Novamori played with the smooth band of gold in his hand, flicking it between his fingers, making it dance across his pale, weathered flesh.

"Must you play with that thing?"

Novamori cracked a smile. "Does it bother you?"

The hulking shape in the shadows just beyond sight snorted a dry, airless crackle. "Not at all, I just imagined you would have more respect for it. Nightwalker and the werewolf went through much to get it."

"Yes, it saved me having to."

"What will you do with it now? Unleash Hell?"

"Hell is not what interests me."

"You will use it against Lucifer?"

"What else?"

"I thought you and he had an understanding. You two have an ancient bond."

"You're one to talk about bonds, Oathbreaker..."

There was a gleam of reflected light as the figure in the darkness smiled. "All things will be broken at my command. All life will crumble to dust. The world will be shattered beyond repair, its vaults caved in and its foundations ruined."

"You sound like him," Novamori sneered.

"He is my counterpart."

"And you had to die to figure that out, did you?"

"I am become death; one cannot be Champion of the Void without experiencing its icy touch."

"Well quite." Novamori tossed the Ring into the air and caught it again. "Are we done here?"

The figure nodded. "Our transaction is complete. You have the Ring, and I shall have Nightwalker."

"Good luck. Although..." he glanced to one side, meeting eyes with his one-time henchwoman, unconsciously recoiling from her lifeless black gaze, flat as a shark's, "...you may not need it..."

"Rl'yeh is very much looking forward to finally meeting the Nightwalker."

The woman ran her tongue across colourless lips, the action appearing entirely mechanical, as if performed by some robot that was a perfect facsimile of a human being, but still artificial on some fundamental level. It sent a shudder right down Novamori's spine.

"Such distasteful company you keep," he murmured.

"They are the Children of the Abyss."

"I thought you'd prefer to use your own kind."

"I will. In time."

Novamori finally pocketed the Promethean Ring. "I should be on my way. It was nice to meet you again. We were really worried you'd bought it back there..."

"Your concern would touch me, were there anything to be touched."

"I bet. Have fun with Nightwalker. Such a shame it has to end like this - he had a certain charm."

"Very little of that will be left when we have finished with him."

"I'm sure."

Novamori turned away, shouldering through the crowd of creatures that inhabited the crumbling ruins this creature called home. As decayed as the ancient buildings were, their decomposition had become rapidly advanced in the period that the beast had made them its home.

Once the man had left, The Apocalypse gathered around their master. Lord Abortion considered his options for a few moments. He knew his servants would have done enough to persuade Nightwalker to come after them; the only problem would be leading him into the trap.

"He will know where to go," Lord Abortion explained, "but it could be one of many locations. Split up, wait for him in each of the places and, when you find him, you know what to do. Summon me."

They began to move out, silently, slowly, like the ghosts they were.

"But...do not kill him! He must be alive when I arrive. Do what you wish to him in the meantime, but he must be alive."

Lord Abortion leaned back in his throne, holding one withered talon to his pale face. "We will fight again, Nightwalker, and this time I will end you once and for all..."

* * *

"Tell me everything."

Darkness seemed surprisingly calm. He walked back and forth in the hotel suite as The Children and Freya explained their story; how they had come to lose the Promethean Ring, how they had tried to find it again, and who they had met when they did.

"These...creatures..." Darkness pressed, "...explain them to me."

Freya sighed. "Remember Infinity's rings? And those amulets Fenris's goons had?"

"Yes."

"Like that."

Darkness frowned. "You mean, you couldn't smell them?"

"Exactly."

"Well, there could be many explanations..."

"It was more than that," Freya went on, "Dante's magic sword couldn't hurt them, and his Hellfire had no effect either. They were...immune...void..."

Darkness's head snapped up. "Void?"

"They called themselves The Apocalpyse," Gwen added, "we heard the ones they...enslaved...saying that." She shrugged. "We don't have the words to explain this; it defies our experience."

"No," Darkness said, "you just don't have all the pieces of the puzzle yet - the Shadow Slayers have been tracking this ‘Apocalypse' group for months. They are the servants of someone called Lord Abortion."

A cold breeze seemed to wash across the room as he said the words.

"The Apocalypse were in the service of Novamori," Gawain said from near the back of the crowd, "he could be this Lord Abortion."

"Perhaps. Either way, if the Promethean Ring is in the hands of this group, we may be in serious trouble."

"Who is Lord Abortion?" Freya asked, "I mean, not who, but what."

"He is the Champion of the Abyss. My counterpart. When the Final Battle comes, it will be fought between he and I."

The rest of the room fell silent.

"So..." Freya said after a few moments, "what are we going to do?"

"I am going to find Lord Abortion, and take back the Ring."

"Won't that be dangerous?"

"If he had the power to defeat me, he would have come for me already. No, he isn't ready for our battle yet. Perhaps I'll catch him by surprise, and end Armageddon before it even begins."

He was already moving, and Freya was behind him. "This is crazy - I told you what we were up against! You can't beat these things!"

"We will see."

"You think you're supposed to fight Lord Abortion alone, is that it? Because that doesn't make much sense to me. Why would you have all these friends and allies around you if it was supposed to be some kind of duel? I don't even think it will be that simple anyway! The fate of the World is decided by some fight between superheroes? That's a little bit tacky..."

"I'm doing this alone, Freya."

"You tried to go to Hell alone, and look where that got you!"

Darkness rounded on Freya. They were in one of the suite's bedrooms now. "You want to come, do you?"

"Yes!"

"You were the one who lost it in the first place."

"What?"

"I was worried about you. I was prepared to do whatever it took to find you again, and now you repay my concern by losing the artefact that I worked to find and allowed you to keep and handing it to the most dangerous foe we'll ever face."

"The artefact you allowed me to keep?" Freya placed her fists on her hips.

"You and Dante tried to do this without me. Look where it got you."

"So your answer is to do it alone?"

"That's right."

"Where will you even go? Novamori left the military complex we were held in. He could be anywhere."

"Not anywhere."

"Oh?"

"Remember when we went to the Mesa before Endgame, and I explained about the folds in reality?"

"Sure."

"The world is full of such sites; places where reality is weak, and where, in ancient times, gods and demons appeared to humans. Ancient people raised temples and monuments there because otherwise they would forget where to find their gods. The planet is a network of these linked areas, where creatures like us make their homes in the folds: the pyramids at Giza, the ziggurat at Ur, the jungle temples in Cambodia, Uluru, Stonehenge..."

"So you need to find some ancient ruins or something?"

"Ruins...monuments...geoglyphs..."

"Geo-what?"

"We're in Peru, Freya. If you want to find something supernatural in this part of the world, you go to the Nazca Lines."

* * *

The doctor ran a hand across Selenia's swollen belly, making low noises under his breath.

"You were due last week, yes?"

Selenia sighed. "Yes. Eight days ago, actually."

The doctor nodded. "Well, childbirth is hardly an exact science. That figure of ‘thirty-six weeks' is a pretty broad average. It could be another week or two yet."

Selenia groaned and threw her head back on the chair. "You have to be fucking kidding me..."

The doctor laughed as he stood up. Dante was looking at his wife with concern in his red eyes. Jay Ecks was also present, sitting to one side of the suite, apparently absorbed in a book.

"The baby hasn't turned yet. As I say, it could be a while yet."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"Well, if the pregnancy lasts too much longer, we may have induce labour for the sake of your wife's health."

"Can you do that now?"

The doctor sucked on his teeth. "I could, but there's really no need. This isn't unusual - it's better to let nature take its course."

"Nature...right..." Dante looked at his wife's distended stomach and, after a few seconds, she self-consciously pulled her top back over it and gave him a significant look.

"If you want to hurry things up," the doctor continued, "there are some things you can do. Certain natural herbs will help, eating spicy food and of course there's...well..."

"What?"

"Making love."

Jay sniggered.

"Shut up, you," Dante snapped.

"It's proven to be highly effective."

"Thanks, but this isn't a cheesy sitcom." Dante started to direct the doctor to the door of the hotel room. "There was something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

"In the ultrasounds you did...did you notice anything...uh...wrong...?"

"Wrong? Like what?"

"Abnormalities. Birth defects."

The doctor smiled, believing he knew what Dante meant. "Mr. Dante, you have no need to worry. The gene for albinism is recessive - since your wife doesn't have it, it's highly unlikely your child will be born with the same condition. And, of course, you yourself are living proof that albinism is hardly something we would think of as a ‘birth defect' in this day and age."

"There wasn't anything else though?" Dante pressed. "No deformities, nothing...strange...?"

"Nothing. It's a perfectly healthy baby. You and your wife have such exemplary medical histories anyway, I doubt God himself could make this child anything but perfect."

Dante affected a brief laugh. Those medical histories had been falsified since, technically, Selenia had been dead for half a century and he was so far outside the usual human norms, it would beg dozens of questions. "Thanks for your reassurance, doctor," he said though, "there's a plane waiting to take you back to the United States at the airport."

"Thank you. And congratulations again, Mr. Dante." The doctor shook his hand, but frowned. "Do you mind if I check your temperature?"

"It's just stress," Dante explained, putting his hand back in his pocket.

"Really? I'd just like to..."

"It's fine, doctor. Really." Dante was opening the door, ushering him out and, once he had succeeded, closed it firmly and turned the key.

"I thought he'd never leave," he growled as he walked back into the sitting room.

"So, should I leave you two alone?" Jay asked, waggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up."

"Hey, you want this kid out, don't you?"

Selenia groaned again. "This baby is putting enough pressure on my bladder without him pounding away at me too."

Jay burst out laughing.

"Do you mind?" Dante asked his wife.

"I think I've earned myself the right to offend you, Jason," Selenia said as she tried to pull herself up into a more upright position, "after carrying your hateful little spawn for the better part of ten months, I'll say whatever the hell I want."

"Don't talk like that," Dante said in a low voice, "I'm worried enough about this child as it is."

"The doctor said it was fine. Healthy. Normal. No horns or hooves or anything."

"You never know...ultrasounds can be fooled..."

"You think you have a magic baby that can trick machines?" Jay asked, "Because that would be pretty cool."

Dante ran a hand through his hair as he slumped down in an easy chair. "This is all getting a bit much. I'm thinking of asking Stern for a leave of absence."

Selenia narrowed her eyes. "And give her an excuse to fire you? You are not giving up your job before this child is born."

"It's not like we're short of money..."

"Your savings won't last forever, Jason, and you're not exactly making a lot of money in TCW right now - your merchandise sales are down thanks to being off TV for so long, and this business with Lance Canada really hurt your popularity."

Dante blinked at her. "I see you've been paying attention."

"Yes, well, the career of my child's father is rather important to me."

"You're right though. I feel like I'm in a slump. I jobbed like a curtain-jerker to Freya."

"You just need something to get you back in the game," Jay told him, "something to spark off your ambition again."

Dante nodded. "You're right. I need a serious shot of purpose. I need to become a hero again."

"That's the spirit."

"And I know just how to do it."

"Yeah?"

"Jay, we're going to get the Promethean Ring back."

"Oh."

Selenia rolled her eyes and slumped back on the sofa. "Try not to get yourself killed. Wait...do you have life insurance?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well do what you want then."

* * *

Wind swept across the plateau, kicking up clouds of grey dust. Darkness parked up his bike and made his way down the mountainside to where he could just make out the shapes of the vast geoglyphs etched in the surface of the earth. Their true purpose was a mystery to even experts on the subject, though pop culture seemed to favour absurd ‘alien origin' theories. Such theories, with their racist implications, left a bad taste in Darkness's mouth. Men had created these things, with human ingenuity and intelligence, as a way of honouring their ancient gods.

Darkness blinked the dust from his eyes and tried to shield his face from the sandstorm with his prosthetic. As far as he could tell, the plateau was completely devoid of anything larger than a rodent. Even the tourists were staying away in this weather.

He moved towards the centre of the marked area, crossing dozens of pale lines that made shapes only visible from the air - where the Nazca people had imagined (or perhaps actually seen) their gods to be. He was dimly aware of something in the corner of his vision for a moment, but dismissed it as a mere trick of the light in the dust.

He felt the impact a few seconds later. Something had hit him, and he had no idea what. He rolled to the ground and then up to his feet, looking for the rock or clod of earth that must have struck him. Instead there was a man standing in front of him.

But it couldn't be a man...he knew in his gut that the space in front of him was empty. There was no one there, and yet he could see him with his own eyes.

"You must be Nightwalker," the man said.

"You're not real. This is some kind of trick..."

"I'm as real as you are. Perhaps more."

Something else struck Darkness, this time in the side. He stumbled down to the ground and looked up to see another man looming over him. Again, Darkness knew he wasn't there. He gaped at his two assailants.

"I think we confuse him, Zhar."

"Good."

The one named Zhar aimed a kick at Darkness, and he attempted to block it, or dodge, or anything really, but found he was completely unable to defend himself. He reached out, but it was like fighting air. The wind was driven out of him by the kick and he rolled over onto his stomach.

"How disappointing." A woman now stepped in front of him, emerging from the swirling dust clouds.

"Who are you?" Darkness asked.

"We are The Apocalypse."

"I came here to fight you..."

"Then do it."

Darkness launched himself forwards and swung at the woman. Once again though, he felt like he was trying to hit smoke. When he punched, it went wide, as if his aim was being disrupted somehow.

The woman drove a knee into his gut, doubling him over. "You are discovering, Nightwalker, just how much you rely on your Slayer Sense to fight. We do not show up as far as your powers are concerned, and therefore your most important sense doesn't even register our existence."

Darkness saw more shapes emerging from the haze, and realised that dozens of these creatures had escaped his notice. He was unable to fight one, let alone an army of them.

The woman grabbed him by the throat, and the contact made his skin crawl. She looked him in the eyes, and he saw how black her pupils were, utterly flat and dead, with no irises.

"You're a Faithless..." he croaked.

"We all are. You cannot harm us."

"Not with my powers..." Darkness reached back, preparing to deliver another punch, but another of them grabbed his arm from behind. He hadn't even realised he was there.

"Subdue him, and then bind him." She looked down at Darkness as the other members of The Apocalypse laid into him, raining down kicks and punches that he couldn't stop. "Lord Abortion will be very pleased," she said, no expression in her voice.

"Are you sulking in here?" Gwen stood in the doorway of the dark room. Constantly changing light from the TV illuminated the walls. On top of the desk, the steel surface of the Bleeder belt also shone in response to the shifting light, but only occasionally were the permanent spatters of blood visible.

"Don't you know how to knock?"

Gwen picked her way across the clothes-strewn floor to the sofa where, half-hidden under the duvet, Freya was curled up.

"Is this really the best thing to do?"

"Yes, I'm tired. Big match and all." Freya didn't look away from the flickering images.

"I know you're upset..."

"Fuck off, Gwen. I don't need you to tell me how I feel. I know how I feel."

"I'm sure he was just doing what he thought was best," Gwen went on, ignoring Freya's tone, "and keeping you out of harm's way."

"Bollocks. You don't buy that any more than I do. He just doesn't trust me. He didn't want to trust me with the Ring, and apparently he was right."

"He let you keep it though."

Freya turned to face the other werewolf. "Let me? You think he let me? He wasn't going to take it from me, not with what he had planned. He can spin it all he likes about ‘letting me have it', but he knew he couldn't take it. I wouldn't let him have it, not the other way ‘round."

"So you're just going to let him get it back on his own?"

"Yep. That's what he wanted, so that's what's happening. If he can't trust me after all we've been through..."

Gwen sighed and rolled her eyes. "You don't think it's because he cares and doesn't want to put you in danger?"

"Cares? That man's got a heart made of stone. We were missing for how long? And he didn't even say anything when we were back."

"You know how he is."

"Yes, and I was stupid to think he'd changed over the last year. He's ‘The Man Who Walks Alone' still, and always will be."

"So you're not going after him?"

"Nope."

"You're just going to sit here in the dark and sulk?"

"Yup."

Gwen remained looking at her as she pulled the covers further up and went back to staring at the TV screen. She shrugged before turning and leaving the room.

**

"I've booked the flights." Jay let himself into Dante's room in the Chicago penthouse.

"Flights? What flights?" Dante looked up from where he was kneeling on the floor. A thought flashed across his mind as he jumped up. "Selenia. She's in labour isn't she?" He tried to dash past Ecks, but a massive hand pressed against his chest.

"Easy now," Jay laughed, "she's just as pregnant as when you left her."

"So where are we going?" Dante asked, calming down and returning to rummaging under the bed.

"New York. I spoke with an old contact and apparently, Novamori has centralised DanteCorp operations - or should I say NovaCorp operations - to the HQ there."

"First my company," Dante growled, "and now my city - he gonna take anything else from me?" He yanked and almost fell back as a large box came out from where it had been secured.

"What's that?" Jay asked, peering over his friend's shoulder as he opened the lid.

Dante lifted out an object covered in cloth. "Help," he replied, uncovering it and revealing one of the Eyes of God.

**

There was a knocking...somewhere. Freya opened her eyes and closed them again quickly. The TV was still on but the daylight shining in through one of the large windows was much more obnoxious. The knocking continued. Freya tried to get up but her feet were wrapped up in the duvet and she fell over with a yelp.

"Hold on," she called out as she untangled herself. She eventually managed to get to the door and pulled at it. It was locked, and she had to search for her keycard in her discarded clothes. "Hold on!" she shouted again, before finally getting the door open. "Hello, Selenia."

Selenia was leaning against the doorframe with one hand, the other resting on her barely-covered belly. "Mind if I come in?"

Freya shrugged and walked back into her room, removing the duvet so Selenia could ease herself onto the sofa. "I'm surprised to see you waddling about by yourself, what's the matter?"

"I was wondering if your healer..."

"Tilpin."

"Tilpin could help me. The doctor gave me a list of herbs to try and hurry things along, but I'm not sure where to start in getting them."

"Her room's..." she realised how large Selenia actually was, "...I'll ring her."

The phone call was short and an awkward silence followed.

"So...how comes Jason isn't helping you with the herbs. I'm surprised you managed to get away from him."

"He's gone with Jay to Chicago."

"What for? You had to threaten him to come help me before."

"Well that's exactly it. He wanted to find the Ring; he's gone looking for Novamori. I was expecting to find you and Darkness gone too."

Freya let out a growl. "Well, you're right about the second part. Darkness had the same idea."

Selenia looked shocked. "He's not here?"

"No. Why, what's wrong?"

"I don't know. Maybe nothing...my powers are blunted by this thing," she pointed at her stomach, "but I thought I could feel him."

"Who, Darkness?"

"Yes. He's so powerful, that sometimes when he has strong emotions, it causes a kind of surge. Those who are sensitive can feel it. I thought I sensed him experiencing great pain and suffering, but it seemed so far away, and I thought he was here, so I didn't give it a second's though."

"Well he isn't here - he is far away. He went to the Nazca Lines."

Selenia's brow furrowed. "To project something like that, over such a great distance, he must be being subjected to some kind of horrific torture..."

Freya's mind finally caught up with what her ears were being told. "Wait...are you telling me he's being tortured? Someone's hurting him?"

"I believe so."

Freya fell silent for a few moments. "Then we'd better go and find him, hadn't we?" she said quietly.

He lifted his face towards the cell's only source of light, he tried to soak up the single beam of sunlight that the hole in the roof let into the room, he was cold, tired beaten and confused.

And somewhere, somewhere deep down in his being he felt a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time...The clink of the door getting unlocked triggered that feeling again, now for the first time he felt it ascend to his concious mind, as he saw the face of his tormentor, as he felt the empty mental and spiritual space she occupied as if she was an abomination to the world, she grinned as she saw his trepidation.

Her voice was flat but still contained a sadistic overtone, possibly something the void-whore had taught herself to get across in his voice. He hated her voice as he hated her and her kind.

"So...Nightwalker, how are we feeling today?"

Her voice was a twisted version of a caring doctor's question.

"Piss off." He said though cracked lips. He knew he should just ignore her sarcastic comments, they brought her as much pleasure as the pain she caused him.

"No." She said in her mockingly fake tone of care. "I don't think I will do that." A hollow smile that seemed as foreign to her face as all emotions save the sadistic lust she seemed to gain from other's pain.

"Who knows, Nightwalker? Maybe today I can get a scream from you..."

Darkness was lifted off his feet by the chains that bound him, as he was lifted high enough to be face to face with the woman called R'yleah, the first shock wave of pain shot through his body.

*****

"So...what do we do now?"

"We get hold of Marco."

"Marco? Marco Carelli?"

"Yep."

"Marco is you "contact"?"

"Yes, he called me just after Novamori fired him actually."

"Ok, and you're sure this isn't Marco trying to get back at Novamori for firing him?"

"Positive, I was told that he got a decent enough severance pay, besides...Marco was never the vengeful type in my book."

Dante nodded as he packed his last few belongings in a black backpack. This detour to New York troubled him, he wanted to be back by Selenia's side as soon as possible and as much as he liked Marco Carelli. He also wanted to find the Promethean ring...NOW, the problem he decided was that he was preoccupied, Selenia may give birth at any second and he DID NOT want to miss the birth of their fist child, he sighed as he closed the zipper on his backpack, Selenia would be OK, he tried to convince himself, she was in the best possible hands there was no risk that she would...

No matter how hard he had tried to convince himself that Selenia would be perfectly OK without him, he still jumped to his feet and almost dove onto his cellphone as it rang.

"Yes?" He half screamed into the phone.

"Mr.Dante? This is Doctor Johann Freukmann." a voice came from the other end.

"Is she ok?" Dante said before realising that Dr. Freukmann wasn't the doctor assigned to Selenia.

"Eh...I'm not sure which woman you are referring to Mr. Dante. I work at the Pendelhaven Hospital...we have a patient that has been demanding to see you."

"Me?"

"Yes, sir, he had to be subdued every time you came up as a topic."

"Ok...but who..."

"Our Patient told us to tell you that his name is Spike...he seems to be British, at least his accent is clearly British."

"Spike." Dante said. "Young guy? Looks a bit like a punk?"

"Yes, sir that's him."

"Did he say what he wants?"

"He asked me to tell you that he can offer you information about a person named Lillith in exchange for your help?"

"My help?"

"Yes, sir...I was told by "Spike" that you have some insight into his condition."

"Condition?"

"Yes, sir. "Spike" has been kept sedated for the majority of his stay with us, being awake seems to trigger some kind of spasms and pain that is more then he can endure."

"Ah..." Dante understood now.

"He asked me to make sure that you came here as soon as possible."

"That's not possible...My wife is about to give birth any day and I have things to attend to until that happens...just keep him sedated and I WILL help him as soon as I can."

Without waiting for the doctor to reply, Dante hung up.

"What was that about?" Ecks asked.

"Static." Dante replied as he picked up his bag.

*****

"Jason's not picking up the phone." Selenia said.

Freya nodded, she hadn't expected him to. After the latest show, she had tried to get hold of Dante to talk to him, but all she got was the phone slammed down or shut off in her ear. It was clear that Dante didn't want to be bothered.

"They were going to Chicago?"

"Yes." Selenia replied with a groan as she was helped up by Tilpin.

"Why?"

"They needed a few things from Jason's armoury at the house."

"I see..."

Freya shrugged.

"Ok, I guess I have to go after Darkness on my own then."

"Not on your own, we'll join you?" Tilpin said.

Freya looked at her fellow Werewolf as she supported the pregnant Selenia.

"The rest of the guys, maybe...but from where I stand you're needed here."

Tilpin looked like she was a bout to protest when Selenia groaned again. As the woman by her side seemed to regain he footing, Tilpin nodded towards Freya.

"Ok, I'll stay with her."

"Thank you." Freya replied with a sigh.

*****

The house wasn't what Dante would call posh. He had imagined that Marco Carelli had gotten a good severance pay from Novamori, but this house seemed to indicate that they were talking a single months pay or so.

"He lives here?"

Ecks nodded.

"He told me he could have bought a nicer house, but he grew up here...all his friends from his childhood lives here."

"I see."

"Hey, Marco open the fucking door!" Ecks yelled out as he pounded the front door.

No reply.

"MARCO!"

Again, no reply.

"Christ, do I have to wake the damn guy up?" Ecks asked as he gave the door a solid kick and yelled out MARCO!" again.

This time however, the door fell off it's hinges.

"Jay, for fuck's sake!"

"I didn't kick it hard!" Ecks said trying to sound apologistic. "Besides the guy can afford a new door."

Dante didn't reply, he just stepped in.

"Marco?! It's Jason...Jason Dante! Hello?!"

Still no reply.

Ecks tripped on something and cursed.

"Doesn't seem too interested in his mail either, does he?" Dante said.

"Three days of mail..."

"How long was it since you talked to the guy?"

"Four or five days..."

They walked further into the dark house, as they came to a staircase, Dante grabbed Ecks arm.

"Can you feel that smell?"

"What sme...jesus! It smells as if something was rotting!"

Dante said nothing, he covered his nose and walked up the staircase, as the two men reached the top of the stairs they heard a buzz, a low, droning sound.

"Flies." Ecks said.

Dante nodded. They came to a door marked "Office", as Dante pushed the door open, the stench became unbearable and a cloud of flies buzzed past them. As they entered the office they saw a man sitting in a brand new office chair in front of a brand spanking new computer, the man in the chair stared at them with the thousand mile stare as they turned him around.

Dante looked at the man in the chair.

"Marco."

Ecks said nothing, he just nodded as he had trouble keeping his lunch down. Dante lifted his right eyebrow, something was wrong, the last few days had been quite cool in New York, no rain but cool...and Marco Capelli looked like he had been dead for a good week, not the three days his mail said.

Dante was about to ask Ecks something when he heard a sound coming from the first floor of the house.

Dante shot down the stairs as if his pants were on fire, as he came down the stair he saw the behind of a man dashing out the door. Without a pause, Dante shot after the strange man. As the intruder reached the half way mark of Capelli's front lawn, Dante took him down with a football style tackle. With his fist raised he turned the man over, ready to land a blow.

The man seemed like an average joe...there was one thing that set him apart...Dante saw him but he couldn't feel his presence at all. The intruder was a void. As Dante's eyes reached the intruder's the horror of the dead,lifeless and empty eyes made Dante actively nauseous. As Dante hesitated, the hollow man threw Dante off of him and dashed away into the New York night.

As Dante returned to the office he saw Ecks standing there uncertain of what to do.

"Call the Police, Jay...we can't help him any more."

"But..."

"No, if, ands or buts, Jay...the guy that ran out of here was of the same kind as the ones Freya and I ran into in Brazil...Marco knew something al right, something that "they" killed him because of.

"So we came here in vain then?"

Dante bent down and picked up a piece of paper that had fallen off the desk. As he read it he nodded before replying.

"No, not quite...I think i found the reason they killed him."

Ecks looked surprised and a bit curious.

"We want to get hold of Novamori and the ring..."

"Yeah?"

"I think Marco here used his dying breath to tell us where to look."

Dante held up a print out from google maps, a name was marked by a circle around it.

Nasca valley

He lifted his face towards the cell's only source of light, he tried to soak up the single beam of sunlight that the hole in the roof let into the room, he was cold, tired beaten and confused.

And somewhere, somewhere deep down in his being he felt a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time...The clink of the door getting unlocked triggered that feeling again, now for the first time he felt it ascend to his concious mind, as he saw the face of his tormentor, as he felt the empty mental and spiritual space she occupied as if she was an abomination to the world, she grinned as she saw his trepidation.

Her voice was flat but still contained a sadistic overtone, possibly something the void-whore had taught herself to get across in his voice. He hated her voice as he hated her and her kind.

"So...Nightwalker, how are we feeling today?"

Her voice was a twisted version of a caring doctor's question.

"Piss off." He said though cracked lips. He knew he should just ignore her sarcastic comments, they brought her as much pleasure as the pain she caused him.

"No." She said in her mockingly fake tone of care. "I don't think I will do that." A hollow smile that seemed as foreign to her face as all emotions save the sadistic lust she seemed to gain from other's pain.

"Who knows, Nightwalker? Maybe today I can get a scream from you..."

Darkness was lifted off his feet by the chains that bound him, as he was lifted high enough to be face to face with the woman called R'yleah, the first shock wave of pain shot through his body.

*****

"So...what do we do now?"

"We get hold of Marco."

"Marco? Marco Carelli?"

"Yep."

"Marco is you "contact"?"

"Yes, he called me just after Novamori fired him actually."

"Ok, and you're sure this isn't Marco trying to get back at Novamori for firing him?"

"Positive, I was told that he got a decent enough severance pay, besides...Marco was never the vengeful type in my book."

Dante nodded as he packed his last few belongings in a black backpack. This detour to New York troubled him, he wanted to be back by Selenia's side as soon as possible and as much as he liked Marco Carelli. He also wanted to find the Promethean ring...NOW, the problem he decided was that he was preoccupied, Selenia may give birth at any second and he DID NOT want to miss the birth of their fist child, he sighed as he closed the zipper on his backpack, Selenia would be OK, he tried to convince himself, she was in the best possible hands there was no risk that she would...

No matter how hard he had tried to convince himself that Selenia would be perfectly OK without him, he still jumped to his feet and almost dove onto his cellphone as it rang.

"Yes?" He half screamed into the phone.

"Mr.Dante? This is Doctor Johann Freukmann." a voice came from the other end.

"Is she ok?" Dante said before realising that Dr. Freukmann wasn't the doctor assigned to Selenia.

"Eh...I'm not sure which woman you are referring to Mr. Dante. I work at the Pendelhaven Hospital...we have a patient that has been demanding to see you."

"Me?"

"Yes, sir, he had to be subdued every time you came up as a topic."

"Ok...but who..."

"Our Patient told us to tell you that his name is Spike...he seems to be British, at least his accent is clearly British."

"Spike." Dante said. "Young guy? Looks a bit like a punk?"

"Yes, sir that's him."

"Did he say what he wants?"

"He asked me to tell you that he can offer you information about a person named Lillith in exchange for your help?"

"My help?"

"Yes, sir...I was told by "Spike" that you have some insight into his condition."

"Condition?"

"Yes, sir. "Spike" has been kept sedated for the majority of his stay with us, being awake seems to trigger some kind of spasms and pain that is more then he can endure."

"Ah..." Dante understood now.

"He asked me to make sure that you came here as soon as possible."

"That's not possible...My wife is about to give birth any day and I have things to attend to until that happens...just keep him sedated and I WILL help him as soon as I can."

Without waiting for the doctor to reply, Dante hung up.

"What was that about?" Ecks asked.

"Static." Dante replied as he picked up his bag.

*****

"Jason's not picking up the phone." Selenia said.

Freya nodded, she hadn't expected him to. After the latest show, she had tried to get hold of Dante to talk to him, but all she got was the phone slammed down or shut off in her ear. It was clear that Dante didn't want to be bothered.

"They were going to Chicago?"

"Yes." Selenia replied with a groan as she was helped up by Tilpin.

"Why?"

"They needed a few things from Jason's armoury at the house."

"I see..."

Freya shrugged.

"Ok, I guess I have to go after Darkness on my own then."

"Not on your own, we'll join you?" Tilpin said.

Freya looked at her fellow Werewolf as she supported the pregnant Selenia.

"The rest of the guys, maybe...but from where I stand you're needed here."

Tilpin looked like she was a bout to protest when Selenia groaned again. As the woman by her side seemed to regain he footing, Tilpin nodded towards Freya.

"Ok, I'll stay with her."

"Thank you." Freya replied with a sigh.

*****

The house wasn't what Dante would call posh. He had imagined that Marco Carelli had gotten a good severance pay from Novamori, but this house seemed to indicate that they were talking a single months pay or so.

"He lives here?"

Ecks nodded.

"He told me he could have bought a nicer house, but he grew up here...all his friends from his childhood lives here."

"I see."

"Hey, Marco open the fucking door!" Ecks yelled out as he pounded the front door.

No reply.

"MARCO!"

Again, no reply.

"Christ, do I have to wake the damn guy up?" Ecks asked as he gave the door a solid kick and yelled out MARCO!" again.

This time however, the door fell off it's hinges.

"Jay, for fuck's sake!"

"I didn't kick it hard!" Ecks said trying to sound apologistic. "Besides the guy can afford a new door."

Dante didn't reply, he just stepped in.

"Marco?! It's Jason...Jason Dante! Hello?!"

Still no reply.

Ecks tripped on something and cursed.

"Doesn't seem too interested in his mail either, does he?" Dante said.

"Three days of mail..."

"How long was it since you talked to the guy?"

"Four or five days..."

They walked further into the dark house, as they came to a staircase, Dante grabbed Ecks arm.

"Can you feel that smell?"

"What sme...jesus! It smells as if something was rotting!"

Dante said nothing, he covered his nose and walked up the staircase, as the two men reached the top of the stairs they heard a buzz, a low, droning sound.

"Flies." Ecks said.

Dante nodded. They came to a door marked "Office", as Dante pushed the door open, the stench became unbearable and a cloud of flies buzzed past them. As they entered the office they saw a man sitting in a brand new office chair in front of a brand spanking new computer, the man in the chair stared at them with the thousand mile stare as they turned him around.

Dante looked at the man in the chair.

"Marco."

Ecks said nothing, he just nodded as he had trouble keeping his lunch down. Dante lifted his right eyebrow, something was wrong, the last few days had been quite cool in New York, no rain but cool...and Marco Capelli looked like he had been dead for a good week, not the three days his mail said.

Dante was about to ask Ecks something when he heard a sound coming from the first floor of the house.

Dante shot down the stairs as if his pants were on fire, as he came down the stair he saw the behind of a man dashing out the door. Without a pause, Dante shot after the strange man. As the intruder reached the half way mark of Capelli's front lawn, Dante took him down with a football style tackle. With his fist raised he turned the man over, ready to land a blow.

The man seemed like an average joe...there was one thing that set him apart...Dante saw him but he couldn't feel his presence at all. The intruder was a void. As Dante's eyes reached the intruder's the horror of the dead,lifeless and empty eyes made Dante actively nauseous. As Dante hesitated, the hollow man threw Dante off of him and dashed away into the New York night.

As Dante returned to the office he saw Ecks standing there uncertain of what to do.

"Call the Police, Jay...we can't help him any more."

"But..."

"No, if, ands or buts, Jay...the guy that ran out of here was of the same kind as the ones Freya and I ran into in Brazil...Marco knew something al right, something that "they" killed him because of.

"So we came here in vain then?"

Dante bent down and picked up a piece of paper that had fallen off the desk. As he read it he nodded before replying.

"No, not quite...I think i found the reason they killed him."

Ecks looked surprised and a bit curious.

"We want to get hold of Novamori and the ring..."

"Yeah?"

"I think Marco here used his dying breath to tell us where to look."

Dante held up a print out from google maps, a name was marked by a circle around it.

Nasca valley

"You know, Nightwalker," Rl'yeh said as she spun the silver cylindrical object around in a lazy circle, "I have been told that your life is like a kind of story...that strange coincidences follow you around wherever you go..."

Darkness said nothing.

"That you are a poster boy to what those who make it their business to know about such things call ‘dramatic irony'."

Darkness still said nothing.

"Personally, I have little interest in such things. Imagination is a trait my kind is not blessed with. We have little use for stories of heroes and princesses - for things that will never be. The only thing I am capable of imagining is new methods of inflicting pain and suffering. If only story books could be about torment and anguish, then I would be considered a gifted artist."

Rl'yeh lifted up the object in her hand and twisted it so that, with a mechanical whirring, a dull, segmented globe emerged from the end.

"The reason I tell you this, Nightwalker," she went on, "is that there is a certain poetic justice in what I am about to do to you. You see, this device was invented by Jason Dante several years ago. I'm sure he wouldn't like to admit it now, but he developed many such machines of death and war for the American government - some of which your friends have already encountered - and this was one of his most impressive."

She pressed something on the device, and the globe at the end opened up, revealing a dozen pincers, each tipped with blades the thickness of a hair.

"The US military pays lip service to the Geneva Convention, and pours millions of dollars into researching new ways of interrogating its prisoners that aren't covered by the treaty, but even they baulked at employing a weapon like this. Only a few prototypes were made."

The pincers extended, and Rl'yeh demonstrated how they were fully articulated, able to move in every direction, forming many different configurations. There was a brief spark as electrical current passed along each blade at just a short turn of the base unit in her deceptively delicate grip.

"This ingenious device can be attached to a muscle, driven like a blunt object into the spine or even inserted into an orifice, where it will latch onto tender flesh, lacerating and needling, secure itself from the inside and then pump electrical current through the body. In order to remove it by force, the unfortunate victim would need to yank it through their flesh - and these blades are so fine that they'd cleave through it like butter - causing horrendous tissue damage."

Rl'yeh smiled as she twisted the handle of the torture device so the blades pulled themselves in and, with another quick twist, sent them clawing out into a star shape. She repeated the action several times, demonstrating how easy it was to go from one configuration to the other.

"Now, Nightwalker," she said with mock sweetness, "why don't you open wide for me?"

She grabbed him by the jaw and lifted his face up to hers. He cracked a crimson smile and spat a bloody tooth at her. She grimaced with distaste as she wiped the smear from her white cheek and then jerked her head. A massive hand grabbed Darkness by the jaw from behind and pulled him up to chest height, arching his back painfully. There was the sound of a razor being flicked open, and then he saw the blade hovering just millimetres from his eyeball. The edge was so close he didn't dare blink.

"Open your mouth, or Zhar takes an eye. Your choice."

Darkness stared his hatred at Rl'yeh over the razor.

"Which is worse, Nightwalker - pain, or being disfigured? You've managed well with one hand, but what kind of warrior can fight with one eye?"

"I know one who's done okay..." he rasped.

"Yes, but just remember, after you lose that eye, this machine will still be put to use and then you'll only have one eye left to bargain with next time won't you?"

She smiled again, waving the hateful machine in front of him and, slowly, he unclenched his teeth and started to open his mouth.

* * *

Dante and Jay had stopped for a bite to eat. Or rather, they had stopped with the intention of having a bite to eat, but given the grisly scene they had just witnessed, had instead decided to stop in a place where other people had bites to eat and they just sat and drank coffee.

"So the Nazca Valley is back in Peru, right?" Jay asked, taking a sip from his mug.

"Right. A merry fucking dance we've been led on."

"Better that we know for certain where to look instead of risking it on a wild goose chase. At least we found something."

"Yeah, and that something was a good man's dead body. Not my idea of a worthwhile trip."

Dante sighed. He was looking down at the Google Maps print out, laying it flat against the Formica of the diner's table. The marking was hastily scrawled, and he could see a few blood spatters. Thank God Marco had had the foresight to print it out, and to label it so clearly so they knew where to go. Thank God they'd stopped that creature from removing this evidence.

"We were in the nick of time," Dante mused, swallowing a mouthful of the strong coffee.

"Right. What's at Nazca Valley anyway?"

"It's where the Nazca Lines are."

"The what?"

"Nazca Lines. They're like...uh...markings in the earth, in the shapes of animals and things. They were made thousands of years ago."

"Why?"

Dante shrugged. "No one knows. You can only make out what they are from the air though. From the ground they just look like random paths in the dust. They're geometrically perfect though - it must have taken incredible skill and planning."

"And they couldn't even see them to make sure they looked right?"

"Nope. I guess it was for their gods to see."

"Or aliens," Jay said knowingly.

"Don't give me that shit, Jay."

"I'm drinking coffee with the son of Satan, looking for a magic ring that can close the Gates of Hell. I don't think space aliens are that far fetched in the circumstances."

"Maybe you're right. All I know is, weird stuff always seems to happen at places like this. Darkness once told me about folds in reality; places where the fabric of the universe was weak enough to let creatures from other realms through. Because places like that give off such a weird vibe, people tend not to notice them for their own good, so ancient civilisations built monuments there so they could find them again."

"See, that's a lot more weird than UFOs, Jas'."

Dante smiled despite himself. "We've just got to get back to Peru," he said, planting a finger on the circled area of the map, "and find the Promethean Ring."

"And then attend the birth of your child."

"Right."

"This is going to be a busy week, huh?"

* * *

"Dante! You've gotta get me Jason fuckin' Dante!"

The way he stretched and twisted his vowels when he swore like that made his Cockney credentials pretty clear.

"Do I look like I'm pissin' around, doc?"

Spike's eyes bulged in his bony, unshaven little face, making him look like he was leering suggestively. Spittle coated his lips, and veins were visibly straining on his neck and temples.

"We...we've already called him, Mr. Spike," the doctor replied, unfastening Spike's clammy hands from his jacket, "he says he'll come, but he has other things to attend to first..."

"Fuckin' typical." Spike slumped back down onto the bed. Another spasm gripped him and he gritted his teeth as his neck arched backwards and a scream escaped his lungs despite his best efforts. "Can I at least ‘av some more fuckin' sedatives, mate?!" he bellowed.

The doctor left the room, followed by the two nurses that had also been present throughout the ordeal. Spike watched as they locked he door behind them - he was being held in a secure facility, for his own good. That's what they said anyway.

He closed his eyes, trying to focus on the pain so he could compartmentalise it and ignore it, but it was too intense, and too widespread.

"Relax, Spike..."

The throaty voice in his ear made his eyes snap open but, at the same time, the pain began to recede, and he let out a low moan as his body relaxed.

"‘Ow'd you get in ‘ere?"

"Locks aren't much use against me, are they," Razor laughed.

"What's ‘appening to me, love?"

Razor smiled. "I'm sorry, my darling, but I had to do this to you."

"Y..you did this to me?" There were tears in his eyes. The pain he'd been suffering through hadn't been as bad as the punch to his heart at that moment.

Well...no...that was bollocks. But it was still pretty crap.

"I'm sorry," she said again, "I needed someone I had power over; someone who I could use to lure Dante."

"Dante? What d'you need that sack a' shit for?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to keep him out of someone else's hands."

"Who's?"

"Never you mind about that, Spike," she said soothingly, caressing his forehead with surprising gentleness, "I just need him to be here, so he won't be in Peru. Even now, they're trying to lead him there. I had to kill one of his old employees so he'd stay."

"An' now you're gonna kill me too? Is that it?"

"Of course not, my love. You'll be alive for a long, long time yet."

"When you go..." Spike said, his voice catching in his throat, "...is the pain comin' back?"

"I'm afraid so. Dante isn't here yet. When he is, I'll come and make it stop, okay?"

"I can't believe you're fuckin' doin' this to me, you bitch," he snarled.

Razor laughed. "Did you really expect anything else? Did you really think I loved you?"

"Dunno. Fought you might, innit."

"I'm afraid not. You're just a pawn in my game, Spike."

"Bloody ‘orrible game it is too."

"All the best ones are."

"Not musical chairs. That's a nice one."

Razor ran a finger down his cheek. "Not for the one who loses his seat, it isn't."

"Fuckin' bitch," he spat again.

Razor let out a tinkling laugh and then walked away. The further she got from Spike, the more rapidly the waves of agony swept over him again until, finally, he went into spasms again, convulsing wildly and screaming out the same word over and over.

"BITCH! BITCH! BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!"

* * *

Freya aimed a kick at the black motorcycle parked up at the base of the mountain. The sandstorm had receded now, and they had a stunning view across the plateau, where the Nazca Lines criss-crossed the baked earth.

"Well, we know he was here at least."

Revenant shielded her eyes from the low sun that was just starting to dip behind the ragged line of mountains to the west. "Can you smell which way he went after?"

Gwen shook her head. "The wind and dust have scattered his trail, but he must have gone out onto the plateau."

"And that's where they caught him" Freya surmised.

Gawain pointed at a bank of sand that had obviously been manipulated into its current formation by the storm. "He wouldn't have been able to see anything - that's probably why they caught him."

"And he couldn't Sense them," Llenlleawg added. The surly youth was unusually motivated now, gripping his spear-stave in a white-knuckle embrace.

"Even without those suits, he wouldn't have stood a chance," Gwen said sadly, "he couldn't see or feel them - they could have just jumped him from behind."

"Or shot him," Galadd said darkly. His own leg wound had only just healed, but it still bore the bandage.

"Look, speculation isn't getting us anywhere," Freya said as she started walking towards the centre of the plateau, "we have to rescue him, before they hurt him any more. The sooner we find him the better."

"Agreed," Gwen nodded, and the rest of the group all sounded their assent.

* * *

Darkness gasped as he fell back onto the cold stone floor. His body made a wet sound as it landed, and he scrabbled against the ground with his good hand, trying to find purchase enough to rise. There was blood lying in a slick puddle around him, and it took him long seconds to realise it was his. His breathing was ragged, and his mouth felt dry and sore. He tried to say something, but only blood came out, the salty tang burning his ruined tongue and lips.

Rl'yeh wiped off the end of the horrific machine with a pleased smile. "Highly effective," she mused, "I think you might have even been trying to scream then. I must say, you're a hard one to break."

Darkness looked at her through one eye. The other was merely swollen shut by bruises, for which he was grateful.

"Fortunately for me - but not so fortunately for you - I have orders to keep you alive. What an excellent opportunity this shall be to test the constitution of an Infernal and the leader of the Shadow Slayers, no less."

"You can't keep me alive forever," Darkness croaked, spraying droplets of blood across his face.

"No, but I can keep you alive for a long, long time. You'd be amazed."

"The longer...the longer you toy with me...the longer my friends will have to find me..."

"Oh, I'm counting on that, Nightwalker." She crouched down next to him, waving the machine in his face, "I hope they all come here. Freya, Dante, Revenant, your pet wolves, even the Shadow Slayers. I hope they storm these ruins trying to find you. Because, that way, I can do to all of them what I'm doing to you and, when Lord Abortion arrives, he can dispose of you all in one fell swoop."

Darkness managed to croak a laugh. "Funny..."

"Not really. This is all part of the trap, Nightwalker. The Promethean Ring was just a distraction - a way of getting Novamori to pull some strings with Project Wolf and get Freya in our custody. When no one came for her, we set her free, hoping she'd bring you with her, but instead she bought Dante. Not bad, but not the prize we were after. So we let them go too, and this time you came straight to us - alone, unfortunately, but no matter. Even now, your friends are converging on this location, lured here by us, to meet the same fate as you."

Darkness watched her as she brandished her weapon again, opening up its claws and staring at them with sick fascination. "Now, shall we continue?"

He ground his teeth together and tried to pull himself up to meet her assault, but there was no strength left in his aching limbs. Feebly, he swung at her with his bare stump, but she batted it aside and thrust the device at him, sinking it into the already bloodstained and shredded flesh of his chest.

Finally he did scream, but it was a scream of warning to anyone who could hear it.

Don't come, Darkness bellowed in his mind. Let me die.

Let me die.

The words reverberated around Dante's skull.

"You alright, bud?" Jay put his hand on Dante's shoulder. "You've gone all pale..." he smiled at the joke he'd made and put his hand back on the steering wheel. He glanced at his friend. "Jas'?"

Dante sat there with his eyes shut. His mind was aflame from Darkness's thunderous message. Darkness?

Jason... There was a pain unlike any other Dante had felt. He tried to block it, but the waves just kept washing over him. He spasmed and yelled out casuing Jay to swerve. He placed his fingers to his lip. There was blood.

Where are you?

Don't come...

"Jas'? What's wrong?"

But...

"Jas'?"

Stop Freya. Keep...

The ethereal voice was cut off. There was nothing. Void.

"I didn't think you had it in you, Nightwalker." Rl'yeh had one hand placed on the side of his head. He opened his one good eye and a black stare filled his vision. And the empty grin. He closed it again and let his head fall forward.

"Oh dear, have you had enough of our games for today?" She waited for a response but none came.

"Fine." Cold steel wrapped itself around his throat, pulling his head back against the wall. Her cold hand tapped against his cheek. "Try not to miss me too much," she whispered into his ear. After a few seconds, the door slammed loudly, followed by silence. There was a quiet click and the cell was plunged into darkness.

**

"Did you say something?" Revenant only whispered but her voice carried over the plateau. The pack stopped and turned.

"You heard something?" Gwen asked.

"Well...I thought..." She stumbled under the scrutiny of the twelve pairs of shining eyes. She turned to Llenlleawg. "Did you say something?"

"No, but I sort of felt it..." He furrowed his brow trying to find the word. "It was the Slayer Sense, sort of. Something moved through it."

The other werewolves looked around nervously in case anything jumped out at them.

"Never felt anything like that before then?" Freya asked.

Llenlleawg shook his head.

"Well at least we know it's not those Apocalypse guys. They don't show up on your radar at all."

"No," Lir said darkly, "it could be worse than them."

"Don't say that!" Freya hit him on the arm. "I don't think we need to hear ‘worse'. Those guys are bad enough." Lir mumbled an apology.

"So, are we carrying on?" Gawain asked.

"Yes, we'll keep going until the little ones Sense something." Freya started walking.

"Who's she calling little?" Revenant hissed to Llenlleawg, "I'm nearly as big as her."

**

"The werewolves are nearly here."

Rl'yeh looked up from another torture toy she had just found. "How far?"

"Kilometre or so," Zhar replied.

A joyless smile spread across her face. "It's time we unleashed the surprise Lord Abortion has prepared."

**

"Jas'? Jas'? Come on man, wake up."

Dante heard the familiar voice but it sounded a long way away, down a tunnel. He stirred and opened his eyes slightly. Everything was white but gradually the colour faded back in. Jay's face was hovering above his.

"Where are we?" he asked hoarsely, realising he was lying on his back.

"Just a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. You started yelling and bleeding. Luckily I managed to pull in here before you jumped out of the car, threw up and collapsed." He offered his friend a hand and pulled Dante to his feet. "You really scared me."

"Sorry." Dante looked around. "We need to keep moving."

"Aren't you going to tell me what happened?"

"In the car. We need to hurry."

"Why?"

"Because Darkness told us not to."

**

Freya thought she smelled something on the breeze. Something familiar, but muted, as if it was a long way away, or obscured by something...

"Do you guys smell tha-"

A huge shape careered into her, bowling her over into the dirt. She struggled to fight him off. He had no smell.

Around her, she heard the sound of blades being drawn and then fighting. Unable to smell or Sense the creatures they were up against though, she knew The Children and Revenant wouldn't stand much chance.

She bit a muscular arm that wrapped around her face.

"Ow! No need for teeth, Freya!"

She was hurled to one side and stared up in confusion at the creature that had attacked her. It was not one of The Apocalypse. He had no smell - or only a very faint one - but he was standing against the sun so she couldn't make out his features.

"What's the matter? Don't recognise me, sis?"

"Oh shit..."

The other werewolves that were holding down The Children and Revenant transformed back, resolving into the semi-familiar shapes of Fenris's henchmen. Fenris himself lifted her up roughly and wrapped his burly arm around her throat, careful to keep away from her teeth this time.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Just our job."

She took a moment to glance up at her brother, and saw that his skin was paler than she remembered, and his cheeks were hollow and gaunt. There was a greenish tinge to his flesh and, when he grinned, his gums were black with disease.

"So who's side are you on this time?"

"Same as before, just now we take orders direct from the source."

"And that would be?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be meeting him soon, sis. Very soon indeed." Fenris barked a command to his men, and they dragged their captives away across the plateau.

He stared at the light of the moon that filtered down through the dark New York sky, he had refused to take the pills or the injections tonight. Something had made him want to fight, something had made him want to resist. Razor's acid filled denouncement of him and his affection had hurt him to his core of his being. His stomach hurt as if he hadn't eaten for months, his mouth felt dry and his vision seemed blurry and almost swayed as he tried to focus on the pale surface of the moon.

In the midst of his pain and agony, he managed to get to his feet and stumbled over to the door to his room, he wanted release he wanted sleep or death or whatever took the pain away. In his entire life Spike Malloy had never wished for death or for that kind of release...but now he did.

He leaned on the door and in a warbled version of his cockney English he called out for help.

It took a few seconds but then he heard the sound of steps outside his door, he fell to the floor and as he clutched his stomach he heard the door open.

"Help..." He managed to squeeze out of his pained lungs.

He heard a short, cold laugh.

"Oh I will help you Spike...I will help you."

Spike looked up and saw a man he had never seen before, the man looked to be maybe three or four years older then him, but his hair was white as snow. As the pain continued to throb in him he felt himself going into a strange state of unconsciousness, the last thing he saw was a golden ring on the man's finger, as he slid into kingdom come, he had the feeling that the ring was somehow important.

Then his world went black.

*****

Darkness lifted his glare and again he met the two pools of dead water that was R'yleh's stare, his entire body screamed from pain, he felt dirty from the thick layer of dry blood that covered his chest and face. Darkness had from an early age been trained to withstand pain and suffering, but now he was in the hands of an expert, a master of the horrid craft of torture, most human torturers are masters of confessions, R'yleh was simply a master of suffering.

She gave him a quick pat on his cheek and he shied away from the coldness of her pale skin.

"You won't be alone much longer, Nightwalker..."

Darkness managed a hollow laugh.

"Don't expect company...I told them...told them..."

He had to pause to catch his breath.

"I told them to stay away...I told them to just let me die."

As the last words left his lips he felt elation, he had finally managed to upset the cold-hearted bitch.

R'yleh laughed at his sacrificial bravado.

"You don't know you "friends" Nightwalker, the She-wolf and his litter are within an kilometre of us at the moment, she is about to or have already met a surprise of mine...And the Earthborn is speeding towards us, and towards another surprise."

R'yleh smiled her hollow, empty smile.

"So you see, Nightwalker we will have plenty of time before your friend join us, the best part, Nightwalker is is that when they do join us I will have you to show them..."

She caressed his cheek before wiping his blood off on a cloth.

"...to show them my handicraft to show them what I can do...and to show them that no matter what they do, I will break them down."

Before Darkness could reply, R'yleh sent him into a new vortex of pain and suffering.

*****

Ecks stared out across the barren landscape of the Nazca Valley, even the wind was hot here in the middle of the day, in the distance he could see formations that looked like strangely twisted roads, he assumed that these lines were the famous geoglyphs.

"Don't stand out there in the sun, man...just chill and relax until the sun begins to set."

Ecks looked at Dante who lay in the shade their Jeep provided, the albino had put up a tarp to act as a sun blocker.

Ecks sat down beside his friend and looked at the albino.

"You ok?"

"I'm fine..." Dante replied in tone that killed the subject.

"I only asked because you scared the piss out of me."

"I didn't mean to...I got some...message, and it felt like it had been written on a mallet and banged against my head."

"From Darkness?" Ecks guessed.

"Yeah, he told us to stay away."

"And you're going to ignore it..." It wasn't a question, Ecks knew Dante better then anyone maybe save Selenia and Dante himself, the best way to make Dante do something was to tell him not to do it. He had no idea what kind of bond Dante and Darkness had, Jay Ecks wasn't a semi-demon or a half-angel, he had no idea what direct exchange of thoughts meant or what it felt like.

Before Ecks could let the thought expand, Dante got up and stared out across the plain.

"What?" Ecks asked.

"The sun is setting."

"Time to go."

"Yep."

Ecks stared out across the wasteland as the shade caused by the mountains around it started it's race across the geoglyphs.

"So...where do we go?"

"I have no idea?"

"So we walk about here all night?"

"No, I go with my gut instinct."

Without a further word, Dante began walking towards a geoglyph that looked like a giant spider.

*****

Spike open his eyes and faced the same pain again, he rolled into a ball ans he clutched his pain-ridden stomach.

"You want the pain to go away?"

"Y...y...e...yes." he stuttered.

"I have a cure..."

"Then give it to me..."

"You need to promise to do me a favour first...quid pro quo."

"F...fine...I'll do anything to be rid of this pain." Spike said before pain reclaimed him.

He felt pain shooting through his arm, the pain subsided as he felt a liquid being pumped into his arm.

Seconds later he was on his back savouring the first few moments without pain he had had for months. He took a deep breath and felt the joy of being alive."

The man with the white hair and golden ring bend to speak to Spike.

"And now for the favour..."

"Sure, mate...anything to be rid of that effin' pain."

The white-haired man grinned.

"We need to go to Peru..."

*****

Dante stood in the middle of the geoglyphic spider's head and stared into the empty plain...he took a deep breath and searched the mental airwaves...the aeather as the fake psychics would call it.

"He's below us."

"Here?"

"Yeah, he..." Dante paused as a concerned look took root on his face.

"He's gone."

"Gone?" Ecks said feeling stupid because of his one word replies to things he really didn't understand.

"It felt as if...someone pulled a blanket over him you know..."

"Ok?"

"We have to fucking find him."

"The question is how we find him, for all we know he could be in fucking China!"

Dante ignored Ecks' attempt at irony.

"No...he was closer we just need to find a..." Dante paused as he heard a metallic sound from Ecks direction.

"What the hell was that?"

Ecks bent down and scraped away some dirt. The large man grinned as he looked up again.

"A hatch."

Dante returned before he helped his friend opening the hatch. Minutes later they descended into the colder and dark, decidedly modern buildings they had ever seen. As they entered the hatch slammed shut above them.

Seconds after they disappeared the flapflap of a helicopter reverberated across the valley. The vehicle touched down and a man stepped out. As the man began to walk across the plains a man in the chopper called him over.

"You know what I told you to do...I want you to follow my rules to the letter, is that clear?"

"Sure thin' mate...clear as a bleedin' whistle."

"Glad to hear that, when your done you meet me in Rio, I will send for you..."

"And then I get the full cure?"

"Yes, straight from the source."

"Sounds soddin' superb ta me."

The man with the white hair nodded as the chopper took off.

The man on the plains ran his hand through his blonde hair and walked towards the hatch through which Dante and Ecks had disappeared five minutes earlier. Seconds later he had gone the same way they had gone.

*****

"What the hell is this place?"

"How the hell should I know? The US army has all kinds of fucking strange compounds and buildings all over the world."

"Looks like the janitor in this own is on holiday." Ecks said as he ran his fingers through a good five years of dust on a shelf."

"Yeah, this place looks deserted."

They walked down a dimly lit corridor lined by locked doors, at the end of the corridor they made a right turn and came into yet another anonymous corridor, the doors in this one looked different though.

"This looks like holding cells!" Dante exclaimed.

Ecks simply nodded as he tried to make sense of the inmate manifest.

"Seems that the last prisoner here was released in...1999..."

Dante nodded but said.

"Then why is there light coming from beyond this door then?".

Ecks stared at the door as Dante closed his eyes, seconds later his eye flung open and he had to lean against the wall.

"I really need to practise this shit again...it damn near floors me every time anyone tries to "connect"."

"Who's in there?"

"I can't be sure...but it has a lupine signature to it...it may be Freya!"

He paused.

"Shit...there are two lupine signatures...one is faint but hostile, the other one..." Dante grinned..."the other one is pissed off as hell..has to be Freya."

Dante produced a lighter and flicked it to life, a few seconds of focusing on people like Seth, Dragon and Lucifer filled him with enough rage to turn the humble lighter into a blow torch.

As Dante began cutting the hinges open a stream of abuse was hurled inside the cell.

"NO!"

"I don't know why you are so damn stubborn sis...we have talked about this for the last few hours and you really have no option...well unless you consider six feet deep an actually damn option."

Freya got in her brother's face and snapped off.

"I'd rather be DEAD then on your "side"."

Fenris cursed.

"You sound like them."

"Sound like who?"

"Darkness and...Dante..." Fenris said, he wasn't sure the albino was really called Dante but he assumed it was close enough.

Freya however stared at her brother and with a triumphant smirk she said.

"Thanks." She had reasons to dislike both Dante and Darkness but at the moment she wanted any way she could find to upset her brother.

"You've always been a..."

We never got to learn what Freya had always been as Fenris was knocked loopy by an incoming steel door, Dante and Ecks had combined their strengths to "open" the prison cell door.

Dante looked down on the fallen Fenris who was as deep into lala-land as any man, woman of half-wolf had ever been. Then he looked up at Freya.

"Oh hi Freya...come here often?"

Freya gave Dante a dirty look and stomped out trying to shake her rescuers.

"Hey, wait a second!" Ecks called out as Dante leaned on the wall to recuperate his strength from his blowtorch impression.

"What?" Freya snapped back at the former Linebacker.

"We saved you!"

"Well, thank you then..."

"What are you going to do now Freya? Spend the rest of the fucking year looking for Darkness and your litter in here?"

Dante had recuperated enough to be able to speak.

"..." Freya had no reply.

"This place is huge, we need to cover a shit load of ground and I assume that your fellow-furball in there will wake up sooner or later and as he IS your brother and I know the mood your family seems to have been born with...he won't be happy to have received a damn door to the cranium."

For once, Freya was speechless.

"So...I say we team up, find the litter..."

"The Children." Freya protested, trying to regain her advantage.

"...the kids..." Dante relented.

"Then we go looking for our one armed bandit friend and get the hell out of freak town."

Freya nodded.

"Fine then we can..."

"Do whut sunshine?"

Dante, Ecks and Freya all turned around and saw a man standing in the corridor. As the man approached Dante's eye grow wide.

"Spike?"

"Non-otha mate...Spike in his fully soddin' glory!"

Dante leaned away from the wall and positioned himself between Ecks, Freya and Spike.

"You know this joker?" Ecks asked.

"Long story...but yeah I do...he kidnapped Misfit and Darkness and I had to rescue our punky friend."

"Long time ago, mate...I 'ad almost forgotten that..."

"I haven't." Dante snapped back.

"Jas what can..."

"You can't do anything, go find the kids and Darkness...I'll handle the Chelsea bum..."

"But..." Ecks protested.

"Just fucking GO!" Dante screamed as Freya grabbed Ecks and forced him to join her in a sprint down a corrdior.

"Just you and me, Spike."

"Yeah...Jus' you an'me...brother!"
"What?"

"Oh didn I tells ya? Before Razor went unfaithful on me she injected me with yer blood mate...We're as good as brother now ya now?"

Dante didn't reply, he swung his right fist at Spike instead.

Spike dodged, and Dante knew his reactions had been enhanced by whatever procedure Razor had performed on him. Demon blood or not though, he would never be as fast as Jason Dante. The albino spun on the ball of his foot as he went past spike and drove his elbow into his old enemy's spine. Spike let out a yelp of pain and staggered forward a few steps. Dante made to press his advantage, but he felt a surge from behind him, and couldn't move fast enough to stop the huge shape of Fenris enclosing him in a pair of sinewy arms.

"Thanks, mate, I owe ya one," Spike grinned.

"Who the fuck are you?" Fenris asked, shoving Dante against the nearest wall.

"Name's Spike."

"Like a dog?"

"You're one to talk, Rover."

Fenris launched himself at Spike, transforming in mid-air so that, by the time he crashed into the wiry Englishman, he had adopted the form of a huge black wolf. Spike was visibly unnerved by his sudden change in circumstances, but Dante couldn't summon any sympathy for him. He tried to fight the animal, but Fenris was all jaws and claws, and he soon had Spike pinned to the ground.

"I'll leave you two alone," Dante smiled, sliding past the combatants. Just as he was about to leave the cell though, he felt something pulse through the room, like a jet stream of infernal power. Spike let out a roar and buried his foot into Fenris's abdomen, flipping him right over onto his back. Dante stared at Spike in astonishment as he twisted over onto his stomach and pushed himself right up to his feet in one swift movement. His eyes glowed red with power.

"That's a neat trick. How'd you gather Hellfire like that?"

"Wish I could tell ya, bruv'..."

Spike swung at Dante this time, and it was too fast to dodge. Dante felt his skin blister as Spike's fist connected with his cheek, and blinked at the trails left across his vision by the movement of his glowing arm. He stumbled against the wall again. Fenris had righted himself, but was holding back, hackles raised, observing the fight.

Spike came at Dante again, flailing wildly, but with astonishing speed. He seemed to be getting stronger, fuelled by something more powerful than himself: more powerful even than Dante.

He wanted to bite out another cutting remark, but it was all Dante could do to defend himself from the empowered Spike. Burning fists left smouldering patches in his clothes, but Dante's natural powers of pyromancy were largely shielding him from the terrible heat. They were not so effective at stopping the damage wrought by flesh and bone though, and Dante found himself covering his head with his hands in order to protect himself.

"Now I'm gonna finish this!" Spike yelled, his voice resonating with power.

* * *

Freya jogged down a decaying corridor with Jay Ecks by her side. Though the former college-football player was in good shape, he was soon panting with the effort of keeping up with his nimble companion.

"Do you even know where we're going?" he asked as he took the opportunity to catch his breath with one hand against the wall as they paused at an intersection.

"No, but I know how to get there."

"Huh?"

"I'm following The Childrens' trail."

"With...with your nose...?"

She gave him a look. "Yeah. With with my nose. How else would I do it?"

"How does it work?"

"Is yours just decorative or something?"

"No...no..." Jay straightened, "what I mean is, a dog's nose is different from a human's nose..."

"Well I'm not a dog or a human. I'm a werewolf."

"I know that. But a wolf smells because it has a more sensitive nose. It's physiologically different from a human nose. But, looking at you right now, you just have a normal nose."

"Normal?" she arched an eyebrow.

"Well, not normal. It's very pretty actually."

"It is?" She raised a hand to the offending organ self-consciously.

"Sure." Jay looked down the corridor to the left. "C'mon, you don't need a big dumbass like me telling you that."

"You're not a dumbass. I was very impressed with your use of the word ‘physiologically'. You almost pronounced it right."

He laughed and there was a brief awkward pause. "So which way are your friends?"

"Um...that way..." she pointed the way Jay was looking.

"Lucky guess," he said with a wink as she walked past him.

"Maybe you're not just a pretty nose either."

He was about to reply, but Freya suddenly stopped and looked back down the other corridor.

"What is it?" Jay asked, "Something wrong?"

"Do you smell that?"

"No, I think we've covered that already..."

Freya wrinkled her nose (prettily, thought Jay) and stuck out her tongue. "You seriously can't smell that?"

"What is it?"

"Something really, really wrong. It's kind of familiar too."

"Familiar? Is that good?"

"Probably not."

There was a long, low, rapsing howl from down the corridor in the direction they hadn't chosen. Jay's heart was in his mouth the second it started and, as it reverberated deeply, the sound drummed up his spine and into his hindbrain. For just a second he was small and furry, a tiny, bug-eyed primate squatting on a branch, searching for a hole to hide from the things in the night that would turn him into nothing more than a bloody crunch no one would remember.

It was the sound of the ultimate predator, and something more.

"Oh we're really fucked now," Freya whispered.

* * *

Darkness hit the floor of his cell with a squelch. His breath was a burning rasp in his throat, even the air needling his raw, ruined throat. He tried to moisten his lips, but his tongue was dry, and they were so cracked and sore that even running the desiccated lump of flesh over them caused them to explode in agony.

How long had he even been here now? Had they ever fed him or given him water? He knew the rule of threes...three weeks without food, three days without water, three minutes without air. All would kill a human being - even one like him.

But if she wanted him dead, he knew he would be by now. He couldn't stop her ending this, so she obviously had some reason to keep him alive.

He rolled over onto his chest, ignoring the pain as his blistered and scarred chest pressed against the floor and instead concentrating on the cool relief as his forehead touched the same.

Ah, he remembered now. Sleep deprivation, constant torture and the everyday agony of his existence - knowing the depth of his failure - had made him forget.

He was bait. Bait for Freya, and Dante, and Marta, and Jack, and John, and Ben and all the rest of them. And, what's more, he'd worked. They were here already - he could feel them with his Slayer Sense: werewolves, and Dante and a couple of others too. Probably Marta and Jack. They'd all come to find him, and now they were all going to be tortured like he had been.

Rl'yeh crouched down beside him. She ran a hand across his face as he rolled over onto his side and he shuddered at her empty touch. Even without her sadistic treatment of him she'd have revolted him. She was the spawn of the Abyss: a mere shell of a human being, created by an accident of birth to be the embodiment of the Void. She was not real.

"Poor Nightwalker. I thought you would have been so much stronger than this."

He had no words left for her.

"You have such a reputation."

No words. Not for this one.

"And," she smiled a cold, reptilian smile - her features were smooth and symmetrical, but she was incapable of being anything but hideous - "your progeny proved to have such an impressive constitution for one of her tender years."

Now he had the words. His lips wouldn't form the shape of the sounds, and his tongue wouldn't move at his command, but he still said it.

"What?"

"Your daughter, Darkness. Only nine years old, but she held up remarkably well. It took me almost a week to break her."

He closed his eyes. His body didn't have enough moisture left for tears.

"And you have lasted fully two," she said in a whisper, not hiding her icy smile of triumph.

* * *

Dante was ready with a counter attack but, as he rolled away beneath Spike's reach and up to his feet, there was no strike to move in response to. Spike stood motionless, eyes wide.

"I wasn't gonna kill ‘im!"

Dante cocked his head. Spike held his hands to his head and sank to his knees. He yelled out in pain and slowly curled into a foetal ball on the floor of the cell.

"Well that was weird..."

He didn't have time to reflect on that, as Fenris suddenly collided with him, bowling him over. The massive werewolf, still in lupine form, rolled through and landed on his feet. He bared yellow fangs as Dante got up to his knees and then opened his gaping maw. Strings of saliva thronged his powerful jaws, and Dante was momentarily transfixed.

His life flashed before his eyes. An unhappy childhood, followed by an unhappier adolescence, a lifetime of mistakes and regrets, washed away by Selenia's love. Every moment he had spent with her flicked past in a heartbeat, and the moments they would never have were frozen in time - the birth of his child, growing old together, leaving all this shit behind and just being normal people with normal hopes and fears. For the first time in his life, Jason Dante knew what he really wanted, and it was just his luck to realise it now.

Fenris pounced, but he never reached Dante. Instead, his jaws closed around Spike's arm, and the Englishman was shaken away like a rag doll, crashing into the wall and slumping down in a bloody heap. Fenris went after him, teeth bared again.

You saved me!

Like ‘ell I did! Spike's thoughts came in bursts as he fought for his life against Fenris.

Then why...?

She made me do it, you prick! Do me a fuckin' favour and find that bastard Darkness. It's exactly what the bitch don't want!

Dante knew he meant Razor. Lilith. Spike had been sent here to stop Dante saving Darkness, or maybe falling into the same trap. Well...he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of controlling him. If there was one way to get Jason Dante to do something, it was to tell him not to.

"Thanks, brother."

Aw, fuck off.

Dante could only faintly hear the thoughts of the man who shared his blood, as he was now halfway down the corridor, following the faint sensation of Darkness in the back of his mind.

* * *

"Run!"

"What?" Jay stared at Freya.

"Run!" she called back over her shoulder, and Jay was now looking blankly at the place she had just been. He started to move, slowly at first, but gathering pace as his conscious mind caught up with his instincts.

"Don't look back!"

He looked back, and saw what they were running from. "Holy shit!"

"I told you, dumbass!"

Behind them, seemingly taking up the whole width and height of the corridor, was a gargantuan mass of rotting flesh and bone in the vague shape of a monstrous bipedal wolf. It had sunk down to all fours and was now in pursuit.

"What the hell is that thing?!"

"It's a vampire!"

"That's what a vampire looks like?"

"Yeah, when it's also a Warg."

They came to another intersection, and Freya turned left again, not breaking her sprint as she turned the corner. Jay followed as fast as he could, keeping his eyes on her backside. It was really weird how your mind worked in a crisis.

He heard the bone-shattering sound of a creature weighing the better part of a tonne slamming into a wall. He slowed down and looked back, at where the Vampire-Warg thing was slumped down at the intersection.

"Is...is it dead...?" he panted.

"Yeah."

"Thank God."

"No, I mean it's dead. It died ages ago, then got brought back to life. We should really keep running."

Jay gave its shattered limbs an appraising glance. "I don't think it'll be chasing anyone any time soon."

"Wanna bet?"

The creature began to stir and then, before Jay's disbelieving eyes, its rotting flesh and bone started to knit back together and it picked itself up.

"See? Can we go now?"

"Yep."

They broke into a sprint again, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the monster before it was on its feet again. There was another howl from behind them.

"He's called Goth," Freya explained between gasps.

"He's a friend of yours?"

"We're only on nodding terms. But, hey, if he's here, chances are we're going to run into another of my..."

"Hello, sis."

"...brothers..." she finished weakly as they came to a halt in front of a lean, ill-looking man.

"Jay Ecks: Bronson. Bronson: Jay Ecks," Freya said.

"I really don't care," Bronson sneered.

"You don't look well," Freya observed, "are you and Fenris on the same medication or something?"

"You might say that," Bronson smiled, revealing the same blackened gums as his elder brother.

"Are you going to call that thing off?"

"My control is a little limited since Lord Abortion arrived. But don't worry, I'm sure he won't let Goth kill you two. I know for a fact he wants to end all of you personally."

"Fantastic," Jay sighed.

* * *

In the heart of the complex was a wide chamber. It had been used to store the esoteric equipment that the US Military had been using for its secret research in the base, but had long since been removed. Now, The Apocalypse gathered around the edges of the room, leaning against walls or slouching idly on the floor. They were of all ages and races, dressed in a variety of different styles dependent on nationality, class or personal taste, but they all shared the same flat gaze, the same non-descript features, the same hollow expression. They didn't talk, they didn't gather in lose groups, they didn't show any signs of being in company. Each of them might as well have been alone.

In truth, each of them always was.

Alone. Cut off from the rest of the world. Some Faithless, those unfortunate beings who bore the taint of the Abyss in their veins, carved out lives for themselves. They were always destined to be misfits and outcasts, incapable of forming emotional attachments to normal human beings, but they still had the same choices as everyone else: to live the best you could with the hand dealt you, or to spit on fate and take out your anger and fury on the world that had wronged you.

The Apocalypse were the latter. Their emotions were manufactured facsimiles of the responses they had observed in others, and these few had chosen to mimic only rage and hatred. They would willingly destroy the world, because there was nothing in it they valued. They rejected the universe just as it had rejected them from the moment of their birth.

They hated, and their hatred had consumed them totally. They hated their enemies, they hated their allies, they hated those who knew nothing about them, they hated each other and they hated themselves. So they waited for their thirst for revenge to be quenched: they waited for the world's ending. They were The Apocalypse.

He rose from the shadows in the centre of the room, a towering, baroque shape. He wore a cloak that obscured his features, but there was no mistaking the weapon slung across his back: a long, undulating blade that glowed dull green. Every few seconds, the sword's surface seemed to shudder and there was the impression of some tortured face ghosting over it.

"Bring him to me," Lord Abortion commanded, his voice dry and stale. Where his armoured feet rested, the floor had begun to crack and mildew was forming before their eyes. Tiny creatures crawled from the decaying ground, fleeing the taint of the Void that its Champion exuded.

The doors to the chamber opened, and Rl'yeh and Zhar entered, the latter dragging the bloody form of Darkness behind him. He left a trail of blood on the floor.

"Master, I present to you: The Nightwalker."

Lord Abortion tilted his cloaked head as he observed Darkness with gleaming white eyes. "I see you have not been gentle with him."

"No. You will be pleased to hear that he is broken."

Lord Abortion laughed. The hollow sound echoed around the chamber, but it was not taken up by anybody else present. Rl'yeh looked confused. Her eyes flicked down to her prisoner.

"Master, I assure you..." She tugged at the chain that connected to the heavy iron collar around Darkness's throat, yanking him up to his feet. He hung limply, bloody and naked, his body a mess of cuts and bruises, "...he is utterly broken. His will has been destroyed." She turned to Darkness, taking his chin in her hands. "All I had to do was tell him how I tortured his precious Krissy to death and..."

She didn't finish the sentence. There was a sickening crunch as Darkness, putting all his weight into his punch, swung at her and sent her sprawling. The momentum sent him down to his knees and The Apocalypse all rose to their feet, stunned.

Rl'yeh stared at Darkness. She held one hand to her face. "You broke my jaw!" she managed to scream as blood filled her mouth.

Darkness reared back and spat a tooth at her, spraying her pale features with more blood.

Lord Abortion was laughing again. "Fool! You cannot break Nightwalker! He is the Will Unbreakable, the Faith Unshakable! Only in death can he be stopped."

The Champion of the Void stepped forward, towering over Darkness until he looked up at his foe.

"Remember," Lord Abortion said in a low voice, "it was he who did this to me..." He jerked aside his cloak, revealing a ragged hole in his abdomen. He stooped and grabbed Darkness around the throat, lifting him up with apparent ease.

"He will not be so lucky this time," Skaar continued as he pulled back his hood with one clawed hand, "without his weapons."

* * *

Dante sprinted down the corridor. He was getting close now. He knew Stormcaller would do no good, so he reached inside his jacket and drew out the other weapon he'd brought.

"You don't have to do this, Bronson. I know you, you thought the Abyss was a good idea at the time, they gave you power over that abomination, let you run around doing what you liked, but now they want something back and you can't get out of it."

"You don't know me as well as you think," Bronson stepped closer to Freya, he wasn't as tall as most of The Children but he still had an extra inch to flaunt over her, "the only thing they asked me to give was something I wouldn't miss."

"Come on," Ecks tried to steer Freya away, his giant hands on her shoulders. "He isn't going to help."

Bronson looked up at Jay, his footballers physique giving him a much more werewolf-like stature than Bronson ever had. He gave him a toothy grin. "Still whoring it around with humans, sis'?"

"Piss off." Freya pushed him hard in the chest and he bounced back against the wall, jarring his head. He yelped in pain and clutched at his skull.

"C'mon," she said, tugging at Jay's arm, "let's get out of here before we really have to hurt him."

"What was that all about?" Jay asked once they'd left Bronson behind.

"Nothin'. He's just trying to make trouble." She dropped into silence, concentrating on the invisible trail she was following.

Jay tried to return to the light-heartedness of earlier. "Are we likely to have anymore of your brothers jump out at us?"

"I doubt it."

"So you have other..."

"Fenris's brother Regin," Freya interrupted him, "he's got a whole load of tots and a wife, and the Triplets are too afraid of father to leave the village."

"What about..."

"Jay," Freya stopped and turned around sharply, "I want to find The Children, Darkness, refind Jason and get out before this Lord Abortion bloke turns up and we end up in serious trouble. If we get out alive, then you can ask."

**

His muscles screamed as he tried to lift himself off the cold tiles, his Slayer Sense was on fire. His arms gave way and he thudded back on to the floor. Mocking laughter came from above him.

"How far you have fallen, Nightwalker."

A hand grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head and pulled him around awkwardly. Skaar's pinprick eyes studied the bruised and broken face of Darkness. "You have been my greatest adversary down the centuries, but now I see how pathetic you really are." He let go of Darkness and stood up straight. "You will see those that gathered around you destroyed before I send you into the Void."

A door to one side opened and Bronson stepped in. A look passed between him and the vampire and he nodded in response to a silent question. He stepped over the broken body of Darkness and took his place amongst the Faithless that lined the walls.

"It seems you are not the only one to betray your family, Nightwalker." Skaar barred his teeth in a joyless smile.

There was a loud clatter and through a second door two figures stumbled.

**

Crash

Dante slowed down as he neared the noise. He heard voices and then another loud crash. A steel door nearby shook. He stopped as there was a pause and the door came flying off its hinges. The massive shape of Galadd stepped out and picked up the door. With a sheepish grin in Dante's direction he carefully leant the door against a wall. The other Children filtered into the corridor. Gwen looked Dante up and down.

"Do you have a plan?" she asked, not bothering to wait for an explanation for his presence. She eyed the silver gun in his hand.

"Yes."

Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I was planning to make it up as I went along."

Gwen nodded. "Do you know where Darkness is?"

"Not exactly."

There was the sound of eleven noses sniffing. Revenant rolled her eyes as she waited for the rest to decide on a direction.

"That way." Gwen pointed.

"Are you sure?"

Gwen look surprised that someone didn't trust her nose. "Yes, I'm sure."

The Children started in a loping gait in the agreed direction. As Dante tried to keep up, one of the werewolves dropped back.

"It's Lir, isn't it?" he asked, seeing the vivid green eyes.

"Yeah. Um...have you seen Freya?"

"She...she..." She was meant to find you guys he thought. "She's fine, I'm sure."

Lir gave him a small smile. "Thanks for lying."

They'd caught up with the others who'd stopped in front of a large metal door.

"Ready?" Gwen asked.

Dante cocked the gun. "As ready I'll ever be."

**

"Fuck."

Freya's voice ran out around the hall. She tried to push Ecks back out the way they'd come but The Apocalypse had already crowded around them. She let out a small growl and stood closer to Ecks, not sure which way to face for the immediate danger. As she circled around, still giving out the low warning growl, she saw Darkness in a heap on the floor. The noise caught in her throat as a lump she couldn't swallow formed.

"How helpful for you to come find us."

Freya tore her eyes from the naked and bloody Darkness and stared at the towering vampire.

"See, Nightwalker, your foolish halfbreed is going to be the first to die."

A howl reverberated from the corridor Ecks and Freya had just come from. They managed to jump out of the way before the door crashed open and Goth appeared. Jay tried to sit up from where he'd fallen but found a wolf standing over him, snarling at the unnatural creature that had appeared. The rotting warg turned its head slowly and finally fixed its pinprick pupils on the pair and slowly lumbered forward.

Skaar raised a hand and two men stepped forward and lifted Darkness off the ground. He tried to struggle but his weak efforts just caused mirthless laughter. With his one good eye he watched as Freya, ears flat back against the back of her head, stepped back before jumping, jaws open, at the monstrous beast.

A commotion came from behind but he couldn't turn his head to look. It wasn't until a white wolf ran past that he realised what was going on. He watched helplessly as the warg threw Freya, the white wolf and a black beast that followed it against walls. There was a sickening thud as the black wolf hit the wall. Blood smeared down the wall as it fell to the floor. The Apocalypse were moving around the room fighting the werewolves in humanoid and lupine forms.

Out of the corner of his eye, Darkness could see the darting form of Revenant, the blades on her wrists catching the fluorescent light. He tried to follow the fighting but couldn't turn to see. In front of him, a humanoid Freya was exchanging blows with a blonde woman. From behind another woman, this one with short spiked hair, walked up and seemed to drive her fist into Freya's rib cage. She stopped fighting, a look of shock and pain on her face. The women stepped back and let her drop to her knees. Jay rushed forward, but the woman with the spiky hair intercepted him.

Red sprayed the room and he fell heavily to the floor where he lay, not moving. Darkness was pulled ‘round. Glassy eyes stared from familiar faces. Revenant was being securely held by a man and his tormentor. Rl'yeh smiled when she saw Darkness look and gently stroked a loose strand out of Revenant's face.

A figure in white backed into his field of vision, a silver gun in his hands and shooting wildly at the dead warg that was now advancing on him. Bullets ripped through the desiccated flesh, seemingly unfelt. The click of the hammer on an empty chamber sounded louder than the bullet fire of before. Dante looked at the now useless weapon in horror. He threw it before turning to run. This was all the beast needed and it jumped on him.

"See how fragile life is?" a voice hissed in Darkness's ear. "How you thought you could defeat us...how you thought you could stand against the Void...." a hand grabbed his head and wrenched it to one side, claws digging into his scalp. "You just lost."

The pain was immediate, first the puncture in his neck, then as his brain collapsed, crystallising. He felt like he was falling, like all he had to do was spread his wings...

**

"Fuck."

The word reverberated around the room. Darkness opened his eye. There was a moment of confusion as the pair tried to leave. He frowned. This seemed familiar.

Dante...

Hold on, mate, we're nearby.

Lord Abortion...the master of the Faithless...it's Skaar... Darkness couldn't continue but he still felt the connection open.

Skaar?! Just hold on....

Dante pulled his zippo from his pocket and handed it to Llenlleawg. "Keep it lit," he told the Neophyte.

The fireball burst through the door, taking out two men who were standing on the other side. Flames fanned out and the albino stepped through them, the Eye of God raised high.

"Remember this?" he asked, advancing on the seven-foot vampire. He stepped over the body of Darkness and Gawain and Galadd ran over to pick him up.

"Are you so sure that will work against me a second time, Earthborn?"

"Are you so sure it won't?" He saw The Apocalypse step away from the wall. "I'd stay back if I were you." He raised a hand and the flame on the lighter turned into a large ball. "This ain't Hellfire this time - just regular old fire and, unless I miss my guess, you guys burn just as well as the rest of us."

"You won't escape," Skaar said, his dry voice calm.

"I think I might." He tried to look about without moving. "Jay, you coming man?"

"I think I've had enough excitement, yes."

Dante heard scrabbling as his friend got away from the warg and joined the werewolves behind him. He slowly backed away, Skaar's pinprick pupils following the end of the gun.

The Children that had reached the corridor had already started to run. Dante sent fireballs to fill the corridor behind them. He followed the pack, hoping the noses at the front knew where the way out was.

Suddenly there was sunlight. Dante stopped, blinded and blinking in the Peruvian sun, waiting for his eyes to adjust.

"Don't stop," Llenlleawg said, giving him a push as he went past. Deep in the bowels of the buildings they'd left, a howl could be heard.

Dante took flight again, running towards the car park where he'd left the car. The van the werewolves had arrived in was almost full when he got there, Darkness, now unconscious, had been given as many clothes as could be found and placed in one of the chairs. Jay was watching as Freya ripped wires from the steering column, tore them in half and brushed them together. The engine sparked into life.

"Do I even want to know how you know how to do that?" He asked, reaching the van.

"Probably not."

**

Darkness opened his eyes. Both of them were working again. The room was dark and cool. Using his good hand, he managed to sit up. His mouth felt like a desert, but next to the bed he could just about make out a glass. He reached out but his muscles were still running on empty, and his shaking hand knocked the glass over. The noise woke a shape on the other side of the bed. It unfolded from a small sofa.

He tried to speak, but nothing came out. He couldn't Sense the shape and, suddenly realising it must be one of The Apocalypse, he tried to rise from the bed to attack. Instead, weak as a baby, he tumbled to the floor.

"Hey, hey, it's just me." A lamp went on and Freya appeared to his Slayer Sense. "Sorry, I was wearing that pendant so my sitting here wouldn't disturb you." She lifted him back into the bed and fetched a fresh glass of water - this time with a straw. She held it for him to drink. The water was lukewarm, but it did the trick.

"It's sweet," he managed to say, though his voice was hoarse.

"Tilpin said to put in some sugar; get some energy to your muscles quickly. You went a long time without food in there."

"How long have I been asleep?" He motioned for the glass of water again.

"Most of the day. You were a bit delirious this morning so Tilpin gave you something." She perched on the edge of the bed so she could hold the glass more easily. "You kept insisting we were all dead."

Darkness frowned, as if trying to recall fragments of a dream. "I remember...you did die, you all did...I did..."

"Well I'm doing very well for a corpse then." She tried to laugh but the serious look on Darkness's face killed it. "It wasn't our time. Don't let it get to you." She got off the bed and pulled the cover where she was sitting straight. "Although the more things like this we do..."

"What did you say?" Darkness seemed to come out of his thoughts, Freya's words just reaching him.

"I was just saying we've been getting in riskier situations..."

"No, before that."

"Erm..." she wrinkled her brown, "that it wasn't our time?"

"Time..time..." Darkness sat back in the pillows, muttering.

"Hey, don't start that again. Tilpin left some of the draught she used earlier, and I don't think I want to use it." She placed her hands on her hips.

"You all nearly died because of me." He had another flash of memory; glassy eyes and ghostly death masks; pain frozen in time.

"We're getting good at not dying. Now will you please sleep?" She picked something up from beside the lamp and disappeared in his Slayer Sense. "I can fight a match alone, but I'll be buggered if Stern's going to fire you for being injured." She turned off the lamp and he heard her go back to the sofa.

"Why are you here?" he asked the shadows.

"Because the others couldn't decide." The answer possibly came out too but Darkness just nodded before waves of exhaustion washed over him.

**

It was much later. Darkness opened his eyes to pitch blackness. Once again, he could Sense nobody in the room with him, but a darker shape in the shadows told him he wasn't alone.

"Freya?"

"Guess again..."

Darkness tried to push himself up at the sound of the familiar voice, but his ruined body failed him again. Zhar loomed over him, staring down at him with blank, empty eyes.

"Come to finish the job?" Darkness spat.

"I wish. I came here to give you these." Two objects were flung down onto the bed, causing Darkness to wince as they landed on him. He felt at them with his good hand, and realised they were his weapons; his sword and the other Eye of God.

"Why...?"

"Why am I giving them back to you? Thank Lord Abortion. He wishes you a speedy recovery and hopes that next time you two will face each other on more equal terms."

Darkness remained silent, looking down at his weapons.

"As I said, I'd kill you right now if he'd let me," Zhar went on, "but you know how it is. Apparently, it's just not your time."

"But it will be soon, won't it?"

"Oh yes," Zhar nodded, "very soon. The Final Battle is coming, Nightwalker. Sleep well: you're going to need all the energy you can get."

A moment later, Darkness was alone again.