Alright, let's do this! Thanks again for reading^^

Lucius's monster form was at least three times our size, the sword he held loosely at his side.

We all silently trained our gaze on him as he ominously stood there. "I hit him high you hit him low, fast and hard." I said quickly.

I flew up and headed toward Lucius, Mizore hung onto my leg with her hand but I hardly noticed the extra weight. Zayt sprinted towards him underneath me, but I didn't see Aeon.

I kept my wings steady as I drew closer, emptying my clip into his shoulders. But with each shot I heard a simple 'plunk' and he didn't even a flinch.

Before Zayt could get close enough to strike, Lucius raised up his sword. Zayt stopped in his tracks and held up his own sword to receive the strike.

Why doesn't he dodge? With mass like that behind a sword that big, Zayt'll get knocked off his feet. I thought. But as the sword came down, Zayt didn't budge. He held fast to his blade and blocked the swipe, with what appeared to be an enormous effort.

As the two of them crossed blades I could actually see Zayt's monster energy intensify. The force that his body was enduring had to be incredible, given that the concrete under his feel cracked with each block. I didn't know what his sword was made of but it had to be something very strong.

"Get me in close." Mizore called up to me. I nodded, dropping my now empty pistol and flew quickly toward Lucius.

As he locked swords again with Zayt, he saw us and pointed with his free hand. An enormous vine rose from the ground and came straight at us. It bended like a snake, blocking my way. It split up and snaked around my airspace, moving in closer.

I knew we'd be encased if I didn't do something. Then, in a voice that wasn't quite my own I said "Out of my... way!" as I tore through the vines with an incredible speed boost.

My heart pounded even harder and my hands suddenly felt a lot heavier. Wondering if they were caught on anything I looked down.

What I saw made me stop in midair, my upper arms looked pitch-black, as though they were cased in volcanic glass. I could move my hands and fingers normally, the tips of which were pointed.

"What's happening to me?" I said aloud.

"For one thing, you're distracted." said Lucius. Another huge vine came up and swatted me down into a parked car, I think the impact made me lose consciousness for a minute.

Zayt was still barely holding his own. "You show much talent with a blade, as well as skill in directing your monster energy." Lucius remarked. "Fairy Tale could use someone like you. You'll have all the power you could ever want, and Lord Xandlr is more than generous to his allies." he added.

Zayt stopped and caught Lucius's sword with his hand. The ice armor around his palm cracked under the blade, making a small drop of blood roll down his arm. "You think you can pander to me!?" he said menacingly. "There's only one person I fight for. So shut the f*** up!" Zayt said, slashing sideways across Lucius's wooden gut. The blow had left a good cut, but Lucius wasn't fazed by it in any way. He retaliated with a headbutt, making Zayt stumble back and commence bleeding from his forehead.

Aeon was watching his friends battle Lucius nearby, looking for a weakness to exploit. From what he could tell, Lucius wooden skin seem to swell slightly around the spots where he's about to be struck; this absorbed individual blows but left other areas weaker. "That's why he's been avoiding a fight with more than one person at a time." Aeon thought aloud, clutching his Rosario knife. "So if I can hit him from every angle, his armor will weaken considerably." he finished, dashing at top speed toward the fight.

"Zayt! Back up!" he called to Zayt.

"I don't need any back-up!" yelled Zayt.

"No!" Aeon said, leaping high into the air above them. "Back up! Unless you want to be cut into little pieces!" he said, eyes glowing bright red as his knife's cable formed circles in mid-air.

Zayt got the hint and jumped back. I awoke in time to see what followed.

Aeon shouted "Petal Dance!" and his knife came down at super speed, spiraling around Lucius like a hurricane.

Lucius said "Hurrrrrgh!" as his whole body shook from hundreds of consecutive strikes all over from the knife, which was a blur along with the cable.

Aeon clapped his hands together as he came down and said "Petal Drain!" Suddenly all the cuts that his knife had made glowed red, and shot up winding red beams of light into the red jewel on his knife.

Lucius fell to one knee as Aeon landed in front of him. Aeon stuck out his arm and caught the knife blade-down without looking up, his eyes and the jewel still burning red.

No matter how you slice it, that guy's got skill. I thought. Lucius was looking pretty worse for wear, deep cracks had formed in his wood and pieces were falling off.

Lucius looked at him with disdain and said "What the hell did you do to me you punk?" as he was struggling to lift his sword arm. "I figured your armor out, it can only protect you against strong blows on one concentrated spot at a time. But my guess is that it's actually not strong at all, you simply use your monster energy to increase the mass of the wood upon impact. What my Rosario does is that with each strike it drains the target's monster energy and adds it to my own. With every cut out of the hundreds I whittled away at your power, leaving just enough to keep you alive. Now you're no better than a pile of rotting bark." said Aeon.

Though he was in a decayed strait, Lucius cracked a smile and chuckled. "Something funny? This fight is over, you're done." said Aeon in a serious tone.

"You think I'm beat? You ain't seen nothing yet." Lucius said, slowly positioning his the hilt of his sword up. "That's a holy lock!" exclaimed Aeon, eyes widened.

I don't want to use this, but if I fail... Xandlr will... Lucius thought, thinking of that which he treasured."Release!" he said, as a black aura engulfed the hilt of his sword.

The wind picked up again. The wood of his sword arm showed a pattern of dark cracks that grew darker and more defined as they slowly spread over his shoulder and onto the left side of his face. Even from where I was I could feel the intensity of his new state.

The aura appeared to revitalize him, his wounds were closing and his strength was coming back. He lifted the sword above his head and swung down, creating a huge dark rift that blasted Aeon against a brick wall. He fell with a thud to the ground, leaving a cracked impression on the building.

When Zayt turned back to Lucius, he was less than an arm's length away. His vicious sword movements showed an increase in ferocity, and Zayt struggled to keep up.

When I hit the car my wings absorbed most of the impact, so my back was fine. However, my leg was numb, my right arm was bleeding, and my neck was killing me.

I gingerly looked around and said "You alright Mizore?" My eyes widened when I saw her. She must've hit the ground hard, since she was covered in scrapes, her nose was bleeding, and she was barely moving.

Seeing her being hurt like that made me angry, angrier than I've been in a long time. Here was the girl I loved, the one who accepted me, beaten. "Raaaaaaah!" I vented, feeling a surge of my own monster energy. My wings and hair turned from white to black, and I assumed my eyes had also turned red.

My next thought was, I want to hurt him, hurt him so bad that pisses blood!

Flying higher and higher I drew back a tight fist of black marble. After a brief pause, I shot toward Lucius like a rocket. I was so angry that I almost blacked out.

I used a speed boost combined with my accelerated momentum to ensure that this punch would do maximum damage. As I flew faster the black coating of my fist became rounded. It layered over itself, making my arm grow larger. Within a few seconds it actually resembled a torpedo, brimming with the malice of my intent.

Seeing me come in fast, Zayt used a surge of strength knock back his opponent's sword with such force that Lucius stumbled. This allowed him enough time to jump out the way.

He managed to send a giant spiked vine my way but it didn't even slow me down. He expressed a look of total disbelief as my fist impacted with the force of a missile. The sound of it echoed down the street as my fist connected with what I assumed was his collar bone.

My hit had completely toppled him and he wasn't moving. His body then began to shrink back to it's human form. Both Zayt and I were battered and out of breath. "Is it over?" he asked.

I stood there over Lucius breathing heavily. A huge crater was left in his wooden chest, therein was a small pool of dark green liquid, which I presumed to be his blood. I looked at my arm covered in the same blood, as is it changed back to normal. The amount of power I just exerted was incredible, and I wasn't even sure how I did it.

I heard the screech of another RPG so I quickly grabbed Zayt's arm and flew off, just in time for the rocket to zoom right past my hip and detonate inside an alley. A few seconds later I had to land in that alley to avoid a stream of machine gun fire.

When the bullets stopped coming, I waited and listened. Until I heard a girl's voice, "Hello~!" someone said in a little girl's voice. "Are you back there? You should probably come out before I shoot this lady in the head~!" they said.

We peered around the corner to see a very unnerving sight. It was a young girl, who couldn't have been older than ten. She had short silver hair, amber eyes, a bullet-proof vest over a green shirt, skirt, fingerless gloves, and an assault rifle on her back. She calm, almost happy look on her face and was pressing a handgun to Mizore's cheek.

"No!" Zayt and I said together. We came out at the same time and she pointed her gun at us.

"Not another step." she said, smiling. Now that I had a better look at her, I could see that she was not a doll.

I briefly wondered why I wasn't freezing up like last time. But I remembered that those children's eyes back at the library were cold and unfeeling, the eyes of this girl were psychotic and full of pain. "Alright, calm down. What's your name?" I asked as calmly as I could.

She then shot Zayt in the chest, making him fall to the ground. "I'm Naudia." she said. "Naudia stop! What do you want?" I said.

Naudia took aim and shot me in the leg, the bursting pain brought me to my knees. "Hmm... What do I want?" she said, closing her eyes and resting the barrel of the gun on her temple.

Then she opened her eyes and said "Oh, I know! I want you all to die." she said happily, taking aim at my head. Her voice didn't shake, their was no wrinkle of distress on her face, but I could swear that I saw a tear roll her cheek.

Meanwhile a cloaked figure stood watching from the rooftops, having witnessed the whole fray. He had a crow on his shoulder that he appeared to be talking to. "Situation report: The subject is advancing much faster than anticipated. Signal scrambler is operating at full capacity. Minor injuries to the subject sustained, regenerable. Operative Lucius is incapacitated and operative Naudia is unstable, requesting orders.

Back on the street Naudia was staring me down. My leg was bleeding and Zayt was sprawled on the ground, gripping his chest. "Just... put the gun down, I don't want anyone to get hurt." I said, scared for what might happen to one of them.

She fired the gun right at my head, but somehow my wing deflected the bullet. It had moved on its own, like it was trying to protect me. The thought was strange but I couldn't focus on that right now.

Before Naudia could fire again, she heard Lucius cough. She dropped Mizore and her gun to run over to him. I took the opportunity ran over to Mizore and lifted her head, her face had a few cuts and parts of her ice hair were cracked. It looked like Naudia had hit her while she was down.

She was hurt but breathing, which made me sigh in relief. Looking over at Zayt, I saw that his shirt was covered in blood and he was struggling to get on his feet. "I don't think you should move until a doctor sees you." I said, still sitting with Mizore.

"Shut up, I've had worse." he said, wincing at the pain.

Lucius coughed up some more blood. "Try not to move, you'll be okay." Naudia said determinedly, losing her sing-song voice.

"He shouldn't have broken that seal. It may have given him a power boost, but it made him ignore his weakened state." said Aeon, now limping to where we were and clutching his side.

"Aeon! You're alright." I said.

"I'm surprised he's still alive, never mind conscious. He's one tough bastard." Aeon finished, apparently ignoring me.

"Hey, brat with the wings..." Lucius said weakly. "What?" I said angrily. "Aren't you gonna *sputter* finish the job?" he said. My eyes widened, those of us that were conscious were at a loss for words.

"What kinda effed up question is that?" I asked. Lucius was still bleeding profusely and struggling to breath.

"Come on, I know all about you. You're whole *cough* deal is that you kill those who ruin the lives of others. Just look around, I probably killed a passerby or two in the commotion alone." he said.

I thought about it. Just how different was this from the party? Going over my internal checklist I didn't any reason why I wouldn't just end him. Was he dangerous? Yes, much more dangerous than normal. Was he hostile? Yes. Did he go out of is way to endanger the people around him? Yes.

Lucius continued "Even if you don't, I've still failed Lord Xandlr and he is not one who tolerates failure. Whether I die here on the pavement, or later at his hands I'm still a dead man."

"Damn it, don't you have any will?" I asked, getting up to my feet. "Sonny, I've killed more people in my life than you could stomach to count. And in all that time I've never felt any remorse for what I did. My only 'will' is that I might finally get some peace and quiet." he said. I looked over at Naudia who was still in shock at hearing Lucius's words.

Neither Zayt nor Aeon said anything as I walked over and picked up Naudia's gun. I approached Lucius and aimed at his head with my finger on the trigger. I really did want to kill him. After all he and his partner had done, everything I knew told me that he deserved retribution. But there was still something, something pulling me back.

Just then Naudia began to chuckle. Quietly at first, but then it grew into a manic laugh. "Naudia..." Lucius said quietly.

She turned to face me, and half her face was covered in large black cracks. It was very creepy, but what she said next was downright disturbing.

It came in a distorted voice like something out of a horror movie. "Crossed blades over oceans of ice and fire. Countless die and kingdoms crumble. One dark prince to etch the world anew. So sayeth the prophet of Atlas!"

On the last word she dashed low to the ground towards me, a hunting knife in each hand. She still grinned manically as she slashed my hand, making me drop the gun. I was totally taken by surprise, eyes moving from my bleeding hand to a slow motion Naudia moving for another strike.

I snapped out of it and grabbed her forearms. "Stop! It's over!" I yelled.

She glared at me as something even stranger happened. Naudia's features changed, she grew taller and more muscular. Her hair grew slightly and turned dark blue with silver streaks. Her face became more masculine and her eyes turned red. Before I knew it, I was grappled with the spitting image of Zayt.

"What?" I said, just as he headbutt me. I stumbled back a few feet before taking a cut across temple from the knife that was in his hand. As I recovered my balance my head trying to was process what just happened. Okay, I was definitely holding Naudia a moment ago. But... then she became Zayt? No, it's got to be an illusion of some kind.

Just as she was coming in for another attack, the real Zayt grabbed her. He then hurled Naudia ten feet away, making his double hit the sidewalk and land upright on her knees.

She was still for a time. Then Naudia jumped to her feet and changed shape again, this time to Aeon.

After a near-instantaneous dash to between Zayt and I. She let loose a furious blur of swipes at the two of us. We were already exhausted, so we couldn't accurately stop all of her blows. And they were so numerous and so fast that couldn't get an opening to restrain her.

I could tell that she was switching up her fighting style, if you could call it that. Finally the real Aeon tackled her and pinned her shoulders.

"Stop it, you're just lashing out! These attacks serve no purpose!" he said to her. She was quiet for a few seconds before cracking a wide grin and changing form again.

Her next form had caught us all off-guard, it was Mizore. Those same eyes, that same hair, even down to the sucker in her mouth. Aeon didn't know what to say or do, but before he could decide Naudia had stabbed him in the gut. She smirked as the blood dripped down her knife and she pushed a now limp Aeon off of her.

After jumping to her feet, she roundhouse kicked Zayt who didn't even block. He fell over with a big thud and appeared to be thoroughly spent.

Naudia readied her new ice claws and set about furiously swiping and punching at me. I did my best to avoid or block them, but it was so hard to focus when the one you love is the one you're fighting.

I knew that it really wasn't Mizore because she was still on the ground, but somewhere in the back of my head it was her image that I treasured so much. Realizing that I really wouldn't attack, Naudia took both of her hands and wrapped them around my neck. I fell on my back, I could tell my body was wearing out on me. And as she squeezed tighter and tighter I knew that I could never bring myself to hurt her, in any form.

Out of nowhere a pale fist came in and socked the Mizore holding me. The force of the punch knocked her across the ground and she crashed into a brick wall. She didn't move after that.

I looked up and saw the real Mizore looking no worse for wear. She helped me sit up and I looked at Naudia, now back in her original form. She wasn't going anywhere.

"Oh did I miss the party?" said Felix, having popped back into view.

"Just shut up." I said, tiredly. I really didn't want to listen to him right now.

"At any rate it looks like coming was a waste of effort. Honestly, this would've gone a lot smoother if you just..." he stopped, looking at the black-hooded figure which stood over Lucius.

He appeared to have a black haze surrounding him, making it seem like part of him didn't belong in this world. But what really stuck out was the fact that his presence made Felix lose all demeanor.

The figure bent down and touched a palm to Lucius chest, who seemed to be scared stiff. In a pop of shadowy smoke the two of them vanished into thin air.

Felix turned quickly to Naudia, who was apparently being held by the same figure. "Who are you!?" Felix demanded uncharacteristically.

The cloaked man smirked slightly then vanished the same as before. And we were left in that devastated street, wondering just what the hell had happened.

God I am doing this too often. :(

Delaying I mean.

Another thank you to anyone who's still reading.^^ I don't deserve it.