A/N: Well, I tried to get this up yesterday, but it just wasn't to my liking, so I spent a couple of hours today revising and fixing some stuff in it, so I do hope that you'll enjoy it. It's a bit short, but there's lots of action.

Disclaimer: Disney owns Newsies, I do not.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: A Fight for Life

"Shit..."

"What is it, Spottie?" Griff taunted, "Not happy to see me?"

"Not particularly, Griff," Spot growled, glaring at the boys that had surrounded him. Half of them had been his old boys, friends he'd had since early childhood, but it was obvious they'd turned on him. They belonged to Trigger now.

"Well, let's get this over with, shall we?" Griff asked, though, it was almost more of a statement.

"I suppose. You never were polite enough to just stand around and talk, were you?" Spot retorted, goading him. "Always had to just get right into being physical. Maybe that's why all the girls hated you."

He ducked as Griff swung, ramming his fist into the nearest bit of the Bronx leader that he could reach. He made contact with Griff's stomach, and a smirk crossed his face at the satisfying "mph!" that followed. In an instant, fists were flying from all directions, but only a few hit.

Spot ignored the pain in his upper arm, and used his shoulder to drive Griff to the ground. Before Griff could even realize he'd fallen, Spot was already tearing into the next nearest guy, fists flying just for the love of the fight. Spot was out-numbered, though, and he had the first sensation of fear as one boy grabbed his left upper-arm, shooting blinding pain through his body. In that instant, the boy pinned both of Spot's arms, and another came in with a sharp jab to Spot's nose. He tasted blood as a second punch rammed into his chest.

He braced himself for another blow, but one never came. A small hand had shot out and grabbed the fist mid-swing, forcing it back into its owner's face. He didn't need to see the face of his rescuer to know who that small hand belonged to, and that knowledge gave him renewed strength to throw off the boy holding him and jump back into the fight. His little sister was already long-gone, fists flying into any piece of flesh they could hit, but Spot was elated just to know that she was fighting on his side again.

His happiness didn't last long, however, as more of Trigger's kids poured into the square. Spot recognized Skater, and the traitor Spunk in the midst of the new-coming fighter, and growled, his mind fully on their betrayal, forgetting about the fight for a moment. Spunk had turned long before Spot's supposed death, but there had always been rumors that she'd been forced. Skater, on the other hand, had been one of his right up until; the end. She may not have been his favorite, but at least she had always been loyal until now.

His mind didn't get to linger on betrayals long though, as a fist skimmed the edge of his ear, slamming right into the face of Griff behind him.

"Get your head in the fight, damnit!" Ivy yelled at him, but Spot noticed a slight smile playing across her face.

"Good to see you too, Ivy," he laughed, smirking at her.

"Would you two shut your mouths and fight?" an irritated voice yelled their way, and Spot vaguely recognized the speaker as Bittah, a Chicago girl who'd shown up right before all the trouble had started. He'd have to remember to thank her for being so loyal later, if they survived.

Survival didn't seem very likely at the moment though. They were becoming more and more out-numbered as more of Trigger's kids poured into the fight. It was clear that Trigger had expected something to happen, because it seemed as though all of his fighters were in Brooklyn, and it was only Bittah, Criss-Cross, Ivy, and Spot himself fighting against them, and they were slowly but surely losing ground.

Spot's fears became more realistic as he suddenly felt solid wall behind his back. He'd been backed up all the way to the other side of the street, and he could no longer see Bittah and Ivy. They'd all been separated by the fighting and forced in different directions. A small outcry from the other side of the street tore at his heartstrings as he dodged a punch, causing Bullet's fist to slam into the brick.

Shoving the injured boy away from him, Spot started for the other side of the street, trying to get to Criss-Cross. He'd let his sister get hurt too many times for him already, and he wasn't about to let her die defending him.

Out of Spot's sight, Criss-Cross was pinned to the ground, her world reeling from where her head smacked the ground when Alibi had tripped her. He had never liked her, and she had never given him reason to. She'd always taken all the glory from him, but now he was about to take it back by being the one to kill her. He didn't feel the need to rush the process either; the others could handle Spot, Bittah, and Ivy. He had a personal vendetta to accomplish.

"You always were a little bitch, Criss-Cross," Alibi sneered venomously, tightening his grip on her to a bruising level as she struggled to get away. "And now I get to be the one to fix it."

"Go to hell!" she spat, wriggling to get free. It was no use, though; his weight was just too much for her to throw off. Not that getting free would have helped her much. She was still seeing double of him, and wasn't sure which one to punch anyway.

"Be quiet!" he shrieked angrily. "You always have to have some kind of say don't you? With Spot you always had a say. With Ad you always had a--"

"That was four years ago!" Criss-Cross snarled, exasperated, her vision slowly returning to normal.

"What does that matter to me? You always took the glory and got the attention. You--"

"Jealous?" she retorted, hitting the nail right on the head, but his reaction was much more violent that what Criss-Cross had hoped for.

"II am not jealous!" he roared, drawing a knife at lightning speed. Criss-Cross flinched and shut her eyes as the knife flashed towards her throat. Maybe she was bold in the face of death, but in the moment of her death, she was terrified and couldn't look.

But only a thud came from somewhere above her. There was no metallic ring of the knife striking the hard ground, and there certainly wasn't the cold, biting sting of metal at her throat. When she opened her eyes, a familiar face was hovering above hers.

"I knew you could never betray me," Criss-Cross said, grinning at Advantage as he held out a large hand to help her up.

"So am I forgiven?" he asked jokingly.

"Of course," Criss-Cross responded, slamming her fist into the nose of one of Griff's boys once she was back on her feet.

She headed off into the fight without another word, disappearing into the crowd right as Spot finally punched his way to where she'd been, but instead he found Advantage elbowing Alibi in the face as he stood up, blood streaming from his nose.

Instead of saying anything, Spot just gave him a rare, friendly approving smile, and tuned to pound the nearest opponent that he could. Trying to come up with a plan to get them all out of the mess alright, and, for the very first time in his life, he found himself truly praying that they would all be alright.

On the opposite side of the square, however, things weren't going nearly as well for Bittah and Ivy, who were fighting side-by-side, despite being complete strangers to one another. It felt to the two of them as though there were two more people to fight for every one that they knocked down, and both of them were bleeding and bruised.

Ivy had a gash across her forehead, and had to keep wiping the blood away before it got to her eyes. The shoulder of Bittah's shirt was ripped, and blood was flowing out of the wound, staining the material a deep red. The knuckles on both of their hands were bruised and bleeding from all the fighting, but both girls were determined to fight on.

As Bittah brought her knee into Tyrant's groin, she realized the irony of it. She'd fought side-by-side with these kids for nearly a month, some of them longer than that, and in the change of less than a day, here she was fighting against them. Who would ever have figured that she'd end up like this?

She'd always fought for the power, because she'd been taught that it was the smart thing, but now she was fighting against the power, just because her heart said it was right.

Since when have I ever listened to my heart, Bittah thought, I've got to be the biggest idiot in all of New York for fighting on this side, but I'm still doing it.

Bittah pulled back her arm as the face of her newest adversary swam into view, but her swing went wide as the person in front of her exclaimed, "Bittah?!"

'What the..."

"Bittah...No..." Spunk pleaded. "No. You can't be on their side. Why would you even consider being on their side. Trigger'll kill you!"

"So what if he does," Bittah snapped, though she was still asking herself the same question. "At least I'll die fighting for what I care about. Now get out of the way kid."

"Bittah, you can't--"

Sighing, Bittah shoved the girl out of the way as she decked the next person to come at her. "Sorry kid..." she muttered, turning to elbow Bullet in the stomach. She had to get that brief conversation out of her head, and violence was her way to do it. She'd already been having doubts about which side to be on, and Spunk had given her more second thoughts. Would it just be better to start fighting for Trigger's side? But could she betray Criss-Cross like that?

Her violent streak was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder, and that same voice that had made her turn in the first place, urgently saying in her ear, "Bittah, we gotta get outta here. We're too out-numbered. There's no way we can win."

Bittah nodded in agreement, and struck a Bronx boy in the face as she turned to see the worried expression on Criss-Cross's face. The girl had been through so much in the last few days, that even though she tried to stay tough, her exhaustion and worry were written in the droop of her shoulders, and the way she chewed the edge of her lip. She gave Bittah a rough half-smile, and turned towards the closest alley, and their nearest escape.

As she turned around, Bittah wondered how she could ever have considered turning back to Trigger's side. She had to help this desperate, lonely girl achieve anything and everything. She didn't even know why, but she knew she just had to do it. Maybe it was because she saw something of herself, the younger self she'd been once, in Criss-Cross. For a peaceful second, her mind and heart actually agreed with each other that she was doing the right thing.

But that instant was ripped away as she turned to follow Criss-Cross, and instead of seeing the younger girl heading up the alley, saw Trigger Jones sauntering down it, right towards Criss-Cross, and the rest of the battle. It was clear that in the cynical leader's mind, this would be the end of any opposition, and he had come to oversee his finally victory, like a King who goes to watch the winning battle in his most important war. There would be no getting out alive for Bittah and her new-found friends.

A/N: Well, was it worth the very short wait? And was the action as you'd hoped it would be? Anyway, I won't waste your time, so here's the Shout Outs:

Shout Outs:

Bittah: Ahh…Finally, lots of action. You've gotta admit, it's nice. Though, somehow I feel that Bittah should have gotten to royally pound someone in this chapter. I feel like I almost made her a little too soft…Maybe she'll pound the hell out of someone in the next chapter, to make up for this one. And I hope you realize that I only forced myself to update the last chapter because I felt horribly guilty that you'd updated and I hadn't…I just wish that I could make you feel guilty…

Gip: You got more! lol I hope I didn't make your character too harsh in the last chapter, you'll have to tell me if I'm anywhere near how she's supposed to be. See, I kinda lost all of the responses to my CC when my comp crashed sometime during my very long writer's block, so I just kinda have to go off of what I wrote in previous chapters.

Diamond: Of course you get your own shout out. All of my reviewers do. Feels nice to get it though, doesn't it? I'm glad you were happy to see I'd updated, and I hope you were even more elated to see I'd updated again this time, and so soon as well! I hope you'll be able to wait a bit longer still towards the next chappie, cuz I have no clue when it'll be coming. Anyway, I'm gonna have to check out some of your fanfics pretty soon. Or else I'll just feel guilty…

Midnight: Well, it had been a while since I updated, but at least this update came fast. I think this was actually 2 chappies in 1 week. Wow, brings me back to when I first started writing this. I would write one chapter, and then a few hours (or, occasionally a day or two) later, bam, next chapter's finished! It was nice, actually. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. And, well, you'll just have to keep reading to see if the Conlons die. Anyway, hope to see your review soon!

As always, to every, PLEASE review. Don't make me sick Spot on you!

Criss-Cross