"You're doing what?" Indigo stared at Stern across her desk uncomprehendingly.

"It's really not as bad as it sounds." She pushed the mug she had set on the table five minutes earlier slightly closer to Indigo. "Look, herbal tea."

"You're doing what?"

"Honestly, it's really not that bad. You beat both of them in the Road to Glory, didn't you?"

"Do you not get battle royals? Throwing a guy over the top rope when he's already been fighting for half an hour isn't the same as pinning him, especially when he has his friend to watch his back."

"Well, you may be in luck then, since it seems like Darkness and Dante aren't as much on the same page as they seemed to be before Road to Glory."

"But it's still Darkness and Dante! They've had a stranglehold on the World Title in TCW since...well...since before it was TCW!"

"Yes, but you're a former World Champion yourself." Stern spoke to her as if explaining something to a small child.

"I was World Champion for four months. Darkness and Dante have almost three years between them."

"So...you're saying you don't like the match...?"

"I'm saying I think I'm gonna get killed!"

Stern smiled. "But that's the beauty of it..."

"Uh..."

"Maybe I don't understand battle royals, but I do understand the wrestling business. I thought throwing DeSean at Darkness would turn the fans against him, but he went and raised his hand at the end and now he's whiter than he's ever been. The fans can't get enough of him right now - even if some of them are a little..uh...odd."

"So you're feeding me to two monsters so people will hate them?"

"Weeeell...that's one way to look at it..."

"I think it might be the main way to look at it."

"They won't just hate them though - they'll also love you."

"And this helps me because...?"

Stern rolled her eyes. "Don't you want some momentum going into Endgame?"

"I think I might need more than momentum to beat Darkness. I think I need to at least be healthy too, and not recovering from a beating by two demons."

Stern laughed. "Now, now, you don't want a visit from Congress do you? We don't use the d-word in here."

"Tell that to them," Indigo mumbled. She finally picked up her herbal tea and found it unpleasantly tepid.

"Just imagine what would happen if you won though..."

"Yeah...just imagine..." A lot of things ran through Indigo's head at that moment. She wished all of them were put there by her.

* * *

Gwen waved her finger in the baby's face. "What is it humans say to their young?"

"Goo-goo ga-ga?" Gawain suggested.

Gwen looked at him. "I'm not saying that. That's ridiculous."

"It's supposed to help." Galadd peered over their shoulders at Meagan, who was squirming in her blanket in Gwen's arms.

"Help what?"

"Help them to talk?"

"Goo-goo ga-ga helps them to talk?" Gwen looked incredulous. "Well that doesn't make much sense to me."

"I think it's something about phonemes." Gawain waved a brightly coloured rattle over Meagan. "Also, this helps with hand to eye coordination."

"Seems like this could all be made a lot easier by having a stronger nose. You don't need to talk or use your eyes. Our system is much better."

"Plus werewolf pups almost always have someone to play with," Galadd added.

Darkness watched The Children cooing over Meagan from across the hotel room. Selenia sat next to him, sipping delicately at a cup of tea. She looked tired.

"You sure you trust them with her?"

"Don't you?"

"I trust Gwen..."

Selenia smiled. "Tilpin helped deliver her. I think I like werewolves."

"They're certainly nice and straightforward anyway. Most of the time..."

Another smile from Selenia. "Have you spoken to her since Hawthorne came back?"

Darkness shook his head. "I didn't want to interrupt them. I'm sure they have a lot of catching up to do."

She could sense his jealousy. Gently she put a hand on his leg. "I don't think it's like that with them..."

He brushed her away. "Maybe not. Doesn't matter anyway. You didn't come here to give The Children someone new to play with. What's the matter?"

"It's Jason..."

"What's happened?"

She sighed. "He's done something terrible."

"To...you...?"

"No! No! Not anything like that. But something bad. Something that will drive you two apart again."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"He has the Promethean Ring, Darkness."

He stared at her. "What? How?"

"He took it from Novamori."

"But...it's Freya's...I mean, she was looking after it. I have to..." he was standing up.

"No!" She grabbed his arm. "You can't take it from him! Don't you remember? It's not for you to have."

"So why tell me?"

"Because you need to know that he isn't himself. You need to understand that the Ring is changing him..."

"How? It didn't change Freya."

Selenia floundered. "I don't know. I just know that it is. His mind is on fire all the time - it's like a raging whirlwind, and I can't cut through. Even Meagan can feel it. She isn't sleeping." She glanced over at her child. "I was hoping Tilpin could give her something..."

"Of course. And I'll find out what's happening to Dante. I owe him that much."

"If the Ring has some kind of will of its own...maybe it's possessing him somehow?"

"Maybe." Darkness didn't sound convinced.

"I'd do it myself, you know that, but I can't be around him. Not with Meagan. I have to think about her now."

"I understand."

"I know you do. That's why I came to you."

* * *

Dante held it in his pale palm, feeling its smooth, unadorned surface against his burning flesh. It was hot - a thousand times hotter even than he was - and heavier than the Sun. Only he had the power to hold it. He knew this. It was destined to be held by his hand, wielded by his awesome will. Why else would it have come to him? What fickle fate would give him something so powerful if it didn't intend him to use it?

Dante had spent enough time with the Ring to know now what it could do. It was a source of terrifying and monstrous power - a reserve of raw, infernal energy that only someone with his strength of will could tap into. Only a man with mastery over Hellfire, a man like him, could even sense what this thing could do.

Destiny had led him this far, hadn't it? Why doubt it now?

With a laugh, Dante lifted up his hand and let the Ring slide onto his index finger. Immediately, the suppressed power became his to control. He let the ball of flame coalesce in his hand and then sent it spinning through the sky to explode far above the streets of La Paz, raining down incandescent sparks into the night.

"Beautiful," he said, his voice resonating in a place that was not his chest. He laughed again, and the air distorted in the Hellish heat he belched forth with it.

Indigo tossed and turned in her sleep. She was hot. Flames filled the room: they licked at the end of the bed, at her bare feet. The air was too hot - stifling. She couldn't breathe.

She woke up, but couldn't see anything. She still couldn't breathe: something was covering her mouth. She struggled for a moment before realising she was lying on her front and had a mouthful of pillow. She sat up, now feeling wide awake. It was still hot, even though the window was open. She pulled on a dressing gown and got herself a glass of water from the bathroom. Still too hot.

Remembering there was an ice machine down the hall, she picked up her key and wandered down the dimly lit corridor, unconcerned that she was barefoot and wearing a robe. The machine was set in a little alcove. She put her glass in the holder and pressed for ice. After a little while, she pressed it again. Her glass remained empty.

"What the hell? I just want some ice!" She hit the button with a bit more force. There was a whirring noise and a tiny cube of ice dropped into the glass.

"Arghh!" She tried to shake the machine but she was too short to get a convincing grip on it.

"There's a knack to these." The voice made Indigo jump back from the ice dispenser. Behind her was a very large man, silhouetted in the dim lights. He stepped forward and Indigo involuntarily stepped back. He hit the side of the machine and there was a tinkling noise as the glass filled with ice.

"Wow...thanks..."

The large man stepped to the side slightly to let her pass. Even in the dim light, Indigo could see his strange, angular features.

"No problem." He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're that wrestler. The one after Darkness's belts."

"Are you a wrestling fan?"

"Not exactly... Can I get your autograph though?"

Indigo stared at him for a second. "I...err..." she patted the self-evidently empty pockets of her robe. "I don't have anything to do it on. Or with."

"Oh." He looked disappointed.

"Well, what room are you staying in? I'll leave you something at reception."

"Just tell them to pass it on to Darkness. He'll see that I get it."

She suddenly realised who the strange man reminded her of. "Oh...you're...he's...oh. I didn't realise. I mean." She held up her glass of ice. "I'll do that then. And thanks." She left rather swiftly.

**

Darkness and Selenia walked down the corridor to where Dante was supposedly staying. Meagan had been left with The Children. Darkness wasn't entirely sold on that idea - he knew werewolf babies were a little more robust than human ones - but Selenia got her way. Selenia took the key reception had given her when she told them she was Dante's wife from her pocket and unlocked the door.

"Jason?" Selenia walked around the suite looking for her husband. She finished her circuit, returning to Darkness. "He's not here."

"Of course he isn't. You've got his key."

"He doesn't need keys any more," she said darkly.

Just as she spoke, the door opened and Dante entered, his eyes aglow. He looked at his wife and friend.

"What's going on?"

"Jason, we're worried about you." Selenia stepped forwards, but didn't cross the room to him.

"Why? I feel fantastic. I feel whole; powerful. This is how I should be."

"No Jason, it's not. The Ring is using you. You're drunk on it."

"You'll become like your father..." Darkness's voice was quiet, but it carried across the room.

"No!" Dante roared. "You don't understand!"

"Jason..." Selenia's voice was trying to be soothing. "We want to help you..."

"No," he jerked his head at Darkness, "he wants it for himself."

"No, Jason, he doesn't."

Dante's eyes flashed with anger. "You want him to have it too!"

"Jason, listen to yourself. No one here wants the Ring - it belongs to Freya. Can't you see what's happening to you?"

"Nothing's happening to me. I've never been better." He held out his hand and a ball of fire formed.

"Jason, please don't..." Selenia's eyes were wide with horror.

Dante cackled. "You think I could hurt you?" He crossed the room and encircled her waist with one arm. "You...you will be my Queen..." With one flick of his wrist he sent the fireball hurtling towards Darkness. "Him, I have no use for; he just wants what I have."

Darkness managed to move, but the ball of incandescent flame still hit him in the shoulder. The impact sent him sprawling and he lay on the carpet clutching his smoking flesh.

Selenia gasped, but her shock quickly turned to anger. "It's not Hellfire," he reassured her with a chuckle, "I still haven't tried to use that yet. But I will...I will..."

She slapped him across the cheek, making him let go of her waist, then clutched her hand to herself. His flesh was scalding. Dante lifted a hand to feel where she'd slapped him and stared at his wife in astonishment. He backed away slowly then turned and fled, slamming the door behind him.

**

"Mr...Darkness?" The receptionist waved a brown envelope in his direction as Selenia helped him cross the foyer. He tried to ignore her, but she ran around the desk to give it to him. He thanked her gruffly and carried on. His shoulder had been bandaged by Tilpin, but it was still stiff and sore. He looked down at the envelope.

"What's that?" Selenia asked.

Darkness turned it over and frowned at the name. "Iceman?" The ‘i' was dotted with a small star. He raised an eyebrow before opening it. Inside was a glossy photo of Indigo. In silver ink, it said:

Thanks for the ice! ‘Stay cool!' Lots of love, Indigo. XOXO

"What do you think that's about?"

"I don't know..." he answered.

"I met her before Havoc. She seemed like a nice girl."

"Nice...yeah...but something else too..."

"What do you mean?"

He waved the photo at her. "This isn't a coincidence. She might be just what we need to get to Dante."

He screamed, more in anger and frustration then in pain. Selenia was by no means weak, she could have slapped the taste out of the mouth of a titan, but at the moment her husband was far more then a mere titan...At the moment he was infuriated at her lack of understanding.

Dante had retreated to an abandoned building on the edge of down town to think. Thinking had for the last couple of minutes however involved incinerating a number of innocent pieces of discarded furniture.

He roared in frustration. How could she not understand? How could she simply turn her back on him? Her husband? The priest had said "for better or worse, in sickness and in health." Wasn't his recently discovered...

He hesitated to let the thought pass through his brain, it was as if the word would scar him or make his turn from semi-demon to...he paused as he gathered the courage to say the word.

"Godhood..."

"Finally you accept it, my son..."

"What?!"

Dante spun around, he could have sworn that he had heard his father's voice. But he found himself alone. He searched the derelict flat, turned every dust-filled, stinking pillow in the search of the voice. As he frantically searched the room he heard a faint laughter, as he turned around he came face to face with his own reflection. He stared at it and his eyes grew wide as the face of the reflection changed, the body remained his own, but the face gained an olive skin tone, the hair darkened and grew long.

The Cheshire grin was every bit his own, but at the same time it belonged to someone else.

"Jason...you disappoint me..."

Dante stared at the twisted and changed reflection.

A silent word, a question mouthed but unspoken passed his lips.

"Father?"

*****

She felt sick, her head felt as if it was boiling. She was freezing and at the same time burning up, her mind raced in a myriad of directions at the same time. Indigo had had fevers before, but none like this, she sweated and stumbled to the kitchen to get a glass of water to drink. She let the water pour from the tap to get it nice and cold. She filled the glass to the brim with the nice, cool, soothing liquid. She took a drink and spat it out. The water was hot, not humid or room tempered, it was hot.

She looked at the reflection or herself in the glass door of one of the cupboards, she shook her head.

"What is happening to me?"

She felt panic wash over her as she saw her face wet from sweat. Before she could let the next thought pass through her mind, there was a knock on the door. In a daze she stumbled over to the door and opened it.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"Indigo, you remember me? Selenia? Dante's wife?"

"Yeah..."

Indigo got no further as she felt the room starting to spin and her knees buckle. Before she hit the floor, Darkness stepped up to catch her. Even the tough and seasoned Slayer grimaced as he grabbed her. Her skin felt as if it was on fire.

Darkness lifted the confused and weak woman up and carried her to the nearby sofa.

"I think we may need to call a doctor..." Darkness said.

Selenia looked at the redhead and shook her head.

"No...that won't help her..."

Darkness looked at the nearly unconscious redhead and his eyes grew wide.

"Dante?!"

"Please...I'm so hot..." Indigo said, her voice weak from the fever.

"I have no idea how she...Oh my God!" Selenia said.

Darkness nodded. His face had taken on a grim expression.

"She is taking everything he is throwing out in, he is overloading her mind and body."

"Maybe I can get him to back off via her."

"No, he doesn't listen to us any more, remember?"

Selenia nodded and a faint tear shone in the corner of her eye.

"I have to find him, find him and throw him out of her mind."

Selenia's brow furrowed.

"Can you find him? I can help you?"

"No, Selenia...Jason isn't the man you married any more, he has become..." he paused as if even he was terrified to say the word.

Selenia closed her eyes.

"Can you save him?"

"Selenia, at the moment I'm happy if I can save HER and survive meeting Dante..."

Darkness got up and began to walk towards the door.

"Darkness...I can help you find him."

"Selenia, so can I...I just hoped I would never have to use my skills as a slayer on HIM."

*****

"You have no idea how good it is to hear you call me that, Jason..."

Dante's face grew cold as he stared at the reflection of the being that was his father. For so long he had felt the unending hatred for the man he had believed to be his father, then when it turned out that his real father was Lucifer, a certain feeling of hope had crept into his mind, a hope, Lucifer had dashed in an instant.

"What do you want?" Dante said trying to make his voice sound ice cold.

"I am proud of you, Jason...for so long you played second fiddle to Bruce, Bleeder or Darkness...I just had to see you, see my son when he stepped out of the shadows that had been hindering him for so long."

Deep down in Dante's mind the feelings of hurt ego and wounded self-esteem began to make themselves known. Every word he heard from the reflection healed him and made his power grow.

"Soon, Jason real soon you will be a God! Soon you can make the world safe for you family, soon you will make the masses worship you!"

Dante, struck by the encouragement of his father felt his mind ablaze with confidence.

"Jason...soon you and..."

The words of the reflection were cut short by the sound of shattering glass, irate and surprised, Dante turned around and saw a figure outlined against the light of the moon. In it's hand, a gun Dante knew better then almost anyone.

"You!"

Dante turned around fully and as his eyes caught fire, he charged the man in front of him, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

As Dante stood there with a man he thought he hated in his grasp, the Cheshire grin crept back on the albino's features. As he stood there grinning a question leapt to his lips.

"Not what you expected, was it? You thought you would find me here weak and depressed, didn't you? Does it devastate you to see that your feeble attempts at turning my wife and my child against me has failed? As soon as I snap you in two your influence of them will be gone and they will join me again! Selenia will understand me once you stop poisoning her mind..."

"The ring...you...are...driven...urghh."

Dante tightened his grip on his enemy.

"Driven me what? Driven me to free myself from your slavery? Driven me to cast of the shackles you have put on me? I can't imagine why I didn't see things clearly until now...every thing that has gone wrong in my life the last few years haven't been my fault...It has been all your fault, Darkness!"

Darkness lashed out with his boot, catching Dante in the chest. It was enough to cause his grip to slacken and Darkness dropped to the floor and stepped backwards. Dante bared his teeth, his canines elongating even as he grimaced.

"My fault?" Darkness asked as he ran a hand across his throat, "I'm the one that saved your life all those times. I came to your rescue in Dis."

"And I pulled you out of that coma - big deal."

Darkness began to circle, his Eye of God now levelled at Dante. "I helped you heal your broken neck. Without me, you'd be a cripple."

"And I saved you from Skaar. Without me, you'd be a corpse."

Darkness frowned. "Which time are we talking about?"

"In Vegas." Dante laughed, and smoke wreathed his face. "Don't try to distract me, Darkness. I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago."

"Kill me? As if you've never tried, Jason. Don't you remember how we demolished that bar in Nashville?"

"How could I forget? I have this scar to remind me every day."

"And you blew my hand off. You've tried and failed to kill me before - why do you think this will be any different? You know all we're doing is playing into our enemies' hands."

Dante shook his head. The two men still circled the decrepit room, stepping around mouldering furniture. "So high and mighty, Darkness. So full of condemnation. I've failed to kill you? What about your numerous failures? You couldn't finish me off on the rooftop in Dayton."

"You injected me with the essence of a demon..."

"You threw me off a building in Vegas."

"You know why that happened. Don't give into this, Jason. We can't dance this same waltz for all time - one day, the music's going to stop, and then it'll be too late to go back and make things right."

"We've been through so much together. So much pain and anguish..."

"So much glory."

"But all of it for nothing. Today is the same as yesterday. Victory is no closer and defeat looms even darker over the horizon. You always feared the power that was inside you, Darkness. You should have learned to truly embrace it, like I always told you to."

"This isn't the power inside you, Jason. This is something else."

"No!" Dante raised his hand and Stormcaller burst into existence, a straight blade coursing with living fire. "This is my power!" The Ring on the fourth finger of his other hand looked dull in comparison to his glowing skin and the reflection of the raging surface of his sword.

"You want to do this? Fine. I'm not responsible for what happens to you now though. Your father could not stand against me, and neither will you." He holstered his pistol.

"I remembered another time I saved you..."

"Oh?" Darkness reached over his shoulder and drew his own sword in a smooth arc. He tossed it between hands as he shrugged off his jacket, his prosthetic whirring as it closed on the hilt.

"Yes, on the Mesa. Dragon was going to kill you."

"Then I guess you're winning. Shall we even the score?"

Darkness spun around on one foot, his sword scything through the air at neck height. Dante lifted Stormcaller in time to parry it, but only just. Darkness danced back, falling into a slight crouch, his sword held crosswise before him.

"I was always a better swordsman than you."

"Yours isn't on fire though." Dante surged towards Darkness, his weapon leaving trails across the Shadow Slayer's vision as it whipped across the air, distorted by the heat. Darkness met the attack and the two were transfixed for a moment, Dante pushing down in an attempt to break Darkness's guard by sheer strength, as Darkness held him at bay, his muscles bunching. Sweat trickled down his brow. The fiery blade was only inches from his face.

"Yield!" Dante thundered through gritted teeth.

"Never!" But he did, falling back abruptly, deflecting Dante's blade as he moved. He turned and, in the same movement, brought his sword down again, aiming for Dante's shoulder. The blade made contact and bit deep, shearing through muscle and sinew.

"Argh!" Dante's eyes went wide as he stared at the weapon now embedded in his flesh. Darkness grunted and then pulled the sword out, stumbling backwards.

"Yield..." he whispered.

Dante clutched at his shoulder where a dark crimson stain was rapidly staining his white shirt.

"Never."

"You'll die from blood loss unless you get medical attention. You're beaten."

Dante laughed manically. He lifted his hand away from the ragged cut and Darkness could only stare as his pale flesh knitted together before his eyes, closing the wound and making his shoulder whole again. Experimentally, Dante rolled his shoulder and found it to be completely unhurt.

"You were saying?"

Darkness's nostrils flared. He held his sword out in front of him. "I'll stop you, Jason. No matter what it takes."

"You could have stopped me, Darkness, had I been a mere man." Stormcaller dissipated into nothingness and Dante spread his hands. Two globes of fire formed above his palms. "But instead...you have found a GOD." His eyes blazed with fire, totally consumed by unearthly light. As he laughed, flames licked across his teeth and tongue. His hair was in disarray, tousled by an infernal wind.

"You can't stop me, Darkness! I am become death! I am the alpha and the omega! I am He that is called I am!"

Spontaneously, the chair next to him burst into flames. Darkness blinked in the blast of heat emanating from his former friend.

"I may not be able to stop you...but that's not going to stop me trying..."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

Dante threw out a hand and one of the fireballs streaked towards Darkness.

* * *

Indigo thrashed madly. Her face was soaked in sweat now. Selenia rushed to the bathroom and moistened the towel again. As always in hotel rooms, the water didn't run cold enough.

"Damnit, why isn't there ice here?"

She dashed back and pressed the towel across Indigo's brow. Steam rose and the towel was hot in her hands almost immediately.

"Just...be calm..." Selenia tried to will calmness towards her, adapting an old succubus trick for a new purpose. The moment she pushed past Indigo's feeble mental defences though, she was overwhelmed by the inferno within - the inferno she knew had been started by her husband.

Indigo began to murmur something under her breath. Selenia leant closer to hear the words.

"You could have stopped me...mere man...instead...a god..."

"Oh no..."

"You can't stop me...become death...alpha...omega...I am...called I am..."

"Jason, no!"

"I was hoping you'd say that..."

"Jason!" Selenia was shaking Indigo's shoulders without realising what she was doing. She knew something terrible was about to happen, and that she had no way to prevent it.

* * *

Gwen rocked Meagan back and forth in her arms, trying to quieten her down. For the last half hour, the baby hadn't ceased screaming, and no amount of feeding or changing was making any difference.

"What's wrong with her?" Gawain asked, having to raise his voice over the near-continuous wailing.

"She might be sleepy..."

"Then why doesn't she go to sleep?" Galadd asked. He pressed his hands to his slightly pointed ears.

"It's not that simple, I don't think. Hush, little one. Hush now. Gah!"

The door to the suite's living room banged open and a small figure stood framed in the light from the adjoining room.

"What is that noise?" Revenant asked.

"Baby," Peredur said, pointing.

"Baby?"

"Baby," Cai confirmed.

Revenant stalked across the room towards the source of the screaming. Gwen turned around. "Don't you start! One grumpy kid is quite enough, thank you."

"Why is she crying?"

"I don't know!"

"Have you fed her?"

"Yes!"

"Have you..."

"Yes! I've done everything! If you think you can do any better, you're welcome to try." She held Meagan out towards Revenant, daring her to succeed where she had failed.

"Hey, Meg." Revenant leaned over. "Shush!" She held a finger over her lips and widened her eyes suggestively.

Immediately, the baby was transfixed by the dhampyr, staring up at her with huge pale eyes. Her mouth clamped shut. The werewolves in the room looked around, taking hands off ears and sighing contentedly.

"See? Easy."

"How'd you do that?" Gwen demanded.

"I have my ways." She turned away and went back to her room without saying anything else.

* * *

Sparks flew. Darkness threw himself behind a dusty couch, but was forced to seek new cover as it disintegrated in a ball of fire. He rolled across rotten floorboards and up to his feet. Flames were licking at the peeling wallpaper now. Soon, the whole building would probably catch fire.

Dante approached between the shattered furniture of the run-down apartment, most of which was now burning or starting to smoke alarmingly.

"You're running out of hiding places, Darkness."

Darkness leant back against the wall, catching his breath. The windows and door of the small apartment were closed, and Dante's pyromancy was rapidly using up the oxygen. It didn't seem to bother Dante, but Darkness was flagging. Sweat and dirt grimed his skin.

"You don't want to kill me, Jason. You just think you do - the Ring is making you insane."

"Insane? My mind is clearer than it's ever been."

"No it isn't. Your mind is a whirlwind of fire. The Ring is possessing you - it's turning you into your father. I don't know how."

"I am the pyromancer, Darkness! The Son of Lucifer! You speak as if these things are alien to me. Don't you see that I'm becoming what I was always meant to be?"

"The Ring was Lucifer's! That's why you're turning into him! It's got nothing to do with who and what you are!"

"Always jealous, Darkness..." Dante lifted his left hand, and it began to glow. Darkness recognised it: he'd seen it over a year ago, on a rooftop in Montreal. Suddenly, he saw a way out - if he could be fast enough...

A bolt of incandescent fury burst from Dante's open palm and sheared through the air, consuming instantly all the oxygen in its path so it made a deafening roar as it surged forward. Darkness threw himself to one side, just avoiding the bolt of Hellfire. It blasted straight through the wall into the bathroom, leaving a huge smoking hole.

Darkness caught his breath as he lay face down on the floorboards. He'd won now. He knew what using Hellfire like that did to Dante: he would be weakened, almost dead, his body voided of all alien substances. Using power of that kind took a huge toll.

He climbed slowly to his feet, expecting to see Dante exhausted on the ground, but instead he was still standing.

"Surprised?"

"Why aren't you half dead?"

"I told you...I'm a GOD."

Dante created a ball of fire in his hands and, before Darkness could react, as he had to the more slowly coalescing Hellfire, he sent it straight at him. Darkness tried to turn away, but the fireball caught him full on. He was lifted off his feet, sent crashing straight through the wall into the bathroom and onwards, smashing right through the brickwork that marked the building's exterior wall and into the freezing cold night.

Dante watched through the two holes he'd blasted through the walls as the air steamed in the exposure to the cold outside. He waited a few seconds until he heard the distant thud of Darkness hitting the street, four storeys down.

"Now we're even."

"Well done, my son. You have surpassed even me..."

In the burning ruins of the room, Dante began to laugh.

He heard his name in a familiar voice. He looked around but knew there was no one close by. He closed his eyes and saw the familiar links leading off to various people, the one towards Darkness was like a broken road, and he ignored it. There was the one towards Meagan but he could sense she was asleep. Selenia's shone bright, and he was going to go towards it when he noticed another. One that wasn't normally there; little more than a vapour. He sent his consciousness towards it.

He opened his eyes and Selenia's face was above him. Relief washed over her face. He looked into her eyes and saw a reflection that wasn't his.

"Indigo?" Selenia's voice was a whisper.

Dante reached up and stroked his wife's cheek. "Not quite."

Selenia pulled back in horror. "Jason...what have you done?"

Dante moved the unfamiliar body into a sitting position. "I've done what I've had to. Darkness is gone. This girl was invading me. I just want us to be together, for you to stand beside me."

"Jason, I don't know what is happening to you, but it's not right. The Ring..."

"You sound just like him," he spat. "The Ring has nothing to do with this. It's all me. The Ring has just removed all restrictions." He grabbed her hands with the slender ones of Indigo. "Believe in me, my love." Selenia pulled her hand away and Indigo's face clouded over in anger. "Fine. I will have to show you."

Indigo blinked a few times, her eyes were unfocused for a moment. She finally looked at Selenia.

"Indigo?"

"Dry..." her voice was hoarse. Selenia rushed and filled a glass with the not-quite-cold-enough water. Indigo drank it all down in one.

"What happened?"

"I killed Darkness." Indigo looked stricken as she said it aloud. "I was... somewhere. I don't think I was me though. I could throw fire. I fought him. I blasted him through a wall."

Selenia went pale. "You didn't kill Darkness."

"I did. I saw him fall. No one could survive that."

"Darkness isn't just anyone." She felt Indigo's forehead, relieved to feel the fever dropping. Jason must have shut himself away from her, to stop her spying. "Do you think you can walk?"

Indigo struggled to her feet, leaning on the slightly shorter woman for support. "We need to get to Darkness." She stumbled trying to walk to the door alone.

"We need The Children," Selenia said, catching her arm.

"I don't think we should involve children." Indigo looked shocked at the other woman's suggestion. "They can't help - they might get scared!"

"It'll take a lot to scare these ones."

**

They walked through the almost deserted urban sprawl of this derelict quarter of the city. Selenia had put together a group of mysterious people that they'd found in what was apparently Darkness's hotel suite. A man and a woman with brilliant white hair were leading. The woman she knew - she'd seen her with Darkness by a vending machine - while the man was dressed in black and red biker leathers for no reason she could easily discern. With them was a giant of a man and one with hair as red as her own. He and another, evidently his best friend, kept glancing surreptitiously at her. Another younger man with black hair and a tattoo on one arm walked slightly apart and, close by, but emphatically not with him was a strange girl in an oversized jacket. Apart from her they all had long hair with braids and ornaments woven in, and wore strange, homemade looking clothes. There had been others in the hotel room along with a baby, which she thought was Selenia and Dante's, but Selenia had said they needed to keep the group small to avoid attracting too much notice.

"This way," the woman with the white hair said.

Indigo wasn't sure how they were going to find Darkness. She didn't know where she'd been when she'd seen him forced out the side of the building, so how could these strangers know? Selenia trusted them though, so she thought she should too. Their faces though... she couldn't help but stare. With the exception of the young girl, they were angular, with high cheekbones and luminous eyes. She caught the gaze of the boy walking to one side, and averted her eyes, blushing slightly at being caught.

"Here!" The white haired man started running as he gave the shout. Indigo managed to keep up, but almost wished she hadn't. Darkness lay on the pavement, the concrete slabs had cracked underneath him. She looked up and could see the hole where she'd... no, Selenia had promised it hadn't been her doing... where Dante had forced him out of the building. It was a good thirty feet up. Limbs were arrayed at odd angles, blood had pooled under his head. His face was an ash grey colour. His t-shirt had disintegrated at the front, exposing bloody red skin, burnt from where the fireball had hit. The smell of burnt skin and hair made Indigo gag. She didn't know the man but found tears welling in her eyes at the shock, her stomach lurching at the smell. She turned away, not being able to look at the remains of the man that would have been her opponent. The white haired woman grimaced as she knelt down beside the body, feeling his neck for a pulse. A formality, Indigo assumed.

"He's alive."

Indigo spun back around, jaw slack in disbelief. She'd assumed this was a search for a body, not a rescue mission. She looked back up at the hole and then at Darkness. Bits of rubble were scattered around. He couldn't have survived this: nothing could have. The white haired woman was mistaken. She rushed to Darkness's side and felt his neck herself. There was definitely a pulse. Faint but steady. She stood up and stepped away from him, unable to believe what she'd felt.

The white haired woman nodded towards the huge male, all the "Children" as Selenia had called them were tall, but this man would have given Mike a run for his money. He knelt down beside Darkness and manoeuvred himself to pick up his prone form.

"Wait!" She came out of her stunned silence. All the shining eyes were turned to her, making her uneasy. "You can't move him."

"Why not?" The white haired woman sounded annoyed that she'd interfered.

"He might have broken something, like his neck. Moving him would make it worse."

The woman looked at Selenia, deferring the decision to her.

"Pick him up," she said quietly. "We need to get him out of here," she said to Indigo.

"Why don't we call for help? An ambulance would be better to move him."

"And how would you like to explain the injury - he fell out a hole in the side of a building with a huge burn on his chest."

"I..." Indigo floundered.

"Tilpin will look after him," she said to the white haired woman.

The giant man lifted Darkness easily. Blood had matted the back of Darkness's hair. The group looked around cautiously before speedily making their way back to the hotel.

Indigo stared after them for a moment before starting to follow slowly. She was glad he wasn't dead, but she couldn't stop her rebellious mind wondering what it would take for her to do as Valerie asked and defeat someone who could survive something like this in the ring.

Darkness groaned in pain as they carried him off, he briefly opened his eyes and tried to speak, but His guardian for the time being only asked him to remain quiet and to rest. As if relived by the request, he closed his eyes and seemed to fall back into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The crew that had walked off with the burned and injured Darkness through the bad side of town was a motley one. She was glad that she had remained standing where they had found Darkness, she had been a girl sticking out like a sore thumb, she was of course used to that but the fact that she was the most normal one of them all had made her uneasy. In the midst of giants, even a hippy girl from Australia had seemed like a normal, every day girl. She looked at her companions as they walked away and felt a slight shudder at them, it was as if she couldn't get used to this large group of strange people, no matter how hard she tried. Selenia seemed normal, but her eyes...there was something with her red eyes that made Indigo want to crawl out of her skin, the woman was kind and nice but she couldn't really bring herself to trust her to 100%, she was Dante's wife and Dante...

Indigo paused, in fact she even held her breath, she knew she had seen the attack on Darkness via Dante's eyes but...

She shook her head and tried to clear her messy thoughts. Her fever, she decided had been making her confused. As she stood there watching the companions of Darkness and Selenia walk off, suddenly she heard a voice.

"Indigo!", it whispered.

She looked up for a brief moment and tried to locate the source of the voice, but found nothing. She shook her head, chalking the voice she had thought she heard to her bout of fever. None the less, she couldn't shake the feeling of slight panic, so she dashed after the group of the "Children", Selenia and the still unconscious Darkness. As she reached them, she fixed her eyes on the ground before her and tried to calm herself down, trying to drive the memory of the whisper away.

"Indigo!"

It was there again. The voice sounded like it had come from a ghost, it had no real resonance and sounded flat. It was as if it had come from a mouth without form, from a speaker without body.

"Indigo!"

This time show couldn't resist it, she stopped and in a whisper she asked "Who are you?"

The voice came back with a reply, it sounded as if it liked that she had paid attention to it.

"Guess..." it said.

"Please, why are you doing this?"

The tone of the whisper changed and gained a hard, edge.

"Because I know what "he"did to you, because I know he turned you against me..."

"Who?" Indigo asked, panic starting to affect her voice.

There was a pause, for indigo it felt as if the pause lasted a lifetime, Selenia, Darkness and the large people Selenia had called the children were now to far away to hear her.. Then the voice returned as suddenly as it had first appeared.

"Darkness."

"He didn't..." Indigo began.

"Really?" The voice said with an amused chuckle. "Trust me, Indigo. When he tricked you you were always the last to know."

"And Why should I trust you?"

"Because apart from Selenia, you are the only one truly who knows me..."

Indigo spun around and as she completed her 180 degree turn she was a flickering light in a nearby door.

"Dante?"

The flickering light seemed to congeal into a person, of course this was all a trick Indigo's mind played on her but as the person in front of her became fully visible she saw the ghostly pale face and a friendly smile on his lips.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" the albino said with a grin.

Dante walked up to Indigo and unlike the visions she had had of him during her fever, he looked calm and seemed friendly.

"I'm really sorry, I blew up in your face before. I didn't mean to yell at you. Sadly i took out a lot of the built up frustration I had that was aimed towards Darkness on you and Selenia, it clouded my judgement."

"I see." Indigo said hesitantly.

Dante smiled a genuine and warm smile.

"Now that he is disciplined and gone, the problems are gone. Stern doesn't like me but I can see her putting you and me in the same match for the vacant world title at End Game, I mean you won the Road to glory and I...well...I deserve it."

Indigo looked at Dante.

"Now that he is disciplined and gone?"

"Darkness." Dante said. "I torched him."

"I know, but..."

"But what?" Dante said his voice turning cold.

"Nothing I..."

"But what?!" Dante asked again, this time all the friendliness had left his voice and cold anger had taken it's place.

"Nothing...I'm, I'm just so relived to be free." Indigo said, lying through her teeth.

Dante smiled again. He then looked up into the sky.

"Now I just have to make my wife see things the way they were, Darkness "Dark coloured glasses" are off so she should be seeing the world, the way it is."

Indigo nodded slowly.

As she did, Dante smiled again.

"And I think you can help me..." he said. "Talk to her, tell her that Darkness had corrupted her, and tell her that I know what he did and that I love her."

Indigo nodded slowly again.

"Ok, I will."

Dante thanked her and let here go. As Indigo ran in the direction she had Seen, Selenia and the rest go, fear gripped her heart, Darkness wasn't dead and Dante was, she was sure clearly insane.

The giant man placed Darkness down on a couch with surprising tenderness. He straightened and just sort of looked at him for a bit. Indigo glanced sideways at him. "What's wrong?"

"I'm worried about him."

"He survived being thrown four storeys and landing on concrete. I think he's going to be alright."

"But look - his skin is all burned. He's human, so he won't heal properly. The flesh will go all white and hard."

Tilpin leaned past, dipping a small cotton swab into a pot of salve. "No, it won't. Burns go pink - although they won't if you let me get past and tend to them, Galadd."

He stepped out of the way, mumbling an apology. Indigo looked down at Darkness again, then realised what the enormous man had just said. "Wait...what do you mean ‘he's human'?"

"He is, isn't he?"

"Yes, but usually people don't mention it like that."

"Uh..."

"Galath, was it?"

"Galadd..."

"Sorry, Galladd. What did you mean by saying he was human like that?"

"He didn't mean anything," the man in the biker leathers with the very white hair said, interjecting himself, "he's a little slow, that's all."

"Hey!"

The pale man grinned, showing far too many teeth. She supposed it was meant to come off as charming, but the impression Indigo got was more predatory. His weirdly golden eyes didn't help either.

"Gawain." He offered a hand and she took it.

"Like from the Knights of the Round Table?"

"Huh?"

"Sir Gawain. Where's Lancelot and Galahad?"

"No, Galadd," Galadd corrected her again.

"No, I meant...wait, hold on..."

"Indigo," a voice croaked. She looked down and saw that it was Darkness who had spoken. Tilpin hushed him as she plastered salve onto his chest.

"What is it?" Indigo knelt down beside the couch. She moved to take his hand, but then realised it was his prosthetic that was closest. She fumbled for a moment, and finally settled on just placing her hand against the couch.

"How did you know where to find me?" he asked hoarsely.

"I didn't. It was your...friends..."

"We just followed our noses," Gawain grinned.

Darkness looked at him and a smile ghosted across his drawn features. "I'm sorry. I assumed you led them to me."

"Why would I do that? Selenia was the one in charge."

"Then she reconnected with Dante."

"No, Darkness," a voice answered from across the room, "your hunch is right - even if she doesn't realise it yet."

Selenia approached, having changed into a new outfit - a long white dress that appeared to Indigo's eyes ridiculously formal for the situation. It was demure, not exposing any real flesh, but it clung to her figure in a way that made her stare. No one else seemed to notice. She stooped down and held out a glass of water which Darkness took with a grateful nod. He swallowed almost all of it in a single gulp and then handed it back to her. "Thank you."

"I couldn't get into Jason's head - but I knew what he was thinking anyway."

"So our theory was correct."

"Yes, and it saved your life."

"What's going on?" Indigo asked, looking blankly from Darkness to Selenia and back again.

"Indigo, has Jason spoken to you?"

She didn't want to answer. "No. I mean, I only met him that once. With you."

"But he spoke to you," Darkness prodded. "In your head."

"No...I mean...I thought he did. I had a fever!"

"Exactly," Selenia answered, as if this confirmed their hypothesis.

"No, come on." Indigo stood up and backed away slightly.

"I thought you were an open-minded woman, Indigo," Selenia said softly.

"Look, I may be a bit of a hippy - blame my parents for that..."

"Bill and Lilly," Darkness said.

Indigo stared at him. "What?"

"Your parents. Their names are Bill and Lilly. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude, but I have to make you believe in your own talents."

"Did...did I...tell you that...just now?"

"No, I reached in and found it out. It was easy because they were at the front of your mind."

Indigo slapped her hands to her head. "Please don't do that!"

"I won't. I'm sorry. I just had to demonstrate these abilities that we share."

Indigo shook her head and dropped her hands. "This is stupid. You're my opponent for Endgame. You've probably done research on me - my parents names aren't a secret."

Unlike yours, Darkness. I bet that blank space where your real name is supposed to be on your file confused her.

"Yeah, it did!"

Everyone looked at her. Selenia smiled. Indigo realised, a second after everyone else, that the woman hadn't spoken a word. At least, not out loud.

"No! I know I tell people I'm a bit psychic, but I'm not really! It's not like that - you don't just hear voices in your head. It's just about being in tune with people and the environment. It's just empathy and tapping into natural forces and...stuff..."

"You aren't ‘a bit psychic', Indigo," Darkness agreed.

"Thank you."

"You're a lot psychic. Your telepathic abilities are raw and unfocused, but you have astonishing strength. Untutored, you effortlessly invaded my mind."

"I did?"

"Don't you remember? You were on a station somewhere."

"You mean when I astral projected? I was in your head?"

"Yes. Your experience of viewing the world wasn't astral projection - you were just tapping into my Slayer Sense."

"Then it was you whose voice I heard!"

"Yes, it was. I had to remove you. It wasn't safe for you to look there."

Indigo thought back to the experience. "There was something watching us..."

"There still is. But don't concern yourself with that. Indigo: because of your psychic strength and your unfamiliar mental signature, you are very useful to us."

She backed away, holding up her hands. "No, I don't want to be useful. I have no idea what's going on here, but I don't want to play any more."

"You may be our only hope," Selenia said, "Dante's mind is closed to us, but he's broadcasting loudly enough for other psions - like you - to pick up. You have the uncanny ability to enter another mind without them detecting it. We need you to access Dante's mind, so we know why he's acting the way he is."

"If I can see inside other people's heads, how come I never did it before I came here and met all you guys then?"

"It's possible your ability only works with other psions," Darkness explained. "Try to read Galadd's mind."

"Huh?" The big man looked embarrassed. "My mind? But what if I'm thinking about...private stuff...?"

"Just bring something innocuous to the front of your mind," Selenia said, placing a reassuring hand against his massive arm.

"Okay..."

"Well?" Darkness prompted.

Indigo scrunched up her brow, peering at Galadd carefully. He shifted slightly, looking uncomfortable.

"No," she finally said, "nothing."

"That doesn't prove anything," Gawain grinned, "there could be nothing in there to find."

"Hey!" Galadd pushed him, nearly knocking him over. "I was thinking about grass," he told Indigo, "just so you know."

"I didn't get that, sorry."

"Now try with me," Darkness said.

Indigo concentrated again. An image swam into her mind almost instantly. A small woman with a round face and very blue eyes smiled at her impishly. The woman reached up to ruffle her hair and then opened her mouth to speak. "D..."

The image abruptly disappeared. Only the impression of a name remained in Indigo's mind, and not the one the woman had been about to say.

"Anna," she said.

"Yes, Anna," Darkness nodded.

"Who is she?"

"Just someone I used to know. Do you believe me now?"

"I don't know..."

"You have to help us, Indigo," Selenia said, "there's a lot at stake. My husband is not simply a man."

"Well I know that - did you think I thought people throwing fireballs was normal?"

"You don't seem to mind standing in a room full of werewolves." The girl in the big jacket had sidled up to the group at some point and was peering down at Darkness. "You gonna lie there all day?"

"I might do. Why?"

"You're sitting on my DS."

"Oh is that what that is?" Darkness reached down under himself and eventually pulled out the small grey box. "This thing?"

"Yeah. Thanks." She reached over and retrieved it.

Indigo was staring at her. "Werewolves?"

"Hi!" Gawain leaned into her field of vision and waved.

"You have entered a world where things are very different, Indigo," Darkness told her, his voice surprisingly gentle, "and perhaps it was for a reason. I don't want to involve you in my war but, today, you can help us."

"I'm not going to help you kill him..."

"We don't want to kill him. We want to save him."

* * *

She felt like she was walking through a tunnel of fire. It stretched out in front of her, leading her along a dangerous road. The heat was suffocating, but she knew she was safe. In the physical world, stronger minds than hers watched over her.

The tunnel opened up into a great fiery chamber; a dome of flames surged above her head, but in the centre sat a man she recognised. His pale features were illuminated by the raging inferno all around and occasionally his face flickered, taking on a more Mediterranean cast, and his white hair turned black. His eyes remained constant though, never changing from their burning crimson. He smiled at her, vestigial horns gently pushing through his brow as his canines lengthened and his face took on a terrifying reptilian aspect. Scales puckered beneath his eyes and she had a momentary impression of white wings arching behind his back. The seat on which he reclined, one leg hung languidly over an arm, was a great throne of blackened brass. The ring on the fourth finger of his left hand shone as brightly as the walls of fire all around them.

"Welcome," Dante said, his voice echoing. She could feel his breath, even across the seeming miles that separated them, hot and acrid, like sulphur.

"I've come to talk to you," Indigo replied, with confidence she didn't feel.

"Didn't you find out enough?"

"No. I need to know who and what you are. They won't tell me anything."

"You're with them?" He sat up. "Is she there too?"

"Your wife? Yes."

"I cannot find her...she has closed her mind to me..."

"As you have to her."

"Give her a message. She must know that I am coming for her, to reclaim what is rightfully mine. She is destined to by my queen, and now that Darkness is gone, all obstacles have been removed to my destiny."

"I can give her a message," Indigo said carefully, "just tell me what to say."

Dante smiled. "No, words are too clumsy...I will tell her myself." He looked through her, piercing the feeble defences of Indigo's mind and spying the presence that lurked within: the woman that had eluded him. His own wife.

Dante's will smashed into her like a wall of fire and enclosed around Selenia who watched him through her eyes. "Now I have you!" he cackled.

Too late he felt the cold, vice-like grip of a third mind envelop him from without, snapping him up like a pair of tweezers to examine a wriggling insect. Dante screeched as Darkness, ambushing him and now bringing to bear his full mental strength, scoured him to his deepest core, seeing all that he was in one horrifying, transfixing instant.

Furiously, he pulled himself away, thrusting Indigo from his mind in the chaos and shutting out all of them. It went dark.

Indigo opened her eyes slowly. Darkness and Selenia loomed over her. She held a hand to her head and said "Ooooh..." softly. Darkness helped her to her feet and sat her down on the same couch he had been recovering on a few hours earlier. Now, remarkably, he was up and able to walk already.

"It worked," he said, confirming what she already knew. "You gave him a channel to Selenia and he seized on it, not realising I was lying in wait."

"Did you get what you needed?" she asked.

He nodded. "Tilpin will look after you."

"Alright. Glad I could help..."

She sank back into the couch as he straightened and walked across the room to Selenia, moving with a slight limp.

"Well?" she asked in a low voice.

"It's not good."

"I didn't think it would be. What has the Ring done to him?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"The Ring, as far as I can tell, is just a source of power. It's something to do with Hellfire. That's why he was able to use his pyromancy with no ill-effects."

"So what are you saying? If the Ring is just a battery, why has this happened to him?"

"This is his own personality. All of what he is, corrupted by having access to such a vast amount of energy. Absolute power and all that."

Selenia held a hand to her mouth. "But how could Jason do those things? If it was the Ring twisting him, or perhaps Lucifer planting ideas in his head..."

Darkness shook his head. "There was only Dante there. I saw the truth of him. He is a dangerous man - and he has his dark side. You know that better than anyone. His rivalry with me, his desire to save the world for you and Meg, his annihilation fantasies: all have been given an outlet by the Ring. He's the same man he always was, but the volume has been increased exponentially. At this intensity...evil has more influence than good."

"Then what can we do? We have to get the Ring off him... he can't be allowed to wield this kind of power."

"No, it was not meant for him. It was not meant for any of us."

"What do you mean?"

"I realised something when I was examining him. Dante alone has the power to use pyromancy, but all of us Infernals have Hellfire too. The Ring is not just a source of power for Dante: any of us would be able to use it. You would be corrupted, and so would I. We would become as gods, like Dante."

"And be just as bad..."

"Exactly. We cannot take the Ring from him. It is not for us to have, even for a moment. We would become too dangerous."

Selenia's shoulders slumped. "Then what can we do?"

"What we should have done all along. There is only person who can save Dante and maybe the world: the person to whom the Ring really belongs."

"You mean...?"

"That's right," Darkness nodded, "Freya."