cannon you call a pistol from my temple I will be more than happy to explain my presence here." Exe said.

Exe watched me consider this from behind Angel's sights. After considering the fact that he was unarmed so he probably didn't come to fight I lowered my weapon. reluctantly.

"Yes! That's ten bucks Ren. I win." Ash and Ren came into the room.

"Well in my own defense Kash would normally shoot anyone who didn't belong in his house." Ren slapped the money into Ash's hand.

"You two actually bet on whether Kash would kill me or not?" Exe asked in disbelief.

"Well.yea." Ren shrugged.

"And Ren would have won except I heard you two breathing from behind the door." I tucked my gun back into its holster.

The four of us went into the living room where Nagi, Raze and Simon were. Exe explained the situation with Satacosca.

"Now that you are all filled in on the currently happening events, we must find Alec and destroy him before Satacosca gets a chance to speak with him." Exe ended his speech.

I starred blankly into my floor.

"What's the call.Kash?" Ren asked.

I raised my gaze to meet his. "This changes nothing. We will find Alec and kill him. we've just got a couple more reasons to do it. Well my friends. lets mosey."

Alec, Satacosca, and the other men walked into the street from the fast food joint.

"Oh. here this is for you." Satacosca took a large bottle of wine from his coat and gave it to his newly acquired partner.

"Thanks. Just what I needed." Alec stuffed a handkerchief into the top of the wine bottle and lit it with a flaming fingertip, then hurled in into a nearby house. The house burned for a moment before screams could be heard from inside.

"That. is the most beautiful waist of good alcohol I have ever seen." Satacosca wiped an imaginary tear from his eye just before the family ran out into the street. "Damn!" Satacosca cursed.

"You win some you lose some. Let's go." Alec shrugged and started off down the road.

My friends and I began moving from city to city in search of our enemies who had managed to elude us thus far. We would check the newspaper daily for leads. Nothing seemed to fit with Alec though.

"We're never going to find him this way." Ash flung his newspaper into a near by trashcan.

"You know he's right Kash. We have to find him and this just is not going to do it." Simon agreed.

We were eating outside a James Coney Island in Austin, Texas. We had decided to sit at one of the outside tables.

"Kash are you listening." Simon asked me irritated.

I was starring across the road not listening to them nag anymore. Like there was any other way to go about finding him besides this. Why would I be listening if there were nothing I could do?

"Will you pay attention?" Ash waved his hand in front of my face.

I ignored him and stood before heading across the street. The rest of them followed me of course. I stopped in front of an electronics store window.

"Yoo hoo, earth to Kash." Simon waved another hand in front of my vision.

"Look." I pointed inside the window.

There were several television sets stacked in side for a display and they were all playing the news.

"Arson, murder, and disappearances. These crises have plagued our city over this past week. Could these be acts of gangs or terrorism? Or perhaps random acts of crime committed by individuals. Whatever the cause we can not allow." The woman on the television announced.

"I think we just found our lead, boys." I grinned.

The others and I were only a few miles from the crime scenes described location on the television. We were south of the places. Main-street went north so we used the sidewalk that ran along it to get there. It looked as though a riot had broken out in the streets. A few burnt houses, shattered windows, and collapsed buildings riddled the place. One of the houses however looked as though nothing had happened, except of course for the yellow caution tape that was put around it. The house was an old Victorian, with brown shutters, and a large wooden door, which was half way open. We dunked under the tape and slipped inside.

There were no lights on inside and with the shutters closed it was dark as pitch. I could see fine and Ren might have been able to manage, but the others would be literally just taking shots in the dark.

"You guys just wait here awhile and I'll find a light switch." I said.

"I smell blood." Exe sniffed.

" Yep." I agreed as I used my sleeve to flip the switch by a nearby staircase to avoid fingerprints; surely the police had dusted the place.

The lights on a nearby chandelier flickered to life. Dust had settled on the bulbs causing the light to be dimmer than normal.

"Now let's find out where that blood is coming from." Exe leaded the way up stairs.

The smell was coming from a bedroom at the end of the upstairs hallway. A message was scrolled across the bedroom wall in blood. Nearby there was a large puddle of blood. Someone had been killed here. sadly the police do not really make tacky chalk outlines of the victims or we would have been able to figure out what had happened here.

"Is that supposed to be some sort of note?" Raze wondered.

"Yea just like back in the alley beside the grocery store." I said.

"Oh-yea we noticed that when we were flying over." Raze said.

The words read: "DO YOU LIKE MY HANDY WORK? DON'T WORRY THERE WILL BE LOTS MORE. WE WOULD LOVE TO TALK WITH YOU FIGHTERS. GO TO 13303 BENON BLVD.

Luv A & S."

"We?" Exe wondered for a moment before he realized what he had been speaking of. "Son of a bitch!" Exe kicked the A & S, which caused his leg to go, threw the wall up to his knee. Exe pushed off the wall with his hands to get his leg out of the wall.

"Finger prints." I pointed at his handprints in the dusty wall.

"Don't worry I'm not on file." Exe defended.

"Let's check the other rooms." Simon said.

"Yea." Raze agreed.

The others and I searched the remainder of the home but we did not find anything else of use. Just a few more splatters and trails of blood.

"Will you please tell me once again why we're in a dark and dank warehouse?" Alec asked.

"Is there any better place to end it?" Satacosca smirked.

"End what?"

"Our little problem with the Voltage Fighters and Sanguine Knights."

"You mean were going to kill them when they arrive here?"

"You sound rather disappointed Alec."

"No. it's just that I've known Kashata and those kids for a few years, and it just seems kind of. hasty just to slaughter them quick and simple. And in a god forsaken place like this." Alec looked down at his clawed hands and flexed them.

"Oh it will be anything but simple. They'll have to make it past our men and mine first."

"Yours?" What men do you have?"

"Not men, but man. well sorta."

"Where?"

"Right there." Satacosca pointed up at the ceiling.

Alec leaned his head back and peered into the dark eyes of some sort of gigantic bat. The creature dropped from the ceiling and slammed heavily to the floor in front of Alec. Alec stumbled a few feet back do to the shake the bat caused. The creature backed over to Satacosca on all fours before standing up and letting out a long hiss in Alec's direction.

"What the hell is that?" Alec held a clawed hand at the ready and his feet were poised for flight.

"This is one of the soldiers which will be in our army. Isn't he beautiful?"

"I thought you couldn't control them.and.no."

"Well I raised this one from birth. I'm his mommy."

"Riiighttt." Alec rolled his eyes, and thought to himself that he couldn't wait for this man to die.

"They will be here very soon. Let's prepare." Satacosca ordered.

"Yea can you. um. prepare by yourself?" Alec asked.

"Well I suppose so but what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go and ask a friend of mine to do me a small favor."

"Alright, I suppose I'll be seeing you later then. Just make sure you get here before the fighters do.Alright?"

"Ok." With that Alec ran out of the warehouse.

"So what are we going to do now, oh great leader?" Exe asked me sarcastically.

"Were going to 13303 Benign Blvd." I answered.

"You do know it is going to be a trap right?" Ash said.

"Yes I know, and I don't care ether. It ends now." I went to a nearby phone booth. Teenagers had long since vandalized the phone book, but I knew the number I needed.

A loud banging noise alerted me to someone landing on top of the booth. "What the hell?" I opened the door and someone swung down to the ground blocking my way.

"Who the hell are you?" I stepped back and placed my hand on my Angel.

He was wherein a black trench coat, a black hat pulled low on his face, dark slacks, and a red sash pulled up to his eyes. "My name is Lord V. and you are Kashata."

"How do you know me?"

"My servant Alec is interested in you."

"Wait a second. Alec serves you?"

"If you want me to answer more of your questions come to Nodding Hill at midnight." The man jumped into the air and disappeared.

"Who the hell was that man?" Ren asked as I walked over to them.

"Lord V. apparently. He says he's Alec's master. He wants me to meet him at Nodding Hill at midnight." I told them.

"That's just a few blocks away on the far side of that park we passed on our way to James Coney Island." Raze said.

I nodded. "Well your not going to go, are you?" Ren asked.

"Yea. you know I am. If he is truly Alec's master then he is responsible for all the evil Alec has done. I have to go." At my statement Nagi wrapped her arms around me tightly.

"Alright man, but what are we supposed to do? We can't fight Satacosca and Alec without you." Simon complained.

"Yea I know. Just wait outside the place for me and I'll be there." I bent down and gave Nagi a kiss on the forehead. "I'll be back." She nodded and reluctantly released me.

I turned to leave then remembered what I had gone to the pay phone for. "Hey guys, call for some taxis. The number is 431-896-6543."

Ren called and after a half-hour the first taxi arrived, Nagi, Ren, and Simon climbed in and told the drive where they needed to go. The yellow car disappeared from Exe and Ash's sight, and it was barely five minutes before their ride was rolling into the driveway of the old Victorian.

Seeing that they were all off, I turned to head for Nodding Hill, which was actually just a large elevated clearing in the forest, which were a couple miles away from where I was now. I ran quickly to the clearing in the forest and it must have been a bit earlier than I had thought because Lord V. hadn't yet arrived. I walked to the top of the hill and plopped down onto the soft grass.

"Figures." I smiled up into the crimson red moon.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Lord V. had come into the clearing and now was leaning against a tree looking up at the same moon as I.

"Yea. yea it is." I sat up and looked over at him. "Not that a man like you would appreciate something like beauty."

"Now Kashata, you of all people." His voice trailed off as if he was reconsidering his words.

"Me of all people what?" I stood. "If you've got something to say to me then say it!"

"I may have commanded. some of Alec's actions and it very well may be my plan to kill you before you can make it to Alec's little party, but you, you my friend are the worst kind of excrement that I will ever scrape off my boot." He spat at me.

"Look you bastard! I don't even know you but if your dumb enough to tell me that it is all your fault that my best friend Vic is dead and that you plan to kill me then I think whatever I give you tonight will be you just desert." I took off my coat and let it drop to the ground with a thud sending dust into the air.

"What? Do you plan to fight me without letting me tell you the truth about what is really going on around here?"

"To tell you the truth I really don't give a rat's ass anymore. Your life as a warrior ends here and now!" I charged him.

He threw a quick right jab that I easily dodged and slammed my shoulder into his chest. Breath escaped his lungs and I slammed him into the tree he had been leaning against previously. I threw a hard left uppercut into his jaw sending him sliding hard up the tree's trunk. Bark rained down as he tore the trees outside with his back and head.

He obviously had Alec's speed, because he vanished in mid slide up the tree's face. I waited for him to stop moving. I heard the quick crush of grass behind me and I dropped to my knees and lay back so that my shoulders were on the ground next to my feet. Lord V. still had his right arm extended in his failed attack I had just avoided. I drew my Angel and fired it into his solar plexus. It tore threw his body and exited between his shoulder blades leaving a double fisted whole.

Lord V. lifted several feet into the air then crumbled to the ground. I got up and jumped on top of him and begun harassing him with uncountable left and right punches.

"Stop.please.give.me.a chance.to." Lord V. managed to say between my attacks.

"Shut up? Just shut up and die!" I leaned into the attacks, trying to crush him.

"Victor.lives." He managed.

I stopped hitting him and tried to catch my breath. my fists were bleeding and shaking. "What did you say?"

Lord V.'s beaten and bloody face made some sort of grotesque smile. "He's alive Kashata, not only that I can tell you how to kill my servant."

"Why should I believe you?" I asked defiantly but I'm sure he could see the hope in my eyes.

"You don't have to, but if you allow me to live, then I'll tell you where he is. You can be with you best friend once more." He gagged and coughed blood as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"I.I should of known. You just want me to let you live and get away with all the horrors you and Alec have committed. I'll never let you live." I drew my Devil from its holster and slid back the hammer.

"But I'm telling the truth. Victor is alive. Just let me go and I'll. I won't just tell you I'll lead you to him personally I promise." Lord V. pleaded on bent knee.the sight sickened me. he'd seemed so proud. powerful... and that was just in the brief moment I'd known him.

"I. I really wish I could believe you, but I can't let you go. Victor is dead and that is just the way it is."

"No he's."

"He's Dead! I will never let you live!" I stepped to the left and pressed the pistol against his temple.

My eyes began to water with the thought that I was about to destroy what may be the only chance I would ever have to get Victor back, but for some reason I couldn't accept what he said.

"Please it's the tru." Before he could finish I silenced him forever.

With my business done here I grabbed my trench coat and headed for 13303 Benign Blvd.

"So what's the plan? I mean we're not just charging inside are we?" Ash gave a sideways look at Exe.

"Knowing Kash were not only charging in were going threw the front door." Exe shook his head and Ash swallowed nervously.

"Look there it is." Simon pointed at a warehouse up ahead.

"You boys sure look fit. It's almost a shame you will never get to your destination." The driver spoke into his overhead mirror.

"Excuse me?" Simon leaned forward in his seat.

Simon's answer was the car turning sharply, and the driver dropping a brick on the gas pedal."

"What the hell are you doing?" Simon shouted at the man.

"Jumping idiot." The driver opened his door and leapt from the speeding cab.

"Come on!" Simon shouted to Nagi and Ren before trying the locked doors. "Your kidding me. child proof locks?" Simon slammed his gauntlet against the glass and bounced off.

"So is this going to hurt?" Nagi made a mock smile.

"No, not as long as you lean back." Simon grinned and the yellow blade shot across the length of the back seat.

"Cutting us a whole?" Ren held himself tight against his seat.

"Kinda." Simon swung the blade in a circle cutting the entire cab in half.

The middle of the cab dropped to the pavement, showering sparks in every direction. The trio leapt from the cab and did a short fruitless search for the cabby. Luckily however the cabby had brought them right up to the meeting point. I suppose Alec didn't want them to have to walk far if they'd survived. which they tended to. Ren led the way to the front of the building to wait for me.

Ash and Exe had already arrived, seems their cabby was straight, I suppose there was a slim chance of Alec having two cabbies on the pay roll just by coincidence. I arrived shortly after my comrades had.

"Looks like I haven't missed the party." I announced my presence.

"Yea you're right on time man. So am I to assume we will be using the front door?" Ash shifted his gaze from me to the warehouses' entrance.

"You got it, so get ready." I gave my weapons quick once over and made sure everyone else did the same.

"Hey, what happened out there?" Raze asked after we'd finished checking our hardware.

"Nothing, I killed him. He was the one behind the curtain and Alec is the Wizard. if you know what I mean."

"So Alec has been his puppet all along huh? Seems unlikely. So in part everything is because of that guy." Raze concluded.

"Yea. anyway it looks like we're all set. Let's go." I took a step toward the door.

"Wait a sec." Simon put his hand over his gauntlet, which currently was without blade, and twisted the end clockwise until it made a clicking noise.

Armor erupted from the weapon and covered Simon completely. With the armor on, Simon appeared to be a futuristic knight. Where his left hand should be there was a pointed hammer. His knees and elbows had large spikes and so did the heels of his boots. The rest of him was covered in shingled armor. He bent his right arm as if flexing it and the spike on his elbow shot out into a curved sword like blade.

"Anything else?" I asked. "No? Ok let's go." I turned and went for the door.

Ch. 12

Ren, Raze, and I took the lead, kicking in the double doors. Inside, there was what appeared to be a small squad of warriors. One was engulfed in what appeared to be water, another was a flame, there was one female fighter, and there was some sort of bat demon. We could plainly see Satacosca and Alec in the back of the warehouse.

"I'll take water boy!" Raze said as flames began spreading over his body.

I took a quick step away from Raze. "Raze?" I blinked absently, as he smiled from behind the fire.

Ren grinned. "You old dog."

"Told you I use to be the best." With that Raze went to do battle.

Ren smiled. "Then I've got the fire elemental." Ren's hair formed into spikes of ice.

"I'll get the girl of course." Nagi rolled her eyes.

"Be careful. all of you." Ash gave each of us a stern look. "I'll get the bat, I take it he's one of those ancient demons you were talking about Exe." Exe nodded to show that Ash's guess was right. "So you guys take care of Satacosca and Alec." Ash told Exe, Simon, and me.

"Roger that. Let's mosey." I spun on my heels and headed for Alec and Satacosca with Simon and Exe close in tow.

"Welcome!" Alec opened his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Save it Alec! Let's just end this." I growled as I fell back into a fighting stance.

"What's the hurry Kashata? Do you not want to wait for your friends to die?" Satacosca said my name as though it had belonged to a different person.

"Hell I'm not that patient. I plan to fight this life time." I grinned back defiantly. "And don't act as though I've changed."

"There is no denying it now Kashata. Your eyes are even yellow. It's quite a change from your blue now isn't it?" Satacosca had a very pleased look on his face now, but I planned to change that real quickly.

"Yellow? Oh that's just the color they take when I'm ready to do murder." I let my energy charge and electricity began cracking around me.

"I thought that was." Alec paused a second to watch my eyes turn to a red that matched the lightning around me. ".Red.right."

"Quit stalling and give up the Sapphire Heart!" Exe ordered Satacosca.

"Haven't you given up on that yet? You're not getting it back, I'm the rightful owner now." Satacosca smiled down at Exe.

"Shut up!" Exe shouted, before breaking into a full out sprint toward Satacosca.

"Alec lunged for me and swung a hand full of claws at my chest. I jumped back just in time to avoid Simon's laser blade which sliced effortlessly threw Alec's cone like claws. The five claws made a splattering sound as Alec's venom spilled out onto the floor.

"Two on one? That's not very fair for you guys?" Alec put his fists together in front of him and began gather his energy.

"Simon!" Simon jumped at the sudden shout. "Keep Alec distracted while I charge up a bit of energy of my own.ok?" Simon nodded.

The hammer on his left hand shifted into a double bladed ax, and his laser blade, and elbow sword extended from his right elbow and hand.

"Go!" I shouted.

Simon charged at Alec who began hopping backwards to dodge Simon's attacks.

"Right." I thought to myself. I leaned back into a stance with my left and right hands at one side. The lightning around me began crackling and fluctuating rapidly.

Raze slammed into the water elemental sending them both rolling to the ground. Steam poured from the confrontation as the two elements battled for a foot holds.

Ren slid to a stop in front of the flaming elemental. "Look we can do this the easy way. or the real easy way." Ren grinned at the sound of his own threat.

"How about we do this the way that ends with you in a cedar box?" The fire elemental retorted as his flames billowed and twisted around him.

"Then show me!" Ren held out his hand a flurry of jagged ice shards flew at the fire elemental, but the ice was reduced to gas the moment it entered the fire.

The elemental laughed. "You have no chance ice man." The fire elemental gritted his teeth and the flames around him flickered to white hot. "There is no other fire like me. I am a true Fey of the flames. Your ice will never make it to me." Even the concrete around the elemental's feet began to turn molten.

Ren smiled. "Then I guess we'll have to do this the real easy way." Ren pulled his Soul from its holster and fired a pair of slugs at his opponent.

The two slugs were reduced to molten silver as they entered the flame elemental's eyes. The super heated metal burned threw the fey's eyes and into it's brain as he collapsed to the ground in a heap. Ren watched as the white flames, now unchecked devoured their maker leaving behind nothing but a pile of ash with a small pool of sliver in it's center.

Nagi dunked a high kick and responded with a quick uppercut. The woman fighter lifted a couple inches off the ground but kept her equilibrium, spinning in mid-air and throwing out a kick. The kick struck Nagi in the face sending her spinning to the ground. The female fighter landed and took a couple of steps toward her opponent who was laying face down on the concrete. She rubbed her chin with the back of her left hand and licked the smear of blood that was there. "That hurt girl, but probably not as bad as that kick." The female fighter smiled down at her unresponsive foe. "I'm disappointed I thought the leader of the famed Sanguine Knights would have a little more fight in her."

"Disappointed?" Nagi pushed herself up on all fours without looking up at the girl. "Don't be." Nagi raised her gaze slowly.

Nagi's hair hung over her eyes, which were now engulfed in a black shine. Black liquid ran from a cut on her left cheek resulting from the woman's kick. Black sweat beaded on her brow. The woman took a step back as Nagi rose to her feet.

"What's wrong?" Nagi clenched her teeth and fists.

Black liquid poured from between Nagi's fingers and puddle on the floor, where small waves began to form on its surface. The female fighter took another shaky step back as she starred down at the liquid.

"What is this?" The girl's eyes grew as Nagi slowly stretched her fingers out; allowing the water to run unrestricted from her fingertips. The nails on her fingers turned from pink and white to the darkest black. The black sweat on Nagi's brow ran up onto her scalp and there the black spread threw out her honey colored hair turning it black as night.

"This? This will not be disappointing." The puddles of dark water began to creep across the floor as they grew the waves on their surface rose and the waters became more violent.

Raze slammed a fist into the water elemental's face sending him skidding to a stop just a couple inches from the dark water that had formed around Nagi's feet and was creeping outward. The waves in the water shifted, and the water closed the distance to the elemental in a split second. When the water came in contact with the fighter it pulled him into the endless depths. The fighter was gone and there was nothing left but the swirling waters which had returned to their original course for the female fighter.

The girl turned to run but that seemed to only provoke the waters, which instead of streaming straight to the girl's feet instead went around her encircling her in their center. The girl jerked her head from side to side looking for an escape route. With a quick thought she decided that she could easily jump the waters, after all the circle in which she was in closed was only three or four feet wide. It was a small leap for a fighter of her caliber. She took no time readying her self. Instead she instantly kicked off with all her might, aiming for freedom.

The water swirled and leapt up around the girl, closing in above her head. She reached up with a defiant hand as the waters crushed in around her. The water fell back to the concrete floor dragging the girl down with it. Nagi's fight was over. The water returned to her body in an instant after its job was done.

Exe slammed Satacosca against the wall.

"Give me the heart!" Exe ordered once again.

"Will you just die?" Satacosca slammed his palms into Exe's chest and sent him flying across the warehouse and into the far wall. Exe fell onto his knees with a thud.

"Sorry, but its time for you to leave us." Satacosca pulled a knife from his inside pocket and held it to Exe's throat.

"Shit!" I'd been watching the events unfold between both Alec and Simon, and Satacosca and Exe, and at the moment Exe wasn't doing to hot.

I stopped charging my energy for a moment to draw my Angel. I took quick aim and fired. The bullet found its mark in Satacosca's elbow. The bullet ripped threw the flesh and bone leaving the arm hanging by a single strand of skin. I leveled my pistol at Alec and continued charging.

"Looky there you dropped your knife. and your arm.pity." Exe slammed his fist into Satacosca's stomach forcing the air from his lungs.

Satacosca fell onto his back and before he could take another breath Exe was upon him, pounding his face with continues and viscous punches. Blood flowed in a large circle from Satacosca's arm. At the rate he was bleeding it wouldn't take long before he was completely dry.

"Now." I exhaled as my energy began to peak. "Move!" Simon dived out from in front of Alec.

My lightning swirled into the barrel of my Angel as I fired the bullet. A crackling red basketball sized sphere of lightning fired from the Angel's barrel, a single blessed silver slug spun in the energy's center as the mass of elemental energy plummeted straight for Alec.

Alec put his hands forward to block the attack. The orb collided with Alec's hands and he was instantly pushed back several yards. Knowing that Alec didn't have the strength to stop the energy he did the next best thing, he deflected it to the side.

The orb spun off Alec's hands and burst threw the top left corner of the warehouse. Now winded Alec sought an escape route as always. Seeing the newly formed hole nearby Alec leapt onto the roof.

"Damn it!" I shouted and ran after Alec.

"Wait for me." Simon followed.

The rest of my friends, having finished their battles followed as well. We chased Alec to the far side of the roof.

"Quit your running Alec. It's time to end this once and for all." I challenged.

Alec jumped far higher and farther than any human would think physically possible and landed a few yards from the hole in the roof that I had previously made. The others and I started to run after him but Ash motioned for us to wait.

"Why?" Raze asked.

"I'll handle this." Was Ash's answer.

He then leaned forward and spread his angelic type wings out behind him. The golden jewel glittered and glow. Guessing what was coming Alec braced him self. The golden beam shot from Ash's jewel and went straight threw Alec's hands (which he'd held out to block) and chest, not to mention a few trees, a billboard, and a drive-in theater screen.

Alec dropped to his knees. Ash shot a second beam, which penetrated threw Alec's forehead. The tyrant collapsed into a heap onto the tin roofing of the warehouse. Simon approached Alec cautiously. Kneeling beside him he checked for a pulse.

"Is he." Ren's question was answered before fully spoken, by Alec quickly slipping his left hand under a single shingle of armor in Simon's breastplate.

Blood ran from the shingle, down Alec's arm and dripped from his elbow. A rasping cough and blood from the helmet showed the attack had penetrated Simon's lungs and was fatal.

"So.your alive." Simon coughed. "I.shall not.let my family.die in vain.DIE!" with Simon's last bit of strength he rapped his arms around Alec and fell over the edge of the hole.

"Simon!" We all rushed to the edge of the hole.

Simon was lying sprawled inside the warehouse. Alec and Simon had apparently landed on the steel wall's edge where it had been destroyed. Simon with his armor on had been cast inside the building while Alec had been split in two just above his navel. The others and I leapt down from the roof.

Simon's armor retracted back into his gauntlet showing the five deep holes from Alec's claws just below his solar plexus. Everyone stood back while I knelt and lifted Simon up slightly.

"D-did I do it.is he dead?" Simon asked me.

"Yea man.you kicked ass." I grinned down at him as everything was going to be fine, like it was just a flesh wound.

"I avenged them.I prevented it.I win." He smiled.

His teeth were red with blood and it had soaked his chin and the neck of his shirt. "Kash.please take my sword.you all have been my friends. and allies. hopefully this way. I can still.help." Simon took a deep breath. a breath he would never exhale.

I ran my hand over Simon's eyes to close them. Nagi ran to me when I stood and I put my arms around her. We all stood there in silence for a moment. Ash approached the body slowly and kneeled beside it. He recited a brief prayer while making a hail marry. Then he held his hand out above Simon's chest. We all watched as Simon's body desolved into silver energy and spiraled into Ash's hand where the billions of shining particles formed a single silver jewel.

"What is that?" I asked in a solemn tone.

Ash sighed. "It's a saint stone. Like the one I gave you. there formed by the energy of a departed warrior."

"I see." We fell silent once more.

"Ha-ha-ha.Idiot." Exe eyed us from the puddle of blood that was seeping from Satacosca.

Exe's arms were soaked up to the elbows in blood. There were chunks of flesh hanging from his clenched fists. Satacosca's head was reduced to small chunks of gray brains, shattered bone, and nearly liquid flesh.

"What?" Ren whispered.

Exe stood slowly. In his hand he gripped the Sapphire Heart. "Nothing." He said.

"Is Satacosca dead?" Raze asked.

"Oh-yes.very." Exe answered.

"Hey you've got the heart!" Raze smiled.

Exe smiled back at raze making him resemble a wolf in my mind. "So I do."

"Destroy it now Exe!" I ordered.

"I don't think so."

"What?" Ren asked Exe for the second time.

"I never wanted to save the earth. I just wanted my weapon back."

"I don't get it. The Sapphire Heart merges bodies right? How is it a weapon?" I wondered out loud.

"Let me show you." Exe put the Sapphire Heart between each of his hands.

"Shit!" I pushed Nagi behind me and fell back into my stance.

Exe started squeezing the heart and as he did so his hair and clothes began whipping behind him as if a strong wind was threatening to carry him off. This kept up only for a brief moment before the Sapphire Heart burst into Sapphire energy. The energy was in the shape of a gigantic fang, but it was thin like a saber.

"Prepare to die." Exe spat.

"Just like old times." I said.

Ren smiled broadly and nodded.

"Except I'm here now." Ash stepped forward beside Ren and I.

"You know, as touching as I find this act of unity I'm afraid I'm going to have to separate the three of you. from your heads." Exe pointed the heart at us.

"Make that four." Raze stepped up.

"What ever." Exe charged us head on. "Die!"

"Me too love." A loud bang followed the voice. The fight stopped before even getting a chance to start.

Exe stumbled a few steps back. Smoke was emitting from a small hole in his chest. Nagi stepped up beside me, her hair and eyes black as death, and a sliver pistol with a still smoking barrel held at the ready in her right hand. Her black coat had caught on top of the gun's holster, which was at her back, when she drew the weapon.

"Sorry I'm late." Nagi winked as black water ran from her thumb down the gun's sight rail and into the barrel.

"Well. I see the odds are not exactly in my favor, but I will kill you. all of you. just maybe not for a few hundred years." Exe turned his back on us.

I taused Simon's gauntlet to Raze, who slipped it on and after a quick second of fumbling with the inner workings of the technology, activated the blade.

"I don't plan to wait that long." Ren stepped forward.

"Oh? Who said anything about waiting?" Exe swung the heart down vertically.

A large tare appeared. It was a hole in the very realm it's self. It was similar to my black holes but this was beyond that. This was not some sort of wormhole to another place; this was in the very fabric of our existence. The inside of the tear was glowing and pulsing with some sort of energy.

"Come into my parlor." Exe said as he leapt threw the tear he had made.

"Said the spider to the fly." Ren jumped after him.

Raze and Ash were next to go. "Are you coming with us?" I turned a wary gaze to Nagi.

"I will follow you always, and anywhere." She said before jumping threw the hole.

"Well. here we go." I checked my weapons, and gave my world one last glance before jumping into the unknown.

I landed in what appeared to be some sort of modern wasteland. Buildings and houses were in shambles, the sky was a dark gray, and the clouds seemed to be rolling by as if they were being fast-forwarded in one of those time laps films. There was a full red moon, a sanguine moon, but it was so large I thought that it couldn't be real. The place looked how I had imagined Hiroshima had to have looked after it was bombed, except the ground wasn't damaged. In fact there was knee high grass covering the ground and here and there were trees. This place had been in shambles for a very long time.

"Hey are you guys Alright?" I rubbed my head, which I had used to cushion my fall.

"I'm just freaking dandy, you?" Ren said sarcastically.

"I'm fine, my head cushioned my fall." I laughed.

"Yep." Raze.

"Uh-huh." Ash

"I'm just fine babe, but where the hell are we?" Nagi asked me.

"I don't." I started.

There was a man standing a few yards ahead of where the others and me had landed. He had long white hair down below his waist; he was dressed in a black cloak with the hood down, and knee-high boots. He turned to face me. It was a face I had seen in my dreams many nights since I had met Alec.

"Victor?" I asked in shock, not believing my eyes.

"Hello Kash. Welcome to year 2513."

"Victor I.what happened?" I was confused and a bit in shock.

"When Alec and I fought you know that I lost. After the battle however I was not killed, just badly injured. I managed to drag my tattered body to a cave, you know the one with the access to the under ground water ways that you and I found back in the fifties or sixties, and deep inside it I fell into a coma like state. I slept for many years. When I finally came to it was year 2100. I tried to find all of you but I searched in vain. You all had disappeared over eighty year's prior and the only proof of your existence was the reputation and families you left behind. He said.

"W.what happened here?" Raze asked.

"There will be plenty of time for that later. Come with me. We'll go to the castle." Victor turned and began to walk away.

"Vic wait up!" I ran ahead to walk with my friend.

The others followed behind us.

"So this is the famous Vic huh?" Raze asked.

"Yea I guess so." Ren answered.

"Is it just me or does he seem a bit.dark?" Nagi asked.

"Yea I'm getting that vibe too." Ash agreed.

"So, Vic, what have you been up to over these last. few hundred years?" I asked.

"War. that's what's happened to this place, and that's what's been happening in your absence."

"War? Between which countries."

"Not between countries. It was world war 3, an inner species war. It was the humans versus the fey. It really was a sad excuse for a war. The humans couldn't stand up to the demons that invaded their homes. Their puny guns did nothing against the monsters. Only the human's with fey blood or the one's that had trained their energy were able to kill any of us, but we were able to easily over come them."

"What's this "we" and "us" all about?"

"Well I couldn't very well fight against that number of fey. If I would have died there would be no one to help you all when you arrived here in 2513, not to mention that my death would prevent me from ever helping any humans in the future."

".Right." I was trying very hard to justify what he had said.

"Here we are."

We had approached an incredibly large castle without me noticing. There was a large concrete wall around it, except unlike Alec's castle wall this one had barbed wire at the top of it and I would bet money the wire was electrified. The driveway that ran inside had two large guards at each side of it and they were checking people as they came threw. We came to the driveway and two me saluted Vic as he walked threw. They stopped the others and me though. At this close I could tell that the guards were actually half wolves dressed up in military clothing. The one to my right growled deeply, my eyes shined and I returned the gesture.

"No it's Alright there with me?" Victor yelled back to them.

They stepped out of our way but they didn't stop growling and glaring at us. As Nagi came through the wolf to the left whined and stomped his foot at her. She turned slowly and smiled before bating an eyelash and putting a bullet in the wolves' head.

"What?" She put on her most innocent face at the stern look Victor was giving her.

"Please come in." Victor told us as we entered the castle.

There were servants rushing every which was preparing for something as far as I could tell. We walked up a large staircase to what appeared to be a mid-evil thrown room. Victor walked over to the large golden thrown at the head of the room and sat down.

"What I this Victor?" Ren asked.

"Well, simply put this is the head of my kingdom." He said, looking pleased with him self.

"Your kingdom?" I inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Well yes. I am king."

"Of what?" Raze joined in.

"What else? This planet of course."

"What?" We all said in unison.

"C'mon I thought you all were more intelligent than that. I'm king of this planet now." Vic smiled and leaned deep into the cushion of his thrown.

The others all turned and looked at me nervously. "What guys? This is great." I walked over to stand by Vic and his thrown. "Look guys this is a good thing. With a guy like Vic in charge of the world we can actually make the world into a better place. of course Victor has probably already done that. Right?"

"Well said Kash, and you are correct. The world is being run just as it should be." Vic nodded.

"And how is that?" Ash challenged.

"There will be time for that later. For now you all must be tired. I will have some of my men show you to your room." Vic motioned for several butlers to take us to some bedroom, I turned to join my friends but Vic grabbed my wrist. "Not you Kash. I need to talk to you alone."

"Kash!" Nagi grabbed my hand and gave me a worried and desperate look. "No Kash." She whispered.

"It's Alright honey. I'll catch up with you later Alright?" I tried to look reassuring.

"Alright.be careful." She reluctantly let me go and went with the others, but she kept looking over her shoulder at me.

The butlers took them into a room just at the top of a nearby staircase. Victor led me into a room that was empty except for two chairs. The room was completely white. It made me think of an asylum. Vic walked over to one of the chairs and sat down.

"Sit down Kash." I did as he asked.

"What's this all about Vic? I finally get to see you again and you're acting as if we're at some sort of business meeting. I mean from the look on your face I would think you're about to tell me that I'm fired or something." Vic frowned slightly.

"Kash.I.I have to ask something of you.something that you may not like or want to hear."

"What is it?"

"Look." Victor tossed me a small mirror.

"At what?" I asked puzzled.

"At your self."

"I looked into the mirror. A pair of yellow eyes gazed back at me. Clusters of scars were at the edge of my brow and there was another long then scar across my right cheek. "What is this?" I asked.

"Your body is remembering."

"Remembering what?"

"Remembering you Kashata.I'm sorry."

".It doesn't matter Vic. I'm still the same person. Even if my outside appearance changes it will still be me inside."

"I wish I could believe that Kashata I really do."

"Wha.what are you getting at Vic?"

"I'm sorry Kash I'll need you to give up your strength."

"My strength?"

Victor pulled some sort of orange colored rock from his pocket and rolled it around in the palm of his hand.

"This stone can turn you human Kash. I'll need you to become human. If you do that you will not become Kashata, and you will be no danger to my world. your not like these other demons Kash you are the true fey. that is to much power. you have no idea what you will be capable of once your memory returns."

"I.I can't do that Vic. I'm sorry but I cannot give up my power. I will not become evil and I will not give up my powers just because my looks change slightly."

"Kash I'm not going to let you endanger the world I have worked so hared to create!" Victor stood and walked over to my chair. "Kash you must give up your power for the sake of this world."

"And if I refuse?" I stood to meet his gaze.

"Like I said, I will not allow you to endanger my world. One way or the other you will not be a threat to me." Victor's hand slipped into his pocket.

He withdrew a knife and flipped out the blade.

"Vic?" I took a step away from him.

"I'm sorry Kash. for the last time I be of you. Please give me your power and you and your friends can live like gods."

"NO!"

"Then you leave me no choice!" He lunged for me with the knife.

The knife went for my chest and I dodged right. The blade bit deep into my shoulder. I dashed out the door and ran for the room at the top of the staircase where I had seen my friends go. Victor was close behind me.

I dashed inside the room. My friends were lunging about looking very comfortable in the plush furniture that was assorted about. Or at least everyone but Nagi. She was sitting in a chair beside the door.

"Are you Alright?" She said as soon as I entered.

"Hey Kash. What did Vic want?" Ren asked.

At about that time Vic caught up with me. "Kash!" He shouted.

I turned to see a fist engulfed in blue fame. Vic's punch slammed into my left cheek. The force of his punch sent me soaring into the wall on the far side of the room. I heard my shoulder crunch with the impact. I dropped to the floor.

"The hell!" Ren pulled his Soul and fired at Vic.

Victor stepped out of the bullet's path and lunged for Ren. Victor hit Ren hard in the ribs. I couldn't really tell but I was certain he had shattered the bones into a million pieces. Raze and Ash attacked Victor, but it was all in vein. Victor was too fast, too strong, and too powerful. He made quick work of my friends. Nagi ran over to me and helped me onto my feet.

"Nagi we have to get out of here. He will kill all of us if we don't get away quickly."

"What's going on?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. All I know is that he wants me to give up my power. I won't so he's just going to kill me and anyone who gets in his way." Raze flew across the room and slammed into the wall beside Nagi and I.

"Forget it guys! It's no good!" they made their way as quick as they could over to me.

At the moment everything that was happening seemed impossible. I had been so happy to finally find my long lost friend and now here I was watching him try to kill me. Blue flames radiated across his body. He held out one hand that began to glow brightly with blue light.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry Kash. It didn't have to be this way. Please give up your power."

"No." I shook my head violently. "I cant Vic. Please Vic. why are you doing this? I thought you were my friend?"

"I am your friend, and I do this for you." A wave of blue energy erupted form his palm.

The blast had so much force that we were hurled through the wall behind us. We fell for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was more like a whole second. It was a forty-foot drop to the ground below us. Ren used his secondary element (current) to slow our decent so that we landed with a soft thud on the grass. The huge wall that surrounded Victor's castle was directly in front of us. I sent a bolt of red lightning into the wall, blowing a hole large enough in it for us to escape threw.

We ran but in the shape we were in we couldn't run very quickly. From what I could tell Victor wasn't chasing after us, which was a blessing because he'd have caught us. We came threw the place where we had originally appeared. I started to here sirens off in the distance. No doubt they were looking for us. We took refuge inside an old building then after a couple minutes the police cars came through the area. They were looking around with a spotlight but there was no way they were going to find us in the building unless they searched on foot. We stayed there for what seemed like six hours and the sun never rose. We drifted to sleep.

Ch. 13

"Wake up!" Some one shouted.

"Look at their clothes. I'm telling you their elite's." Another voice said.

My eyes opened slowly. There were three people. Two were standing in front of us and one was sitting back against the wall on the opposite side of us. The others hadn't awoken yet. Nagi was lying with her head in my lap. Vic's knife was still sticking out of my shoulder.

"Hey!" one of the men noticed I was awake. "Don't move!" he had a combat shotgun in his hand. He pumped a shell into it and pointed it at my head.

"Hey take it easy." I said calmly. "Who are you guys?" I asked.

"Hey I'm asking the questions here ass hole." He spat at me. "Now who are you guys?"

"Well me and my brother there." I motioned to Ren who was still out cold. "Are the Voltage Fighters."

"Bull shit." He said.

"Bull shit? I'm not lying."

"Everyone knows that the Voltage Fighters along with the leader of the Sanguine Knights disappeared five years before the war started." The man that was standing beside the guy with the gun said.

"Is that so? Well guess what. Were back, and apparently were fugitives too." Ren said.

He apparently had awoken some time after me. "So those cops were looking for you guys then." The guy with the shotgun said.

"See I told you they weren't elite's." the man that had been sitting against the wall (who was now twirling a knife between his fingers) said.

"Elite's" I asked.

"What are you asking?" The man with the shotgun asked.

"What's an Elite?" Ren asked.

"You mean you don't know what an Elite is?" The unarmed man asked.

"Obviously." Raze was awake too apparently.

"The Elite's are there top fighters." The man with the knife said.

"Whose top fighters?" Ash sat up and stretched his wings.

"What the hell?" The unarmed man stepped back away from us. "Are you an angel?" He asked.

"Um.maybe." Ash answered.

"Well there definently not agents." The man lowered his shotgun. "We'll answer all of your questions later. My name is Joe, this guy here is Matt, and that's Edge over there by the wall."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kash, and this is Ash, Raze, and Ren." They each nodded as I said their names.

"Who's the woman?" Joe bent down and reached for Nagi's arm.

I spun my Angel from its holster and pressed the barrel against the end of his nose. "Don't touch her." He swallowed hard. "This is Nagi. Now toss your gun aside." He did as I said. "Raze grab the gun."

"Damn it! I should of known you were Elite's." Matt said.

"I don't know what the hell an Elite is. All I know is that my best friend just tried to kill me and I have no freaking idea what the hell is going on. Now until I know what's going on the only people I can trust are these guys." I jerked a thumb at my friends. "Now why are you guys running around with guns and taking people hostage?"

"How else are escaped slaves supposed to act?" Joe asked.

"Slaves?"

"You guys really are clue less aren't you? We're humans and obviously were not enslaved, thus were escaped slaves." Matt said.

"Humans are enslaved?" Ash asked.

"Well we lost the war didn't we?" Edge came over to us.

"We don't know!" I shouted, causing Nagi to wake up.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"I'll explain in a moment." I told her.

"Look. When humans lost the war Victor became its ruler. He enslaved human's like cattle and the few of us that managed to escape formed the resistance, and if you all are really who you claim to be then you all may be our only hope." Joe said.

"Oh, your standard Keanu Reeves situation." Ren laughed.only Ren laughed.

"So our only real options are to ether stay on the run and just do nothing or we can join these guys and go up against. well the world, and Kash's old friend Victor." Ash said.

"So what will it be Kash?" Ren asked.

"I guess we join these fellas.at least until we find Exe and can return to our time and set all this right once and for all." I said.

"Then let's go." Edge motioned for us to follow as he left the building.

I stepped out of the ruined building. Edge and his friends passed me and began walking away from the few lights that indicated Victor's distant castle. My friends followed them closely. Nagi tugged on my arm trying to get me to walk along with her. I smiled faintly and motioned for her to go on ahead with out me. She hesitated a moment then nodded and went on with the others.

A strong gust of wind blew my hair over my face and out behind me. I brushed the hair out of my eyes and glared back at the castle. Even at this distance, with my eyes, I could see the hole in the second story and the second hole in the large brick wall that ran the castle perimeter where my friends and I had made our escape. The sanguine moon was huge in the sky above me. We had been here for what had to of atleast been a full twenty-four hours and the sun had not yet shown its self, and even stranger yet the great blood moon hadn't seemed to move.

"Come on Kash your gonna get left behind." Ren yelled back to me from the rise of a distant hill.

I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my trench coat and started walking off toward the sounds of my friends and the trios of revolutionary's footsteps. A fresh current of wind carried my coat and hair out to my left side. Was it east or west? Did it even matter in this apocalyptic world? Matt, Joe, and Edge had just told us about a war that had taken place after we had jumped into the rift in time. The rift had brought us over five hundred years into the future. Now the human race is enslaved and victor and his demonic followers rule the earth. That's all the changes I know have taken place, but who knows what else has changed?

We walked away from Victor and the ruined city for many hours and had to have been atleast fifty miles or so away from the ruins before the revolutionaries came to a stop.

"Well here we are fellas." Edge said as he sat down on the ground.

I looked around the hill we had stopped on. There was nothing but grass as far as the eye could see. even mine.

"And where exactly is here?" Raze asked.

"Yea, if this is your base then we're out of here." Ren said.

"No, no. Right this way." Joe stomped the ground a few times and an opening appeared in the center of the hill's top.

The hill was the entrance to a spiral staircase leading deep into the earth. The stairs emptied into what seemed to me looked a lot like a homeless shelter except much larger. There must have been over four hundred people spread out around the large warehouse like room. Most of them were sleeping on folded blankets and using old waded up clothes for pillows. Others were huddled together trying to keep warm on the concrete floor, and they all were much skinnier than your average anorexic model.

"Good lord, this is horrible." Ren sighed.

"It's like some third world country or something." Raze said.

"Well Kash what do you think?" Ash turned to me.

I slipped my hair back behind my ears and sighed. "I suppose we should see what these guys are planning."

"Come on just step over them. Most are to weak to move." Edge motioned for us to follow him.

At the far end of the room there was a large hatch like you would expect to see in a submarine. Edge spun the dial and the door swung open into what appeared to be an airship hangar. In the center of the hanger was what looked like a giant cargo plane with four huge turbines for wings. The ship was painted black and there was a steady stream of people loading crates into its hull.

"That's the revolution's pride and joy. The Dark Freedom." Matt said.

The people that were running around here didn't look anything like the people in the room we had just come from. These men and women were fit and healthy.

"Why are these people so healthy and the others are in such bad shape?" Ash asked Matt.

"The commander doesn't allow us to give them food. He says there isn't enough to go around so only the strong eat." Joe answered.

"So he wants his warriors strong and screw the weak?" Raze grabbed Joe by the collar. "What kind of man can do such a cruel thing?"

Joe cocked his head to the side like a confused dog. "Why don't you let go of me and I'll show you." He said in a very even tone.

Raze reluctantly released him. "Well come on." Joe led the way threw all the excitement and constant rush of the air hangar.

As we drew past the great air ship "Dark Freedom" Some of the rushing workers slowed and starred hard at my friends and I. They looked puzzled and a bit betrayed by our presence there. Like Joe, Matt, and Edge had just brought some of Vic's best men to their secret base, and were giving them the grand tour. This made me wonder if our clothes or the large Voltage Fighter symbol on the back of the coats Ren and I were wearing meant something fowl in this time and place. If that was the case then the Sanguine Knight's symbol on Nagi's coat couldn't be much better.

Joe came to a stop between two more hatches like doors and stood there for a moment.

"Well." I tapped my foot impatiently.

"Well I just remembered that there is a censor on the other side of this door." Joe scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"What kind of censor?" Raze asked.

"A DNA censor. If you're not human it sets off an alarm in the commander's office." Edge looked over at Ash, who along with the others, were oddly looking at me.

"No matter, let's go." I stepped to the front with Joe.

He glanced at each of his comrades who nodded in unison. "Ok." Joe spun the dial on the door and pushed it open.

The three revolutionaries walked threw and nothing happened. So I cautiously stepped threw the hatch. There was one small beep and that was all, but Joe, Matt, and Edge hit the deck like the building was gonna blow.

Well there was no explosion, just a large man in some camo pants and war paint with a shotgun. He dived out of a door at the end of the corridor and fired his shotgun straight at my chest. I stood there holding my left fist out in front of me. The large man looked me up and down, and scratched his head. I opened my hand and a few dozen tiny shotgun bbs fell and danced on the steel floor.

"Jesus." He breathed slowly.

Edge, Matt, and Joe scrambled to their feet. "Um. sir, these people claim to be the Voltage Fighters and this young lady is supposedly the leader of the Knights of Sanguine Moon." Matt jerked a thumb at us. "And if their telling the truth I think they could be of great help."

The large man looked from each of his men, then to my friends and me. He slowly turned and walked back into the room he'd dived out from.

"Well don't just stand there c'mon." Matt motioned for us to follow him into the room after their commander.

The commander had taken a seat on what appeared to be a huge iron block with a two-foot handle. He sat hunched over with his elbows on his knees and his head hung forward. To his left there was a small table with a map, a couple bottles of whiskey, an Etch-a-Sketch, and the shotgun he had shot at me with. He slowly looked up at the both of us.

"Well "Fighters" tell me where you've been for the last several hundred years." He spoke in a deep rough voice.

"Ren, if you don't mind." I stepped aside and allowed him to take the floor.

Over the next hour or so Ren entertained the trio of revolutionaries and their commander with the story of Victor's defeat, Alec's rise to power, and our betrayal by Exe that brought us to this time. Every one was quiet for a minute or so until Edge broke the silence with a loud sigh. "Wow, sounds pretty rough. seems to me like all you guys do is go from one ass whipping to the other. It's kinda disappointing how much of your legendary power was just luck of the draw." He pulled a knife from his belt and started picking at his nail. "I guess I can see why everyone thought you guys fled into hiding when the war started."

"Hey!" Raze pulled the silver gauntlet from his coat and brandished it menacingly at Edge.

The large yellow energy blade shot from the end of the gauntlet. "If you got something to say then say it!" He shouted.

"Simon's blade!" Joe gasped.

All the revolutionaries were gaping at the weapon.

"What? I told you guys about Simon in my story." Ren said.

"No you told us about a young teenage boy who died fighting Alec. You never mentioned the commander's father." Joe said.

"Yes they couldn't be the same person. My father died an old man, and I have his blade right here." The commander reached behind the Iron block he was sitting on and with drew an old tarnished version of Simon's blade. "But how can there be two power gauntlets?" The commander wondered allowed.

"It's quite simple." I ran my fingers threw my hair and took a step forward. "Simon accomplished his goal. He changed the future." Everyone was starring at me attentively so I continued. "Simon had gone back in time to save his parents from Alec in the future. Although he died he did kill Alec causing a chain reaction. You see with Alec dead Simon's parents wouldn't be killed so there would be no reason for him to go back in time. So he grew up and lived a full life. He had a son." I motioned toward the commander. "And died an old man."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"So that proves your story." The commander said. "Moving right along. Will you help us win the final battle for humanity?"

The others all looked at me. I sighed and crossed my arms. "Well what's the plan commander?"

"The names Fujin, and everyone knows your name, Kashata Kusanagi, Voltage Fighter." He smiled.

Fujin's plan was much simpler than I'd expected. The Dark Freedom was loaded with weapons for the troops, extra fuel, and a nuclear bomb. Which was apparently the last one in existence. From what Fujin had told me when Victor gained control of the world he had all his demonic hordes destroy all guns, flying ships, bombs, and weapons of mass destruction.

Now the plan is to drop all of Fujin's troops off in front of Victor's castle, then fly the airship to the ruins of New York city where Victor and his confidence are suppose to be holding some sort of annual gathering. Here they will drop the nuke. Once the revolutionaries troops are out in the open Victor's troops win be deployed to destroy them. That's when the others and I come in. it's our job to take out as many enemy soldiers as possible as quick as possible.

Personally I thought this was the worst plan I had ever heard, and I told him so.

He responded with "I really don't care. I want your help but we will do this with or without you." So I said I would do what I could, but only because I wanted to settle things with Victor, not because I think this will work.

"Well if all guns were destroyed then how do you guys have them?" Ren asked.

"It's impossible to wipe them all out, but I'd expect there pretty rare though." I said.

"Yea, but sadly we don't have any bullets that weapon's like those will take." Fujin eyed the pistols Ren and I were carrying.

I sighed. "Well I have eight clips. six for Angel, and two for Devil. that should be enough to get me home. However if I do run out I still have this." I ran my thumb across the choker around my neck. "So what is that your setting on?" I asked Fujin, changing the subject from the lack of ammunition.

"Oh this?" Fujin stood and looked down at the iron block. "Its called Thor. Supposedly a Norse god wielded it, but I can't lift it. So here it sets. Hell it took four built men to carry this think in here. We found it out in the hills while on patrol one day." He scratched his head awkwardly. "We also found what appeared to be a sword handle sticking out of the top of one of the hills, but even when we tied a rope to it and all tried together we couldn't eve budge it."

Ash slowly walked over to "Thor" and knelt beside it. He ran a thumb around the rim of the great hammer. "Wow." He stood slowly. "I have something you may be interested in." Ash said to Fujin then withdrew a silver jewel from his coat pocket.

"And what's that angel boy?" Fujin eyed Ash suspiciously.

"Let's just say its something that will help you use that weapon. a gift from your father." The jewel changed to a tiny ball of silver energy and spun around Fujin's forearms and fists. As it did this silvery metallic gauntlet's appeared. Then the silver jewel spun around the crown of Fujin's head making a steal band appear there, and in the bands center the silver jewel made from Simon's body settled.

"What the hell is this?" Fujin growled.

"Just try to lift the hammer." Ash smiled slyly.

Fujin glared a moment longer at Ash then turned to the hammer. He rubbed his metallic hands together then braced himself and grabbed the hammers handle. He yanked up on it with all his might and sent the weapon crashing threw the cement ceiling. An avalanche of dirt and rock began pouring threw the hole into the small office.

"Shit!" Fujin yelled.

We sprinted from the room. Fujin slammed his left hand into the thresh hold of the door causing a large steel shutter to close the office off from the corridor.

"Damn it I liked that room." Fujin flung the giant hammer over his right shoulder with as little effort as one would taused spilt salt.

When Fujin realized his new strength his jaw seemed to dislocate from his head. "How did you make me so much stronger?" Fujin asked Ash.

"I didn't, that jewel makes the wielder's weapon indestructible and weightless.or atleast weightless to the man wielding it." Ash laughed a little.

"I don't suppose you have any other ones do you?" I asked Ash.

"Oh one more." Shain smiled and started off toward the air ship.

"Hey Raze. I have something for you." Ash yelled to him as we climbed ramp of the air ship.

Ren and Raze had gone to the ship to see if they could find anything useful to use in the upcoming battle. Though apparently they were finished looking around because they were now sitting on a couple crates carrying on some sort of conversation about the lack style put into this attack plan.

"Oh yea?" Raze raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yea." Ash pulled a red jewel from his coat.

The jewel changed to a flickering energy light and spiraled around Raze's forearms and fists just as the silver one did Fujin's. As the light spun Ren and orange gauntlets appeared in its place, after that the jewel split in two and the two small jewels embedded themselves in the gauntlets. Raze looked the new weapons over closely. He held them out in front of him and flexed his hand's causing flames to erupt over the length of the weapons.

"Nice." Raze punched the air lightly causing a short stream of flames to fire from the gauntlet and scorch the wall I had been leaning against moments before. "This I like." He grinned.

"Hey be careful your gonna light me on fire. or yourself thought that's something I've never seen before." I grinned.

"What?" Raze raised an eyebrow. "You've never seen me on fire?"

"Yea I've never seen a literal flaming Homo before." I laughed.

Raze hung his head at the joke he'd walked right into and Ren and Ash begun laughing as well. It made me feel good to know that we could still joke around sometimes. Nagi hadn't said much of anything since we left the ruined office building. I turned and noticed she wasn't even with us and that a good two dozen people had gathered at Ash's feet and were repeating hail marries and asking Ash for some sort of holy rights.

"Hey Kash.what the hell?" He raised a white eyebrow at the soldiers around him.

"Hey man." I raised my hands up to head height and took a step back. "Your wings, your problem." I smiled and leapt over Ash's new troop of followers.

I made my way threw the hangar to the homeless shelter room, an old man way pawing at the hem of my coat. "Hey, have you seen a girl with glasses, dressed in a black jacket, and a silver shirt come threw here?" I asked.

"En, honecla val.ver sena quetar?" He stammered.

This surprised me beyond words. He was speaking a demon tongue. Language humans never so much as heard without being executed. Now this frail starving man was speaking it like a native tongue. of course in my time people didn't even know that they weren't on the top of the food chain. now their nothing but slaves and toys to the very things that they didn't believe existed. I gave a slight chuckle. The irony was beyond words.

I repeated my question in the demonic language. The old man told me she had left a little earlier. Must have been ten minutes ago. Damn, how could I have been so distracted? Ash and his damn jewels! That's what it was.

I sprinted and leapt up the staircase. I lifted the hatch and jumped out onto the tall grass of the rolling hills. The sanguine moon was just where I had left it. The fact that I would never see the light of day in this time was becoming undeniably clear. This entire world is in Victor's power. that knows what will happen once he dies?

There was no smell of Nagi in the air. A strong wind caught me and gave a fair try at lifting me off of my feet. It seemed that the change in the moon's distance from the earth had caused the winds to be stronger and more frequent. Island countries like Hawaii and Japan were probably completely destroyed by gigantic tidal waves. I cracked my neck and sprinted off toward Victor's. Carol wasn't stupid but I had to make sure she wouldn't go there. She seemed to think of herself as very powerful.and she might be but that doesn't mean that Victor wasn't out of her league. he was probably even out of mine.

It was only a short time at the pace I was moving before the ruins were coming into sight. There were two cop cars parked out in front of the very building the others and I had sought shelter in. there was a small caved in home a little ways to my left of the cars. I dived behind the mass of steel and bricks. There were four cops, one in each car and two walking around inside. The cop in the left car seemed to be tapping away on a laptop built into the dashboard. Its pretty standard but I just wanted to make note that he was in contact with others. What is.? I drew my Angel from its holster. Not smart. no gun shops in this time. not to many back up clips ether. make them count. I cocked my gun. There was a sliding metal sound as the bullet snapped into the chamber.

The cop with the laptop cocked a furry ear toward the collapsed house. The opened the car door and stepped up onto the hood. He stood a good seven feet tall. He was some species of half wolf, Probably Australian marsupial. His legs were like a kangaroo's. I climbed up over the house and took a few steps toward the cop.

"You know him Fido?" The cop still in the car asked the kangaroo threw his window.

"Shut up Tony, why would I know this.?" The wolf sniffed the air. "What are you?" He asked.

I ran a thumb over my choker making the handle of the double-sided sword slide forward from the jewel concealed inside the necklace. I gripped the handle and drew the rest of the weapon out.

"The name's Kashata." The two cops looked at each other.

"Kashata? The Dark one?" Fido did something to his face that I assumed was supposed to be a smile. "I'll show you something about being dark!" Fido jumped off his car and ran for me.

I lifted my gun just as he lunged to bite out my throat. The end of my barrel was stuck in his throat.

"Well-well." I smiled and cocked my head to the left.

Bang. The silver hollow point left blew out the back of the wolf's head and went on to ketch the cop still in the car right between the eyes. After the gun shot the two cops inside the building rushed over to see the problem, and then they did. well they weren't happy. I returned my pistol to its holster and switched my sword form my left hand to my right. I flexed my grip and red lighting danced down the weapons length.

"What the. who are you?" One of the cops asked.

"You wont be alive long enough to remember it." I grinned.

"Yea right." The other cop chuckled. "You're the one who's going to die.

He pulled a stun gun from his back pocket and his partner drew a pair of batons with scythe like blades sticking out of the ends of them.

"Ok, then show me." I smiled at the pair of them.

Ch. 14

"C'mon!" The cop with the batons rushed at me.

I swung straight down at his head. He blocked the attack by crossing his batons and stopping the blade at their juncture. His knees buckled and he braced himself under my strength.

"Hey I don't suppose the batons are metal?" I asked.

He nodded; his teeth were apparently clenched to hard to speak.

"Stupid." I sent a good million volts threw his batons and into his body.

The voltage caused his sleeves to catch fire and apparently cop uniforms ignite really, really fast. He was transformed into a wailing, walking bond fire. I kicked the humanoid torch and sent him hurling into his friend, who in turn ignited.

I was just impressed that the voltage didn't kill him. oh well. They ran around for a while then collapsed in a smoldering heap by their cars. I laughed and ran my thumb over the choker and the sword disappeared in my grip.

"Bravo-bravo." Applause came from the building's roof.

I looked up. Nagi was hanging from the roof edge by ropes fastened around her wrists. Her ankles and mouth were taped. There was a man clapping at the roof edge. He held a huge sapphire energy fang in his hand. His clothes and looks were slightly different but I knew Exe when I saw him. The bastard that had betrayed us in the fight with Alec and Satacosca, the one who had manipulated me to get the weapon he gripped now.

"Exe." I growled.

"I told you Kash. I told you it wouldn't be a long wait." He walked to the corner of the building and jumped.

Exe landed with barely a thud. "You've been in the future for almost two days and you've managed to become the worlds second most wanted man. A general in Fujin's little army and almost completely reverted to Kashata." He raised his eyebrow and clapped.

"What can I say?" I shrugged. "I'm an over achiever and what do you mean second?" Exe chuckled and grinned at me.

"Oh, number one I some human assassin. He looks like one of the beetles if you ask me." he glanced back and forth. "But that's not important. What is important is what you don't know about your angel friend."

"Ash?" My hand moved to the jewel around my neck.

"Oh yes, and those saint gems." Exe pointed to my neck.

"Saint gyms?" I repeated.

"Yes there are two original ones.then the sad fakes that that angel creates with his control of people souls. The two true ones are the Chaos saint, and the Savior saint. Which belong to you and victor." Exe smiled and waited for the information to absorb. "Got it?"

I nodded. "I got'cha, so Victor has the Savior saint. and how did he get that?"

Exe sighed. "It's been passed down from generation to generation in his family, the power that will save the world, and the Chaos saint, the power that will destroy it."

"What?" I took a step toward him.

"No Kash, bad Kash." Exe pointed up toward Nagi.

I stopped walking and glared at him. God, how I wanted to tear him apart.

"It's a prophecy Kash. It says an angel born in heaven and a devil born on earth would battle for the world. One to destroy and the other to preserve. The one wielding the power of Chaos will sweep across the land leaving bodies in his wake." Exe glanced at the still burning cops on his left and right. "And the one with the power to save it all will wait for him in the skies. You know who you are Kashata. It's your destiny to lead to the earth's destruction. Why do you think you're here in this time Kashata? Why do y."

"Shut up! Shut it. Why should I believe a word you say? Why shouldn't I rip out your heart this very second?" I pressed on the Chaos gym and pointed the duel blade at him.

"Just try it." Exe smiled and held up his sapphire blade.

I held my sword horizontal out in front of me with my left hand on the tip of my sword. A torrent of lightning streamed from my body and across the blade, crimson bolts showered forth from the sword towards Exe.

Exe laughed and pointed the energy blade straightforward. The bolts of lightning were redirected by the sapphire energy and sent to the cop cars and the base of the ruined building. The cars exploded sending a large torrent of flames licking at Nagi's feet. That was of little importance, but the lightning that hit the building had blown some important support beams.

There was a slow moaning sound as the building leaned tot he left and began crumbling. "Shit!" I ran for the building. Exe took a horizontal swing at my gut with his sapphire fang. I flipped over it and landed on a second story window that was very close to the ground now. Nagi was squirming out of her hand restraints. I leapt upward from the window just as she slipped from the ropes. I caught her by the wrist.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

She nodded. (Tape on her mouth) I pulled the ropes around her ankles apart and flung her forward out of the city ruins.

"Head back for the base, I'll ketch up!" I yelled after her.

She landed and rolled to her feet running for the base. Exe was standing just where I had left him. I landed a couple dozen paces away from him and waited for him to say something. The wind carried my hair and coat out again.

"Sort of has a showdown at the O.K. Corral feel to it doesn't it?" Exe laughed and laid his energy blade over his shoulder.

I tucked the right side of my coat behind the grip of my pistol and wiggled my fingers beside it. "Say when." I smirked.

"Ok." Exe let his right hand go limp at his side.

The tip of his index finger glowed red. "When!"

I dived right and Exe dived left. actually I guess we both dived to our rights. I pulled my pistol with my right hand and slammed the hammer back with my left. Exe raised his head and fired the tiny piece of energy. I fired. We both barrel rolled and came up on our feet.

We just stood there for a while starring at one another. Exe still had a smile on his face. I probably did too. "Not bad.Your as good of a gun slinger as they say." A trickle of blood ran from a quarter-sized whole just at his hairline. He slid a thumb across it and looked at the blood. I knew how big of an exit wound this bullet left. he shouldn't be alive. but there it was. no one just dies anymore.

"Yep, you're a real Doc Holiday." He chuckled.

I didn't respond to that but I was flattered by the comparison. I put Angel back into its holster.

"Well I suppose I lose this round." The giant sapphire blade shrank back into a small heart and Exe tucked it away. "I'll ketch you later Doc." Exe vanished into another gust of wind.

I pulled the left side of my trench coat back. There was a long tear in my rib cage and blood had spread half way down my left leg.

"Shit." I dropped to my knees and the world went dark.

When I awoke I was lying on an army style cot. Shain and Nagi were sitting at my side. I was in a small room with nothing in it other than the three of the cot and us. It was a sort of steel cube. One of the hatch doors sat directly to my right. Carol and Ash were sitting with their back against it. Shain's wings had disappeared.

"Hey man where are your wings?" I sat up and smoothed my ruffled hair back.

"Kash! Yo man, you Alright?" Ash stood and rushed over.

"Where's your wings?" I repeated.

"Have you healed babe?" Nagi touched my badges feeling for the injury.

"What's up with your wings?" I slapped Ash on the back.

"I retracted them." Ash shrugged.

"There retractable?" I shook my head.

"Yea I can pull them in and out whenever I want." Ash closed his eyes like he was concentrating.

The large wings shot straight out behind him. Dozens of loose feathers fluttered around the square room.

"No you still have a large whole and a few broken ribs." Nagi frowned. "You should rest until you've healed but the others need us." Nagi kissed me on the forehead and stood up.

"Yea, Nagi's right. You should get some sleep." Ash tucked his wings behind him and made his way to the door.

"Hey wait a damn minute." I stood shakily. "What do you mean they need you?"

"Oh yea I forgot to tell you Kash. You've been out for two days. The battle has been waging for almost a full day. the revolutionaries aren't doing so hot." Shain said.

"Damn. Then the ruins of New York have been nuked?" I asked.

"Not exactly. The plan didn't work out; Victor came with his troops to fight. Victor, he. he shot down the air ship. The ship and the nuke are in the center of the battle field." Nagi said.

"So what are the numbers?" I pulled my trench coat on carefully wincing every time the zipper rubbed against my wounds.

"It was around fifteen hundred to fifteen thousand." Shain shook his head.

"Right." We were all quiet for a moment.

"Well let's go give them a hand shall we?" I pushed past them and waited outside the door.

Shain stepped threw the door and gave me a look that reminded me of my father's expressions when I asked to do something dangerous that he didn't want me doing.

Nagi crossed her arms over her chest. "You're not going." She said sternly.

"Wrong, you're not going." I slammed the hatch and melted the door to the wall with some well-placed energy.

"What are you doing?" Nagi screamed from inside the small room.

"Sorry honey this is to dangerous. So you just sit tight and we'll invite you to the victory party." I laughed and after wincing at the pain made my way to the stairs.

"No, No, Noo! I have to go.Damn it!" She slammed her fists against the hatch.

Ash ran up and matched paces with me as I climbed the spiral stairs. "You sure that was wise Kash? She sure sounded pissed." He said.

"Well it's better for her to be pissed and alive then contentedly deceased." I frowned and put my hands in my pockets.

I wasn't happy about what I did but I wasn't going to put her at risk. or atleast not again.

"You sure about this Kash?" Ash eyed my bandages. "You're not healed and this will be one hell of a fight."

"I ran my left hand over my ribs. "Yea."

The first thing that struck me when we stepped out of the ground was the harsh smell of burning hair and flesh. The smell made my head swim. A thousand gunshots were going off and equally loud yelling.

"They haven't run out of ammo yet?" I asked.

"No, but they just found a surplus of bubble rap and are going ape shit on it." Shain raised his eyebrow and shook his head.

"You real funny." I drew my sword from my choker and zipped up my coat.

The extra pressure on my wound was painful, but I needed all the protection I could get. I let my sword hang limp at my side. Shain gave me a short look and a quick nod; we were ready to go. Ominous storm clouds were sliding over the Sanguine moon like giant phantoms. The night was filled with screams and gunfire. Though the bullets were obviously running out. that or their operators were being dispatched at an alarming rate.

Shain and I climbed the first hill revealing a few dozen corpses. I frowned and walked on. From the smell and their color I could tell they were the first to parish. Over the next hill the real battle waged. I kneeled at the hill summit and surveyed the seen. Over a good two square miles of valley there were around twelve thousand troops still alive, probably nine hundred of them were revolutionaries. The field was over run with rotting corpses and mutilated bodies. In the scenes center laid the black air ship. Flames and smoke were coming out of a pair of turbines on the right wing. Fujin was crushing enemy troops left and right with the massive war hammer, and Raze was protecting Fujin's back with flurries of flaming punches.

Ren was in the center of the enemy forces; he had two large jagged ice blades coming out of his elbows. In his right hand he held Ghost and in his left he gripped Soul. Each of the pistol's high-powered bullets would tear threw a handful of enemies with each shot. Every now and then the enemy would rush him and dog pile on top of him. Long thin ice would shoot out of his body impaling them. Then we would climb out of the bodies with a fresh coat of blood on him and jump right back into the sport. it was odd watching his abilities used on a large group, in most of our mercenaries work we were usually pitted against small numbers.

The fact that our powers could be used in such a manner for war sort of gave me a new view of things. "Well now you see how good we're doing. Victory is a sure thing right?" Ash said sarcastically.

"It will be ounce we get in the tussle." I smiled and cracked my knuckles.

"Here." Ash handed me a rubber band.

"I don't think there going to respond to whelps." I raised and eyebrow.

"No, it's to pull your hair back. You'll want it behind you while you fight." He explained.

"Right." I pulled the long hair behind my ears into a tail.

"Here put this at the end. It will keep it together." He handed me another, much smaller, band.

"Ok, can I go now? You're worse than my wife." Ash was reminding me how Nagi would always play with my hair. god I hope she forgives me for leaving her behind.

"Yea." He chuckled and shook his head.

"Well let's go help the guys." I winked. "You know they can't do anything with out us."

Ash flew into the air and landed by Ren. I kicked off the ground as hard as I could and shot into the air. I did a flip and twisted my body. I pointed my sword down at Fujin and showered down lightning around him. A dozen of the closest enemies to him were dispatched. I landed on one knee beside him.

"Nice for you to show up." Fujin smiled down at me.

"Couldn't keep me away with a stick."

Ch. 16

The battle waged on for what seemed like forever. Fujin and I smashed and chopped our way all over the battlefield in search of Victor Ladagosee but there was no sign of him among the demons and half-breed monsters that crawled the field in his name. There were barely a hundred revolutionaries left alive and around half of them were looking for their arms and legs.

I cut threw a handful of wolf soldiers and found Shain and Ren. Ren sliced threw the air above my head. The vapors from his ice blade left a layer of frost on my head.

"Damn man watch it!" I felt the top of my head to make sure I didn't just get a close haircut.

"Sorry about that. You lose sight of your" Ren spun around and beheaded an approaching soldier "friends in a battle this large."

"Yea I know what you mean. I've almost killed my share of revolutionaries on my way threw the field." I said.

"Fujin. Were almost out of troops, they still have over a couple thousand. were gonna lose." Ash admitted gravely.

"Yes. I've realized." Fujin frowned. "There's one thing we can do." Fujin looked at each of us in turn. "Set off the nuke."

"What?" Ren raised an eyebrow.

"Makes since to me." Ash nodded.

"We'll need someone fast enough to set the bomb, and get to all of us and warn us about it." Fujin frowned at his own lack of speed.

We all stood there a moment. The battle flowed around us and time seemed to slow for a moment while we eyed each other and considered.

"I'll do it." Everyone looked at me. "I'm by far the fastest one here, and with my lightning it will be easy for me to warn you. I just send a bolt straight threw the sky." No one responded for a second.

"Alright." Fujin agreed.

"Yes, sir." Ren saluted me.

Ash seemed to study me closely for a second as if he was trying to solve some sort of puzzle, then he held out his hand and I shook it. "I'd wish you luck, but I know you don't need it. So I'll see you soon."

He turned and sent a beam threw the enemy ranks making me a sort semi-clear path toward my goal. I took off running across the soldiers that were still crumbling as I stepped across them. The fire from the turbines had spread and now the entire ship was a flame. I skidded to a halt outside the loading ramp.

The crates that had been full of ammunition and weapons were now empty or on fire. I lifted my coat over my head and jumped threw the flames. The nuke was strapped down on the small second story part of the ship. I climbed up the stairs into the bomb's hold. The flames weren't as bad here but it was much darker because of it. As I reached the top of the steps a metallic object bounced and clanged past my left boot.

Victor stepped out from a shadowed corner. The firelight only illuminated his right side. He cocked his head to the side and grinned at me. His teeth were long and jagged and it over lapped his bottom lip. His left hand emerged from the shadow gripping a mangled mass of metal and wires.

"You're a bit late." He stepped out exposing himself entirely to the firelight.

He was dressed in a black trench coat, black leather gloves, black slacks, and dark maroon boots and undershirt. "I've disabled the nuke. So there will be no easy way out of this." He let go of the device and I watched it fall.

The metal made another loud clang like the one victor had taused at me. I looked up and Vic was gone.

"Kashata." A voice sounded behind me.

I spun on heel and brought my sword down at Victor's right shoulder. Vic raised his hand and caught the blade.

"Got'cha." I sent all my lightning threw the blade.

Victor didn't so much as flinch.

"Sorry Kashata." Victor chuckled. "Your weak." He snapped the blade in half with just a twist of his wrist. I fell forward and Vic sank the half of my sword he held into my left shoulder. I cried out and fell backwards into a burning crate. It crushed under my weight and a shower of fireflies danced on my face. He grabbed me by my coat and lifted me up toward the ceiling.

I slammed my knee into his chin. A loud crack sounded from his neck. Vic reached around with his free hand and snapped his neck back into place. He flicked his wrist and sent me crashing threw the steel hull of the air ship. I landed on my neck and rolled down the pile of corpses. Vic jumped down threw the hole I had made. The black and white grip of the yin yang blade sat at his left side. The scabbard ran seven-foot back and drug the ground.

He had to grab the scabbard and fling it down the blade to unsheathe it. The contrast of the half black and white made the sword's edge seem that much more menacing. He leapt into a front flip from the air ship and landed silently beside me. I was still gripping the palmel of my sword. I cast it aside and it disappeared as I threw a jab. Vic easily dodged and brought his knee up into my wounded ribs. I bit my lip to keep from crying out. He spun on his right heel and kicked straight into my chest. I hurdled threw the air and slammed into another rise in the land.

To think. all this time I've been searching for him and now that I've found him he's going to kill me without as much as a scratch on him.

"NO!" I spat blood on the ground and charged my energy.

As it built up a familiar change over took me. My long hair glistened solid red and snapped the bands holding it, my eyes darkened and shined at the same time and my muscled tripled in size. I held my hands out above my head. To orbs of snapping red lightning formed in my palms.

"Angry?" Victor smirked.

"No." I smiled. "Just violent!" I hurled the orbs at him and rushed at him full speed. He knocked the orbs away with his sword. I hit him with a solid right and followed it up with a left upper cut. He lifted a few yards into the air and brought his long sword down at my head. I sandwiched the blade between my palms.

"Not bad!" he kicked me in my injured ribs and I let go of the sword.

Vic finished the slash and cut across my old wound. Blood ran freely from my side and soaked my coat. I collapsed to all fours. Victor laid his sword across his right shoulder and laughed into the night sky.

"Poor helpless Kashata. I wish I could spare you, truly I do." He peered down at me. His gaze was burning into the top of my skull but I couldn't raise my eyes and look at him. Instead I unzipped my tattered coat and threw it aside, revealing my wounds, bandages and the markings on my right arm. There was a symbol, meaning chaos on my upper right arm and a red and black lightning bolt on my right forearm.

"But if you leave this battle, if you walk away. then you will become the banished angel. the angel of chaos." He raised the yin yang blade above his head. "And that I CAN NOT ALLOW!" he brought his weapon down with all his might. my life was to end here.and I could do nothing to save my self. at this moment I accepted my death.

The blade bit into my left palm and I gripped the blade tightly. Blood streamed down the blade and dripped off the yin yang symbol in the sword guard. "You're." Vic gritted his teeth and leaned into his sword, placing his right elbow on the back of the blade and switching the swords palmel to his left hand.

I went to one knee then stood. My eyes were shut and my expression blank. The blade had sunk a good quarter inch into my palm but all I felt was cold. I drew the sword to my left side.

"DAMN YOU TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL! YOU WILL NOT DESTROY MY WORLD!" Victor screamed as he yanked on the sword grip.

My eyes snapped open and an eerie glow emitted from them. My nails grew out an inch and went to jagged points. I twisted my face into a gruesome smile. "I will." I lunged forward and sank my right fingers threw the center of victors left forearm. They tore all the way threw and I gripped the far side with my fingertips.

"I will kill you and everyone else on this retched planet!" I cleaved Victor's arm from his body. His left hand still held the huge Katana.

Victor took a shaky step backwards and gazed wide-eyed at the remainder of his left arm. The small amount of soldiers had drawn close in to where Victor and I were fighting. All of my friends were close now; all of them could see me in the murderous state I was in. Victor regained his composure and smirked at me.

"You ruined my favorite jacket." His voice shook slightly. He was shaken and in pain now.

I threw the arm and hand to the side and examined my blood soaked fingers out in front of me. Small chunks of pale flesh were stuck under my nails.

"Look at you. You're nothing more than a feral beast Kusanagi!" Vic spat.

I charged forward throwing a fists full of claws at him. Victor side stepped me and continued to dodge me as I waged my persistent attack. I would lose my balance and fall forward into a handstand and kick at him, then back on my feet with claws flying.

"I can get him." Raze thought aloud.

He built up his hottest and most powerful flame in his palms. "Die you monster!" Raze screamed at Victor and let his flames loose at him.

Victor appeared behind me and I stumbled into the fire path.

"Kash No!" Ren tore out of the group of soldiers and slammed me out of the way.

The flames enveloped Ren and he screamed a shrill helpless sound of pain. The smell of burnt flesh and hair was sickening. Raze was screaming too. Ren collapsed to the ground, his arms and legs thrashing violently. You could hear the fat popping as it burned. His own body supplied the fuel source of his demise. Finally after what had seemed like an eternity Ren fell silent and still.his screams and his heart would never be heard again.

Raze fell to his knees in tears. "No.no I didn't." He sobbed.

I turned my shining glare on Raze. He met my gaze and this infuriated me. I leapt threw the air and landed in front of him. He stood slowly.

"I.I'm sor." I sank my hand into Raze's chest like a knife and lifted him into the air above me.

He coughed blood down onto my upturned face. "K-Kash.D-don't tell." He managed before his heart shuddered one last time around my fingertips.

"Noo!" Edge broke away from the last small group of revolutionaries and ran at me with his bladed staff held at point.

I turned slowly and faced him. He lunged and threw his weapon at my chest. The weapons tip sank easily into my left shoulder just to the left of the wound Victor had given me, as I attempted to side step the attack. Edge continued his charge with bare hands. I tore the blade from my flesh and stabbed him threw the throat. He stopped in his tracks and clawed at the blade in his neck. Edge choked and coughed as he dropped on his knees.

I had meant to sever his spine but the blade missed and now he was suffocating. The staff blade's fine edge produced little blood so Zion wouldn't drown. He grabbed and pulled at the blade slicing his palms as he pulled.

"Ha Ha Ha. This is fantastic! You've accomplished so much in so little time." Victor laughed hysterically.

"Die!" I lunged at him again and our fight resumed.

Fujin battled his way to the clearing where Vic and I were fighting and waited. His hands were sweating and he tightened his grip on the hammer. The corpses of the ounce proud fighters called to him and begged for vengeance. "Yea, I'll get him." Fujin said to the red moon and the phantoms that whispered in his ears.

Ash hovered in the night sky above the battle, his massive wings beating slow and rhythmic. "God, both Ren and Raze were killed in mere moments." He said to himself.

Ash watched Fujin near Victor and I. He straightened his wings and descended to a low thirty feet above the clearing. Vic stepped back into Ren's chest, crushing it and sending ashes fluttering into the air. The ash settled on my face and arms.

"Ha Ha Ha, so you and your brother are close?" Victor laughed.

I leapt high into the air and made a diagonal stroke with my claws. Four long cuts appeared on Victor's chest. He made a move with the remainder of his left arm toward his chest then laughed again. He felt the wound on his chest with his right hand.

"Wow, I didn't know you could do that Kashata." Vic watched me slowly land on the far side of him.

Fujin made his move. He leapt out of the battle and sprinted up behind me holding his massive hammer overhead. I started to turn and defend against the attack when Victor caught me by the throat with his remaining hand and held me just off the ground.

"Take one monster out then the other." Fujin tightened his muscles and drained all the energy out of the stone in his headband.

Ash landed silently behind Fujin. "Stop and leave now Fujin!" Ash whispered.

"I got him!" Fujin brought down his hammer.

I twisted and kneed Victor in the elbow. He released his grasp on my throat and I dropped to one knee. Fujin's hammer crushed into my left shoulder and barried into the ground beside me.

"Fool!" Ash made a horizontal stroke with his left arm and split Fujin at the waist.

Blood sprayed over Ash's white coat. "You kill friends too angel?" Vic smiled at Ash.

"Shut it!" Shain jumped into the air over me and kicked Vic across the chin sending him spinning into his own men.

"Well." Victor looked down at the stub of his left arm, broke right elbow, and spat blood from his busted jaw. "It appears that I'm not doing so hot this time, so I'm going to call it a day."

I charged Victor with my left arm hanging limp at my side. He disappeared and I plowed into the remaining men. There were still about a thousand of Victor's inhuman soldiers and they were all packed in close to me. The revolutionaries seemed to have been completely wiped out in the fight.

Ash took to the air and left me alone in the center of the battle. A bright light spread from Ash's palms and enveloped him. The harsh light brightened and grew. Soldiers began bursting into flames, wolves turned to men, and Victor's soldiers were now nothing more than a couple hundred men. I suppose an army composed of mostly vampires and a few hundred half wolves aren't meant to battle under a sun, even an artificial one generated by an archangel.

I smiled and charged threw the frail human warriors slashing them to ribbons with my claws. Ash kept the sun shining and as long as I only had to deal with humans then one arm was more than sufficient. The battle was over. I was coated with layers of crusted dry blood. Small pieces of flesh were coated thick under my claws.

Ash hovered above me; a light glow still radiated from him. He looked down on me, a mixed expression of anger and pity on his face. I leapt as high as I could and slashed at his heels. I didn't have the strength to reach him. I landed on one knee. The long yin yang blade glinted in Ash's light. He looked from me to the sword and back again.

"Kashata why are you fighting me?" He yelled down.

"You think I don't know who you are? Shain, son of Gabriel!" I glared up at him.

My left hand gripped the yin yang palmel.

"So you remember every thing? You've completely reverted?" He questioned. "Kashata Kusanagi, son of the saint, arch angel and warrior of god. Banished from Heavens in 692 B.E. charged with the task of Guarding the desolate cosmos for all eternity." Shain renounced off the top of his head.

I grinned. "Yes, I recall!" I flung the sword at him and jumped up into its trail, planning to attack him ounce the blade brought him down.

Shain caught the swords tip between his index and middle finger, then flipped the weapon and caught it by the palmel just as I reached him. He slashed me across the stomach and the bend of my right elbow.

I cried out and plummeted back to earth. He straightened his wings and slowly drifted down to stand a little ways away from me. I set up on my left elbow and tried to stop the blood from spreading over my belt.

"You're a fool Kashata. You should never have escaped form Kash's subconscious. He was saving people, he was a hero."

"He is me!" I shouted.

"No." Shain shook his head. "You are a traitor, you area a blasphemer and I will kill you if I have to!" Shain swung his sword low at my side.

I rolled back and pushed off onto my feet. Shain would step and slash at my feet. I did back handsprings away to dodge him. The movements tore the wounds on my torso and arm wider. His attacks drove me up a distant hill. The blood from my wounds ran down my arms and drenched my hands. I slipped and fell hard on my stomach, blood splattered from my sides.

"Now die!" Shain swept the sword at my temple.

I closed my eyes expecting to feel the cold bite of the steel. A loud metallic clang stung my ear. I opened my eyes, a two-foot long red was sticking out of the ground, and it had saved my life by literal inches.

"No." Shain exhaled slowly.

"Yes!" I gripped the palmel and turned it toward me.

The blade tore threw the soil and broke free, four feet to Shain and three feet past. Shain did a back flip away. The swords tip bit between Shain's wings as he flipped.

"My sword!" I was sitting on my knees holding the seven-foot blade straight toward the moon.

Shain knelt on one knee holding the eight-foot yin yang blade back wards in his hand out in front of him, panting. "How?" He wondered.

"The Forsaken!" the sword was massive.

The blade was a foot and a half wide and two inches thick, sharpened to a harsh edge at one side. The black words written in the language of purgatory read "Forsaken."

I swung the blade and sent dirt hurling in a semi-circle around me.

"I was given this sword on my seventeenth birthday. A gift from my father." I ran my thumb over my choker, this normally caused my double-sided sword to appear but when I did it gripping the Forsaken something else happened.

The Roman numeral thirteen appeared on the left side of the sword palmel and a lighting bolt appeared on its right. It was clear to me what this meant. Like my other sword, the Forsaken was now endowed the power to cut down both angels and true devils.

"I wielded the blade in gods name for a thousand plus years. Then god cast me from heaven and wrote these words along the blade. I drifted threw empty space for what seemed like an eternity, cradling this sword in my frozen hibernation. The earth was created and as a primitive human society formed I plummeted down to the earth's surface. I walked this earth, rinsing this blade with the blood of creatures I found. Then." The memory sent adrenaline rushing threw my veins. "1988 Victor and I fought. Vic stood on a hill gathering all of his power and I soared up above on my banished wings. He hurled the energy up at me and I threw this sword at him. It cut threw the energy and went straight threw Victor's middle and barried the entire blade into the ground. Then Victor's energy tore me asunder." I looked around wide-eyed. "Right here."

"And so will you again!" Shain lunged forward and thrust his blade at me.

I swung the mammoth sword at Shain's hand and charged forth. The force of my sword against his was causing him to be taused from side to side like a rag doll and the hands of a violent child.

"Damn, you Kashata!" Shain cursed.

With each collision of our blades sparks shot off into my eyes but I couldn't blink, blood ran from them now. I was shedding tears of blood. odd that I didn't feel sad. it was as if there was a part of me that was withdrawn from my conchiousness and that part of me knew something that I had forgotten. a reason to cry that I didn't know I had.

Shain took a quick step back wards and leapt high into the air. The brilliant white angel wings spread from his back and he took flight.

"Ha ha ha, follow me now Kashata!" Shain taunted.

I tucked my arms against my body and bowed my head as if preparing for the impact of a massive tidal wave. Large black wings shot form my back. I gave them a powerful downward stroke and was sent hurling into the air after him with the Forsaken trailing from my right hand.

"What?" Shain gave his wings an upward stroke and brought the yin yang blade down on me.

I slapped the blade away with the back of my sword blade. Shain spun to the side and I brought the sword down vertically and sliced threw both of his wings. He cried out and plummeted toward the ground. I brought my wings in and spun into a swan dive after him. Shain slammed hard into the ground. His head bounced off an embedded rock. A torrent of dust burst from underneath him and hid him from my eyes.

"Sorry Kashata, if only the knights could of won one more time." He raised the long sword straight up toward the sky like a menacing pike.

I drew back my arm like a major league pitcher waiting for my target. A strong since of Deja vu washed over me. When the dust cleared all I could see was a glowing silver fog. If I could have been of more sound mind maybe I wouldn't have charged in like I did.

Barely into the cloud the yin yang blade bit into my chest. So there I was skewered like a pig and all I could think was "I can't reach him from up here. His sword is to long." I grabbed the blade and started pulling my self down the blade. The tip of his sword broke out of my back; blood erupted from my mouth and spluttered on Shain's face.

"Good god, who needs an eight foot sword?" I coughed.

"Maybe Victor compensating for something." Shain answered.

We laughed lightly. I slid down the blade to him. My sword sank threw his stomach and sank into the earth behind him a couple of feet deep.

"I never could get anything better than a draw with you." Shain fainted and I lost conchiousness shortly after ward.

Ch. 17

Shain awoke with no concept of how much time had passed. The sword in his gut was a pain almost severe enough to force him back into the darkness he'd just torn away from. He released the long sword he was still squeezing. His knuckles were white and his hand numb from gripping the sword to tightly for to long. Shain pushed his hands together on each side of the Forsaken and slowly drew it from his gut. It took every ounce of his strength to move the blade. Even uninjured he had never been strong enough to wield the huge weapon but out of desperation he found the strength to atleast move it now. With each inch the pain seemed to double.

When the sword was completely extracted my body fell to the ground. Shain examined the wound. It was a little larger than the sword's blade. Making it a bit more than a foot long and about three inches wide at the top.

"Fantastic." He muttered sarcastically as he absorbed the scene around him.

The battlefield was covered with corpses. In some places they were piled up a good ten feet in the air. thousands of bodies. Raze's body was off a ways to his left and Ren was close by him. Most of his friends were dead and I wasn't far from it, assuming he was counting me as a friend. Shain took slow shaky steps over to me and pulled his sword from my chest. He pulled off his belt and fastened the end around my left ankle and the other around our swords, and then he flung me over his shoulder and staggered off toward the revolutionary's base.

We arrived after a few hours of excruciatingly painful walking. Shain dropped me by the entrance and went down alone. In the first room where all the starving humans had been was completely deserted. He made his way to the room I had sealed Nagi in. The huge door was off its hinges and lying on the cold steel floor. Nagi was gone.

"Damn it!" He slammed his fist into the titanium wall. Blood shot from his gut and back.

Shain dropped to his knees and caught his breath before heading back out of the base. I was hoisted back over his shoulder and we headed out. Shain was without a clue where to go but he knew that Victor's home was in that direction so he headed the opposite way into the desert waist lands. Which really shouldn't be that close to a valley, but there it was. He walked for what had to have been a full day. I had fallen off his shoulder and he didn't have the strength to lift me back up so he dragged me by my arm.

This dessert floor was like the shelves of a freezer. Covered in icy shavings. Eternal night had made this ounce-scorching piece of earth a rolling glacier.

"Damn you Kashata. damn you and every snack food you've ever eaten." He groaned as he dragged me.

Shain couldn't keep this up much longer. The approach of every dune's top brought hope and the sight of just more ice brought crushing defeat. He slowed to the pace of a snail and began to here steps behind him.

"God, I can not catch a bloody break." He broke into a gallop. The swords and me were bouncing along behind him. "No good, I can't. keep this." Shain fainted ounce more and we were left exposed and defenseless.

I awoke in a small room. There was a soft bed under me and I was propped up on two large pillows. My head was throbbing and aching. I put my hand to my forehead and ran it back threw my hair. It was clean. The blanket slid below my chest. There were bandages wrapped around my stomach and up my side. To my right there was a small wooden chair with my clothes folded neatly in it, and a new red coat like the one I'd left at the battle field draped over the back of the chair.

The room didn't have any windows, the walls were white and there was a gray dresser at the end of the bed. I dressed quickly and went to the door. The knob resisted, locked. "Ha-ha." I placed my palm on the knob and pushed till the wood crushed around it and the door gave way.

The room opened into a small hallway. I stepped out of the room as three small children ran by and shoved me back into the room on their way. "Kids?" I followed them out of the hallway and into a large lobby that looked like the inside of a church.

There were kids spread out around the room playing. The three kids that had pushed me were at the front of the church and had started to wrestle. This only went on for a small time before a scrawny looking priest wearing a large gold cross and a hood over his head rushed over and began pleading with the children to stop fighting. I slowly made my way over to them. I caught two of the children by their shirt collars and lifted them off their feet.

"Hey padre, seemed to me like you could use a hand." I looked at each boy. "Or two."

The priest peered up at me from his hood and to my surprise he looked identical to Ren. "Have a seat." I flung the boys to my left and right into a couple of benches.

"So father, you want to tell me why I was locked in a room?" I took a step toward him and he scrambled backwards into a podium. "No where to run padre."

One of the older children snuck up behind me and pressed a small pistol against my back. I sighed and turned to face him.

"Don't move!" the boy ordered.

"Child put that away!" the priest ordered.

I smiled. "No problem padre." I grabbed the guns barrel and squeezed it flat.

The priest and the child gasped. "Now, padre. My question."

Shain dropped from the church rafters and slammed the yin yang sword's guard into the back of my head. My legs turned to jelly, my vision blurred and I passed out.

When I awoke I was in the same bed I'd awoken in early but my wrists and ankles were chained. The priest and Shain stood at the foot of the bed. Shain's sword was draped over his left shoulder and the priest was praying in Latin. I yanked on my chains.

"What is this?" I shook my head.

A red lock of hair fell over my right eye. "You've already killed your friends, you think I'm gonna trust you like before?" Shain raised an eyebrow.

"Revenge and self defense." I drowned off. "Ren was my brother, when Raze killed him. it was my fault. He was trying to save me. and Edge. He was trying to avenge Raze. If I hadn't. I wasn't thinking clearly. still in shock." I quit pulling on the chains and laid back with my head hung low.

"Ok, say I bout all that. Why did you try and kill me?" Shain gripped his sword handle, his blood still boiling from the memory.

"You had been lying to me all along. I couldn't trust you. You're one of them." I painted a thumb toward the ceiling. "You're still on his payroll." Shain hushed me. "Now let me go. Remove these chains and return my weapons!" I ordered.

"Why should I? I'm still not sure you won't attack me."

"Fine!" I tightened my right arm and snapped the chain like string.

I reached over and snapped the shackles on my left wrist and ankles.

"Did you know he could do that?" The priest asked Shain.

"I had hoped he didn't." He frowned.

I stood and smoothed my pants and coat. Shain leaned forward and brought his sword down on me. I caught the blade between my fingers.

I smiled. "So we have any coffee?"

Ch. 18

The three of us set in the dimly lit church and sipped stale black coffee. "No, sugar or cream, aye padre?"

"I'm sorry, but we haven't had any sweeteners in many years." The priest spoke like an old man but he couldn't be in his thirties yet.

"How old are you father?" Shain beat me to the question.

"I suppose I would be about twenty four now." He ringed his hands nervously.

"You look just like a friend of ours. Have you heard of the Voltage Fighters, or the Knights of Sanguine moon?" Shain took a long drink of his coffee.

"My ancestors supposedly had some association with an organization like that. Everyone knows about the Knights but most call them cowards, and others say they've never existed. As far as I've heard about the Voltage Fighters.well only a few whispers here and there about them working with the Knights in the old days." The priest shoved his hands down in

His robes and withdrew an old dirty diamond ring. "This was a gift to my grandmother. It's been passed down my family for years. Supposedly her two little brothers were Knights."

"May I see it?" I held out my hand eagerly.

"Of course." He carefully set it in my palm.

The ring was tarnished and old but the last time I had seen it, three years ago. It had shined brilliantly. My brother had given it to his wife.

I handed it back to him and smiled. "The knights are.were real and have never been cowards." I gulped down the rest of my drink and leaned back against the bench. "Hey padre where are we?" I asked.

"Were in a church. Originally it was above ground but when the moon grew, terrible winds moved the dessert sands, and now it's barried. We have to go through the roof to get out." The priest pointed up at the ceiling, nearly fifty feet up.

"So how do you get up there?" Shain asked.

"Over there." The priest pointed to a rope that ran up the wall all the way up, every ten feet or so it was fastened to the wall with U shaped nails.

"Looks damn dangerous." I leaned my head back and whistled.

"Yes, it's not a climb I enjoy making." Padre said.

"Then what were you doing out at the field? That's where you were coming from when you found us right?" Shain asked.

"I was searching for supplies."

"Stealing from the dead, aye Padre? That's not cricket." I grinned.

"It's the only way to take care of these orphans." The priest motioned to all of the kids around him.

"Of, course." I hadn't even thought about the kids since I first woke up.

"Find anything?" Shain yawned.

"Only these." The priest took a velvet pouch from his pocket and emptied it onto the table. An orange, blue and silver jewel glittered and skidded across the ruff wooden surface. The blue one seemed to pulse lightly. "Beautiful aren't they? Especially the blue one."

"The saint stones." Shain and I exhaled in slight state of shock.

The chances of this happening were.slim, of course the fact that the man sitting across from me looked just like my dead brother and my brother's saint stone seemed to be reacting to him seemed less likely.

"Huh?" Padre raised a questioning eyebrow.

Shain pointed to the jewels on the table and I tapped the choker around my neck.

"The blue one pulses because it knows you." Shain said.

"Knows me?"

"Yes, it belonged to my brother, you're. several great uncle, like me." I grinned again.

"Here." Shain took the blue stone and squeezed it. The stone changed to energy and embedded it's self in the center of the giant cross around Padre's neck.

"Familiar." I said, shaking my head.

"I'll take the others." Shain put the jewels in the pouch and put it in his pant pocket.

The priest was still stunned by what had happened to protest.

"Well give it a try." I urged him.

The priest took the cross off his neck and held it by the short top. "Run your thumb over the jewel." He did as I instructed.

Ice shards shot out of the sides of the cross' long end and a long then sickle slid out from its tip, forming a jagged ice sword.

"You'll be able to do some damage with that padre." I laughed.

"But I couldn't." He protested.

"Now you would be surprised what you can do." Shain nodded.

"Great now I'm the only one unarmed." I whined.

"Yea. I suppose I can trust you not to swing your sword at me without warning.now that you're a bit calmer." Shain turned and started toward the hallway.

"Wait. Be quiet." I said.

Voices were coming from the surface about the church. "This is it sir."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes."

"It looks like a hut."

"This is the roof of a vast church."

"Well break it down!" A voice ordered.

"What's tha.?" I shushed the priest in mid sentence.

"CUT IT UP!" Someone shouted.

In response to the order a dozen two foot curved blades shattered threw the church's top.

"They're destroying the church!" Padre shouted in a mix of anger and fear.

"Hear that? Faster!" A man shouted, obviously referring to Padre's outburst.

"Nice one father" Shain smacked the priest on the back.

"C'mon!" I bent my knees and readied to pull out my wings.

"No! Just use your chi!" Shain ordered.

I rolled my eyes and nodded. I leapt upward at an angle reaching the wall half way up to the ceiling. I bent my knees and used my energy to cling to the wood a short moment before leaping the rest of the way to the roof. Shain was right at my heels as I burst threw the ceiling barely missing the curved blades that were having a much harder time of breaking threw the wood and shingles than I just had. I reached the top of my jump and looked down. There were thirteen of them; cops, and all carrying metal batons with sickle blades at their ends.

Shain and I landed outside of the ring that had formed around the peak of the church. The cops spun and faced us with their weapons at the ready. A cop in a tan uniform made his way to the front of the other officers. He'd been standing at the far side of the church. He seemed to be about sixteen, he had thick curly hair drawn back into a short fat tail. His small brown eyes sized up Shain and I without much interest. He reminded me of a lazy dog trying to decide if it was worth the effort to stand up and play Frisbee with some over excited child.

"What are you? Choir boys?" he gave out a gruff laugh.

"The only thing I'll be singing is a funeral melody." Shain threatened and brandished a clenched fist.

"We'll see whose funeral it is." He waved a hand toward us. "Arrest them, with extreme prejudice."

Shain swung the long sword diagonally splitting three of the advancing officers in two. I leapt into the air and slashed downward with my claws dispatching a portion of them and injuring a few others. I landed behind the tan cop, kicked him in the back, sending him toward Shain, and dived threw the church roof. I spun and landed in front of padre.

"What's going on? I heard screams." He said, ringing his hands nervously.

"Just some of Victor's cronies looking to bring down your orphanage. Shain and I are fighting. Wanna help?"

"Well I." He stammered.

"Course you do." I grabbed him by the collar and threw him up threw the opening.

I started to jump when I realized that the sole of my left boot was melted to the wooden floor of the church. "What the h." I tore the boot form the ground and flew back up threw the church roof.

There were six cops remaining. Three were slashing at Shain with batons, another two were laughing and walking toward the priest who was stumbling backwards and flinging around his ice blade. The tan cop was squatting beside the church smoking a cigarette. I let the wind carry me for a moment before landing beside the tan cop.

"Hey man! What did you do to my foot?" I held my melted sole out in front of me.

"Nothing, that's not you foot, that's a boot, and its melted." He eyed his cigarette, holding it between is thumb and forefinger.

"How?" I lowered my boot.

He dropped the cigarette into his palm and let it roll back and forth for a minute before it burst into flames. The cop blew the ashes into the air.

"Right.neat, but I've seen it." I pointed my index finger up toward the sky.

Electricity curled up the finger and snapped at its tip. "Well, you have my undivided attention." The cop stood and dusted the ice flaked sand off himself. "It's a perfect night to die." He said.

"The expression is "it's a great day to die." I corrected.

"A what?"

"Day." He blinked absently at me. "You know, when the sun's up." the young cop still starred idiotically at me. "Never mind."

"So what's your name choir boy?" he asked.

"You won't live long enough to remember it." I cracked my knuckles.

"Kashata!" Shain shouted behind me.

I looked over my shoulder. The other cops were dead; all had thin slashes over them. Shain had rescued the priest.

He said.

"Don't be an idiot, that priest is useless. Now just let me handle this." I said.

"I-I'm not useless." The priest mumbled.

I walked over to the priest and starred him in the eye. "Fine why don't you show me what your good for. Then I'll sweep your ashes from the icy floor." I walked a ways behind the priest and Shain and plopped down on my butt and crossed my arms.

"Is he pouting?" the priest whispered to Shain.

Shain nodded. "I heard that." I growled.

"Damn, he's got some ears." Shain waved back at me.

I saluted him with a choice finger.

"Are you guys gonna chat, or are you ready to die now?" the cop smiled at Shain and the priest.

"Well, prove Kash wrong." Shain shoved the priest toward the cop.

The priest formed his ice sword and held it shakily out in front of him. The cop chuckled and stepped forward, allowing the ice blade's tip to press against his chest. The pressure on the blade tip made the priest's hands shake even worse.

"Your friend was right. Your useless." The cop taunted.

The priest screamed and pushed his sword forward. Water soaked the cop's shirt. "Wha?" The priest looked at his melted sword.

The ice regrew and padre brought it down at the cop's head. He held a red palm up above him. The sword melted an inch from the cops flesh and water poured down on the cop's head.

"I can't hit him!" the priest yelled back to Shain and I.

He slashed faster and his sword still could not touch the cop.

"This is pointless, you can't penetrate my heat." He pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it in his palm, and took a long drag. The priest hung his head and panted. He had given up, or was to exhausted to continue.

"Hey priest man." The cop pushed the cigarette into the corner of his mouth.

Padre looked up. The cop slapped him across the face leaving a red blistered handprint.

"Alright, that's enough!" Shain shouted.

"Told you, he's useless." I chuckled.

"I'm not useless." The priest whispered, as the ice sword formed again.

"You've tried that. Face it your useless." The cop mocked.

"I'M NOT!" padre slammed the sword down on the ground.

Ice sickles erupted from the dessert floor. The cop barely dodged a large sickle that shot up from under him.

"Nice try." An ice sickle shot from the side of an already formed one and stabbed threw the cops shoulder.

Bloody water trickled from the wound. The officer gritted his teeth and charged the priest, drawing his baton as he ran. Padre slashed downward. The cop side stepped the attack and slammed the short side of the baton into padre's nose. The hit the button on the baton's grip releasing the spring loaded blade, which dragged over the burn he had made earlier, splitting Padre's check open.

Padre fell back onto the icy floor. His sword disappeared leaving only the gold cross. Blood ran from his broken nose. I jumped up onto my feet and walked over to the cop. "My turn."

"You're going to find me unarmed?" The cop pulled another baton from his belt.

"If you can call this two second run in a fight, then yes." I drew back my arm like a piston.

The cop crossed his batons in defense. The titanium blades bent around my knuckles as I punched. I pushed threw and slammed into the cops nose. He skipped across the icy ground and crushed threw two large ice sickles. I made my way over to him. As I walked lightning began curling around my body. My coat floated out behind me. As I passed ice sickles, lighting leapt from me and exploded them into shards.

The cop stood shakily, his nose was crushed and above his left brow was a large gash. "You are no match!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

A fiery tornado formed around him and expanded. The inferno blew my coat and hair out behind me. All ice turned to water and then to steam. "Why don't you burn?" The cop screamed at me.

"Like I said I've seen it before.of course last time I saw this it was being used by one of my students." I looked around at the swirling flames. "He did it better." The cop didn't seem to understand. "You moron, lightning has a temperature of over five hundred thousand degrees. Your puny flames don't even warm my blood." A crimson lighting bolt jumped from me and collided with the cop. He flew off across the dessert ounce again. His flames disappeared.

He pushed himself up onto his knees. His suit was torn open and a large bloody burn was in the center of his chest.

"So are you ready to die.officer?" I mocked him.

".No." Tears swelled in his eyes.

"Well, are you going to cry or fight." Lighting struck by his left knee sending icy sand into his face.

"I'm the strongest.I'm the best.I'm.I'm." he sobbed.

"Your threw." My lightning died away. "Get out of here kid." I turned and started making my way back toward my friends.

"No!" He screamed at the back of my head. "I am Glaive, chief of our Lord's Armed Forces, the Soul of inferno. Child prodigy to the flames. I." A large crimson lightning bolt exploded the earth beneath him.

He landed hard on his back. "We'll meet again!" He scrambled to his feet and retreated toward Victor's stronghold.

"That was pathetic." I spat onto the ground.

"You made him cry."

"So you woke up." I looked down at the priest.

The priest and I sat by the podium in the front of the church watching the children run around the room playing various games. Padre was starring hard into the blue jewel on his cross. A look of wonder and confusion plastered across his visage. He glanced over at my choker.

"Your stone is the frozen saint." I pointed to the blue jewel. "And mine is the Chaos saint."

"What are they for?" He whispered.

"To serve God. Well most of them. The savior saint is meant to save the world, and the Chaos saint. is meant to destroy the world." I frowned a little.

Padre looked over at me. I didn't return his gaze. But I think he was frowning too. Shain returned with my gun belt and the Forsaken.

"No trying to behead and or stab me, got it?" He tossed the weapons to me.

"Of course not." I smiled and fastened the guns around my waist.

"They know where you are Padre." I said. "And the first rule of engagement is, if your enemy's know where you are, don't be there."

"Yes. I know." The priest fastened the cross around his neck.

"So what are you going to do? Can't stay here anymore." Shain said.

The priest ringed his hands nervously. "B-but I can't move over a dozen children threw the dessert. They'd get away from me, and what if the cops find us. Where would we go anyway?" He started hyperventilating.

I smacked him across the face. "Look I know a place better than this. It's safer and no one is there."

"Where?" He rubbed the swelling red mark on his cheek.

"The revolutionaries base." I smiled. "Shain will take you."

"I will?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You will?" Padre beamed at him.

"I will." Shain hung his head.

"Then it's decided." I clapped my hands together. "Get everyone packed and moving out A.S.A.P." I grabbed the Forsaken and laid it across my shoulder. "I'm heading this way." I pointed a finger away from Victor's complex.

"What! You can't leave me behind." Shain shouted indignantly.

"Then you better hurry up and ketch up with me." I jumped up threw the ceiling. "Good luck with the orphans padre."

"Thank you Kashata!" he yelled after me.

I gave thumbs up and a wave and I was gone. With the speed I flew the desert looked more and more like terrible water. Monstrous waves of ice. It was like something out of a horrible monster story. I felt almost certain that something sinister lucked beneath those waves, and perhaps there was. My energy was starting to drain. I spread my black wings out behind me and relaxed my energy. I plummeted a couple yards before the wind caught my wings and jerked back into the sky. "Ouch, damn." I reached over my shoulder and rubbed my left wing. "That hurt a little, guess I'm a little out of practice." I said to the sword hanging from my right hand.

I had been so preoccupied with my own thoughts that I hadn't noticed a small group of people walking below me. There were three of them. I adjusted my eyes like the zoom on a camera; my body leaned so I circled above them like a bird of prey. All there of them were bald, wearing rags and small bits and pieces of armor.

"Is that a bird?" one of them squinted up at me.

My dark clothes and black wings blended in with the night sky almost perfectly. I must have passed over the red moon for them to notice me.

"Yea, I'm big bird! S is for Sword!" I released the Forsaken.

It sank into the ground directly in front of them. "What's a big bird?" one of them asked the other, who shrugged in response.

"Jeeze, no Sesame Street? Guess these guys were Barney fans." I grinned at my own joke.

"Come down here bird!" One of them yelled.

"You got it." I tucked my wings tight against me and fell, executing a few barrel rolls along the way.

Ice and sand blew up around me as I landed. It must have been a good entrance, nothing but wide-eyed faces stared back at me. I stretched my arms and wings into the sky as high as I could, and leaned my head back stretching. Crimson lighting ran over the length of my body and made small saint elmo's flames at my wing tips.

"Hell!" the largest of the three pulled a large hunting knife, or small saber from behind him.

"Well, well." I lowered my arms and wings and cocked my head to the side.

"Look at him, he's all bandaged up." The second one withdrew a knife from his hip.

"Yea, he probably can't even fight." The third cradled a small crossbow in his arms.

"Of course, if he was a real warrior like us he wouldn't be hurt." The first one agreed.

Of course I could see them thinking about my wings and red lighting. I raised and eyebrow. My yellow eyes glinted over the three of them.

"Why don't you just put a hurt bird out of his misery?" I grinned at them.

"Shoot him Puk!" The first one shouted.

The one with the crossbow fired a bolt at my face. I snatched it out of the air and threw it back. The arrow shaft perturbed from the man with the crossbow's left eye. He collapsed onto the ice.

"Bastard!" The first one brought his blade down at my head.

I caught his wrist with my left hand and winked at him. "Let me go Bird man!" He growled.

I snapped his elbow with an open palm and sank the knife into his throat. He collapsed. His death was quick; the blade severed his spinal cord. The last one took a step backwards, holding his knife out in front of him. He was shaking worst than Padre.

"So are you ready to die?" I spread my wings to there full span.

"Please." He tripped and fell onto his butt and started pushing himself away with his legs.

"Why were the three of you in the dessert?" I took a step and red lightning struck beside the cowering man.

"Were just scouts." He said.

"Scout's for who?" He didn't answer.

"A bolt hit between his feet. "A man named Ritt."

"Well go tell Ritt that Kash is waiting for him." I turned and walked a few paces away and sat down. Leaning back against the half of my sword sticking out of the ground.

He ran to the top of the first dune and looked back down at me. I waved and smiled. "Hurry now. If you take to long I'll come for you, and you don't want that." He sprinted off.

I crossed my arms behind my head and closed my eyes. "This should entertain me while I wait for Shain to deliver the priest to his new home." I chuckled.

A couple hours inched by in devastating silence. I had decided that there were no bugs or frogs for miles. Good god even with my hearing all I can make out is rumbling motors. I raised an eyebrow, someone was coming.

I stood and dusted the ice and sand off my pants and coat. The sound grew louder and louder. I pulled my sword from the ground and laid it on my shoulder. A small car or a large go cart appeared at the top of the sand dune directly in front of me, I guess you'd call it a dune buggy. There were five men in or on it. It was only a two seater so the other three were hanging on the sides. All of them were dressed like the three men I had encountered.

Another dozen or so on their buggies appeared at the tops of the other hills, surrounding me. All of a sudden I was aware, that I was standing in a sort of hole. Which meant if they had guns that they could tear me to ribbons with no fear of friendly fire.

My wings twitched. I tightened and bent my legs, and then I remembered that Victor had destroyed most of the world's guns, so I held my ground and waited. A few moments passed by with all of us just standing there. Whispers and murmurs ran threw the circle around me. Then finally a large man climbed out of the dune buggy and started walking down the dune toward me. He was wearing finger less gloves, army boots, and Capri pants. In his right hand he held a sword. If a slab of iron with a handle could be called that. The blade was rough, a good four feet long, a foot wide, and three inches thick on both sides. It was cut in a rectangle except the far end was a bit wider than the end by the grip.

"So who are you?" he asked. "My scout said your name was "big bird" Is that correct?"

I laughed. "No, the name is Kashata, Kashata Kusanagi."

He grinned, exposing three silver teeth. "You know Kashata, Killing a man's scouts is a sign of war. and I don't see your army."

"I don't need an army. My little toe is more powerful than all your man put together." I wiggled a boot at them.

"Is that so." He clenched his left hand into a fist.

"That's so." I met his gaze.

He relaxed and brushed off the dirt that wasn't on his pants. "Run him down Joe!"

"YEAAA!" Joe screamed and floored the accelerator.

I turned and rolled my eyes. He collided with my out stretched hand. The dune buggies grill bent around my palm and I slid a few feet back with my feet digging into the dessert floor. Joe flew over the steering wheel straight at me. I smacked him off to the side with my free hand. He slid threw the sand a few dozen yards sending a trail of ice threw the air in his wake.

The big guy with silver teeth gawked at me. I lifted the dune buggy into the air above me with one hand. "Son of a." I slammed the vehicle down on top of him.

Sand and ice exploded under the impact of the small vehicle. I dusted my hands off and turned to the men surrounding me.

"Well that takes care of your leader. Now who's next?" I flexed my right arm and grinned.

All the men were silent a moment then erupted into uproarious laughter. I raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" I growled.

They continued to laugh. "He's umm." I scratched the back of my head. "Right behind me isn't he?" they nodded.

I turned slowly. He was standing there holding the dune buggy off to the side like a baseball bat. "You know." I started.

He pulled back the bat and hit me straight out of the park. I tore threw a pair of frozen dunes before skidding to a halt. I sat up on my rump, my legs out in front of me and my coat over my head.

"Well this is dignified." I pulled the coat back behind me and stood up.

Silver teeth came jogging up to me grinning; small red lights flickered on his over sized muscles. "Did I neglect to mention that I harbor bio-technology? Muscle enhancers." His grin seemed to broaden.

"Look I think we got off on the wrong foot. so let's try this one." I threw a kick into his crotch.

DING. "Ouch, Holy God!" I hopped on one leg and held my injured foot.

"Always where a cup." He chuckled.

"Right." I slammed my foot into his gut and lifted him above me. "Hope you like ice." I slammed him down on the ground sending myself into the air.

I beat my wings and lifted higher into the sky. "You're strong, but you're still nothing to me." Lightning curled around me, large bolts ran threw the sky, and deafening thunder clapped. "I could reduce you to smoking ashes in the time it takes you blink." I glared down at him menacingly.

He stared up at me, defiant of his obvious fate. I grinned and laughed. "You know." I looked around the skies. "The person I'm waiting for isn't back so I'm gonna entertain myself with you for a bit longer. but let's see what you can do without your technology implants." Lightning shot from the sky and struck him.

The small lights on his muscles burst and sparked. He gawked at them, and flexed his muscles. I drew my wings into my body and dropped to the ground.

"There, I wouldn't want this fight to be unfair." I winked.

"I don't need 'em!" He screamed as he charged me with the iron slab sword. "Die!" The man slashed at me with all his remaining might.

I blocked each slash with the backs of my hands then stepped forward and upper cutted him. He flew several feet in the air. I jumped and met him in the air with a sideways kick. He slammed into the ground at an angle and skidded across the ice.

I slowly waked over to where he was struggling to his feet. I cracked my neck and knuckles. "Well.your pretty good.I guess I'll tell you my name." He used his sword like a crutch and looked at me. "The names Ritt." He ran a hand threw his spiky red hair and held it out to me.

I took it. "Idiot." Ritt grinned and whacked me in the gut with his sword.

"Your very strange. Where are you from?" He looked at me.

My ribs were broken and the wound from Exe and Vic was torn open. I flexed my abs and my ribs cracked back into place. "Depends on how you look at it." I stood and straightened my damp bandages.

"Where were you born?"

"The first or second time?" I chuckled.

He stared at me blankly. "I was born, first, in heaven. Then here in the United States."

"Well that explains the wings." Ritt shrugged. "But what's the United States?"

"You're on it.I think." I spun and slammed a heel into his left elbow breaking it.

He growled and swung at my head. I caught his wrist with my left hand and brought my knee into his arm snapping it. The sword dropped from his grip. I grinned and laughed at his frailty. Then remembering my own when I was younger. still not as weak as him or as easily destroyed. but he's much stronger than I was way back then.

"Don't go day dreaming in a fight!" Ritt head butted me in the gut winding me.

"I was just thinking that when I was a little boy I was just as strong as you." He charged me again.

I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off of his feet. Ritt struggled a bit before accepting that he couldn't wiggle himself free of me. I drew back my fist for the finishing blow.

"Kashata!" I winced at the aggression in Shain's voice. "Put him down. Why are you attacking these people?" He held his long sword at the ready.

"I was mearly entertaining myself while I awaited your return." Lightning curled around my drawn back arm.

"Put him down now!" He ordered.

"What are you my baby sitter?" I glared at him.

"Yea that's exactly what I am!" He pointed his blade at me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, they shined red. I threw Ritt off to the side and walked over to Shain. He returned my glare with glowing white eyes.

"Look Kashata it's my responsibility to keep you under control. The power up stairs doesn't want you wreaking havoc again but he likes the new leaf you've turned over, now lets just keep with the hero bit so I won't have to put you down. Got it?" He pressed the swords tip against my throat.

"I do things my way, you got that?" I pressed against the blade. A trickle of blood ran down the sword edge.

"As long as." An engine started close to us cutting out argument off.

Ritt was lying in the passenger seat of a near by dune buggy, glaring at us. "You beat me today, but I'll be seeing you guys again." Ritt took off and his men followed close at his fender.

"Great you let him get away." I frowned and my eyes turned back to yellow.

"Good, I wouldn't want you to get hurt." He laid his sword back on his shoulder and started walking away.

"WHAT? I WAS.SCREW YOU OK!" I ran back to the hole and grabbed the Forsaken. "WAIT FOR ME BABYSITTER! HA YOU HAVE THE JOB OF A TEEN AGE GIRL!"

"And you have the maturity of a five year old so it works out fine." He grumbled.

"Hey you can."

"And the vocabulary of a sailor." He interrupted.

"What? In your eye!"

"Ok." He rolled his eyes.

Ch. 19

The dessert rolled on for a few more miles before leveling off into a sort of steppe terrain. The ground was just sand and dirt with a few bushes here and there, and it was warm. A small town like you would expect in a John Wayne movie was just in sight. I smiled and laughed a little.

"What's funny?" Shain asked grudgingly.

"I was just thinking.about the others." I crossed my arms behind my head and looked into the sky. "We really had some good times. All of them were like family to me."

Shain glanced over at me and frowned. "Why did you kill Raze and Edge?"

I lowered my arms and gazed back down to earth. "When all of my past life memories came back. I lost Kash's memories. then all I knew was that Raze had just tried to burn me so I attacked him. Then Edge charged me, so he was just another enemy. It wasn't till mid fight with you that the rest of my memories came back."

"So that's how it was?" He asked solemnly.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is. I do regret their deaths."

"Regret. yea that's a Kash trait."

"What?" I raised a brow.

"Kashata never regretted anything in his life, but Kash, he regretted and beat himself up for every time he made an error." This made him smile for some reason.

"Right, like I said before. Kash is me. Were the same person.Now." We drew closer to the old west style town. "So you think we can rustle up a lil' Show down?" I spun Angel from its holster, twirled it around for a moment, and slapped back into place.

"Impressive but those may be the only guns left in this world.so I dought it."

The first thing I noticed when we entered the town was something very out of place in the old timey looking place. A black moped with a BMW emblem on the steering wheel was tied to a post out side of the saloon. On its handle bar there was a black skater style helmet with stickers all over it. The license plate on the back read "HitMan1."

"Someone's got a nice ride." I smiled at my own weak sarcasm.

"Yea, maybe a ten year old boy with a paper route." Shain joked.

At about that time a dozen cops came flooding out of the police station (which I hadn't noticed) directly across the street from the little moped. Shain grabbed me by the back of my coat and pulled me into a nearby alleyway.

"Hey what th." Shain shushed me.

We leaned and peaked around the side of the saloon. "Hey we know you're in their spike so come out with your hands on your head!" A cop yelled into the saloon.

A few moments inched by. "Damn it. Don't make us come in there after you!" The cop yelled again.

"Just give me a damn minute to finish my drink!" Someone shouted from inside.

Shain looked at me and shrugged. I drew Angel and cocked it. Another second passed before the man came out of the saloon. He was tall, probably around six feet three. He had a bowl cut with black hair. He was skinny and dressed in a black suede suit. There was a matching pair of rap around sunglasses around his head, and black polished shoes on his feet.

"Well what do you want?" He asked the cops with little interest.

The held their batons at the ready. "Were taking you in Spike." The lead officer said.

"You notice he looks a lot like that manager of yours, Zion?" Shain asked me.

"I thought he looked more like one of the Beatles." I smiled. "And it's interesting to know you've been keeping such close tabs on me."

Spike sighed and walked into the street. "Ok, lets make this quick." He lifted a black suitcase from the bottom of the moped and laid it one the seat.

"Is that a compact rifle case?" I asked no one particular.

He flipped the latches and the case sprung open. There was a broken down pole on the bottom of the suitcase and about six different blades on the topside. Spike assembled the pole then screwed a saber like blade on its end making a nice simple black niggata.

"Well come on boys I don't have all day. I'm on the job you know." I noticed he spoke in a British accent.

"I told you man, he's a freakin' Beatle." I told Shain.

"Get em'" The cops charged.

Spike jumped high into the air above the cops. He spun and threw his weapon like a spear, pinning a cop to a nearby post and reducing him to dust. "You blokes read?" Spike dived toward the ground headfirst with one hand held out straight toward the ground.

A yard from the ground a large violet energy sphere swelled like a bubble from his palm. The bubble hit the ground and he squashed into it. Spike slowly sank further and further in. As the bubble's center neared the ground Spike slowed almost to a complete stop.

"You fellows should be running." Spike smiled before the bubble burst sending thousands of energy bolts in every direction.

"Shit!" I spun the Forsaken in front of me for a shield.

Shain spun the yin yang blade around him to reflect the energy. The cops were all reduced to dust, more sand for the desert, and every building in the small town had numerous holes in them. I wondered how many people were killed from that attack that weren't cops.then again there weren't really people living in any of these places.

I shook off the thought. "Remember Kashata, there are no humans in this world.at least not any that want to be." I told myself aloud.

Spike made his way over to his niggata and pulled it from the wood. "Idiot vampires." He grumbled as he disassembled his weapon.

"C'mon." I walked out of the alley and made my way toward Spike.

He spun and threw a blade from his case at me. I smacked it away with the back of my pistol and narrowed the sights at his chest.

"A gun?" He raised a brow. "You must be an outlaw as well. or perhaps a revolutionary." He stepped around his vehicle and walked over to the blade lying in the sand.

I kept my gun trained on him. "No of course your not. All of them were wiped out in that war I heard about."

"We have just come from that war. The two of us and Victor were the only survivors." Shain said.

"And it seems our reputation has proceeded us." I chuckled.

Spike laughed. "Then you tow must be a couple of Victor's elite."

"No." I growled.

"Then what? You certainly didn't fight the lord?" He put the blade in his case and locked it.

"That's exactly what I did." I lowered my gun.

"I can't believe that. No one fights him and escapes with their lives, better yet unharmed." He eyed my bandages. "Or almost unharmed."

"We did. I forced him to flee. I lopped off his arm." I grinned and brandished my right hand. My claws grew out and turned jagged then returned to normal.

"What are you guys?" He wondered.

Our wings twitched. "We come from a better place." Shain said.

I gave a harsh laugh. "Speak for yourself. The only "better place" I'm from is the Edge of the World."

"Kashata!" Shain flashed white eyes at me.

"I renounced that place and that life." Lighting crashed in the sky.

"You dudes have some issues. What are you like renegade angels or something?" Spike fastened the helmet on his head.

"I'm the renegade, he's my baby sitter." I smirked. "Now how about some ketch baby sitter." A bolt of lightning struck Shain and I took off flying low to the ground.

Spike turned the key on his moped and sped right beneath me. "Hey fallen angel!" He yelled up at me.

"Yea?" I looked down at him.

"Why are you running?" He yelled over the wind and his own engine.

I laughed. "It's what I do."

Spike chuckled. "You mind if I tag along for the run?"

"Not at all."

Shain sat up and rubbed his head. A stream of smoke was rising from the large scorch mark on his chest. "That piece of. I can't believe he did that. yea I can."

Shain walked into the bar and sat down with his face in his hands. "Bar tender, give me something strong."

The demon behind the bar eyed Shain a moment before fetching him a bottle of tequila. "Here you go fella." He sat the bottle and a small glass in front of Shain.

"Thanks." He poured a glass and slammed it back.

"What are you some sort of angel?" A demon sitting down the bar was starring at his wings.

"Yea." Shain didn't look at him, just took another drink.

A half-wolf and a large vampire made their way over to Shain.

The three of them gathered around Shain. "Hey he's not looking for trouble, and he's paying his bill. So why don't you boys just leave him be." The bar tender pleaded.

"Nice sword." The half-wolf reached for the yin yang blade.

"I wouldn't." Shain said without interest as he examined the pale brown liquid in his glass.

The wolf grabbed the sword. White energy swelled from its palmel and enveloped the wolf, when the energy withdrew back into the weapon the wolf was gone.

"What th." The vampire stepped back.

"You need a certain level of power to keep the power of that sword contained. Otherwise it will devour you." Shain took another drink.

The demon grabbed Shain by the collar and lifted him off his stool. "And I suppose you have that kind of power?"

"Yea, I do." Shain grinned.

"Boys.he will kill you." The bar tender sighed as he picked a glass off the rack and began to wipe it down with a dirty towel.

"He's right you know." Shain grinned a lil broader.

"C'mon, let's teach him a lesson." The vampire growled.

"Yea." The demon pulled back his fist and threw a punch at Shain's face.

Shain caught and held it with one hand. The demon pushed with all his strength. "C'mon, I thought you were gonna teach me a lesson." Shain crushed the demon's hand and let go.

"Hey." The vampire threw a kick at Shains chest. He caught it with his left hand and swung the vampire into the demon sending both of them tumbling out of the saloon.

"Thanks for trying." Shain said to the bartender who nodded in turn.

Shain laid a handful of diamonds on the bar... "This is." The bar tender started.

"I know, I only say thanks when I'm grateful." Shain grabbed his sword and walked out into the street.

The vampire and demon climbed to their feet. "You." Shain split them in two and flew off in the direction Spike and I had gone.

Spike and I had made it out of the dessert and were now in a mountainous region similar to Colorado. It had started raining so we sought shelter in a cave at the base of a large cliff. I stabbed the Forsaken into the rock floor so I could use it like a chair.

"You're strong." Spike set opposite of me beside his moped.

"Yep." I folded up my coat long ways and used it to pad my metal chair.

Spike eyed the tattoos on my right arm. "So what do those mean?"

It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. "Oh these, the top one is a symbol meaning chaos and the bottom is a red lightning bolt. It's celestial fire." He didn't comment. "You know the power of god. The ability to control lightning runs in my blood line, and mine alone, and there have never been two Kusanagi's that can use it at the same time." I sighed. "So I'm the only one."

Spike nodded to show that he followed. "Sounds pretty cool, and even with power like that it seems you've been banged up pretty bad." He now had turned his attention to my bandages that were fairly red with blood.

"Yea." I scratched my head. "Shot with an energy bolt, hit with a dune buggy, kicked many times, slashed with a giant Katana, smacked with a slab of metal, etc. not necessarily in that order. Normally I heal fairly quick but repetitively being wounded in the same spot slows down the process."

He gave a long whistle. "Sounds rough."

"Just part of the job."

"And what's that?"

"Mercenary, hero. something like that." I stretched. "So what's your story?" I asked him in a half yawn.

Spike dug in the small trunk of his moped and pulled out a rolled up piece of paper. He tossed it to me. I unrolled it with mild interest. Spike starred back at me from the page. Scrolled across the top it read "Number one world's most wanted" and on the bottom in the same bold font "Wanted dead or alive, any reward request will be met."

This time it was my turn to whistle. "Not to shabby eh? I'm a hitman by profession and a pain in the lords posterior by nature." He grinned.

"Not bad." I taused him back the page.

"So do you care to share your life story?" He asked me as he slipped the parchment back into the trunk.

"It would take your life time to hear that my friend." I grabbed a rock and pitched it down the cave, and never heard it hit.

"Well give me the clip notes." Spike urged me.

"I was born in heaven as you probably guessed." I spread my wings and drew the back into my body. "My father was. an influential arch angel. I never knew my mother; anyway I was raised to be a warrior like my father. The instructors at the academy called me a child prodigy, Shain only rivaled my skills, his father like mine was a big player, and they were close rivals to boot. So I grew up and fought for God.

"This went on for a couple hundred years, then I disobeyed an order. I refused to fight anymore.or to be more specific I refused to kill a traitor, an angel whose loyalty to God was in question. I told him to run, then when I was ordered to clean up my own mess I laid down my sword." I reached over my back and padded the forsaken. "As my punishment I was cast out of heaven. me and my sword."

I chuckled. "I was to be guardian of the stars for all eternity. So I drifted threw space hugging my sword and rapping my black wings around my frozen body. If you haven't figured it out angels have white wings, white hair, and white eyes. When I was cast down they all turned dark. When God created earth, I guess because I didn't exactly witness its creation, I plummeted to its surface. The thing of it is when I got here there were already people, already villages, primitive though they were. So I can't prove or disprove any theories on evolution. For all I know the world had been here for millions of years when I arrived. The bitch of it is I don't know how old I am.

"I drifted in space unconchious for so long. I have no idea if the world was here when I was in heaven or not. The bad thing about this, and pay attention this pertains to you Spike, is that I don't know if you go to heaven when you die. There were no people in heaven when I was there, it was just heaven and hell, but that doesn't mean to say that people don't go there. It just means that earth was created after I left, which would make me very old." I stood and cracked my back, wincing a bit from the pain. "Just not quite as old as I feel.

"Anyway back to the story at hand, I crawled from my crater and made my way into the forest and into a small pool. A beam of sunlight cut threw the forest's canopy and shined down on my upturned face. there I stared into that light and all my sorrow and remorse. god I missed my home. in that little pool I wept for the first time in my life." I drowned off for a moment in memory.

Spike said nothing. "But my sadness changed to anger quickly. I took up my sword ounce more and brought the wrath of god down upon humanity. So I spread chaos around the world for centuries upon centuries until 1988. Then I fought Victor Ladagosee, not for the first time but for the last. He killed me but god wouldn't let one of his angels, even a forsaken one, and go to hell. So I was reborn as the most powerful thing this world had to offer, a warrior Strife, but I was truly born again and had no memories of who I had been.

"I became a righteous hero, made good friends, and went on to save the world many times. Then at age fourteen I began to change. My past life's personality began to leak over to me, and I began to get bits and pieces of memories. Not a lot but the events in your life define you and the few events I could recall made me a much harsher person. Anyway this led on to my next profession. My brother Ren and I became mercenaries, fighters for hire. This life style went on and was quite profitable. My wife even has her own island with a school and village on it.

"Well to bring this story to the present, my friends and I recently faced an enemy with a weapon capable of cutting time it's self. That's how I came to be here. This all happened three days ago and since then I've returned to my formal self, fought in a small war, had all of my friends killed, cut Victor's arm off, fought some dessert bandits, made friends with a priest and am now traveling with the worlds most wanted man." I took a deep breath. "Those are the clip notes."

Spike blinked a couple times. "Wow."

"Yea." We sat there a long while in silence.

"So how bad did you hurt that baby sitter angel back there?" He asked.

"Not bad, he'll ketch up with us shortly." I sighed.

"Yea. then what?" Spike dug in his pockets and sighed.

"Nothing. Were just trying to figure out what we need to do now. I just want to get back to my own time. I'll need the sapphire heart that Exe wields to do that. who knows where he is though."

"You wouldn't happen to have a pack of cigarettes would you?" Spike asked.

"Nope, afraid not."

"Right." Be gave another deep sigh.

"For how long do you plan to tag along with me?" I made my way to the mouth of the cave.

The rain was slacking now. "Till I lose interest. That's usually how I go about everything." He said.

"Very well. The rains just about stopped so we should get going." I put my coat back on and pulled my sword from the stone. "Wouldn't want Shain catching up to soon."

"Course." Spike groaned and got to his feet.

"Where's the nearest city?" I asked as he rolled his moped around to the mouth of the cave.

"That would be the Royal straight that way." He pointed a not to far off mountain peek. "You see those lights around there?"

A pair of searchlights and a light glow seemed to come from the mountain edge. I nodded.

"That's it." He strapped on his helmet and started his vehicle.

"Well." I spread my wings out behind me. "Let's mosey."

"Good god!" Shain whined as he brushed the wet hair out of his eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time.

The rain had stopped but the wind hadn't dried him yet. At the speed he was flying it couldn't take too much longer. He dug in his trench coat pocket for his old bandanna. Shain unrolled it and tied it around his forehead. The feeling brought back memories of the Dark Tournament. That had been the last time he wore it.

The Flying Shot's, his pretend friends, brutally murdered by the late Alec. When he first met the Sanguine Knights and was reunited with his child hood rival Kashata, who had lost most of his memories.

Shain kept his eyes on the ground bellow, searching for sight of me. After what I had done he was fairly convinced that I was going to wreak some sort of unholy havoc upon the creatures inhabiting this post-apocalyptic world. However the human race is now enslaved and the creatures on this planet were dark and Shain as well as I were trained to destroy them. So Shain's true reason for pursuing me must be fore of a personal vendetta than a mission from god.

"I'll find you Kashata, and we will settle the score." Shain accelerated, spinning clouds into a spiral behind him.

Ch. 20

The royal wasn't to long of a trek from the cave Spike and I had sought shelter in, and the skies weren't safe with Shain tracking me so I walked instead of flying. Spike entertained me with tales of his work while I busied my self with some pistol tricks. I twirled Angel in my right hand and balanced Devil on the tip of its barrel with my left index finger.

"Your real good at that, how long have you been practicing?" Spike asked after watching me for a while.

"Don't you know? I learned gun fighting from Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp." I laughed and taused the guns into the air so that they fell back into their appropriate holsters.

"What? Were they very good?" Spike had no clue who I was talking about.

"Man that's sad." I shook my head.

Spike quickened his pace. "C'mon were almost there."

"All right, but were going to have a serious cowboy discussion later." I took longer strides and jumped to ketch up with him.

The edge of the forest was in view. Light rays penetrated the forest canopy, and shadows spread from the trees around us. I could see neon and streetlights from within the forest. Royal City was definently something that was unique to this century. When I had seen the lights from the mouth of the cave I had assumed the mountainsides hid the Royal but in fact the city itself was inside the mountain. It appeared as if someone had taken a pie shaped slice out of the mountain and shoved Vegas into the space. The woods had been cut in a semi-circle from the edge of the pie cut. The grass in this circle was thick, blue, and soft.

There were no roads running to this city, but the streets in this city were packed with bustling pedestrians and cars. At the edge of the grassy semi-circle all of the streets made a U-turn forming a sort of coldasack.

"So if there's no roads. How the hell is there traffic?" I wondered aloud.

"They came in the tunnel." He pointed to the far end of the city. "When they cut the mountain they also put in an under ground tunnel that runs to the pacific highway."

"Sh-what?" I raised an eyebrow.

Spike sighted and shook his head. "The pacific highway is a stretch of road crossing the Pacific Ocean."

I blinked a few times absently. "Sweet."

Spike returned my absent blink. "Sweet.okay."

Spike and I stepped onto the pedestrian walkway running between the street and the many restaurants, clubs, and casinos were running along each side. "This place is just like Las Vegas Nevada." I gawked at the futuristic thing spread about, holographic signs, blinking neon bridges running from building top to building top.

"Right, Nevada.just like that." Spike had begun to humor me.

I glanced over at him, not sure if I liked him humoring me or not. "SO what are we here for Kashata?" Spike asked me as I stopped walking and begun looking up and down the streets.

"I want to. make a mess." I grinned menacingly.

Spike ran a finger around the throat of this collar. "Look mate I don't know about this."

"Well if your afraid to die then don't run with me." I walked out into the street and turned to face the oncoming traffic.

"Are you daffy angel man?" Spike yelled to me from the sidewalk.

"Not to say I have no fear for death" I grinned broadly. "Though I find it easier just to not think of it as an option." An expensive looking sports car was gathering speed as it approached me. I leapt high into the air and spun 360 degrees as I drew back my fist; my black wings and red coat billowed out behind me.

Red lightning snapped and jumped around my right arm and fist. "Hope you remembered to buckle up." I plummeted back to earth slamming my lightning charged fist threw the approaching cars hood.

The force shattered threw the plexy-glass hood and crushed the engine beneath. The attack force and the cars prior momentum launched the small vehicle high into the air.

"Son of a." Spike swore under his breath.

"Oh yea." I grinned at my own handy work.

The car had launched at an angle so instead of landing in the street it crashed through the front of a casino and exploded. Screams and panic erupted from inside the neon-accented building.

"You idiot!" Spike rushed out into the street. "You can't do things like that in the Royal!"

"Oh yea? And why not?" I smirked.

"Look, the Royal was built to entertain the Vs. It's under their generosity that civilians are aloud here. If you begin destroying the V's town there going to get a tad bit aggravated."

"The Vs?" I knew the Vs had been destroyed over five hundred years prior to this time.

"Yes, the Vs. Frost, Fang, Dracon, Tiffany and BM, and unless you do not know. They're going to kill our asses if we don't make tracks." Spike sounded a lil' high-strung to say the least.and he seemed to be turning an odd color.

I smiled. "C'mon buddy. I'll by you a drink." I slapped him on the shoulder and started making my way toward a bar, which was quite easy considering that every other establishment seemed to be one.

After my show the thick cloud of pedestrians seemed to make way for me. Spike followed me closely looking over his shoulder at the burning casino. The bar had swinging saloon like doors that aloud the light from the street to shine a bright path threw the establishment's center. The customers in this place were all wearing cloaks our equally concealing clothing.

No one sat to close to the lit path from the street, in fact I'd bet that there were individuals here that were more than uncomfortable under direct lighting. The bartender grabbed a mug from the counter and began running a washcloth around the inside of the glass. I looked from the demon eyes that wouldn't meet mine, then the already cleaned glass he was cleaning. Smile spread across my face as I slid into a barstool directly in front of him.

I sat there for a moment, trying to get a good bearing on the situation. Spike stood a bit to my right, looking nervous and a bit uncomfortable.

"So-" one of the bar's patrons addressed me from a table directly behind me. "You're an angel.in a demons bar." He growled a bit on the last two words.

I turned my head just enough to put him in sight of my right eye, which glowed a light crimson as I took him in. "So.what of it?"

The demon's eyes glowed an eerie green from beneath his cloak and he snarled deep and full of potential violence.

"Oh, bloody hell." Spike sighed.

Shain landed softly on the plush grass growing on the edge of the Royal. He squinted at the flames coming from a nearby burning casino. "Thanks for the smoke signal.manipulative prick." Shain cursed as he stepped onto the dark pavement of the road. Not very far down the street there were black marks and an electrical scorch in the street.

"Nice." Shain breathed sarcastically.

I'd bet my right wing he's somewhere getting hammered. The only question is where.damn it. God, lil' help please." Shain pleaded into the night sky.

As an answer to his misguided prayers a sudden gunshot sounded from a nearby pub. "Bingo!" Shain sprinted after the sound.

"See, I told you guys I could hit that fly, and you didn't believe me." Everyone in the bar laughed as returned my weapon to it's holster and downed another round.

"So Spike, how many cops to you think you've taken out over the years?" One of the guys chuckled, and wobbled in his chair.

"Ah, hell. Atleast a grand, and I'll take atleast another before they get me." Spike took a drink and slammed down the glass with such vigor that dust rose from the bar.

"I have you now!" Shain exploded threw the swinging doors and flung his sword straight at my chest.

I stopped the blade with the tip of my index claw. " 'Ello!" I grinned.

"Ah, so is this the lil' baby sitter angel?" One of the demons asked and everyone exploded with laughter again.

"The hell." Shain raised an eyebrow.

"Hey Shain." I stood and flung my left arm around his neck. "I'd like to introduce you to.these guys. Shain, guys.guys, Shain."

" 'Ello!" They all said in unison.

"Friends?" Shain questioned.

"Sure, you offer a group of drunkards all the alcohol in the house and you make friends." Spike answered for me.

"Well, fellas. I gotta mosey and you guys might what to as well, cuz I'm about to wreak some serious havoc in Royal." I smiled and laid the Forsaken across my shoulder.

"Okay!" They all laughed.

I spun on my heels, hitting Shain in the head with my sword as I did. "Let's mosey." I stepped back out into the street.

"Hey! Kashata! You're not wreaking havoc anywhere while I'm here!" Shain stood to my left and blocked my path with the blade of his sword.

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Don't make me laugh." I brought my right hand down on the swords tip and my left up at its middle.

The sword popped out of Shain's hand and the handle caught him in the chin lifting him off his feet. I caught the weapon in my right hand as Shain landed hard on his tailbone.

"Oh yea, your gonna stop me." I buried the sword's blade three feet into the concrete street and strolled out into the center lane.

I spun the Forsaken across my back. "What's the game Kashata Kusanagi?" Shain wiped the small trickle of blood from his chin and stood up.

"You know the game Shain." I grinned menacingly.

Crimson lightning crackled and twisted around my blade and body as I rose into the air. The electrical charge of it all caused my hair to float out behind me. I stretched my wings to their full span. "The name of the game is go insane." I laughed.

"Don't make me laugh. I know you're quite sane." Shain pulled his sword from the road. "Only thing I'm not sure of is how many places I will need to Barrie you in." Light energy swirled around the Katana in his grip.

Spike snapped his niggata together and fell back into a defensive combat stance. "Great, angel fight." He growled.

"Wow, you're so threatening." I laughed.

Shain spun on his heel and made an extravagant upward slash in my general direction. Five streams of explosive light energy erupted from his sword and roared threw the air in my direction.

"Right back at'cha, Fore!" I drew back my massive sword like a major league batter.

Sending one last charge of lightning into my blade I smashed all five streams of Shain's energy with a small amount of my own lightning back down toward the far side of the pie shaped cut in the mountain. Building exploded into brilliant flames as the energy tore threw all of the casinos and saloons on the right side of the pie slice. The attack cut threw the businesses and threw the slanted side of the mountain, blazing a trail deep into the forest.

A small explosion and a large cloud of dust showed where the energy broke threw the far side of the mountain causing a large amount of rocks and other debry to landslide.

Shain and I blinked absently at the destruction. Half the royal was now in ruins and flame. Screams and the sound of crackling wood were all that could be heard for a moment. Then a deep loud rumble blocked out all sounds of the people in Royal. The penetrated half of the mountain had begun to quake on this side of the mountain as well. A thin smile graced my visage as this side of the mountain began to crumble and collapse. Large boulders and dirt completely barried the half of the Royal. Now the city was silenced. A small rock bounced down the crumbled mountain half and skipped off the top of Shain's head.

A cricket chirped in the distance. I drew a long deep breath and held it for a second.

"Well there goes half the city."

"Shut up!" Shain yelled up at me.

I burst into laughter as Shain twitched on the street below.

Ch. 21

"Who the hell are you?"

A group of people stood at the mountain apex glaring down as Shain and I. My expression flipped from laughter too completely serious. "You will not live long enough to remember my name." I spoke in an even tone, hiding all thought and emotion.

"Brave words." A young woman with long dark hair pushed to the front of the group to get a better look at me.

"Or foolish.perhaps famous last words." A man dressed in red pants and a blue coat spoke.

"The names Kashata Kusanagi." I winked.

"And why have you taken it upon yourself to destroy our city." A silver hairdo young man demanded.

"Actually that was all him." I waved a hand in Shain's direction.

Shain looked a bit insulted, but he didn't deny it. The group eyed Shain carefully and with a certain amount of UN-concealed malice.

"You don't recognize me do you?" I drifted into their line of sight.

"What?" The silver haired man raised an eyebrow.

"I know all of you." I pointed a finger at the silver haired man, "Frost." Then the man in the blue coat, "Dracon." The long dark haired girl, "Tiffany." A girl with blond hair that was down in the front and spiked in the back "B.M." and last a wild looking teenage boy with one long fang sticking out over the right corner of his mouth "Fang."

The looked from one another then frost spoke. "How do you know us Kashata Kusanagi?"

"It's me, Kash, we were best friends before Alec killed you guys." I pleaded.

Frost starred at me blankly. The other Vs mirrored his expression.

"We don't know you or Alec." Tiffany said.

"Bull shit!" I snarled.

"They can't remember you Kashata." Shain and I both spun around to match Victor's voice with his smug face.

Victor sat on a low tree limb at the edge of the forest. His right arm and leg dangled in the air. His left foot flat on the tree limb and his left elbow propped on his drawn up knee. His left forearm was a metallic blue, and seemed to glow with a light of it's own, and his hand was gloved in black leather.

"What is wrong with them?" I asked in an even tone that was fairly difficult to maintain.

"Nothing, there just as they were before, except they will not remember you or the cause of their deaths." Victor dropped down from the tree and begun to stroll in Shain's direction.

"So you erased their pasts." I gave the Vs a look of pity.

"Don't look like that Kashata, they're alive, and that's what is truly important." Victor smiled.

"They won't be for long." I charged my crimson lightning ounce more.

"I see. You're going to murder your friends.again." I glared down at Victor.

His words were cruel.and worse, true. Light begun swirling around Shain, just as my lightning twisted around me. Victor grinned as tendrils of darkness begun stretching from his body. Shain brought his sword down in Victor's direction sending five streaks of light barreling toward him. Victor's dark aura flared up around him. The light energy separated around Victor, skimming off the dark energy and tearing off into the forest behind him igniting the vegetation and causing a full-scale forest fire instantaneously.

"Son of a." Shain cursed.

Victor's grin seemed to broaden as his prosthetic left arm begun to hum. "Another power gauntlet." I had a bad feeling that Victor's gauntlet was going to be a bit different from Simon's.

Two inches of energy blade from each side of the metallic arm formed and stretched out five feet from the end of Victor's clenched fist. The blade was red and shaped like that of a double-edged broad sword.

"Suppose I have you to thank for this new toy Kashata." Victor laughed.

The Vs all began to glow with a similar blue aura. "So I see that you couldn't return their true powers ether." I looked form the Vs back to Victor.

"No, but the pure fighting power they have been infused with is more than adequate."

I pulled my self into a mid-air fighting stance with my left leg pulled up into my chest and my right leg straight down. The Forsaken aimed grimacingly at the Vs, and a lightning covered index finger pointing at Victor. Shain was giving all of his attention on the slowly approaching Victor, who looked even more menacing with the forest burning behind him.

"This isn't fair Vic!" I said while keeping my attention and eyes on the Vs.

"You are right of course." Victor frowned and looked up at the Vs. "Vs, attack Kashata one at a time. Let's keep things fair." He laughed.

Both Shain's light aura and Victor's dark aura began to explode and clash together. My own lightning field began to spread out of instinct to their power.

Fang flew from the mountaintop and charged me. He slammed into my electrical field and cried out. His own aura wasn't powerful enough to keep my lightning from reaching his body. Fang cringed, spasm, and cried out in pain. I switched my attention back to the rest of the Vs, as Fang lay suspended to my lower right with smoke rising from his jerking body.

"I do hope the next one of you will be a challenge." I smirked.

Dracon vanished from the mountain. I spun in quick 360-degrees scanning my surroundings for him, nothing.

"Where did he." The Vs all wore the same "inside joke" smiles. "Right." I glanced around me and released Fang from my aura. He fell to the street below, the concrete cracked under him as he crashed.

"Plan to use my own weapon against me?" Victor scanned Shain with a look of faint curiosity. "That's not very kind of you Shain."

Shain pelted Victor with a torrent of slashes and stabs but all for not. The red energy blade deflected each attack. "Oh come now."

Victor grinned without a trace of amusement. "The great son of Gabriel can not even land a blow."

Shain brought his sword straight down. Victor blocked the attack, turning his blade horizontal. Victor planted his feet as Shain put his weight behind the blade.

"You think I'm weak?" Shain growled threw gritted teeth. "You're sadly mistaken Ladagosee!" Shain's light aura completely withdrew from around him.

"What's the game?" Victor shifted his gaze from left to right while he strained to hold off Shain's blade.

"No game. call it an eye exam." Shain's light surged down the katana's blade and exploded into Victor's eyes.

Victor growled and raised his hands over his eyes out of instinct. Shain's blade slid off the energy weapon and ran with little resistance from Victor's left shoulder to right kidney. The cut was shallow but I didn't doubt that it hurt like holy hell. Shain spun bringing the sword neck level in hopes of beheading the tyrant in his moment of pain.

The energy blade withdrew as Shain's blade slammed into the metallic palm. Victor gripped the blade tight in his grip.

"This sword has been in a similar position before.as have I." Victor smirked. "Of course last time I was in your position and Kashata was in mine."

Shain's eyes darted from the sword to Victor's grip. "Your right.but I'm not you. and you're no Kashata!" Shain released the sword hilt and hit Victor with a powerful left hook causing his opponent to expose his right side.

Shain sent a series of powerful kicks up Victor's exposed side, smashing his knee, hip, ribs, and sending him skipping across the road with a shot to the temple.

A streak of energy tore threw my right fore arm destroying the bone and tendons within. The Forsaken fell from my numbed fingers and pinned the already half-dead Fang to the concrete road. He was surely dead now. Dracon floated a few feet within my field of energy.

Small streams of smoke emanating from his left index finger. "You should have gone for a kill shot." I smiled at the wound as fresh tissue knitted it close.

A slender arm whipped around my throat and another around my waist as B.M. pulled and held me tight. "Without your weapon, Kusanagi, you are already dead." She whispered in my ear.

"So much for fair." I shook my head without surprise.

I sighed as my electrical field with drew into me. "What is this?" B.M. demanded, tightening her grip.

"This?" I held my claws out in front of me.

Lightning covered all ten claws. "This is gonna suck." I sank my claws deep into the arms that bound me.

When claw struck bone I released the lightning, infusing her skeleton with my elemental energy. "Kind of like eating a powerline huh?" I laughed as she shook and tried to cry out with her convulsing throat.

"Damn you!" Dracon disappeared and reappeared close in front of me.

He slammed his hand into my windpipe collapsing it and holding tight to my neck. "Let her go." His eyes shined red with vemace.

Having my windpipe crushed hurt immensely and it completely shut off any hope of a smart-ass remark so I settled for just smiling and letting the girl fall. Now it was Dracon's turn to grin.

"So now what Kusanagi?" His energy gathered and swirled around his arm.

He slackened his grip just enough to allow me speech. "No I wait for judgment from the heavens." At my word crimson lightning bolt shot from the clouds and struck Dracon's elbow.

The bolts charge blew his arm in a jagged half. The flesh smoked and was burnt a dark charcoal color. I tore the lifeless forearm and hand from my neck and threw it to the side. Red electricity spanned the space between my out stretched hand and the Forsaken's palmel. The sword shook loose of Fang's tattered corpse and the concrete below. Frost and Tiffany watched on as the Forsaken returned to my grip and I dispatched Dracon who was still in a painful state of shock.

Now three bodies littered the street below me (or two bodies and two halves of a body) and my final two opponents seemed unshaken by this.

Shain sprinted toward Victor at full speed sweeping up the Katana as he went. Victor managed to break out of his stunned state and stand just as Shain reached him. The katana's blade sank deep into Victor's chest as Shain leaned into it. Blood gushed from ether side of the blade as it bit into flesh.

The smell of the substance reached my nose as Frost leaped from his perch. In my short moment of distraction Frost managed to get the upper hand. Before I had time to even raise an arm in my own defense I was being struck with rapid energy charged attacks? My wings withdrew into my back in an involuntary spasm and I begun to fall. In perspective it would have been less damaging if Frost had aloud me to simply plummet back to earth, but instead of letting me fall he caught me by my tail and swung me straight up. I came to my senses just as frost had caught up with me.

"I just want you to know that this will hurt.a lot." Frost grinned and brought his heel down on the back of my neck.

Shain followed threw with his slash, the blade exiting Victor's body at about mid right thigh and then sinking into the ground. Victor gave a violent shake and fell back onto the asphalt road. His head bounced with a sickening thud. Shain released the sword which stood on it's own imbedded in the road. A swirl of light formed around each of Shain's arms as he raised his palms to point at Victor's bloody body.

"Die Ladagosee!" Shain's eyes narrowed as beams of light burst from his palms and begun tearing Victor's upper body to shreds.

I spun myself around as I plummeted to face toward Frost who hovered above me. Frost's expression switched from satisfaction to surprise as I drew my gun. My pupils changed from circles to slits as my eyesight zoomed and focused like that of a scope. I managed to fire four rounds from Angel into his chest before having to spin and land in a crouched position. The concrete busted and cracked beneath me.

"Son of a." Frost glared at the four large wholes in his chest. "How did you.?" He whispered.

If my ears weren't as keen as they were, I never would have heard the question. "I am, after all, Kashata Kusanagi." I grinned fangily and spun the pistol into its holster.

Frost's eyes glazed over and he fell.

"Now, how about you?" I looked up at the remaining V. "I do not wish to kill you as well."

Tiffany looked from body to body, then over at Victor who was being torn apart by Shain's rays of light. She shook her head and bit the end of her thumb.

The look of complete innocence made me grin dispite myself. She reminded me a lot of Nagi.god where was she. "Come down here." I motioned my statement with a wave of hand.

She hesitated a moment then jumped from the peak and slowly drifted down to the pavement a little ways away from me. "Shain!" I turned to my baby sitter.

"You need an assist or is that pathetic little android really that entertaining?"

Shain stopped firing. "What?"

I began laughing. "What? Did you actually believe someone like you could kill Victor so easily?"

He starred at me with disbelief. I walked over to the body and ran the heal of my boot over it's chest, wiping away all the blood and flesh, and exposing the snapping electrodes within.

"Damn it!" Shain cursed. "Why didn't you say something?"

"I just noticed when you cut him, his blood kinda smelled a lot like motor oil." I laughed and slapped a hand on his shoulder. "Yea it's kinda like that." I spun on my heel and slowly started toward the tunnel imbedded in the mountain base. "Come on!" I yelled back. "Both of you."

Shain looked over at Tiffany then back to me. "Wait a minute."

"Don't start Shain, she's coming with us." I said.

"No not that you idiot." Shain looked around. "Wasn't that beatle looking guy with you?"

"Oh yea." I waved a hand and bolts of lightning began rapidly striking up and down the barried half of the city.

Chunks of rock, wood, and dirt burst into the air. Tiffany put her hands over her head in hopes of shielding herself from the flying rubble. It wasn't long before I found my new friend. Apparently before he could run from the slide a large wall waited by a large amount of rocks had fallen on him.

Luckily he managed to put up his hands to ketch the falling wall. His body was glowing with what was probably his last bit of energy. Spikes knees were trembling. "Thank god." Spike breathed. "I thought you'd forgotten me."

"I would never forget you." I scratched my head.

Shain gave a long exhale; apparently he had been holding his breath. "Oh good, you're all right. I'll help you." Shain started toward Spike.

"Wait!" I ordered.

"What?" Spike and Shain exclaimed in unison.

"I need to check something." I walked over to Spike and eyed him carefully.

"Help me you idiot." Spike growled.

"In time.but first." I cracked my knuckles. "Tickle, tickle, tickle."

"Kashata!" Shain and Spike shouted.

"Ok, ok." I put a hand on the wall. "There you go you big baby."

"You think you can hold it with one hand?" Spike questioned.

I switched to one finger. "Go ahead."

Spike shook his head and dived out from under the wall, which I held up with little effort.

"Good god." Spike sighed.

"Come on, quit showing off." Shain said before turning and walking off toward the tunnel.

I let the wall fall, which caused another small landslide, and took a few quick strides to keep up with Shain. Tiffany and Spike walked behind us.

"So who's the girl?" Spike asked as we climbed threw the almost completely caved in entrance to the tunnel.

Tiffany, who was crawling, threw the entrance on all fours in front of Spike, turned to look back at Spike. "My name is Tiffany. I'm.I was a V, but do to circumstances." I could feel her looking at me from behind Shain. "I am now homeless.and I am not your friend." She pulled herself threw the entrance into the open tunnel.

The tunnel was completely free of any light except the small amount coming from the remaining neon in the Royal shining threw the small entrance.

"I can't see a bloody thing." Spike complained.

"Dido." Shain chimed in.

"Sucks for you guys." I gave a humorless laugh and started walking down the tunnel, making deliberate noise so that they could follow.

"So why are you coming with us then?" I asked Tiffany as she approached on my right side.

"You offered." She answered bluntly.

"Indeed, but why accept?" I flashed a smile, not knowing if she saw it.

"Can't say." She said solemnly.

"Very well then."

We continued on our way in dense silence. A few mice scurried about the tunnel floor and Shain and Spike made gasped and jumped around as they ran over their feet. Tiffany laughed and the three of them struck up some sort of dialogue. I took little interest in them. I was paying attention to the ground. The tunnel had begun to rise slightly and the ground below me was hollow. I drew Victor's pocketknife and stabbed into the ground.

"Are you daffy?" Tiffany gaped at me.

From her voice I couldn't tell what she meant. The knife shook for a moment before shooting into the air. I snatched it out of the stream of water that propelled it.

"Kashata, were under water. So stabbing holes in the ground is probably not the smartest thing to do." Tiffany criticized.

I blinked absently a couple times. "Right.surely not." I started walking down the tunnel again.

"Wow.he's something." Tiffany shook her head.

"Yea, something all right. C'mon." Spike hurried after me.

"Ok enough stumbling around in the dark." Shain rubbed his hands together and they began to glow with their own Inner Light.

The tunnel was illuminated somewhat and everyone was forced into squinting visages while their eyes adjusted to the sudden light.

"Hey check it out, the tunnel ends up ahead." Shain said with exaggerated enthusiasm.

"I know." Tiffany and I spoke in unison.

"Right, course you do." Shain mumbled something about bat's being blind and set off ahead.

Ch. 22

Shain approached the large garage style door that the tunnel ended in. He looked it up and down examining it till he found the small panel on the right side of the door. "Shit."

"What's the problem?" I asked as Spike approached Shain's side.

Shain glanced over at Spike as he answered me. "It takes a code."

"I'm sure I can just bust it open." I grinned at the opportunity to do more damage I like damage.

Spike held up a hand. "Not necessary mate. I've got this one."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box with a cord and some sort of plug like you'd find on a keyboard on the end. He popped a small plastic tab off the bottom of the punch pad and inserted the cord. A small red light flashed on the black box for a while before a small beep sounded and the light turned green and the door began to creak open.

The tunnel opened into what seemed like a small island made of concrete. There was a large gas station to the right of the tunnel and that was about all. The tunnel was in the center of a road that went off straight-ahead and back behind where we had come out. The road went straight for a long ways in each direction the turned and seemed to just disappear off into the distance.

"Well this is odd isn't it?" Shain took in the scene and the salty air that greeted us.

"You think that's odd." I pointed into the sky above us.

"That isn't right." Shain gaped into the sky at the object that was slowly floating above us.

Well "object" may be a bit of an understatement. It was more like a castle. a castle just like the one Victor lived in back in my time. except that it was now disappearing into a cloud.

"Well this entire situation is.unexpected isn't it?" I grinned awkwardly over at Shain.

"It's Victor's castle." Tiffany's jaw was a gape in shock. "It's constantly moving, the chances of it being here now are."

I laughed. "Pretty good, but how about these guys."

"What guys?" Tiffany got her answer when she looked back down from the sky.

There were several dark figures rising out of the choppy ocean surface around us. They were dressed in dark maroon and their faces and bodies were completely concealed.

"Great, purple Jesus ninjas." I laughed.

"Jesus?" Shain raised an eyebrow.

"You know.there standing on water.never mind." I shook my head and turned my attention back to the figures on the water.

I walked to the water's edge to get a better look at them. There were six of them and they were all standing in a sort of semi-circle to where I was standing. "So you guys just run.float around under the castle or are you guys a separate phenomenon." I grinned.

"Kash!" Shain called over to me.

I ignored him and kept my attention on the maroon ninjas. They stared back at me for a moment before they all motioned in unison for me to come to them. I smiled in response.

"Yea." I focused my energy into my feet and stepped off onto the water.

My energy kept me afloat and gave me stable footing just as they had. I approached them slowly with restrained caution. Their bodies tensed. I held the Forsaken off to one side with my right hand and held my left hand out in front of me defensively.

"Kashata!" Shain ran out onto the water to my left side.

He assumed a mirror image stance to mine. "So what do you think?" I smirked.

"I think we should." Shain and I bent our knees and tilted out feet forward causing the tips of our boots to dip under the water's surface. "Move!"

We pushed our energy from our feet propelling us forward in opposite directions. The water swirled and sprayed behind our feet like that of a jet boat. Shain and I caught each ninja on the far sides of the semi-circle they had formed. Our weapons bit deep into their flesh and met bone on the far side. We both swung their body aside and flew forward toward the next opponents. Though the next four weren't going to be caught off guard like the first ones.

The last of them flew off in different directions soaking Shain and I with a wave of salty water. Maroon blurs circled us rapidly.

"This is nice." Shain gritted his teeth and held his sword out in front of him.

"Atleast there's only four now." I grinned and laid my weapon over my shoulder.

We watched them circle us in a blur of violent jet propelled motion for a moment longer before their circle was broken. I wasn't certain what had happened at first. It seemed as if they all had just slammed on their brakes.

"What the?" I looked from left to right at the two ninjas I could see on my side.

"Look." I turned around to see what Shain was talking about.

The fighter directly in front of Shain was floating above the water surface. A short thick curved blade protruding from his chest. Spike flung him aside and stepped into the circle.

Spike chuckled and spun his weapon as he entered the ring of ninjas. well it was more like a triangle now. "I can handle these guys." He winked.

"Why don't you guys go after Victor?" Spike took up a fighting stance between Shain and I.

"Sure about that?" I questioned Spike and gave Shain a sideways glance.

"Oh sure thing mate. I'll have these daisies sinking in no time." Spike grinned.

"We'll see you at the victory party." I slapped Spike on the shoulder as I pushed out my wings.

Shain mirrored me ounce again and we both took flight. "Hey Tiffany!" I yelled down as we passed overhead.

She craned her head to look up at us. "Keep an eye on my friend out there, I'll see you guys up top." I gave her thumbs up and headed for the castle with Shain a pace ahead of me.

The three ninjas all took the maroon raps off their forearms in unison. Dark black Celtic tattoos were identically printed on their flesh. A light purple energy began to swirl around each of the fighters and their tattoos began to move and dive around their arms.

"Shit, I have a bad feeling about this." Spike said as he watched Tiffany approach out of the corner of his eye.

Shain and I approached the castle, or the cloud the castle had disappeared into. We made our way slowly and cautiously threw the thick cloud trying to see the floating structure.

"There." Shain pointed a head at what seemed a dark spot in the sky.

As we neared it the shadowed mass begun to take shape. Sharp peeks and sloping ceilings. The top of the castle came into view followed closely by the cilendral shapes of the structure's sides and the flat wall that surrounded the place. Shain and I gave a last powerful beat of our wings and descended onto the wall's edge.

"Well we've arrived." Shain held his weapon aloft but the tip of the sword bounced with anticipation.

"Last time I was here. my brother and I were met with menial opposition at about this spot. course that wasn't here." I reflected for a moment before stepping off the wall and landing with a soft squish on the ground. "Mud?"

Shain jumped down after me and touched the ground with two fingers. "Barely mud. damp dirt." Shain looked around at the ground. "It seems whatever Victor has done to make this castle float has killed the grass. then again." Shain stood and held his sword out in front of him.

"It could be those guys." I chuckled and held my sword out defensively.

Dark figures had begun to claw and climb from the soft dirt floor all around us. Like zombies from a 1950s horror flick they crawled forth. Except these were no human corpses.in fact these things weren't dead or human. There bodies were dark, and I don't mean they were dark skinned. They seemed to have been carved from darkness it's self. A thin layer of black mist enveloped their entire bodies giving them a dream like look. Their entire bodies were smooth with claws on each finger and two small horns protruding aggressively from their foreheads.

"What are the legions doing here?" Shain assumed his favorite sword-fighting stance with his left arm completely extended and supporting the katana's blade at about half way and his right hand held back by his right shoulder holding the grip.

"The guardian's of the sinner." I held the Forsaken by my right hip with the blade pointing straight out behind me.

"Yes well I'm pretty certain that it isn't the morning star inside that castle. It looks like they're serving Victor now." Shain assessed.

The legions neared us circling and preparing for their assault. Shain and I waited.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything." I gruff voice sounded from our right followed by a loud crashing sound as a large section of the concrete wall exploded inward.

A large man with short red hair wielding a slab of iron with a handle climbed on top of the rubble. "Told you we'd meet again big bird." Ritt grinned.

"Son of a.how did you get here." I laughed despite the situation.

"Well I." He started.

"I helped." Padre dropped from the clouds and landed on the remaining wall to Ritt's left.

Large glistening blue wings were on his back. The wings were jagged and a light mist seemed to drift from them. After there job was done the icy wings melted and dripped to the ground leaving only two long wet strips down the back of padre's clothes to show that they had been there.

"Padre!" Shain laughed. "Now that's new."

"I've been practicing." Padre held out his crucifix and the jagged ice blade formed with speed and precision that Padre had never shown before.

Ritt stepped off the rubble onto the soft ground. "I found him stumbling threw the dessert with a bunch of kids. He thought I was going to rob him and actually had the gyms to try and fight me off." Ritt laughed. " So after giving him a right but wuppin he told me his situation and I decided to help him out, out of the kindness of my heart, and not to mention teach him how to use that cute little sword of his."

"All right but how did you find us here?" I raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"That was actually a coincidence." Padre stepped down beside Ritt. "We were making out way across the pacific highway when we came across a guy in a black suit and a pretty girl fighting some men dressed in purple, and not being able to turn a blind eye we joined in. After the short battle, Spike I believe it was, he told us where to find you."

"And that's the story." Ritt grinned.

"Well as unlikely is this whole thing is." Electricity began to jump and form around my hands and sword.

"We have more pressing matters." Shain slid forward extending his right arm and running a legion threw the head with his weapon as he slid to the far side of it.

"Ooooo bad ass anime slide." I laughed as the legion reformed solid and turned to give Shain what I imagined had to have been a look of supreme loathing.

"To bad it's all for not." Victor's servants all seemed to tense and prepare them selves.

"Victor will be inside." Ritt charged forward exploding a pair of legions as he stepped in close to Shain and I.

The two legions reformed only to have Padre split them apart again. "You guys go ahead on inside, we'll slow these guys down and ketch up later."

Shain and I exchanged hesitant glances only to be pushed toward the castle by an impatient Ritt. "All right, you guys just hurry up and ketch up."

Shain took off and I allowed myself one last look at my unexpected, not to mention unlikely, allies before following after him and dispatching a few more legions for the second time along the way.

Shain greeted the door like he caught it sleeping with his wife, with a viscous kick to the center. The doors burst open sending small wooden shards scattering across the surprisingly large room. It seemed that this castle was in fact not like the others of similar outer design. This castle was only one very large throne room. There was a wide velvet red carpet that started at the door Shain had broken and ran to the middle of the room where a tall throne sat elevated with steps leading up to it. The floor of the room was a dark blue marble.

The throne stood a good nine feet tall and looked every bit as demonic as the content tyrant that perched himself upon its red cushioned seat. Victor had a look of genuine amusement that didn't quite reach his eyes that seemed to stare threw my center. He drummed his metallic fingers on the armrest of his throne and used his real ones to twist a lock of his silver hair absently.

"Victor." I tightened my grip on my sword.

"Hello Kashata." Victor quit drumming and twirling his fingers and leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees and propping his head up with his hands.

"Have you come to give me your power now?" He grinned.

At that point if my sword had been made out any normal metal I would have crushed it.

"Were here to end this Ladagosee." Shain glared daggers.

"Well" Victor stood slowly. "There's no dought that it will end here."

"How about we skip the little warm up round and just do this." Victor pulled off his trench coat and threw it off to the side. "I'm ready for this drama to finally come to a close."

He wore a sleeveless maroon shirt tucked into black slacks. He had black gloves on his hands and boots that matched his shirt. The skin that connected the metallic gauntlet was pink and shiny. Fresh scar tissue.

His entire body began to give off a dark aura and even from all the way across the large room I could feel the pressure of his power against my flesh, but I was no longer interested in Victor Ladagosee. To the wall on my left, back a ways behind Victor's throne Nagi hung from chains fastened to her wrist. She seemed all right; there was defiant look upon her brow even though she was unconscious. It looked as if she was fighting in her dreams.

Shain shoved me aside with his right shoulder. His left hand on Victor's metallic wrist and his right hand was clenched in his opponent's powerful grip.

"Get your head in the game Kashata!" Shain growled at me threw gritted teeth.

I tore my gaze from Nagi and brought it back around to the struggle before me. Shain was now giving off his own powerful white aura that seemed to crash energetically against Victor's aura which slowly twitched and seemed to breath as if it were a separate entity from the fighter it was attached. I rose to my feet and held my sword reverse in my left hand and tucked my right fist back. I bent my knees and prepared for the battle at hand, I wouldn't loose.

I leapt forward at the pair at about the same time Victor managed to fling Shain out of the way and activate his dark energy blade. The blade shot from Victor's metallic hand and slid straight threw my solar plexus and out my back. I came to rest hard against Victor's fist, my face just a couple inches from his.

I coughed blood into the tyrant's grinning face. "Check mate. my friend." Victor drew in his blade just to slam it one more time threw my gut.

It took all my strength to stay standing as Victor drew back his left hand and smacked me across the room. I spun and slammed hard face first into the concrete wall of the room.

I collapsed onto the hard marble floor, my head bouncing with the impact. My head lulled to the right. I could see Nagi hanging there, far from my reach.

"I.I'm.sorry." I reached a trembling hand in her direction and lost conchiousness.

Shain stood and glared at Victor defiantly, then he brought his gaze over to my blood soaked body. "That was a mistake."

Victor grinned and cocked his head to the side. "Why? Because he's the great Kusanagi and I couldn't possibly defeat him?"

Shain turned back to Victor. "No, that's not it." Shain went back to where he was standing before he had to jump between Victor and I and picked up his Katana.

"That was a mistake because no one has ever killed one of my friends and lived." Shain's energy flared violently and his weapon seemed to generate black and white energy of it's own.

Victor held his energy blade straight out to his side and his other hand was held up in defense. "And Kashata was your friend?" he smirked.

"The very best." Shain leapt forward and swung his weapon in a violent horizontal slash.

Victor dodged the attack but the wall on the far side of the throne room exploded halfway to the high-rise ceiling. Victor slashed a viscous ark with his dark blade at Shain's middle but he was already gone. Shain had slid around behind Victor, taking advantage of the blind spot created when Victor had ducked the horizontal slash.

Shain grabbed Victor by the back of the neck and flung him toward the marble steps to the throne. Shain bent down spreading his wings out behind him. Victor spun and landed in a crouch half way up the steps as Shain let rip with his laser. Victor grinned menacingly. The laser slammed into Victor's metallic palm with the force of a stampeeding elephant but didn't penetrate. Victor rushed forward with the laser straining against his palm. Shain had no chance to make another move. If he stopped his energy attack now he'd be exposed to anything else Victor had in his arsenal. All Shain could do now was hope the laser would penetrate.

Victor approached Shain at top speed with the energy beam exploding against his technologically powered palm all the while. This fight was over the moment Shain had thrown Victor for this shot. Victor reached Shain and ended it. The metallic palm and the energy slammed into the gym embedded in Shains head. There was a large burst of light as the energy in the gym dispersed threw out the room. Beams of light cut threw the ceiling and walls randomly until all energy had left the saint stone. Victor withdrew his hand and activated the blade.

The gym in Shain's head was shattered. Blood and small chunks of stone fell to the floor. Shain wore an expression of complete shock and horror.

"Tell Kashata I said hi." Victor slashed a deep cut from Shain's left armpit to right below the right side of his hip.

Blood splattered Victor's front and the marble floor. Shain's legs went limp and Victor held him up by the throat. "Your not falling here, your place is there!" Victor flung Shain just as Shain had flung him.

Shains face bounced off the edge of the marble steps. Blood trickled down the marble surface. Victor sighed and shook his head while he smoothed back his hair.

"You pathetic angels." Victor looked from Shain to me and began to stroll patiently back to his throne. "You all seems so righteous but you know what?" no one answered.

"Your all just pawns. Pawns in god's little game. Sadly, however, you two didn't get the memo. This world is now mine." Victor pulled a cigarette from his back pocket and held it in the corner of his mouth. "This world is the knew hell. Human's are done, their gone and now I rule supreme."

Victor's dark aura seemed to thicken around the cigarette's tip until it lit. "And it's all thanks to this aura of mine." Victor stepped on Shain's left hand as he climbed the steps to his throne and slowly set himself down.

Shain lifted his head slowly to see Victor sitting up there with a smug grin on his face. "The morning star." Victor smiled at the horrific look of realization on Shain's face.

Victor had made a deal with Lucifer, that's how he lived after Alec's devastating attack, and that's what this living aura of darkness that assisted him now was. A scream from outside the room tore Shain from his thoughts and back to reality.

"Ah my legion, they come with the aura you know, seem to be finishing off your little friends as we speak."

During the drama I was lost in my own mind. I seemed to be floating in water only the water seemed thicker than usual and had a strong metallic smell to it. I held up a hand in front of my face. Red liquid ran down my forearm and dripped from my fingertips. How surreal, I was floating in a sea of blood. A dark figure stood on the blood surface, just far enough to be out of focus.

"Why are you sleeping Kashata?" The figure asked me.

"Tired.just to tired." I closed my eyes.

"How dare you?" This seemed to be much more of a demand then a question.

"I ask you to do one th." The entity paused as if he was trying hard not to yell at a child. "Why are you not protecting my son Kashata?"

"G-Gabriel?" I starred hard at the dark figure, trying to bring him into focus.

"You know he looks up to you, he's always wanted to be like you Kashata. Even when he was a boy, he'd come home and tell me all about what you did at the academy that day. You were his idol.still are I'd think, and now your just letting him die."

I smiled a little at that. "Figures. I knew he bitched to much to not like me." I thought on it, was I sleeping while my best friend was dying? No couldn't be.

Gabriel continued. "Maybe you don't care if your friend dies, but what do you think Victor will do ounce he finishes with him? Your girl is hanging there on his wall, like a peace of meat. He'll go for her next."

I wrenched my eyes open; there was a huge red moon above me. I rolled over onto my stomach. Victor sat on his throne and Shain lay on the steps at his feet bleeding out slowly. I pushed my self up into a sitting position and slid my coat off and threw it to the side. I gripped my shirt around the whole in its center and tore it off.

"Your alive? Now that is impressive." Victor grinned from atop his horned throne.

I sat up straight with my legs folded underneath me and rested my hands on my knees. "I.remember this." I closed my eyes and drifted in my thoughts.

Victor leaned forward and developed a curious expression. "This pain. you. you killed me Victor." I heard him shift in his seat.

"You ran me threw with my own sword and forced me to begin again in this vessel." A grin spread slowly across my face.

Red lightning whipped around my body as my hair shined red and seemed to float behind me. My ears, teeth, and claws extended to points. Claw like marks appeared over my forearms, shoulders, and ribs. My muscles twitched and pulled on the tendons that restricted them. I opened my eyes and the vertical pupils in my yellow eyes focused on Victor who was looking less comfortable now.

"I believe it's time I returned the favor." I stood and cracked my back.

I opened my right hand slowly as electricity spanned the space between me and my sword and drawing it into my grip. Victor rose to his feet and activated his weapon.

"I killed you then and I'll do it again now." Victor began to rush at me from his throne at full speed.

I closed the gap from the far end of the room to where Victor was approaching by the time he was on the second step. He put up his sword just in time to block mine. The force of the collision drove him back up the steps so that we were beside his throne. Victor tightened his entire body with the strain of holding back my attack.

"You won't.win." Victor growled.

"Kash." Shain wheezed from the steps. "Do it."

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he tried to push himself up into a sitting position. He didn't manage it. He pushed himself up almost arms length before falling back onto the steps.

He breathed heavily before turning his head on the top of the step so that he could see Victor and I. "Full fill the prophecy."

The prophecy of the saint stones was an angel from heaven would destroy the world and a devil from earth would protect it. If this was Victor's world then I would destroy it. I concentrated on the stone in the choker around my neck. The small red stone flared to life. This time the silver and brimstone sword didn't appear.

A change swept over me. A red coat shimmered into existence tight around and it hung down below my knees. My pants changed to a soft dark material. They were dark but not black, the color was more like looking into an infinite deep darkness, the inside of my coat were the same color of nothingness. The leather boots on my feet shined as if freshly polished. Leather gloves cushioned my grip. The Forsaken's blade glimmered with a metallic red. Small red gyms appeared on Angel and Devils grips and they shined with the same red glow. A red shine seemed to rejuvenate my wings and a healthy shine over took them. I felt fantastic even the wounds that had been plaguing me for so long had healed and the bandages fell from my torso. I pushed a little harder and victor slid back.

The Roman numeral thirteen glistened on the right side of my chest just below my collarbone, I smiled. "I'm not even trying yet."

Victor grinned back his eyes glowing slightly. "Nor is he."

I began to ask the obvious question when Victor's living aura flared around him once more. "I see, it's not your power."

Victor's grin broadened. "Lucifer and I are one."

I stretched my wings out to each side. "Good, then I guess killing you will be extra credit!" I pushed Victor away and his aura flared out and hit me hard in the chest before I could attack the opening I had created.

I stumbled back taking a step down the first stair. Victor grinned and I disappeared.

"What the?" I slammed an elbow into the side of Victor's head answering his question.

He jerked violently to the right, his head bouncing off the side of his throne as he crumbled. Victor lay there in a heap, motionless for a moment. His aura was still flaring violently around him. Then suddenly the dark energy surged back into his body and his eyes snapped open. His pupils gave off a dark purple glow.

"So." I took a step to the side so that we were standing behind the throne now.

"You two are one now." The side of my mouth twitched in a half smile. "Two birds one sword I suppose."

Victor smiled at me like I was an insolent child. "I am his body on earth." Victor eyed me for a moment before continuing. "But you were his first choice Kashata.it would have really been perfect. Two fallen angels united as one.could have been.but the powers above have always been watching you so closely.they were more concerned with what you were doing than what he was doing. Beside you for some reason they found him insignificant."

Victor glared at me. "That really hurts the ego you know?"

I smiled. "Don't worry, this will hurt worse." I rushed forward bringing my sword across in a hard arch.

Victor ducked and my sword sliced threw his throne. He lunged forward with his weapon. I turned to the side and caught his metallic wrist in my left hand. He looked surprised for a moment but quickly threw his right fist at me. I palmed it and closed my hand over his. He strained against me with his entire body, his feet digging and cracking the marble floor. I stretched my wings directly above me. The open sky above seemed to turn its attention on us. Red lightning poured down onto my wings and spasm around me. Victor gave a violent jerk. I crushed Victor's metallic and real hand in my grip.

Blood sprayed from his right hand as his bones broke threw the skin, his metallic hand hung by a few wires and he stumbled back in pain. Victor's aura flared our around his right hand healing it slowly. His metallic arm fell to the ground and the small pink stub began to grow bones and muscle.

"Now we'll see." Victor laughed.

"Yea." I grinned and stuck my sword into the ground. "We'll see."

I drew Devil and Angel from their holsters and narrowed them on Victor, who was so beside himself with the joy of watching his wounds heal that he seemed to forget all about me. The small red stones embedded in the weapons began to glow and red electricity began to swirl around their barrels. I narrowed my eyes on Victor as the last bit of sanity left his face. I let rip with both guns. The first rounds exploded Victor's shoulders and left rib cage. Next to go was the right side of his chest. His right arm fell to the ground and his left hung by a small bit of tissue.

Now he looked up at me, his face still spread in an insane grin. I blew out his knees and he collapsed onto his back. I starred down at him and he was just smiling up at the stars, then he began to laugh.

"I'm going to live forever!" He shouted and laughed. "He promised me infinite power and immortality." His laughter slowly died down and he looked at me, then to my guns, and back to me.

"You're my best friend Kash. I waited for you in that whole, but you didn't come. I thought you would save me but you." He didn't smile. "He wouldn't lie would he?"

I shook my head. "Of course not Vic, you are immortal."

He smiled and I fired a round from each gun into his throat. His head rolled a foot or so, still grinning.

It seemed that all the shouting and gunfire, or maybe just Victor's death had caused Nagi to wake up. She was shouting something at me, but I couldn't hear her. A strange feeling was washing over me, it was cold and it seemed to numb me from head to toe. I picked up my sword and holstered my guns. I walked over to Victor's head and picked it up with my left hand. I walked around to the front of the throne as the entire group of legions surged into the room. They all starred up at me with their blank black faces.

I couldn't think, the feeling had me and I didn't have any control over what was happening. I held my arm straight up with my sword pointing up at the sky. My wings stretched out to their full extent. Lightning struck the tip of my sword and spiraled around me. I held Victor's head in my left hand at my side.

The legions dropped to one knee and bowed their heads low. My electricity continued to spiral around me as I took my seat on the throne. I dropped Victor's head to the floor and rest my head on my right hand.

Ch. 23

Exe wiped the blood from his face. The blood belonged to the priest and the large rebel. They'd put up a decent fight, better than the girl and assassin he'd met on the ground but he'd wasted enough time. If Exe were going to kill Victor he'd need to do it now while we weakened him. Exe stepped into the throne room and was greeted with a very unexpected sight. I was on the throne where Victor should be, and his legions were at my feet, just as his head was.

"Kashata?!"

I didn't bother to respond, I gave my left hand a light wave and the legion turned on the intruder. Energy surged up his weapon and dispatched the closest legion. His sword would cut half way down the legion then stop and the demon would disappear into the weapon it's self.

The legions and Exe battled while I set in my seat, bored despite myself. Shain barely alive gripped his Katana in his left hand, unable to lift his body. He looked from Exe to me and then to Nagi hanging from the wall screaming. He tightened his grip and threw the weapon before he lost the last bit of life still in his body. The blade bit threw the chains holding her captive and she dropped down. She hit the ground and sprinted forward toward me.

The electrical field grabbed her and flung her back against the wall she'd just escaped. "Damn it!" She cursed and flung herself back at me.

The electrical field surged against her but she held on the best she could. "Kashata!" She managed to scream before the field flung her away again.

"That's it!" She stomped her foot.

Nagi's hair hung over her eyes, which were now engulfed in a black shine. Black sweat beaded on her brow. Nagi rose to her feet. Black liquid poured from between Nagi's fingers and puddle on the floor, where small waves began to form on its surface. She slowly stretched her fingers out; allowing the water to run unrestricted from her fingertips. The nails on her fingers turned from pink and white to the darkest black. The black sweat on Nagi's brow ran up onto her scalp and there the black spread threw out her honey colored hair turning it dark as night.

"I will save you my love no matter what." She narrowed her dark gaze on me.

The dark water's surged out and encircled my electrical barrier. Waves rushed threw the liquid as it surged against my barrier in counter clockwise spiral. The darkness strained and bounced against my barrier rising slowly. By the time I even began to acknowledge what was happening the liquid was half way up my spherical barrier. I raised my head off my hand and slowly turned my gaze on the woman to my right. Our eyes met just as the dark water gave a powerful surge and completely engulfed my barrier.

Nagi kneeled down and concentrated on bringing the water together, she was trying to crush my barrier. Exe looked up from his battle to see what looked like a giant black ball made of water where the throne and I had been.

"What the f." Exe was brought back to the battle as the last of the legion's closed in on him.

The inside of the barrier glowed red with the electricity that held back the dark walls. I sat on my throne and examined my hands. Odd that I never look at them. The designs on the palms are actually quite interesting and my claws had a slight curve in them. Interesting.

Exe dispatched the last of his enemies and took a moment to assess the situation. He walked over to stand a pace or two from Nagi. In this state with all of her concentration on her element he could easily dispatch her, but then he'd have to deal with me, so who was more dangerous, the girl or me?

Exe decided that the best course of action was to let the drama between me and the girl play out then dispatch who ever was left. Besides the ball was getting smaller every second and soon the decision would be made for him. I looked up from my hands as the wall closed in against my face. The sensation was cool and stung all at the same time. The liquid surged in around my boots. I could feel the cold sting as if my feet were bare. The water rapped around my head and from my knees down I was caught. My wings were almost completely engulfed as well. I tried to raise my hands and they sunk into the liquid. It stung, it froze, and I didn't like it.

Nagi rose to her feet as the water completely wrapped it's self around me. I looked like one of the legion, smooth, shiny and dark. The water's clockwise swirl began to slow gradually and then for a while the water just seemed to vibrate.

"It can't be." Nagi placed her hands together and concentrated but it was no use, I was now in control.

The water began to take a more flat two-dimensional quality about it as the heat from my lightning evaporated the liquid leaving only pure darkness behind. Then it shrank down to the size of a marble and disappeared.

"What the hell?" Exe looked around. "Did you kill him?"

Nagi looked a bit startled as if she hadn't noticed Exe. "I.I don't know." Her shiny black eyes searched the room quickly before focusing on the sapphire heart in Exe's hand.

Her brow furrowed angrily. "This is all your fault!"

The dark water swirled around her feet violently. Exe took a step back and held the sapphire heart at the ready. The dark waters swirled upward coating Nagi's body.

"That won't save you!" Exe rushed forward and brought the sword down on Nagi's left shoulder.

The weapon passed straight threw her and out the other side. Exe followed the initial attack with several quick horizontal swipes. Nagi pulled back her right leg and the water on her shin flowed to the back of her legs so she could kick Exe with something solid.

Nagi's shin crushed into Exe's left kidney. He cringed and covered the area with his left hand. Nagi took the opportunity to smash another kick into the side of Exe's face. The force flung Exe threw the air toward the far wall. He righted himself in mid flight and trained his left index finger on Nagi. Exe let fly with a barrage of energy bolts that riddled Nagi's body.

The energy entered the dark water and exited directly where they hit, flying back toward Exe. "Shi" Exe held up the sapphire heart sideways to deflect his own attacks.

"This is ridiculous." Exe wiped the blood from his cheek where one of the energy bolts had managed to get by his defense and skim him.

"No one can have this much control over such a volatile element." Exe's energy flared around him and the sapphire heart grew wider and longer.

Nagi's dark face showed no emotion. The water grew flowing out on the floor around her.

The water climbed the wall behind Nagi and began to spread around the room. "This isn't possible." Exe gaped.

He thought hard for a moment, there had to be a way, but before he could figure it out, as the water closed in around him, he was saved. It must have been a miracle. The water was withdrawing; she had over exerted herself. The dark water flowed back into its host complete, leaving Nagi normal and exposed.

She took a nervous step back, and as Exe smiled and began to approach her she took another and another until she met the wall. Exe approached her with a cocky stride as she flattened herself against the cool concrete surface.

He was no more than a few feet from her. "Kashata." A tear ran down her cheek.

An evil gleam shown in Exe's eyes as the sapphire heart narrowed to a thin viscously jagged blade. "Kashata isn't going to save you pretty little girl. You killed him." He laughed and drew back the blade.

Exe leaned in so that his face was a mere couple of inches from Nagi's. "I'll make this quick, and run my blade threw that icy heart of yours.wench." Exe drove the sapphire heart forward with all his might.

The two fighters starred eye to eye for what seemed to be a long while. Then a small smile crept across Nagi's face. Blood trickled from the corner of Exe's mouth.

"But.how?" Exe took a step back and as he withdrew the blade from Nagi's chest it slid out of his.

Exe looked down at Nagi. There were two wholes in her shirt, one on the right and one on the left, one where the blade entered and the other where it exited. Nagi dipped her fingers in the wholes to grip the shirt and she tore it open. Underneath the clothes the dark water swirled around her torso. The sword had entered the void and was redirected just as Exe's energy had been.

Exe collapsed lifeless to the floor. The heart rolled from his grip. The blade was gone and the small stone remained. Nagi slowly walked over to the jewel and dropped to her knees. Tears ran from her eyes and dripped onto the heart.

I watched the seen from the void I'd created for myself. I was drifting in darkness just above the floating castle. There was a voice in my head, it whispered to me. It told me to rule, to cast away all emotion and be the king I was meant to be. That all sounded well and good, but cast away emotion? What was that suppose to mean? This seen before me should mean nothing; I need to be worrying about the moon. The moon? I turned to see the giant sanguine moon had grown substantially and was beginning to break apart. There was a large X shaped crack across its center. The wind was kicking up and the floating castle seemed to be tilting slowly.

"What is this?" I asked aloud.

"The end." The voice answered from somewhere close outside my body. "You've put in motion the destruction of the world."

I smiled, I had done as Shain instructed and fulfilled the prophecy. "But you can still save it." The voice continued.

"It doesn't have to be this way. You can have the power to save the world and I can help you."

I thought for a moment. "Nah, screw the world."

"WHAT?! You are a hero, you must save this world and the only way you can save the moon and return things to how they should be is with my help. Now we must be quick." The darkness opened up around me and I was falling toward the floating castle.

"Now use your wings, fly up high so that we can stop the moon from being drawn into the atmosphere." The voice instructed.

I drew my wings back into my body and yawned. "What are you doing? You don't need to waist your energy flying when you have wings! Now take out your wings."

I smiled as the marble floor rushed up to meet me. "DO AS I SAY OR EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET WILL PERISH!" The voice screamed in my head, all around me.

The marble exploded around my body. I lay there bleeding from a large number of lacerations all over me from the marble. I rolled over onto my back and watched the moon slowly grow larger and the crack spread until the moon it's self was in multiple large sections. A dark aura rose from my body large and pulsing. It gathered it's highest point on my chest.

"Get up!" The aura raged over me. "We will all be destroyed and you're just going to lay there?"

I smiled as a bit of blood pooled in my right eye from a cut on my forehead. "Relax, it's only the end of the world."

The aura gave a cry of frustration before tearing loose of my body and fizzling into nothingness before me. "No host, no help, no future." I laughed.

"Kashata!" Nagi rushed to my side.

I reached a hand out and ran it threw her hair. "Hey."

"Hey." She sobbed.

I grinned at her open shirt. "Nice cleavage."

We sat there for a moment as large bits of the moon began to rain down on earth. We could hear explosions from all around and the castle it's self was dropping fairly quickly now.

"Well it seems that I've made a mess of things." I groaned as I climbed to my feet.

"So I guess we should go to a time that you haven't completely screwed up yet." Nagi grinned.

"Yea good luck finding that." I laughed as I picked up the sapphire heart.

"Do you know how to use that thing?" Nagi crossed her arms.

I shrugged. "What's to know?" I squeezed the gym and it burst into energy.

I slashed downward threw the air with all my might.nothing. "Huh."

We thought for a moment. I tried to remember what Exe had done just before opening the time rift. Right he said what time he was going to.

"Ok here we go." I raised the weapon above my head. "To year 2013!" I brought the blade down opening a rift in time.

"See no sweat." I smiled.

"You got lucky." Nagi pushed me playfully. "Now let's get out of here before the world goes completely to pieces and don't forget your sword."

"Right." I grabbed my weapon and waited for Nagi to jump threw the rift.

Nagi gave me a kiss and leapt threw the tear. I gave one last look at the moon burning up in the atmosphere and the huge meteors raining down from it. Well hope I never see that again. I thought as I leapt threw the time rift.

Ch. 24

In front of me there was a small sign that read "Turn back now, you've reached the Edge of the World, here there be Monsters."

My body gave a violent shudder as my hair turned red, my eyes turned yellow, and large black wings shot out from my back. The Forsaken shimmered into existence in my grip.

"What the?" Ren leapt a few feet back and Beam screamed.

"It worked." I looked around and down at my clawed hands, and Ren and Beam. "I'm Back!"

I grinned broadly and took a few quick strides to hug my brother.

"Kash? What." Ren slammed an open palm into my chest as I approached.

The wind escaped me for a sec as I stumbled back. "What the?" I looked down at my self. My body had changed, as had my clothes. My pants were torn and I was covered in odd markings and riddled with cuts. yea I'd of hit me to considering the circumstances.

"Look don't worry about it." I laughed again. "I'll explain later, let's go find Nagi."

Nagi was back in her body as well. She looked threw the bottom drawers of her desk for a new shirt. Most of her clothes would be in her bedroom but she kept a few different things in the office for last minute changes. She found a dark burgundy tank top and slipped it over her head.

"Lets see." Nagi looked out of the large window at the ground's below then at the clock on the wall. "They should be here soon."

I led the way down the cobble stone path threw the thick forest toward the school. Ren and Beam whispered behind me. I distinctly heard the words "Wing" and "Beat to hell." We finally made it to the long cement wall that encircled the school. The stone path led to the large gated entrance. There were three men standing at the top of the wall and two standing on the path in front of the gate and they all looked fairly alarmed at my arrival.

The two men on the ground armed with their Bullet Edges leveled them at my chest. The men up top were armed with your standard high-powered rifles and they hadn't missed a beat with the guys below.

"Who goes there?" The man on the ground to my right questioned.

I couldn't help but laugh a bit. "It's just me, professor Kusanagi."

They looked at each other and eyed me carefully. Ren stepped around me. "I'm pretty sure he's telling the truth."

Ren shrugged and motioned for them to open the gates. The men reluctantly obeyed the order and the large gate slowly swung inward allowing us passage. Inside there was the large collage. I ran past the students that were lounging under a few shade trees and leapt over the decorative fountain.

"Clean up those leaves." I laughed and shouted to Spring who was making a tree go threw fall to my left.

I quickly ran to meet Nagi with Ren and Beam close on my heels. I burst threw the doors to Nagi's office. She was there behind her desk almost looking nonchalant. She drummed her fingers impatiently and seemed to be obsessively cleaning a pair of Gucci glasses. She hopped out of her seat and ran around the desk to meet me. I lifted her off the ground in a tight hug and spun around.

"You did!" She laughed. "You got us back." She kissed me for a quick sec then we both just stood there smiling a bit longer.

"Not to interrupt.but what the hell?" Ren looked completely lost and a bit uneasy.

Nagi and I laughed. "It doesn't seem that anyone else remembers anything does it?" Nagi asked.

I shook my head. "No I suppose not, when we came back our bodies and clothing changed to what it was in the future. I suppose that's why we can remember. They didn't come back so there's no part of them that's been there. then. what ever."

"Can you guys explain this please?" Ren pleaded.

For the next hour or so Nagi and I explained all that had happened in the future. Do to the fact that we'd been separated most the time it made for quite an entertaining hour.

"Oh right." Nagi took two envelopes from her desk. "Beam I need you to do something for me."

Beam stood up nervously, this had been one hell of an introduction to the way we live. "What is it Mrs. Nagi?"

"Take these two envelopes and find Spring, have her show you to the coliseum. There you will find two people waiting for an exam. Give them these envelopes and tell them that they pass." Nagi handed the papers to Beam and hustled her out the door.

On the other side of the door Zion stood with his hand in a prone knocking position. "Oh, Nagi, I was just coming to find Kash. I'm here to."

"I know what you're here for and I should punch you in the mouth." Nagi shoved Beam the rest of the way out the door and pulled Zion inside.

Zion looked a bit startled at his greeting and the sight of me didn't much help. "K-Kash?" he stuttered.

"Well well look what the cat drug in." I grinned. "Bringing me a mission are you?"

"Th-that's right Kash." Zion laid a folder on the table.

"Good." I fished the sapphire out of my pant pocket and laid it on the table.

Zion had a very shocked look on his face. He flipped open the folder and fished out a picture of the stone lying before him.

"How did you?" Zion looked from the picture to the stone then back again a few times before stopping to gawk at me.

I leaned forward and looked into his eye very seriously. "Do you not know the truth?"

"The.the truth?"

"That's right." I let the tension hang in the air for a moment. "I am." I looked from face to face and back to Zion. "Bad ass." I grinned broadly.

He hesitated a moment before regaining his composure. "So.I suppose I can take this to my employer and get you your money aye Kash?" Zion reached for the stone.

I pressed angel against the end of Zion's nose. "I don't think so."

Zion froze, Ren stood slowly. "What are you doing Kash?" Ren questioned.

"No one is touching this stone." I narrowed my eyes on Zion who leaned back slowly away from me and sat down in his chair. "Now." I put my weapon back in its holster.

"We need to figure out what to do with the heart." Nagi finished for me.

"Well trading it in for loads of money sounds good to me." Ren grinned and Zion nodded in agreement.

"Do you wanna die.again?" I glared at him and his smile faded.

"I died in a war right?" Ren questioned.

I hadn't been real specific with how he and Raze had died. Just that it was in a war. I nodded.

"And did this heart cause the war?" He continued.

"No it didn't." I said.

He opened his mouth to continue. "And were not giving the heart up so drop it."

He closed his mouth and sat back down. I turned to Nagi.

"Let's put this some where safe." I told her.

"Like in an active volcano?" She smiled and cocked her head to the side.

I laughed. "Maybe later, but for now just lock it up in the mansion." I handed the heart over to Nagi. "I'll be back, I have to. check on a friend."

Nagi starred at me for a moment before kissing me on the cheek and telling me to be careful and return soon. I turned away from the scene and opened a hole of darkness at my feet and leapt threw.

I landed with a soft thud at the entrance to the underground waterway. The inside of the cave was dark and wet. Rats and other unsavory creatures crawled and slithered about. The walls were close in around me and the ceiling scraped on my head occasionally as I made my way deeper into the earth. It was bit of a trek to the back of the cave where the path abruptly ended in a huge opening. The ceiling was a few dozen feet above me. Long stalactites hung their, water slowly dripped from their peaks. On the far side of the cave there was another hole, where a waterfall was rushing down ward to the large pool below.

Directly beneath me there was another whole where the water was draining out. The pool was about twice as far down as the ceiling was up. It wouldn't be a distance that I would like to fall; it was a distance Victor had fallen. I hopped off the edge and glided downward slowly landing on the small beach that was along side the pool. There huddled in the corner was a sad excuse for what had ounce been my best friend. He was skinny and weak. His hair was matted on his head with dried blood and he seemed to tremble uncontrollably.

"Victor?" I questioned the creature.

Victor raised his sunken eyes to meet me. "K-Kashata?" He crawled forward a few paces. "Is that you?"

"It's me old friend. How are you?" I rested my hand on Devils grip.

"I.I was weak." Victor rose to his feet with what seemed to be a lot of effort.

His knees shook as if they would break at any moment. "But I'm getting stronger." Victor's legs regained their stability and a faint dark aura shimmered close around him.

I drew my weapon and held it at my side. "I see.that's to bad."

Victor took a step back. "What are you doing? I thought you were here to help me?"

I leveled my weapon at his face. "I am old friend. I'm going to save you now."

Victor's lip trembled. "N-no.you're here to damn me Kashata,." he whimpered.

"Whether you are damned or saved is between you and god. I'm just here to arrange the meeting."

Victor took a step back and fell onto his haunches. He pushed himself as far away as he could. "Wait. Why? I haven't done anything wrong."

I cocked my weapon. "No you haven't.but it's just a matter of time."

BANG!

FIN.