(During the show...)

One. Two. THREE.

That last slap on the mat signaled an end to their match, like a judge's gaval slamming down. And the verdict was in.

Izumi's vision had cleared from the intense pain just in time to see Freya celebrating over her.

I've...lost..?

And the show went on without her. No celebration of crowning a new Bleeder champion. No triumphant victory. No crowd cheering her, flashbulbs blinding her as she showed off her two belts to the world.

By the end of the night, nothing had changed.

In the end?

She hadn't gotten her hopes up too much. Why cry?

She pulled her beaten body from the ring, to take the walk of shame only the live audience would see. The camera never focused on the losers, why would it bother?

Wrestling time...was over.

She walked herself back to the locker rooms. She sighed as she opened the door. It wasn't the end of the w-

A tall, masked man greeted her. Spoke no words with his mouth.

Only with his fist!

Her injured back was traumatized further as it flew back into hard wall behind her. It was burning, sensory-blinding pain. She could deal with pain, but this...

"Traitor."

He was upon her in a moment, fist coiled around her windpipe. She found her vision blurring away further, her struggles weakening...

"You will not survive the night."

Simple, but damning. She'd been living on borrowed time the moment she questioned the Balance.

The throat tightened, pressure beginning to crush her throat...blood bubbling up on her lips...

"Yes, she will."

It was the last thing she heard...

------------------

A dark, city street.

Clouds suffocated the light of the stars and moon above.

No cars. No people.

The only thing that illuminated the pitch black scene were street lights. Down and down, they went, only branching off into side streets with more endless expanses of asphalt and lights.

The city was abandoned.

"Where the hell is-"

Darkness stopped in his tracks. Just before the horizon curved out of view, he saw one, singular shape...one that would he would never forget.

The silhouette of a little girl.

HIS little girl.

He took off, ignoring the cold sting of the breeze on his naked body. Faster, faster, faster, until he outran the wind...

"Krissy!"

He reached her form. Touched her, just to make sure she was real, then embraced her from behind.

"I...I..."

"You're late," she said.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"They're gone because you were late." she said. "They're all dead. Just like me."

A cold chill ran down his spine. He released her, in surprise. "Krissy..."

"All gone...weren't you supposed to save us, Daddy? We waited so long...and now..."

She turned to face him...

...and what met his eyes, were two great, black hallows that swallowed the light, a perpetual, grinning smile, a face...no, no longer a face, a mass of black flesh that clung helplessly to her bloodstained skull. It spoke...

"Daddy...it hurts..."

Then her hair caught alight...

"It hurts...it...hurts..."

Her skin bubbled, becoming hotter and hotter...She reached out, and clung to him...

"HELP ME!" the 'face' screamed...

He struggled, but her skin became one with his...every movement tore open a new wound in them both. His own mouth opened to scream, but the liquid flesh choked it out, entering his mouth, smothering it with his daughter's taste. It filled his throat, down his windpipe, squeezing the life out of his lungs...

BANG.

Darkness jerked awake, glass dangerously close to his face. His eyes found the hole instantly.

Gwen carefully peeked out of the window...then stepped back.

"Fuck..." Gwen said. "...someone just shot at us!"

------------------

"Wake up."

A quiet voice that almost sounded like a monotone, yet somehow gentle.

SMACK.

Izumi's cheek stung. Her eyes fluttered open. Immediately they were greeted with the sight of a boy who looked to be a few years her senior. The first thing that caught her eyes was his dirty, unwashed black hair which. dangled in front of his face. A thin, scarred face which looked so pale and boney it looked like he hadn't been fed for months. His eyes had a blank, spaced out look to them. His warm smile contrasted with the rest of him.

"Seems I did save you after all..." he said, sounding relieved.

"You...did? Oh right," she said. "Vindicator."

"Wow. You're direct," he said, surprised. "Call me Adam. I know you are Izumi."

"In the flesh," she said. "Are you okay? You look awful." She couldn't take her eyes off his face. He looked pitiful.

"I'm fine. Now be quiet and listen." he said, abruptly.

"What?"

"I need to talk to you right now," he replied. "I've been trying to find you for weeks."

"About?"

"Things. First thing you missed while you were out...The government's gone apeshit. They cut everyone in TCW off. Cellphones, bank accounts, everything."

"I don't need to worry about that, all of my important stuff is in Japan. I can avoid the States for a while."

"You have far worse things to worry about besides money. They came after you...but they won't stop there. Tonight's the night it all goes down...Seems the Balance has decided it's time to make it's move...He's supposed to die."

"Darkness. The Antichrist." she said, pursing her lips. "...who else..."

"You have a choice to make," he replied.

"How the hell do you know about all of this, anyway? This is a little sudden. And you say I'm direct."

"I was with them too, before I found out for myself. About the war. They had very much the same reaction," he said.

"They tried to kill you too? How did you escape?"

The boy gave her a sad smile.

"I didn't."

His hand touched her cheek...

"I-impossible..." she muttered.

"I said the same thing..."

"I'm sorry. If it helps, you're still a little warm..."

He smiled, happier.

"Now's not the time to dwell on these things. All you need to know is that the world's fate potentially rests on tonight. Every little bit helps. So. You need to decide, now, who you're with. Will you continue to take the role of a spy for an organization that truly knows nothing? Or will you take a step towards learning the truth? About the Nightwalker...the Antichrist, Darkness?"

"I...I don't know what to believe. I don't know anything anymore...I've only known him and his kind to be evil..."

"Then let's bring you up to speed. You can see how 'evil' he is in person, but we need to hurry."

"You know him?"

"Never met him in my life. I just know who he is and what he's tasked with." Adam reached out with a hand and pulled Izumi to her feet. "While we walk, let me tell you a story, Izumi. Have you ever heard of the Shadow Slayers?"

He sighed wearily. "Great. Any idea who?"

Gwen was moving fast, looking for her weapon. Darkness rolled over in bed.

"I'm serious!"

"I was having a nice dream. Let me go back to sleep."

"Don't lie."

"I like lying. It makes it easier to sleep."

"Very funny. Punning is the lowest form of wit."

"I though that was sarcasm?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to be a hypocrite. Are you going to get up and deal with this?"

Darkness rolled out of bed this time and up to his feet. He reached for his clothes as more shots rang out, this time much closer.

"They're in the suite!" Gwen hissed.

"Not for long."

Darkness drew his sword which had been resting in its baldric beside his bed and headed right for the door. He pushed it open and entered the suite's living room, Gwen following closely behind, now with her spear-stave in hand. They entered a scene of chaos: heavy men in black suits flooded the room, pointing guns. Ogier was down on one knee, clutching at his shoulder. Blood seeped from between his fingers. His teeth were bared, as were those of all the other Children.

"Why are you pointing guns at my friends?" Darkness asked calmly.

"Are you Darkness?" One of the men asked.

Darkness lifted his sword. "Clearly."

"You have the right to remain silent..."

"Are you kidding me? This is an arrest?"

"Sir, we're the FBI. You're coming with us."

"I'm really not. Get out of my hotel room."

"If you do not come quietly, we will be forced to resort to stronger measures." He waved his pistol for emphasis.

"Stronger than shooting my friend in the shoulder?"

"Yes. Now drop the weapon."

"I may not be the one you want to say that to," Darkness said.

"Wha...?"

A scream of agony made him turn around as Revenant leaped from the wall and drove her teeth into one of his companion's throats. All the FBI agents whirled around to focus their guns on her, but she leapt away and onto the wall, crawling up it like a spider.

There was a roar as Galadd drove his elbow into the lead agent's face and then the other Children attacked in unison, leaping on the intruders.

"Don't kill them!" Darkness shouted over the hubbub.

"A little late for that," Revenant told him from directly above his head.

"You don't count."

"It might be them or us, Darkness," Gwen said as she smashed the butt of her weapon into a suited man's face.

"Are you all right?" He knelt down beside Ogier. Eoin hovered behind him, looking worried.

"It'll heal. I'm werekind, right?"

"Let's just hope they didn't use silver bullets."

"Darkness, we should probably leave," Gwen called from near the window, "I think these creeps have friends."

"They sure do – the US Government. Time we took Ms. Stern's advice, I think."

"The hotel's surrounded," Gawain growled from beside Gwen.

"Then it's a good job we're bringing our weapons."

* * *

"We don't have much time," Adam said as they ghosted down an alleyway.

"Why not?"

"Because it's running out."

"No, I mean...like...why?"

"It's always running out. Not for me, of course. I have all the time in the world – being dead has its advantages."

"But why?"

"Why what?"

"Why..." she faltered, "...why anything?"

"Do you always ask questions like this?"

Izumi wrinkled her nose. "Only when people are being obtuse."

"Where'd you learn a word like that?" He shot her a disarming grin that did little to improve his sunken features. When Izumi imaged a saviour, this wasn't what she had in mind. That said, last time a strange man promising answers had walked into her life, he had turned out to be a little badder than she would have liked. And he was handsome, if a little sickly looking. Maybe someone a little less photogenic would prove to be a bit nicer.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To meet him."

"Do you know where he is?"

"Of course."

Izumi stared at him. "Are you...connected...to him somehow...?"

"No, I just found out where he's staying. It isn't hard – he's a public figure. In fact, as a wrestler in the same company, you could probably do the same thing much more easily."

"Well I know where he's staying, of course."

"You're a bad liar, Izumi Matsushita."

"How did you know I was lying? Can you...sense...that?"

"No, you just really are a terrible liar. Tell me, are you as naïve as you pretend to be?"

"What makes you think I'm naïve?"

"I didn't say you were naïve – I said you were pretending to be. You're ready to believe almost anything, but I suppose that's the quality that got you involved with the Balance in the first place."

Izumi drew herself up. "The Balance recruited me for my skills and courage."

"The Balance isn’t discriminatory in who it recruits. Did you ever wonder why it was made up of people who have day jobs?"

"The Balance's strength is in its affinity with the common man. Our...I mean their...might is born of mankind, and mankind alone."

"Shadow Slayers recruit from survivors, warriors and the children of their own. Vampires recruit from those with the strength of will to survive being Sired. Vindicators...well...no one knows how they recruit. Point is, only the Balance fills its ranks with teachers, bakers and garbage men."

Izumi frowned. "Why those three?"

"Two of my former friends were those things. I was the other. Why don't you try to guess which was me?"

They had reached the mouth of the alley. Adam peered around the corner, but then pulled back and shot Izumi a frown.

"What's wrong?"

"There are police cars everywhere."

"Police cars? Why?"

"I have no idea. Something's obviously happened."

"Like what?"

Adam gave her a pained look. "Why do you think I know?"

"I don't know. Someone must."

"But how could I know more than you? I just arrived here too. I'm amazed you lasted long enough in the Balance to leave on your own terms."

Izumi opened her mouth and then closed it again. She narrowed her eyes at Adam, and was about to try saying something else when there was a loud crash from the direction of the hotel. Adam looked around the corner again.

"Something's happening."

"What?"

"Someone's coming out of the hotel. It's...it’s him. Who are those people with him?"

"Oh, he has some friends."

Adam gave her a confused look. "Friends? Are they Shadow Slayers?"

"No. I think they're werewolves."

Adam's eyebrows lifted.

"Hey, I knew more than you about something." She started to walk out of the alley. Adam tried to hold her back, but she shrugged him off. "Get off me, garbage man."

"How did you know that?"

"Skills."

Izumi stepped out of the alley and saw Darkness running down the steps of the hotel as police officers yelled at him to stand down. The Children followed him out, weapons drawn. Gunshots rang out.

"He's going to get killed!"

Adam appeared behind her. "No, he's not."

"What happens if he does? Do we win or lose?"

"I have no idea."

"For someone who claims to have all the answers you...kind of don't."

"Snappy. I have to do something."

Adam stepped towards the fracas, walking with steely determination. In the midst of the chaos outside the hotel, Darkness turned around and locked eyes with him.

* * *

"No way out, Darkness!"

"Shut up, Rev. Who is that?"

The Children were in defensive stances. The cops had their guns drawn. They were going to shoot.

"We could use an actual plan if you have one!" Gawain wavered from officer to officer, trying to keep them at bay with his spear-stave.

"Who is that?"

Only Gwen was paying him any attention. "He smells like a corpse."

"You mean like a vampire?"

"No, different. Vampires smell like vampires. He just smells like dead. Does he show up on your Slayer Sense?"

"Only as a corpse. I can feel the maggots beneath his skin, but not him."

Darkness took a step forward.

"Plan? Seriously though..." Gawain slunk back towards the other Children who were gathering in a tight knot as the police closed them down. At the other end of the street, black Hummvees screeched to a halt and FBI agents clamoured out, weapons drawn.

The dead man was running towards them. He leapt towards the ring of law enforcement, bowling into one of the cops. They turned on him, opening up a hole in the perimeter.

"Here's a plan – distraction. Run!"

Darkness, Revenant and The Children surged forward, making for the gap that had opened up. The dead man took a bullet to the chest and staggered backwards, then another, and the force of it knocked him over. Darkness didn't stop to look at him – he was dead before, and he was dead now. He had no time to mourn the dead: if he started now, he'd never stop.

Right now, they just had to keep running.

* * *

"He got away."

The President Elect looked out over the Washington skyline. In the middle distance, the Washington Monument pierced the cloudy sky: a middle finger to the world.

"Tomorrow, I become President of these United States," MacDonald said softly, "and I won't preside over a nation that harbours the Antichrist."

"He's going to China..."

"Then you hunt him."

"But, sir...we have no jurisdiction..."

"Last time I checked, we were Americans. We laid waste to Cambodia, we installed a tyrant in Chile, we invaded Iraq – we do what is necessary. You find him, and you kill him, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"When I wake up tomorrow, I want two pieces of good news and when I go to bed, I want it to be in a world where my enemies are dead or dying. This Presidency is going to change the course of world history."

"Yes, sir."

"Get out of my room. And don't come back without his head."

"Yes, sir."

"No!"

Izumi's eyes went wide as Adam fell, the bullets shredding through his body, dropping him. The officers turned away from him.

"Forget about him! The target is escaping!"

But it was too late, they'd never catch him now, even as they disappeared in pursuit of their target. Adam's body laid there, still.

"Dammit..." Izumi approached him. He was rough around the edges, but she hated to see anyone go down like that. "How could you do such a-"

"Shut up."

Adam sat up, and calmly picked the bullets out of his chest. "You really are stupid."

"Tch! I can't believe I felt sorry for you." Izumi snapped.

"I'm only telling the truth. Did I not get done telling you I'm already dead? I'm not about to die again. I don't operate like a normal human on the inside."

"How DO you operate?" Izumi asked. "How come you don't have rigor mortis or eat flesh or anything?"

"This isn't a movie," he replied, glaring. "I don't know how I operate...I just do. Just because I'm undead doesn't make me an expert on the subject."

"Alright, forget it."

"Good. Forget it, indeed. We have better things to do than waste our time on stupid questions."

Izumi sighed. Better a prick garbage man than a masked psycho, she supposed, but it didn't make things much easier.

"China's our next destination. I would prefer it if we got there first."

"Why?"

"Why, why...why not just stamp the word 'Why' over your mouth, it would save some time. We want to greet him before the FBI...or The Balance does. This is going to be a tough time...they'll both be going after him. The Balance believes he'll crumble under the pressure, if they attack him along with the FBI. He may be the Antichrist, but he is still a mortal and can be killed."

"How can we use that to our advantage?"

"Your idea, you tell me."

"Uhm..." Izumi felt herself put on the spot. This wasn't fair. "I dunno."

"Well if you can't think of anything..."

"It just seems like we can. Two organizations trying to get him. It seems like they might conflict somehow. What's YOUR plan?"

They began to move, at Adam's urging.

"We just need to protect him."

"What can we do that he can't?"

"Knowledge can protect just as much as actions can."

"What are you saying?"

"Think about it. We were both with the Balance, right? The Balance is after him. He most likely isn't even aware of their existance. First thing to do is to arm him with everything we know about them. And you can then ask him what you want to know. If you don't annoy him to death. That's probably the world's greatest threat."

"Ass. What's the next thing?"

"You'll find out when it happens."

--------------------

The confines of the plane were a temporary retreat from the harsh world below. But Darkness and the Children knew there would be more to come.

Every time he shut his eyes to rest, the image of his dead daughter appeared. And so he kept his eyes open the entire trip, not even blinking.

"Are you okay?" Gwen asked.

"Of course."

"No you're not. What's on your mind, apart from the FBI?"

"What's on my mind stays on my mind, Gwen. I'm not discussing it." It was firm and it was final, just like that.

"Suit yourself."

He thought he was okay. But that dream kept nagging at him. He'd long accepted that his daughter was dead, and nothing was going to bring her back. That part of his life was done and over with, no nightmare was going to make him angst over it.

So why did it bother him anyway?

His thoughts were interrupted.

"There's twelve of them here."

"Where? Who?" Gwen sniffed the air, but picked nothing up. The Children did likewise, turning up nothing.

"...I'm not sure," he said, sounding bewildered. "They're just on the edge of my Slayer Sense." It was like they'd been there all along, he'd just noticed them now.

"Invisible?"

"Yes."

"Enemies?"

"No idea. Probably."

"Just wonderful," Gwen said. "We don't need this."

"If they're going to make a move, let them make it first. Otherwise, stay put."

The Children remained silent, but prepared themselves.

--------------------

"That's not good."

"What?"

"Look at them, not at me, silly girl."

At the airport, they could see plenty of members of the army. The US army.

"MacDonald is batshit insane..."

The pilot's eyes flicked to one side. All his training told him not to take his eyes off the instruments like this, but he couldn't help it. The presence of a loaded gun in his cockpit – that is, one in the hands of a stranger, even one with a badge that said FBI – was unnerving him.

"There's no place to set down here," he said, not for the first time. They were over the Rocky Mountains, with no flat ground in sight. Not even so much as a Hudson River.

"That won't be a problem, sir," the dour agent replied. "We intend to apprehend the fugitives in flight."

"You can't fire that gun in a pressurised cabin," the co-pilot said.

The agent gave the two uniformed men a reassuring smile. "We're fully trained, sirs. If a stray bullet pierces the fuselage, the on-board pressurisation systems will compensate."

"Yeah, but what if you blow out a window?"

"We'll be careful."

"I'd feel a lot better if there was no gunplay in the air..."

"We plan to keep it to a minimum. Just keep us flying level, and we'll arrest these terrorists."

"I didn't see any terrorists getting on," the co-pilot murmured.

"Do you know what a terrorist looks like, sir?" the agent said, looming over the smaller man, who shrank back into his seat.

"I guess...I guess not..."

"We do. And we know what we're dealing with here. There are dangerous criminals in your first-class cabin, and we will stop at nothing to bring them in. This is a national security issue."

"Are twelve men enough?"

"They will be." The lead agent turned around in the cockpit, addressing the other agents gathered in the doorway. "Check your bracelets are still working."

The eleven suited men all lifted their wrists in virtual unison, checking that the bands they wore were still active. They all nodded curtly.

"Excellent. You know the drill. Apprehend the fugitives and..." he glanced down at the pilot, "...try to keep the gunplay to a minimum."

* * *

"Your whole organisation is being hunted right now – most of your colleagues were bundled up into a van at midnight."

Izumi's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Really. The US Government has a hard-on for destroying TCW and, frankly, selling the company off to a Chinese businessman didn't do much to reassure them. That said, it will keep them safe – the Chinese have vowed not to deal with the MacDonald administration. They won't extradite any employee of what is now a Chinese company."

"Well that's good..."

"It's good for them – for you, things could still get bad."

"What? Why?"

"Because," Adam explained, "you're involved in more than a rogue wrestling promotion. MacDonald almost certainly suspects that TCW is a front for something bigger and more dangerous to his Presidency. Right now, he doesn't know that Izumi Matsushita is part of that though."

"But he does know that Darkness and the NHFC are?"

Adam nodded. "Probably. That's why the FBI had him cornered back there. They won't hunt TCW now, but my guess is that they'll stop at nothing to arrest or kill Darkness and his friends."

Izumi shook her head. "But isn't he a British citizen? And a TCW employee too, for that matter. What can MacDonald do?"

Adam smiled, and it was hard not to see the condescension in his eyes. "Izumi, you need to learn a few home truths about your government. The wrong guy won in November – America was ready for a change, but someone or something altered the course of history and landed us with at least another four years of the GOP. And this is a GOP that has had eight years of Bushism to build on. Now, as bad as that would be – and this is a political debate with no real answer – what I'm really scared of is the force that ensured MacDonald's victory."

"But didn't people vote for him?"

"They did. That's what worries me. I've been around for a long time, Izumi, and I pride myself on knowing a lot about historical precedent. Everything I know about human nature tells me that the last eight years should have galvanised American voters into supporting the other guy and electing a Democrat by an overwhelming majority. Something dammed the stream and sent the course of history flowing the wrong way."

Izumi's eyes were like violet saucers now. "Like what?"

"I don't know, but I'm not ruling out MacDonald having...outside help."

"Outside?"

"Right."

Adam couldn't be induced to say more. Everything was quiet on the plane anyway, but Izumi felt profoundly uncomfortable, as if their hushed conversation had been overheard and now dozens of pairs of eyes were watching them.

Democracy.

It had given them MacDonald, and all these Americans on this plane had been part of it. How many MacDonald voters eavesdropped on them and formed hasty conclusions about the strange looking man and his demonstrably foreign companion? How many enemies lurked in the shadows right now?

Who could she trust? Really?

She looked over at Adam, and saw that he appeared to be asleep. Did he need to sleep? She knew nothing about him or his condition, but who else could she turn to right now? The Balance had turned its back on her, or vice versa, and she had made enemies of most of the other people involved in this business. What if he was lying about everything? What if Darkness was? How much did she really know?

* * *

The first agent burst through the door, gun raised, only to have his arm wrenched behind him into a painful hammerlock. The pistol dropped from his hand and then there was a satisfying crunch as his shoulder dislocated and Darkness let him drop limply to the floor with a grunt of pain.

"Hands u.."

The second agent only got that far as Darkness's right palm slammed into his jaw, filling his mouth with blood as his teeth clamped down on his tongue. He let out a bubbling scream and then an uppercut silenced him.

Darkness blocked the door into the first class cabin with his body, ensuring that the FBI agents could only come at him one by one. It took two more getting knocked unconscious before they backed off to reassess their strategy. Darkness watched them huddle in the space between the cockpit and the first class cabin.

"I can't smell any of them," Gwen hissed in his ear.

"I know. Don't worry about it – just stay back and make sure no one comes up the stairs from business class."

The agents started to advance again, guns drawn.

"I wouldn't fire those on a plane," Darkness warned them.

The lead agent didn't even blink, just lifted his gun and fired a single shot. Darkness staggered back, staring at the place where his hand had been. All at once, the agents surged into the cabin, and The Children fell on them. The lead was dropped by an upward swing of the butt of Gwen's spear-stave, staggering back against the wall. A second agent had a plate smashed over his head, while a third was speared to the floor by Gawain and pounded into unconsciousness by the werewolf's furious fists.

None of them got as far as firing another shot as The Children dispatched them before they could react. Some transformed into their lupine forms in midair, vanquishing them with surprise as much as force. Galadd, with a roar, lifted the last of the attackers into the air like a rag-doll and brought him down across his knee. There was a sickening sound as his spine snapped in two and he fell limply onto the expensive carpet, dead or paralysed.

"Galadd!"

The huge werewolf turned around to Darkness, dumbstruck. "What?"

"I told you not to kill anyone!" Darkness pushed himself to his feet.

"But your hand..."

Darkness held up the prosthetic, now blackened and split by the bullet's impact. "I already had this one blown off." He tossed the false hand to one side. "I just hope we remembered to pick up my spares when we fled the hotel."

"Sorry," Galadd mumbled.

"We're supposed to be the good guys," Darkness said, prodding an unconscious agent with his foot, "I don't want to give them a reason to hunt us."

"I think it might be a bit late for that." Gwen held up a bracelet she had detached from one of the downed agent's wrists.

"What is that?" Gawain asked her, taking it in his hands and examining the new gadget with interest.

"I don't know, but I bet it's what stopped us from smelling them. Maybe it blocks pheromones or something."

Darkness looked down at the agent nearest him and peered at the device. "Where would they get something that could do that?"

"Never mind where they got them," Gwen said, "what’s important is why they had them. Someone knew you had werewolves with you, Darkness. These guys were ready for us."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean; someone is feeding these goons information. This isn't about TCW – they know there's more to you and they were willing to go to China to arrest you, I'll bet."

Darkness stooped down and unfastened the bracelet – not an easy task with one hand. He looked at it for a moment. "Well, they may have known what they were up against, but they'll need something more impressive than this to beat us."

* * *

"Agent Sheldon, this is HQ. Over."

"Receiving, HQ. Over."

"Agent Coulson's team has failed to neutralise the target. We have received the executive order to proceed with Operation Maximum Force. Over."

"Understood. We're moving in. Over."

"Good luck, Agent Sheldon. Over."

Sheldon rolled his shoulders, dipping his wings as he headed into a dive. Below him, through his suit's sensors, he could make out the shape of the jumbo jet. Behind him, the other three men in his team followed his lead, all falling into formation as the M.A.G.P.I.E.s swooped towards their target.

* * *

Izumi's eyes opened as she jerked awake. She looked around at the sleeping passengers surrounding her in economy class. She nudged Adam in the ribs and he opened his pale, lustreless eyes immediately.

"What?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Something outside. It sounded like a jet engine."

"Don't be silly – a jet would never be able to get close enough to a plane like this for you to hear it. There are rules about these things."

"Then something else must have made the sound!"

He gave her a tired look. "Like what?"

"Well....I..."

She thought long and hard about it. Coming up with nothing. What else could make that noise?

"I don't know! But I definitely heard the noise! I swear!"

He looked at her. "It couldn't be a jet. Could it? You didn't dream the noise, did you?"

"I know the difference. I'm not going crazy this time."

"Fine. If it makes you happy..." he grumbled, and pushed up the screen, peering out the window.

He didn't have to look for long.

"Shit."

Flying dangerously close to the plane was a...

"That's no jet."

A quick check of the opposite window spotted another one.

"You were right, and there's more than one! Only these aren't jets."

"What are they, then?"

"Not friendly, I can tell you that..."

THUD. THUD.

"What was that?"

The thudding noises grew in volume, the thunderous sound of metal on metal...until it was right above them. Then...

A most terrible screeching noise assaulted their ears. The plane suddenly lurched violently, as the ceiling parted as easily as the Red Sea...a whooshing noise joining the sound of metal being twisted and torn apart. And then...

A black and white machine, with a face that rivaled the Grim Reaper himself, lowered into the plane, stomping down with a powerful THUD in a crouched position. Slowly, it rose up, towering high above all. It seemed to slowly survey the area, frightened passengers reflected in it's gaze...

"Get down!"

"What?"

"You idiot!" Before Izumi could reply, Adam's fist connected with the side of her head, the last thing she saw before blacking out was the sight of dual-miniguns spinning up...

--------------------------

The plane shook, hard, tilting forward sharply, almost knocking Darkness off his feet.

"Now what?!"

It rolled to one side, then the other, before turning back into place...it never stopped shaking, however.

"What in the bloody hell was..."

The sound of tearing metal once again announced itself, and the ceiling tore open as if it were made of butter, a terrible torrent of air rushing out of the plane, again causing it to lurch back and forth. The air pressure sucked on everyone's body, threatening to pull them in through the hole...

And then the black and white metallic shape fell into the hole, amongst the Children, his arms arcing with a large swing, knocking them all off their feet.

"I got him!" bellowed Galadd. The large werewolf leapt towards the shape, arms outstretched...

A metallic fist connected with his chin, the sickening thud of metal on flesh ringing in his ears.

"Damn you!" Gwen screamed. She charged towards, growling, eyes locked on the metallic bringer of death...

It happened in an instant. Her ribs cracked under the force of his metallic fist, and she collapsed with a scream. Then the machine stood over her, raising both fists in the air...

Crunch. They connected cleanly with her chest, forcing out a choked scream...

Crack. Again they struck, another scream forced out of her lungs...

"NO!" Galadd belowed, charging in once more...a metallic palm calmly pie-faced him, sending him flying back into one of his fellow werewolves.

Another swing of the fists and Gwen's ribs crumbled further under the pressure, blood dribbling out of her mouth along with her gurgly cry...

"Gwen!" Llenlleawg yelled.

The last thing she felt before blacking out was a metallic hand around her throat, tossing her to her fellow Children...

"Enough!"

The machine looked up at the one who spoke. The pilot behind the mask grinned.

"I've located the target..."

"I'll take him!" Gawain bellowed.

"Gawain!" Darkness yelled. "This is a time for retreat, not battle!"

"But, Gwen...!"

"You can better serve her by carrying her and getting the hell out of here!"

Gawain nodded, and slung Gwen's still body over his shoulder. There was no time to tell if she was even still breathing. Only time to run...

And so, the Children filed out of first class, running down the stairs just as the mech was spinning up it's guns. The last of them ducked out of sight just before the bullets started to fire.

The man behind the death mask just chuckled, ignoring the screams of the passengers around him. He simply swept his miniguns across the section. The death mask of the machine remained motionless as he executed every single witness, painting the plane with a new crimson color. He paused to wipe blood off his mask, before beginning to advance down the stairs...

--------------------------

The first M.A.G.P.I.E. surveyed the sight of economy class, in a similar state to the first class section ahead.

"Where is he?" Agent Sheldon demanded.

"He is headed in your direction." replied his cohort.

He stood still, facing the door. The moment it swung open, he would warm the Antichrist's cold heart with hot lead pouring through his body. He waited, the antipation building, eyes never taking themselves off the door...

It swung open!

"Wait! Don't shoot!"

Two seconds later, the flight attendant found herself in a pool of her own blood, expression fixed in terror forever.

"Damn."

And then the sight he wanted to see, the dark haired man charging through the door.

"At last," he declared, guns spinning up with a whirr...

His vision was obscured by...hands. Two small hands, clasped over his face, while a weight planted itself on his back.

"Grrragh, you...!"

Adam struggled to restrain him, eyes meeting Darkness' for a moment. The moment seemed to hang in time...

...before it was broken by his voice.

"Antichrist!" he yelled. "Survive this, or we won't forgive you!"

And then he was tossed aside like a feather, the mech turning with the motion, his minigun extending quickly, sending a stream of lead through Adam.

"And stay dead..."

Izumi stirred. "Adam..."

"Shut up, and stay down!" he hissed.

"No need to worry about what's dead," Darkness growled.

A stiff kick connected with the back of his head. It had a surprising amount of force, enough to bring the M.A.G.P.I.E. to a knee.

"Worry about what's alive and right in front of you!"

Slowly, he turned, and stood up, looming like a monolith, easily standing stable in the shaking, diving plane...

"Give yourself up," Agent Sheldon bellowed, "you are surrounded. There's no place to run, and no place to hide. You can either come with me...or I can take your head with me. Your choice."

There was a long moment of silence between the two. The sound of the slowly dying plane filled the dead air, as it careened inevitably towards it's final destination. Darkness and the Children knew it was a ticking time bomb.

Darkness heard the sound of the mech from behind. He knew he was surrounded, yet he could only smile at the one in front of him.

"If that's the case," he replied, "then I'm taking a third option."

"And what would that be?"

"I'm going to kick your ass."

"By all means, try..."

Around him, everything was chaos. Screams filled his ears. The rapid depressurisation of the cabin was causing everything unfastened to rush towards the gaping hole the M.A.G.P.I.E.s had left. Oxygen masks dangled uselessly from the overhead compartments.

"All these people are going to die," Darkness said softly, his voice somehow carrying across the din.

"If they do, it'll be your fault," the suit replied, its voice transformed into an electronic whine.

"I'm not the one who broke into a passenger jet."

"And I'm not the one who...ARGHHH!"

Revenant dropped from the ceiling, wrapped one arm around the suit's death-mask and pressed her other wrist to the back of its neck. She clenched her fist, causing the segmented blade to shoot out of its housing and slide in between the armour's plates. It threw its head back and released another metallic scream as its red stare faded to black. Revenant leapt clear as the suit crashed to the heaving ground, lifeless. A pool of blood began to seep out from the fresh crack.

"Thanks for the distraction!" Rev yelled.

"Not a problem. Certain kinds of people always expect a heroic confrontation."

"That's pretty rich coming from you."

"Do you always spend time trading banter with your friends in times of crisis?" a voice asked them.

Darkness turned and frowned at the man he had seen die twice now. "Shouldn't you be in pieces?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"Not yet. Who are you?"

"Just someone watching your back."

"Get in line," Gawain called from the door to business class. Gwen was unconscious in his arms.

"What are we going to do?" Revenant asked. Around them, people were still panicking and screaming, but Darkness seemed to exert a calming power over everyone who conversed with him.

"Only you have the power to save this plane, Antichrist!" the pale stranger said.

"I'll thank you not to keep yelling that. These people will start looking for someone to blame if they survive this, and I'm already public enemy number one."

"So what do you have to lose?"

"Adam? What's happening?" Izumi peered over the back of a seat, goggling at Darkness and his friends.

"Izumi? What are you doing here?"

"She's with me," Adam said, taking a step towards her.

"Of course she is. Why wouldn't she be?"

"Save this fucking plane!" Revenant screamed.

"How?!" he screamed back.

"I don't know! Usually you save the day by running at stuff and hitting it!"

"I hate to be the one to point this out, but there are more of those suit guys on this plane," Gawain called.

"Jesus Christ," Darkness said, turning around, "one thing at a time, please."

"No one ever said being the Antichrist was easy," Adam said.

"No one even told me I was going to be the Antichrist in the first place! Look, who are you again? I'm still not clear on this."

"His name is Adam," Izumi said.

"I got that bit, but it doesn't help me much. Wait, you're not the Adam are you?"

"No."

"Just asking. Stranger things have happened."

"SAVE THIS FUCKING PLANE!"

Darkness spun around wildly. His head was buzzing from the noise and anarchy all around him. The floor was rapidly approaching vertical now, and even his iron composure wasn't allowing him to maintain his balance. Time to think fast. Time to do what came naturally.

He opened his eyes.

* * *

The men in the cockpit were already frantically pressing buttons and trying to radio for help, but both of them knew the explosive decompression in the cabin had already condemned everyone on board to death.

"I guess I'll see you in Hell, Larry!" the co-pilot said, laughing manically.

"Jesus fuck! Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...."

A mountain loomed up before them, a wall of unforgiving black rock flying out of the darkness.

"Oh God!"

"...iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii....."

A raging maw suddenly burst into existence in front of them: a ring of infernal fury where sheer rock face had been a moment ago.

"...it..." the pilot finished weakly.

The plane careered through the circle of fire, leaving Earth behind, but not in the way anyone but a single passenger on board had thought.

* * *

"Hello?" Izumi croaked.

Everything around them was smoky. She picked herself up slowly and peered through the haze. Around her, everyone else was doing the same thing: looking around, scared and shocked. She could hear the sounds of quiet weeping and cries for help.

"Hello?" she said again.

No one she recognised was around. She stumbled out of the wreckage of her seat and dusted herself off as best she could. One of her legs hurt, but she couldn't concentrate on that now. She looked both ways and made a beeline towards the faint light that filtered in through the doorway to business class, picking her way through the ruins of the economy class cabin. The fallen suit still lay motionless in one of the aisles.

"Hello?"

She entered business class, and saw even more devastation. This was where the suit had broken its way through the fuselage. Most of the seats – and their occupants – had been ripped right out of the cabin. There were bodies there too – ones who had clung on long enough to survive the attack, but evidently not the crash.

"Hello?"

"Hello." Adam stepped into view. He was near the tear in the plane's hull.

"What happened? Did we crash?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of? How does that work? You either crash or you don't."

Adam nodded towards the tear. "Take a look for yourself."

Izumi approached the rent fuselage gingerly. She poked her head out into the half-light and frowned at the scene. They had not set down in the Rocky Mountains. In fact, she didn't know where they'd set down.

"I believe it's traditional at this point to say, 'I don't think we’re in Kansas any more.'"

Izumi blinked. "What's happened to the sky?"

"It always looks like that here."

"And where is here, exactly?"

Adam looked out across the bleak red plain that stretched too far beneath a yawning grey sky, rent with swirling clouds. "Welcome to Hell, Izumi. Don't tell me you've never been here before?"

* * *

Darkness and The Children took stock. They had already left the plane, which was resting a few hundred yards away, half buried in the blood-red sand.

"Priority one is to get these people back to Earth," Darkness said.

"What about Gwen?" Gawain asked.

"Is there anything you can do for her, Tilpin?"

The small werewolf shot him a concerned look. "That thing gave her chest cavity a real battering. I need to check her for internal bleeding, but I can't do that here. It's not...sanitary."

"All right. So we all need to get home."

"What about those suits?" Revenant asked.

Darkness shrugged. When they had regained consciousness, none of the MAG suits had been on the plane. It was possible that some had not made it through the portal, but more likely they'd scattered after the crash and we're even now trying to find their way back, or re-establish radio contact.

"We can't worry about them now."

"But you need to."

They turned around to see Adam jogging towards them.

"You again?" Darkness growled.

"I can't die, remember?"

"Apparently not. Why do I need to worry about them?"

"Because they were sent here by the new President, who already has plenty of reason to suspect you're involved in Infernal matters. What do you think's going to happen when his henchmen come back with recorded images of Hell itself?"

Darkness's shoulders slumped. "Good point. We need to track them down."

"No, we need to track them down." Adam pointed to himself and Izumi, who had just limped up to the group.

"You?" Llenlleawg said, arching a brow at the unlikely pair.

"That's right. There's a lot of scared people on that plane who need to be reassured. Do you want a man they saw get shot to do it?"

"Reassuring them won't be a problem – I can open a gateway back to Earth and take them home."

"Afraid not. The border between Hell and Earth is a very fragile thing. If you open up gateways this rapidly – especially ones of that size – you'll start destabilising things, and who knows what might get through."

"How do you know anything about that?"

"Because last time," he said in a low voice, "I was one of the things that did just that."

Darkness raised his eyebrows. "I see..."

"You need to be a leader to all those people back on that plane. Many of them have lost loved ones, and all of them are completely terrified. What's more, they're people who voted to destroy you last November. You want to save the world? Time to start your grassroots movement, Antichrist."

"So you want him to baby-sit a bunch of normals while you and some chick wander all over Hell trying to find a squadron of flying tank robots?" Revenant asked incredulously.

"Actually, I was hoping the rest of you – the healthy ones anyway – might want to tag along. And, trust me, dhampyr, I know my way around this place."

"Fine. Tilpin, you stay here with me and Gwen. We'll try and do some crowd control, and you can patch up anyone on that plane who can be saved. There might even be medical supplies somewhere on board."

She bobbed her head.

"And the rest of you..." he looked carefully at Adam, "...follow him and the girl. Revenant, I trust you can get in touch with me if there's problems."

"Yeah, I can handle it."

"Good." He gave The Children a curt nod and they all started to move away, but then he stepped forward and grabbed Adam's arm, pulling him closer. "I still don't know who and what you are. If I'm going to trust you with my family, you’d better give me some more information."

"I'm just another person who was looking to you to lead them, Darkness. Don't disappoint me again – you can still die."

"Not by your hand."

"Don’t be so sure."

"If you betray me – if you betray them – I'll find a way to end you."

"Frankly, you'd be doing me a favour."

"Not the way I'm planning to do it."

They stared at each other for a long moment before Darkness released him and let him join The Children. He watched them go, not taking his eyes off Adam.

"So wait, THIS is Hell?" Izumi quipped.

"I don't feel I need to repeat myself."

"But I can't be in Hell," Izumi said.

"Well, that's where you are. Not much to look at, is it? No fire and brimstone...at least, not here. Don't worry yourself, it's not a permenant stay." He smirked at Izumi and patted her, hard, on the back. "Unless of course, you die."

"Hey, I'm not that bad of a girl!"

"Are you sure you know you wouldn't go here when you die?" Adam asked, then teasing, "We could use company."

"Well..." Izumi trailed off.

"Enough. We have to track the remaining henchmen down."

"I want to talk to Darkness," Izumi said, it sounding very close to a demand.

"No."

"What?"

"You heard me. You need to focus on the task at hand."

"Why bother?"

"I just explained it."

"But..."

"Don't you two ever shut up?!"

The last voice belonged to Revenant. All eyes turned on her.

"I'd rather endure a thousand years in this place than listen to you two bicker any longer. Shut up, and start looking!"

The wastelands of Hell were expansive. All they could see was an endless sea of red sand in front of them. A steady, cold breeze chilled the group on occasion. This was Hell. That's all it was. A whole lot of...

...nothing.

Still.

Dead.

To the Children, who had been here before, this was no surprise. Adam too. Izumi was the only one foreign to this place, and she showed it.

She never thought she'd be relieved to see bodies.

It something different from the monotony of the land. Skeletons which appeared to resemble the farthest thing from human beings. As they went on, it seemed they got more mal-formed and demonic in quality. Though chilling, they were a small confort to Izumi, a reminder that these once existed as -some- life in this utterly dead world...

"What in Hell are these things?" Izumi blurted.

"Demons, what else? Look, I'll give you the story later. All you need to know is there was a war between Hell and the Abyss...and the Abyss won."

"Wh-"

"Shh. I said later."

Izumi grumbled to herself. Today had been a rollercoaster, physically and mentally. She was getting closer and closer to her answers, but only bit by bit were they being revealed. Why was fate teasing her? And was any of this right? For all she knew, this could be an elaborate trick, everything she'd been told today a lie, and she'd be back to square one.

Then her violet eyes spotted a shape in the distance...Someone alive?

--------------------

"Who are you?"

The M.A.G.P.I.E. pilot demanded, as something approached, moving slowly. It was a large, naked humanoid...only it's skin was bright red, and missing large clumps of flesh. It's eyes were completely white, missing pupils. Its mouth could only be described as anything but a normal mouth: it was missing a jaw completely, as if it had been ripped off.

It stopped, and suddenly it's 'mouth' twitched, making an indescribable gurgling noise, only vaguely sounding like words:

"Baadezw witof, E qedd kyjail uail wyols."

"Freak!" He chuckled, approaching him. "Give me your best shot. I dare you."

In the instant, a large, red tongue struck out from the gaping mouth, stabbing through the chest plate like it was made of butter.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Try to imagine for a second that your ribcage has been ripped open, and white hot acid is covering your still-beating heart.

That was the sensation the pilot felt. He never stood a chance, as the demon ate it's fill. Lifeblood slowly drained out of his body. His color gradually went from bright flesh, to a starving pale, and then finally to a wrinkled, shriviled dead gray. He was dead before he hit the floor.

Some time after the apparition left, he would appear, once again, at the formal gates of Hell, where the demons would give him a very warm welcome to his new home...

--------------------

The wreckage of the plane was quite a grim sight. Where it had once been a full, bustling plane of passengers, now it was over half empty, most passengers dead, either at the hands of the M.A.G.P.I.E or the crash itself. Only a few survived to see the reality of Hell.

"Where are we?" cried a dark haired woman in her 30s. She dressed casually, wearing a white shirt, blue cutoff jeans, and a crucifix around her neck. Seeing Darkness approaching her, she inquired, "Where are the machines?"

"They're gone now. Don't worry, you're safe now."

He picked up his voice so that all could hear. "We're all safe now. I promise every one of you will get home just fine."

The woman slowly sat up, pulling herself from her seat carefully...a piece of twisted metal from the plane dangerously close to her throat. Any closer and it would have been in it. Wearily, she looked at Darkness. "You seem to be the only one around here who knows what he's doing, anyway..."

"I'm doing as well as I can. Who's injured?"

She pointed out about 2 men and 1 woman to Darkness. Darkness looked over his shoulder to Tilpin, who nodded, and went to work. He turned his attention back to the woman.

"Daisy," she said, extending a hand, shakily.

"Darkness." He shook it briefly.

"What exactly occured, anyway? What do you call this place? It doesn't feel right..."

She pointed to the sky above.

"Well..." Darkness started. How would he put this to her? Should he lie to her face? They couldn't keep the supernatural underworld a secret forever...

"BEAST!" someone cried.

Darkness' gaze locked upon him. One of the men Tilpin was treating, pointed a shaking finger straight at Darkness.

"He's the one MacDonald wants!" A white haired old man, in spite of his shattered leg, tried to crawl away.

"Nonsense," he replied.

"Hold still!" Tilpin said.

The man ignored her, and hissed,"Liar! I heard! I heard them call you Antichrist! You're the Beast! And you...you've sent us to Hell! You've damned us all!"

Daisy gasped, and looked to the sky, then the landscape around her...stepping away from Darkness cautiously. "Is that true?"

Darkness paused, and sighed, before replying, "All I can tell you is that we're in a bad situation together...but as long as I'm here, I'll keep everyone here safe, until the time comes for us to leave. We only need wait a short time before we can get out of here. But I need your trust."

"Get away from me," she said.

"I can't do that," Darkness muttered.

"Why?"

"Because if I left you here like this, my conscience wouldn't be able to take it."

Her eyes now had a look of fear and confusion in them. Him? The real live Antichrist? But...it all seemed so wrong...Could HE really be that evil man?

She visibly shook her head. Time to take a leap of faith.

"I have no idea who you really are..." Daisy started. "But against my better judgment, I am going to trust you."

"Can we possibly trust him?!" a voice from the back of the plane shouted.

"What choice do we have?!" she snapped back.

None, that's what.

It was either trust him or wander the wastelands of Hell forever.

--------------------

"Shhh, listen."

The sound of gurgling reached their ears.

"What the hell is that?" Llenlleawg asked.

Izumi stepped closer, looking at the form, a naked man, crouched over...

"Stay back!" Adam said. "He's deadly."

He eyeballed the M.A.G.P.I.E. suit laying face down in the dirt not far from him.

In a split second, it whirled around, and shot out it's tongue!

"Izumi!"

Adam shoved her to the side. The tongue narrowly shot past her, Adam grabbing it at the moment it was vurnurable. With a single tug...

It pulled free.

The abomination gargled and spewed blood from it's 'mouth', screaming as it flailed around, before fleeing them.

"Wow, you're stronger than you look," Izumi chirped. "What the hell was that?"

Adam roughly grabbed Izumi by the shirt, and lifted her to her feet. "That's three times in a day I've saved you..."

"Thanks..."

"Don't run ahead. Hell is no place to be traveled alone...unless you're strong. As for what that was, I couldn't tell you. The amount of strange demons around here is countless."

"Alright," Llenlleawg muttered, "Are we going to find any of those robo-suits to fight or what?"

"Right here."

A voice bellowed from above, as it descended with a CRASH behind them, a cloud of red sand obscuring their vision. It swept away the sand and stepped towards the group.

"I don't know what the hell this place is, but someone's going to pay for bringing me here."

"You're the one who's going to pay," Gawain said.

Revenant stepped forward. "By my count...there's two of you left. Let's make it one."

"Well, we found him..." Izumi said.

"Let's step aside, Izumi," Adam said, "This is their battle."

Izumi gave her strange mentor a look. "Their battle? Don't you think we should help them?"

He placed a firm hand on her arm and pulled her away from the confrontation shaping up before them. "Just step aside," he repeated.

"But…"

Revenant was already leaping into action, her crescent-blades unfurled. Around her, The Children spread out and began to surround the massive suit that was trying to train its mini-gun on one particular target.

"They can't stop that thing," Izumi said.

"The Dhampyr killed one on the plane. I have every confidence in their abilities."

The M.A.G.P.I.E. was moving quickly, its servos whirring, about to clash with Revenant in midair. Abruptly, she spun through the air, flexing backwards and changing direction so that instead of colliding with the suit's chest, she instead grabbed hold of its arm and swung up behind its gun. The suit tried to shake her free, but she adhered like glue, remaining in place even with her hands splayed flat.

"Get off, you little whore!" the suit's operator bellowed from within his steel behemoth, shaking his arm more wildly. Several feet in the air, he had begun to lose control of his jets and was now hovering erratically.

"I guess Jason Dante didn't build these things with vampires in mind," Adam observed.

Izumi goggled at him. "Jason Dante? He built them?"

"Well…paid for them to be built. So I heard anyway."

"Where did you hear?"

"Oh, I get around," he said dismissively.

The werewolves were now gathered around the suit, looking up the slowly rotating machine as it tried to shake Revenant free. One of them cast a spear-stave at it experimentally, but it bounced off harmlessly.

"Argh! Get off me! I'll kill you all!" The suit stretched out its arm and unleashed a hail of bullets into the air. It spun around and tried to aim at the werewolves on the ground, but Revenant jerked up its arm and the shots missed by several metres.

The Children began to see the humour in the situation and started to taunt the suit, waving their arms and dancing around. It once again tried shooting at them, but every time, Revenant was able to throw off its aim.

"They have no fear whatsoever," Adam said.

"Huh?"

"Just the sight of a machine like that would be enough to send a human warrior running for cover, but these creatures appear to have no concept of danger – or at least the danger that a thing like that presents. It's as if it's no more unusual than a car or a television set to them."

"Well they are werewolves."

Adam nodded. "The Antichrist chose his bodyguard well."

Galadd jumped up into the air and grabbed one of the suit's feet. It tried to shake the werewolf free now, but Galadd's grip was strong, and his weight began to pull the M.A.G.P.I.E. to the ground. The other Children, seeing his strategy, moved in too, all grabbing whatever handhold they could and pulling the suit down.

"Get off me! Get the fuck off me! What are you things?!"

In desperation, the suit's pilot tried to lift off into the air, but the weight of ten werewolves was more than it was designed to carry. With one last concerted effort the suit tried to lift up and then, all at once, with an almighty scream of twisted metal, the thing seemed to pull itself apart. There was a shower of sparks and a spasmodic scream of agony as the suit's armour buckled and frayed cabling spilled out like ruptured viscera.

Then the actual viscera began to flow.

Metallic bellows turned to frantic, wailing and all-too-human screams and the M.A.G.P.I.E. folded over on itself. As the servos lost power, the pilot's body was shorn in two by the weight of the metal and the suit collapsed lifelessly to the ground, blood dripping from the tears in its armour.

The Children danced away, cheering, as Revenant picked herself up and laid a triumphant sneaker on the monster's iron chest.

"Oh my God…" Izumi placed a hand on her stomach.

"Effective, if a little gruesome." Adam stepped forward and addressed the group. "I believe we still have another of these metal monstrosities to track down. Frankly, you'd better hope that's all we run into while we're here."

Llenlleawg hefted his spear-stave. "I've been to Hell before. It's not so scary."

"Then you didn't see the right parts," Adam said, fixing him with a baleful stare.

* * *

"Darkness…"

He moved closer and knelt down. In the ruins of the first-class cabin, they had made a makeshift hospital room for Gwen. The werewolf had turned even paler than usual, and her normally sparkling yellow eyes had turned a deep shade of murky amber.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Not really," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

"It's okay, we'll be out of here soon."

"You might be. I'm not so sure about me."

"Don't talk stupid. You've come through worse than this."

Gwen laughed, though it clearly sent spasms of pain through her body to do so. "Darkness – you have to promise me something."

"What?"

"Look after Gawain."

"He's a big boy, Gwen – I think he can look after himself. And anyway, he won't have to. We're going to get out of this and you'll be fine."

"He can't look after himself," she said, "he's never been able to. He'll want to be the leader now, but you have to make sure he has Galadd to watch his back at least. Don't give him too much responsibility."

"Gwen…you don't know what you're saying…"

She fixed him with a steely look. "Darkness, I died well, didn't I? Protecting you? Will it be enough to earn me oblivion?"

"Gwen, you're being ridiculous." He suddenly realised she was holding his good hand, clasping it with all the strength she had left.

"Just promise me you'll look after him, okay?"

"I'll look after all of you, just like I swore I would."

"Good."

She let go and seemed to relax into the couch. Darkness looked at her for a long moment, then stood up and went over to Tilpin who was standing at the door.

"She's delirious or something. She's convinced she's going to die."

"Well…"

"What?"

"I couldn't lie to her, Darkness. We can't, you know. She's bleeding internally, like I thought."

"So fix her."

Tilpin shook her head sadly. "I can't – not here. I need space, and clean instruments."

"Can't she regenerate?"

"Yes – but it's not magic, Darkness. She heals just like a human, just faster and more efficiently. She can still bleed to death. If she loses too much blood before her flesh knits itself back together, it means the same for her as it would for you."

"Then we have to get her home. I'll open up a portal back to Earth and…"

"What about what that guy said? About destabilising Hell?"

"Screw him. We have to save Gwen."

"What about the others?"

Darkness nodded. "I'm way ahead of you. I'll open the portal and you go through with Gwen. Then I'll go and find the others and bring them back."

"What about the people on this plane? Are you just going to leave them here?"

He considered the question. "Take them back with you."

"With me? I can't look after all these Moo-Cows!"

Darkness arched an eyebrow. "Moo-Cows?"

"Oh, sorry." The little werewolf blushed slightly. "We call humans that sometimes."

"Why?"

"Oh, you know. You're just like cows, all wandering around, confused in a big group, making mooing noises." She mimed stomping around, swinging her head from side to side as if it were very heavy. "'Oh no, where are my keys? Oh no, my car won't start. Oh no, I hope that girl over there won't think I'm stupid.' You know."

Darkness laughed in spite of himself. "You certainly have our number, Tilpin."

She blushed again. "I don't mean anything by it. And it's not all of you – you lot are okay. You and Dante and Jay, I mean."

"Jay?"

"You know, Jay Ecks. Dante's friend. I think that's his name anyway," she added evasively.

"Okay, well, you take Gwen through, I'll stay here and…"

"Do you even know where'd you be releasing me? Would I be able to find somewhere to operate? I can't book a hotel by myself, Darkness – I've no documents or anything."

"Well…"

"You have to stay. We have to stay. You've got to be a leader now, and that means making tough decisions."

"I won't condemn her to death, Tilpin."

"Then let's hope she is just delirious."

* * *

Eyes of black fire gazed out over an endless desert of death and decay. This was the Hell he had birthed – this was the Hell he had killed.

But life now trod its desiccated soil once again. No creature moves in Hell without its master knowing, save those powerful enough to ward against his all-seeing eye. These ones were powerful indeed, but they were also ignorant.

Fools.

They were fools to have spared his life, and now they were fools to have entered his realm again. They had come crashing in as if it were nothing to enter his dread kingdom, and no doubt they had hoped to leave without attracting his attention.

Too late for that now.

He ran one dark hand down his neatly-trimmed beard and then placed it against the seeing crystal, moving his spectral gaze in on the downed aeroplane. Darkness had returned, and with him he had brought a wondrous gift: fresh meat.

The screams of the living were so much more satisfying than those of the dead.

"How much longer are we going to be here?" Daisy asked the Antichrist.

"Until the others are back. By then, we should be free to escape from here..." Darkness replied. His eyes shifted over to Gwen every once in a while, just to ensure she was still breathing. Thankfully, she was, but for how much longer?

"I don't want to stay in this place a second longer than I have to..."

"Naturally. Just hold out a little longer..." Darkness replied.

By now, most of the passengers had been patched up thanks to Tilpin. They were in pain, but the most important thing was that they were alive.

"Hold still, this will only take a second." she scolded a young, blonde man, who squirmed as she tried to stitch up a chest wound.

"It hurts...stop..."

"I'm trying to patch you up, will you stop being such a moo-cow?" Tilpin scolded.

"NO!" he screamed. "MONSTER!"

"What's gotten into you?!" she yelled.

He suddenly stared back at her, blankly. "Nothing. Let me help you out."

In a single movement, he reached down, and ripped his own chest wide open, a sick grin on his face as he reached inside his chest cavity...

--------

"You want to know something?" Izumi asked Revenant.

"Yes?"

"You guys are scary. And to think I was trying to fight against you..."

"She was?" Llenlleawg inquired.

Adam chuckled. "Yes. She used to be part of The Balance, and had been trying track down the Antichrist to get him killed, before she learned she was fighting on the wrong side. I was, once as well...thankfully, she is still among the living. I say 'thankfully' with reluctance..."

"Hey, that's not nice!" Izumi said. "You don't really mean that, do you?"

"But in any event, it would have been a mess trying to go through you guys to get to the Antichrist," Adam said, ignoring Izumi. "You guard him well."

"Hang on," Gawain said. "What's this 'Balance' you're talking about?"

"I don't want to get into long winded explanations. You can hear the full story later. All that matters is we're on your side."

"Are you really?" Revenant said. "Can we really trust both of you?"

"Of course!" Izumi chirped.

"He just admitted to you being enemies with us," Revenant said, pointing a crescent blade at his neck. "How do we know he still isn't?"

"You know I'm already dead."

"You can't die, but you can still hurt..."

"What are we possibly going to do against you?" Izumi said. "We're just one human and one dead guy against a dozen werewolves and a...damp...diaph..."

"Dhampyr," Adam said.

"Right."

"You could be saving your betrayal for when we least expect it. However, there won't be such a time. I'm trusting you both for now, but I'm also watching." she said, folding up her blade.

"At least I know I'm not being considered a joke anymore..." Izumi quipped.

BOOM.

In an instant, the last MAGPIE had landed behind them.

"You've evaded us for the last time..."

"Us? Don't you mean you?" Revenant said. "You're all alone."

"Now you're going to...what the fuck?"

Something small, no longer than a foot had jumped on his mask.

It was a little horned...imp.

"Get off of me, you stupid little crap!"

He swung his gigantic arms at the imp, with it deftly dodging every movement. Razor sharp claws hacked away at the mask, slowly ripping away bits and pieces.

"Need some help?" Izumi said, giggling.

The MAGPIE pilot grabbed the imp and threw it to the ground, driving it hard into the sand, with a painful crunch.

"I am so sick of-"

He stopped cold.

Another one had torn open the back of his mech while he was busy, and was digging inside his flesh. He never stood a chance. He slumped to the sand before he could ever engage the group...

"Well," Gawain said, "that makes four down!"

"That was easy," Rev said, "almost too easy."

"Maybe we aught to get out of here, before they turn on us..."

Then the ground shook. Hard. Shockwaves were visible in the sand, and they seemed to be coming...

...straight from the MAGPIE that had just slumped over. Steam was billowing from it's seams...

And the pilot was screaming. He stood up, and let out an inhuman cry...

"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!"

The sound of twisting, screaming metal filled the air, along with a variety of hisses, clicks, pops and snaps...

The MAGPIE was expanding.

Metallic arms and legs were bulging, becoming ripped. The torso ballooned to several times it's size, as the pilot's continued, tormented scream became deeper, and deeper.

Hiss. Crack...crack...snap...

From within the inside of the suit, a crescendo of visceral noises rang out. Blood began to pour out of the seams of the armor whenever and whereever it bulged larger. The metal shrieked with each bulge, every part of the MAGPIE suit filling out. The whole form dropped to one knee, as the remains of the mask fell off, revealing the face behind...

A young, dark haired man, with bloody, empty eye sockets. He let out a scream, which could only be vaguely described as a bellowing, gurgling cry, which was abruptly cut off...

Then his head went limp.

Two black, bloody spikes shot out from either side of his head.

No, not spikes, horns.

Then the empty eye sockets began to glow bright yellow...

...before the head burst apart completely.

In it's place was the face of a monster. The head of the once 'little' imp, enhanced and enlarged, yellow eyes fixed in a glare.

Izumi knew that glare all too well, because it was permanently fixed on Inferno's mask...

Bloodlust.

It rose, reared back and let out a horrible, otherwordly roar, that echoed for miles and miles in Hell...

"Fight, or run?"

"Run!"

"Where?"

The group looked around them. Nothing but a sea of red sand as far as the horizon...

--------

"No! Stop it! What are you doing?!"

Daisy screamed, at a petite woman, she was standing over the body of the young man who had ripped his own heart out. She too was grinning madly, before her hands seized her neck, and twisted it...

Crack.

She fell limp to the floor.

"Darkness, they're going mad!"

"No, they aren't..."

His Slayer Sense could pick it up easily. "...dammit. He's found us."

"He's killing us!" somebody screamed, pointing at Darkness. "It's been a trick all along!"

"No! Lucifer is trying to get inside your heads!" Darkness bellowed.

"And he's succeeding, oh so easily..."

Darkness froze, as Daisy approached him, smiling cruelly.

"You don't look too pleased to see me, Nightwalker. A shame, because I couldn't savor this any more..."

"Release her."

Lucifer ignored him, whispering coldly in his ear, a conversation for just the two of them to hear: "Seems your people have placed the blame on you...so easily swayed they are. Just like this woman. So weak willed..."

He tore the crucifix off her own neck, and studied it..."Not even all of the faith in the world could save her from me."

The crucifix was about an inch and a half long and just an inch across, with the likeness of the Saviour hanging lifelessly from it. Then 'Daisy' opened wide, and the crucifix disappeared behind her lips, chain and all, with a gulp. "Why do you keep fighting? In spite of everything, these weak minded people will come to hate you in the end. Look at what they've tried to do to you already..."

"You're wrong," Darkness snarled, "Humanity's strength is more than you know."

"Is it really?" The woman chuckled darkly, before turning her eyes on the fallen Gwen. "What about your strength?" 'She' began to approach her...

"Touch her and I will kill you."

"You couldn't kill me before. What makes you think you can kill this woman?"

In a flash, Darkness' fist connected with her head, and she dropped to the ground. She was grasped harshly by the shirt and lifted before Darkness, staring a hole into her with his infernal fury...

And she could only laugh. "This is only the beginning, Nightwalker. The real game is about to start..."

Not far from the plane, a four legged part-reptilian creature stood on the horizon...

Darkness brushed a strand of Daisy's hair from her pale face. Her skin was damp and slicked with cold sweat.

"Daisy? Can you hear me?"

Her eyes opened slowly, and she instinctively shied away from Darkness. "What happened?"

"Nothing. You're going to be fine. Just lie down." He tried to lower her slowly to the floor and reach for a coat to make a pillow from, but remembered too late that he only had one hand. He fumbled with his stump until Tilpin came to his rescue and helped him.

"Is there any physical damage?" he asked the werewolf quietly as they stepped away.

"It doesn't look like it – nothing worse than a little psychological shock anyway. Can't say the same for some of the others though..."

Darkness looked ruefully down the aisle of the plane at the carnage left in the wake of Lucifer's proxy visit. The surviving passengers were cowering in their seats, weeping over dead or dying loved ones and a few were staring catatonically into space. Any anger they had left had been bled right out of them.

"Why didn't he just kill everyone?" Tilpin asked.

"He doesn't mean to kill them. Demons live on fear and suffering – he'll break them before he finishes this."

"So what are you going to do? Can you protect them from being possessed?"

Darkness shook his head. "I doubt it. I could try to find him and stop this attack at the source, but this is his domain – if he doesn't want to be found, I know he can find somewhere to hide forever."

"And maybe he's trying to draw you out..."

"Good point. Tilpin, I have no choice – we have to send them back to Earth right now. They're not safe."

She nodded. "I think destabilising Hell is probably the least of your problems right now."

"Glad you agree. I'll go outside and open up a portal."

They made their way towards the business class cabin where the tear in the side of the plane offered access to the outside world. They passed more terrified passengers and Darkness tried to give them a few words of comfort as he passed, but few seemed to even notice him now.

"So you can just open a gateway between Hell and Earth?"

"Apparently," Darkness shrugged. "I did it when I came here looking for the Promethean Ring. It must be something to do with being the Antichrist."

"But how did you know you could do it?"

"I don't know. I just did."

They stepped into the ruins of business class and approached the jagged slash of half-light in the fuselage. It was only a short drop down to the ground since the plane had managed to bury itself fairly deep when it crash-landed, but Darkness didn't get that far. Instead, all his attention was focused on the dark shape massing on the horizon.

"What is that?" Tilpin asked as she poked her head out of the gap.

"It's...an army..."

Tilpin narrowed her eyes and then sniffed the air before recoiling and waving a hand in front of her nose. "Brimstone."

"Demons," Darkness confirmed.

"Makes sense. Wait, what's that?"

From the centre of the mass of seething shapes, a towering creature rose. It let out a roar of bestial fury that was audible even across the miles that separated them, and the churning sky of Hell responded with flashes of dim lightning and a low growl of thunder.

Darkness straightened, his eyes fixed upon the monster. "I think I know..."

Sunday October 7th, 2007

"You let the werewolf take the Ring?"

Darkness eyeballed Jael from across the room. "What do you want me to do? Take it from her by force?"

"If necessary..."

"I won't do that."

"Why not? Is it because there would be consequences for your...career...?" The seraph didn't hide his distaste.

"No. It's because...because I can't. End of discussion."

They both fell silent. Darkness continued to pace across his half of the hotel room. Jael continued to lurk in the shadows.

"When I was in Hell," Darkness said, suddenly, "I crossed that bridge."

"Bridge?"

"Where you had your battle. Phlygeas, was it?"

"Yes." Jael's voice was quiet.

"Michael was there. His body, I mean. I thought he spoke to me, but it was the demon Bleeder, using him as a puppet."

"A demon...used him...?"

"Don’t worry – Bleeder's dead now. I watched him fall."

"You killed him yourself?"

"No. It was Lucifer."

"Do not be surprised if you see him again, Antichrist."

Darkness nodded. "I won't. But I need to know what happened on that bridge, Jael. I have to know your story."

"I have already told you enough..."

"All you told me was that Lucifer betrayed you. There's more to the tale – I know there is. You fought in the battle that changed the fate of the universe, and I have to know what you saw. I should have been there too...I should know what you know..."

Jael bowed his head, understanding. He stepped from the shadows and held out one of his walnut-brown hands. "Touch me. Know what I know."

Darkness lifted his good hand and pressed his palm against Jael's...

Jael met his eyes and Michael tried to reassure him with a smile. "While we stand, there is still hope," he told him.

Jael nodded slowly and lifted his blade. "Yes," he agreed, "but we have yet to feel the full brunt of their attack." He pointed with the sword and Michael followed his gaze.

"MICHAEL!"

The voice of the monster that galloped towards them carried across the bridge. Semiazas, huge axe in hand, reared up on his reptilian lower half and then crashed back down to all fours, sending sparks of lightning across the ground beneath him.

Michael surged up into the air, his wings bearing him with languid beats in the hot air. He spun his blade in his fist as, below him, the remainder of the Host of Heaven took to the sky too in order to meet the aerial charge of the Grigori, the Fallen Angels, that now swooped across the battlefield.

Michael threw himself towards the massive shape of Semiazas who swept his axe before him, throwing a dozen angels into the air to land in broken, bloody heaps. He hefted the weapon in a two handed grip and then brought it down into the ground, causing cracks and fissures to open in the bridge's stonework as well as sending out more lightning that crackled across anyone in range, sending friend and foe alike into electric convulsions.

Semiazas met Michael's charge with an immense shoulder, sending the Archangel spinning through the air. Michael recovered himself and lifted his weapon, using the last of his Heavenly power to ignite it and then plummeted towards Semiazas, plunging the flaming sword deep into his side.

"I cast you down once, Semiazas," Michael roared, "and I shall do so again!"

Semiazas only replied with a bestial howl as he swung his axe at Michael, nearly decapitating him with one stroke. Jael leapt into the mêlée, swinging at Semiazas too and the arch-demon attempted to bat both of his smaller attackers away in anger. His massive clawed hand reached out and he secured a grip around Michael's throat as he tried to dart away.

"ENOUGH!" the beast bellowed, lifting Michael high into the air, intending to dash his exhausted form across the stones.

Michael tried to fight free, but Semiazas, who was fresh to the fight, was too strong. Desperately he attempted to swing his sword, but black spots in front of his eyes as the oxygen was cut off to his brain prevented him from attacking accurately. Dimly, he was aware of Jael being slammed into the ground nearby and pinned to the floor by one of Semiazas's clawed feet.

After he had seen everything, Darkness sat down with Jael and asked him more – though he had witnessed the betrayal and the massacre with his own eyes, he still lacked the understanding of all that had happened.

"Semiazas...what is he?"

"A demon. A Duke of Hell. The Second of the Fallen, Father of Giants and the Lord of the Grigori."

"I see..."

"He was old when the world was young. He stood beside the Lord as Creation unfolded and watched with his own eyes the first faltering steps of Man. When Satan fell, Semiazas fell with him. He was his lieutenant, his most loyal commander in the war against God. But alone amongst those who were cast down, he was not broken. Satan spent centuries recovering, rebuilding his strength, nursing his wounded pride: Semiazas did not miss a step. He was the most arrogant and prideful of all the Fallen Angels, and, had he the wit to do so, he would have seized control of Hell in an instant. Instead, he continued to do his master's work on Earth. He became the god of the tempests and the storm's fury – a deity of the insane and the enraged – and spawned hateful progeny that, at one time, threatened to engulf all that mankind had worked for. He was the only creature to face God's mighty wrath twice when the Deluge condemned him to Hell once more."

"He Fell a second time?"

"And survived. To become more monstrous and terrible than ever before – his hatred has been honed into a towering rage as vast as his physical form. He is without fear, without mercy, without empathy of any kind. All he knows is anger and martial pride. He will crush you if he gets even the slenderest chance."

Darkness stared out across the infernal plain towards the shape that was both new and horrifyingly familiar.

"Darkness? Are you all right?"

"Tilpin, go and find me a spare hand. And get these people somewhere where I can talk to them."

* * *

"I said run!" Adam yelled in her ear.

"There's nowhere to run to!"

"So what? We don't have to outrun that thing – we just have to outrun them," he nodded at The Children and Revenant.

Izumi jerked her arm away from him. "Are you kidding me?"

"Izumi, you don't want to be caught by that thing. I don't want to be caught by that thing."

"What do you care? You're beyond death, aren't you?"

"There are worse things than death," he told her darkly, "but it's fresh meat it hungers for. I didn't save your life to let you lose it down here."

The black demon was advancing slowly, still dragging the remnants of its host behind it. The werewolves and Revenant backed away, weapons levelled.

"Come on!" Adam tugged at Izumi.

"No, I'm not going to leave them to fight it by themselves."

"They shouldn't be fighting it either," he growled. "Hey, dummies – time to run away!"

"Only one thing ever made me run," Revenant snarled, "and it was a lot scarier than this ugly dickhead."

"Scarier than a Gallu? I doubt that very much..." Adam pulled at Izumi more insistently. "Come on – it'll be strong enough to pounce soon. Once it finishes consuming the host, it'll be hungry again, and it won't want to go back to being small, especially when there's so many other potential hosts around."

"There's no point running when there's nowhere to run to," Izumi said, "which means someone in this gang is going to get caught. Look at them – they've figured that out, and they won't retreat if it means one of them has to die."

Indeed, The Children and their adopted Dhampyr remained in a close knot. The creature swung its horned head back and forth, trying to pick a target.

"Hey! Over here!"

Adam goggled at Izumi as she waved her hands up and down, attracting its attention.

"What are you doing?"

"Picking for it."

"Are you trying to be noble? You think sacrificing yourself to save them will protect you against what that demon will do to you? Let me tell you, little girl..."

"Oh shut up. I'm just giving them some time to come up with a plan. I don't want to die either, but if we run we'll just be delaying the inevitable."

The demon had started to lope towards her now.

"You're insane," Adam hissed.

"I might have turned my back on the Balance, but I still hold that they were right about one thing – humanity is strong. We're worth saving the world for, you know. Werewolves might be braver, and Dhampyrs might be able to climb walls, and dead guys might know all sorts of weird stuff they probably shouldn't, but only humans are going to decide the fate of this world."

* * *

"Listen to me."

A smattering did. Some stared blankly, others actually paid attention. Most just remained as they were. Tilpin shrugged helplessly.

"Listen to me!" Darkness roared.

This time there was a better response.

"I promised I'd protect you, and I'm a man who does not break his word. There is something dangerous out there – something awful: more awful than anything you've seen so far in your lives. I will not shelter you from the truth: there is evil in the world, and in this place, and it means to destroy you. But I will protect you. There is a monstrous and vile force in the universe that opposes your very right to exist, and it is both real and readying itself to pounce as we speak. But I will protect you. This duty I have undertaken will not be easy, but I will not ask you to stand beside me – that is too much for me to ask of you. I will protect you, because that is what I was born to do."

He pointed with his sword. "I will protect you from what is out there now, and I will protect you from what is out there in the future. For the rest of my days, I will face down the threats to you and your kind with unyielding determination. I will die fighting for you if needs be, and I will make whatever sacrifices are necessary to safeguard your lives. I will not ask you to trust in me, I will not ask you to support me, all I will ask is that you carry forth my message today. Remember what I do here. Remember that I am not your enemy: I am your guardian. I cannot protect you if you oppose me. I cannot protect me if you do not let me. You are my ward, my shield, my strength."

There was no reaction from the assembled passengers, but he hadn't expected one. If he died today, he needed them to know why he did it. If they ever made it back, they had to know what he knew: that someone had given everything they had solely to protect them from a threat they didn't even know existed. He had to light a torch, or none of them would have any future.

"Are you really going to fight that thing?" Tilpin asked as they headed for business class again.

"I have to. I can't open a gate with an army on the doorstep."

"But it's huge! And it brought a whole lot of friends!"

"Don't tell me I have to give you a speech too," Darkness smiled.

"No, just promise me you'll fight well." She handed him a spare prosthetic liberated from his salvaged luggage.

"I don't know any other way to do it. Ask...well...everyone in TCW."

Izumi stared at the black demon as it advanced, like a deer caught in headlights.

"You're going to die, you know," Adam said. "After all the time I spent saving you, you're going to piss it away. Good fucking job."

As she stared at the monster, beginning to move at the speed of a charging bear, Izumi's head only now began to put together the consequences of what she had done. Her skin prickled as she broke out into a profuse sweat, her heartbeat instantly shooting up. Without thinking, she pivoted and began to run...

Within 3 seconds, it would rip into her.

"Son of a..."

Adam didn't think. He threw himself in harm's way.

The demon's hardened skull met with pale, decayed flesh, and the meeting was not pleasant. Adam was flung ten feet backwards, the sand doing little to cushion the impact, or lessen the pain of his wrecked body.

Izumi didn't look back at Adam, still running into the distance. Nothing but sand, sand, and more sand for miles. At best, she could try to hide herself in the sand while the creature was distracted with him, but she suspected it would sniff her out anyway. She needed to put as much distance between them as possible...

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Izumi winced at Adam's scream, and forced herself not to look back...

If she had, she would have seen the demon plunge a clawed fist straight through Adam's abdomen. Dark, thick coagulated blood oozed slowly out of the wound. The demon growled ravenously, mouth glistening and steaming with acidic saliva as it tore open the hole slowly. The screams only got worse. Adam, being Damned, had no embrace of death to whisk him away from the pain of being eviscerated.

His arms flailed wildly, as he tried and failed to fight off the creature. Punches bounced and ricocheted off his thick skull. The demon reached inside, slowly pulling out a fistful of bloody, sausage-like intestines, and lifted it to it's snout.

Sniff, sniff.

It let out a displeased snarl, and let the organs fall inside the hole it had created. This one was not like the others. It would not satisfy it's cravings.

The girl, however, would.

It reared back with a thunderous roar, and began to lumber after Izumi. The rumbling signaled to Izumi that it was after her once more.

Heart pounding in her ears, she peered back.

The truth of the matter was shattering. In about 20 seconds, it would close the distance she had worked so hard to create, and claim her as it's prey once and for all. Her eyes locked on the Children. They were too far away to stop it, even if they had made a plan by now.

She ceased running, and whirled around to face it fully. Nothing to do now but face the inevitable. She felt numb all over, and ready to vomit.

15 seconds.

Here she stood, a little human girl, whose greatest accomplishment in combat to date was a mid-tier title on a wrestling show. Even the werewolves gave pause at this creature. At this moment, she felt like she was made of butter, and the demon was a hot knife, readying to slice right through her.

10 seconds.

Everything she said about human strength...was it really true? Would the humans save Earth, or would the 'normals' be forced to rely on those beyond the norm to save them? As her death came closer, it seemed more and more like the latter. She would not last a second against this creature. Without people like Darkness, like Freya, the human world would be defenseless against the looming dangers that threatened it.

5 seconds.

She shut her eyes. She really had been living on borrowed time.

Then a spark of hope lit up in her head...One final desperation.

Without even thinking, her hand slid into her bag, clasping onto an object.

Trusting the gift of a devil, she slid the white mask over her face...

Zero.

-------

Darkness stood outside of the plane, sword drawn and at his side, burning eyes staring at the army before him. There it was...a seemingly infinite sea of winged, scaled creatures, and in the center of them all, was their towering leader.

"NIGHTWALKER!" his voice bellowed, across the empty, stale land. "THIS IS THE DAY YOU END!"

Behind him was a group of humans that trusted him to save their lives. He hoped they weren't seeing this. A possibility of a hundred or more creatures. They considered the humans nothing but meat. Darkness considered each and every one of them a person to guard with his life.

The towering Semiazas lifted a massive axe, as large as a human being, thrusting it in his direction...

"TEAR THEM APART!"

Then the mass began to move. There was no playing around, no delay, the army approached him, the ground rumbling as the tsunami of enemies prepared to crush him down. Darkness couldn't count how many Grigori there were. He didn't care. No matter how many enemies he faced, his mission was the same: Defeat them all, or die trying. To run now would be to condemn everyone to death.

Anticipation built as he prepared his strategy. The wave of enemies rushed up to meet him, and then...

He struck!

His sword clashed with the first one in front of him, a second one taking a swing at his neck. He ducked, before delivering a swift side kick to it, knocking it back. But about 3 more came after him...then 6 more...then...

The entire sea of enemies had surrounded him all at once...and many were seemingly ignoring him, rushing past.

The plane was indeed, their target!

Even if he had the strength, the skill, the mind and body to face this army, and a Duke of Hell...there was but one of him. Their numbers were more than enough to handle him, while they helped themselves to the vurnurable humans inside.

And Gwen.

And Tilpin.

Darkness threw aside all of his doubts weighing him down, and began to move with and through the 'sea' of enemies as he fought, towards the plane, the great, wide open hole that exposed the humans to the hazards of Hell.

He could hear the screams inside, as he forged through the crowd, blades clashing, bodies cleaving, soon reaching the hole...

About 6 of the Grigori were inside, and many more flooding every second. He didn't spend too much time thinking about it, just lifted his palm...

BOOM.

A rush of psionic energy roared, pushing the army backwards as the nearest were thrown away like leaves in the wind, temporarily unclogging the large hole.

The six inside remained. He felt a chill. Could he stop every one of them? They all of them raised their blades to the humans...

He again moved without thinking, doing what his instincts told him...

His sword cut through the first two with ease, even the battle hardened scales of the Grigori no match for his blade. Warm blood covered his blade, his chest, his face, spraying from the enormous orifices he had torn into. Darkness ignored it all, it wasn't the first time he had covered himself in the blood of his enemies.

His movements flowed with efficency, removing the head of a third one, the head falling at his feet. His leg extended simotaniously, striking the fourth in the head, the impact snapping his head back and stunning him.

But the blades of the fifth and sixth one swung down, ready to open up the cowering human flesh beneath...

His blade stopped the impact with a clang, his foot kicking out to knock the sword out of the final one. A few graceful movements and swings of the sword later, and two more Grigori left this mortal coil.

It had all happened in the span of 5 seconds, but it seemed to have taken longer. A narrow save for every human, in a situation that should have led to at least one casuality.

"You saved us!" a man declared.

"What are those things?"

Darkness ignored them, the questions could happen later. "Everybody get in the back of the plane right now!"

Because more and more were replacing the ones he had already slain, pouring in like a flood through the wide open plane tear. He kept the humans, Gwen, and Tilpin to his back. This was where he would make his stand. He had to hold this choke point, but he had only begun to thin their numbers...

The fierce melee began. He swung his sword in a large arc at the first that came at him. The cold steel cut through their chest cavity, cleaving it's demonic heart as it fell, blood pooling quickly on the floor.

Another came at him. He was much too skilled for it. Another one piled at his feet in it's own blood.

Two more.

Then three, six, and then just too many to count...

Darkness grunted as he made his first misstep, a long, dark red streak across his chest, a deep, stinging gash that was already bleeding down his front. Had the sword been an inch closer, it would have struck his insides. The screams of the humans were drowned out by the growls and battle cries of the Grigori...

Blades came at Darkness from all over, and it was all he could do just to parry them all!

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang...

One missed parry. The blade aimed at his neck to decapitate him.

Driven on adrenaline and battle instinct, he leaned back. For that brief, split second moment, he could feel the cold tip of the sword brush his neck, near his carotid arteries...

It was a blur of flesh, scales, and blades. Every single Grigori raged at him. Every single Grigori had the desire to split his flesh open, to run him through, and to tear into the humans he was so desperately trying to protect...

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang-

Steel rended into his upper right arm, ripping through flesh and blood vessels. Darkness retreated, his shoulder burning with white hot pain. But there was no time to defend. Another one moved in for a killing blow at his neck...

Darkness furiously drew his blade up through the middle of the one that had struck his arm, splitting him with a spray of crimson fluid. At the same time, he grabbed the sword arm of the one who had targeted his neck, and drew him in close, before hurling him as hard as he could into the creatures.

Every single kill he got was earned, and he often paid for them. They were slowly chopping him down.

He could manage to protect himself from a fatal hit for a while, but the wounds were piling up. The worst part was, there was no end in sight. Not a second of rest. Cold steel would come within inches of his vitals, milliseconds away from burying into his beating heart, a single mistake away from losing an arm, or a leg.

Darkness finally unleashed another psionic blast, the force enough to knock the sea of soldiers back long enough to breathe. His breaths were hard and short. His body glistened with blood and sweat. He tried to make every second of this moment count, because the enemy was regrouping...

SCREEEEEEECH!

Darkness' infernal eyes peered up to find a sword, ripping straight through the roof of the plane!

Another scream reached his ears, but it was not the scream of metal. It was the scream of humans.

More blades had punctured the plane near them, and were opening it up like it were made of tin.

In the midst of his fighting, they had surrounded the plane.

"YES! YES!" the Duke of Hell's sadistic voice boomed, "WIPE THEM OUT! ALL OF THEM! BRING ME NIGHTWALKER'S HEAD ON A STICK!"

And in the midst of the distraction...

Darkness quickly refocused on the battle, blocking one blade...

...and then his abdomen was pierced.

The pain was paralysing. Darkness immediately felt an unbearable amount of nausea. He stepped back, on shaking legs, before they finally gave way beneath him...

The back of his head crashed against the plane floor. His vision swam, blurred by pain, blood, and sweat. He could vaguely make out the shapes of the Grigori descending on him, he could hear the sound of more swords tearing through the fuselage...

An inhuman warcry roared above him, and, in place of the Grigori, was the looming form of Semiazas.

"I would have expected more from Azrael..." he roared.

"SHUT UP!"

Darkness stood defiantly, gripping his sword in hand. He wiped blood from his face, infernal eyes shooting a death glare at Semiazas. His body was barely stable, but the will to keep going was still there...

"Now that's it...at least now you'll die on your feet like a man!"

The beast swung the enormous axe with inhuman speed, the gigantic blade traveling faster than an object of that size had any right to.

Darkness sort of...fell back, avoiding being cut in half just barely, rolling backwards sloppily. His body felt like it was twice it's weight, even simple movements difficult.

The axe swung again, this time vertically. Darkness again, just moved barely out of the way.

But it wasn't enough to save him this time.

The electrical shockwave that resulted from the impact traveled through the floor and right into his body. His body convulsed, and sort of steamed, before he collapsed like a rag doll.

"Stand up!" Semiazas roared, with a triumphant smirk, "Stand up so I can knock you down again!"

Darkness' hand clenched...but the body was unwilling to do any more.

At this moment, Darkness was overrun. Everything was coming to an end. The Grigori were seconds from tearing completely into the plane and slaughtering everyone aboard.

He himself was seconds away from a finishing blow.

He couldn't fail here...

He just couldn't.

But with his body burning, blood dripping out of him, every muscle sore from the sheer effort, what was left?

He squeezed his eyes shut, and prayed for a miracle.

...

...

...

...and then, Darkness' eyes swung open.

His pupils were completely gone, replaced by swirling infernos. His body began to quake, a wave of white fire radiating from his body...

"Finally..." Semiazas bellowed, triumphantly.

And then, he let out a violent war cry. A cry that shook the very foundations of the ground. A cry that could be heard by the people in the airplane, every Grigori that surrounded them, the Children across the plains of Hell, Satan in his Tower of Sheol, and every demon in every corner of Hell...

Izumi pressed the white mask against her face as the demon charged towards her, now mere feet away. She gave herself over to its power, not knowing what good it might do against such a monster, but also knowing that she had no other weapons at her disposal.

At that moment, as her mind was exposed to the threads of psionic energy that wove Hell together, each strand of Hellfire lit up like a web of burning light in her mind's eye, a blast of psychic force blew them away like a burning wind through gossamer. Izumi screamed as fire filled her mind, and she knew the same pain she had felt so many months ago while hiding in a broom cupboard. It was the very essence of a being that was more mighty than her human mind could comprehend; a being with enough power to shear away every iota of being that defined her; a being that could stamp her into the dirt like a bug.

But this being didn't want to do that this time. This was not a force of repulsion, demanding that she cease invading his mind, but a force of creation: a force of love. It didn't destroy her: it empowered her. It was a shockwave that called out to her and told her that this, this was for her. Only a human could heed this call in the way that she could: only an ordinary person.

The demon halted its charge, throwing up a cloud of ruddy dust. It too had heard the psychic cry, and it was confused – no, not confused: terrified. What had come to Hell? What could create a shockwave like that?

"This," Izumi replied to the creature's thoughts as she removed the mask, letting it drop to the floor.

The demon cowered back from her burning gaze, raising its clawed hands.

"Go back to the shadow that spawned you," Izumi thundered as lightning played in her hair. Her breath steamed, even in the heat of Hell. She raised her hands and her palms ignited.

"What the fuck is going on?" Revenant asked Adam as he picked himself up from the dirt, packing his spilled guts back inside himself.

"I have no idea."

"Really?"

"Really. I didn't know she could do this...I didn't know anyone could..."

Izumi unleashed a blast of infernal energy, incinerating the demon in an instantaneous beam of Hellfire. The creature screamed as its black flesh was consumed and then collapsed backwards into a smouldering pile of charred bone and ash.

* * *

The plane fell apart under its own weight, collapsing into two parts as Semiazas's mighty axe finally cleaved it in twain. The great bestial shape of the Second of the Fallen threw up its muscled forelimbs in triumph. He stepped back, his reptilian tail playing about his clawed hind legs.

"NOW I WILL HAVE THE BATTLE I DESERVE! WE SHALL SHAKE HELL TO ITS FOUNDATIONS, YOU AND I!"

Darkness regarded the demon emotionlessly, staring at him with unfettered Hellfire in his eyes. His flesh appeared paler than usual, shining with a silvery inner-light.

"This is the end of the road, Semiazas."

"FOR YOU, AZRAEL."

"I think not."

Darkness lifted his sword and it burst into flame. He threw himself forward from the shattered fuselage, rising up to meet Semiazas. The mighty beast, towering above the ruins of the plane, hefted his axe and brought it down in an arc wider than a galleon's sail. Darkness met it with his burning blade, and the blackened steel of the battleaxe was turned. Semiazas was unbalanced, and he scrabbled desperately for purchase in the soil beneath his claws. Darkness spun in midair, leaving a spiral of fire in his wake, and carved a deep wound across Semiazas's bare chest. The cut was cauterised instantly, but the burning agony wasn't so quick to fade.

"What's happening?" Daisy stared up at the duel with uncomprehending eyes.

"Darkness is protecting us," Tilpin explained, gently but firmly pushing her back down onto her makeshift bed.

"We have to help him," a weak voice said.

Tilpin looked up and saw Gwen standing in the aisle, holding her side as she tried to stagger towards the great opening halfway down the plane.

"You can't help him – you're hurt."

"He's going to get killed. Even with his powers, he can't defeat that thing."

"I wouldn't bet against him at the moment."

"Those things are trying to get in again!" someone screamed.

Clawed hands once again dragged scaled bodies into the plane. Hissing, leering faces pushed their way over the edge as ragged, flapping wings bore the Grigori inside.

Tilpin reached for her spear-stave and held it up in front of herself defensively. Gwen stood beside her. "Looks like I'll be fighting then."

"You're bleeding internally. If you exert yourself, you'll make it worse."

"So what?"

"You'll die."

"Darkness is willing to die to save these people."

"Are you?"

Gwen stuck out her jaw. "I don't know. I never thought I'd die defending humans."

"Me neither. But we knew that this was what we were signing up for all along. It's our own bloody fault, isn't it?"

"Pretty much."

The first of the Grigori prowled forward, tongue lolling from its scaled, serpentine head and Gwen and Tilpin moved towards it in lockstep. However, it wasn't their blades that scored the first hit against the creature – instead a heavy bag crashed down across its heads, sending it reeling to one side. Daisy stood glowering at the demon, luggage in hand, and then hurled the bag at its head again. The Grigori could only stare at the human woman in stunned incomprehension before Tilpin jumped towards it and drove her spear-stave into its throat.

Daisy's stand was like a dam breaking: all at once, the terrified people in the plane rose up as one, grabbing whatever improvised weapons they could find and surging at the Griogori, determined to repel them from their ruinous shelter.

* * *

Darkness and Semiazas battled back and forth between the two halves of the plane, the mighty Duke of Hell faltering as his vast body became increasingly criss-crossed with wounds from Darkness's flaming sword. He roared in fury, tossing his massive head back and forth, attempting to gore Darkness with his horns. Darkness danced clear though, moving effortlessly through the air without the aid of wings, as if in a constant freefall. Each time Semiazas tried to swat him away, he dodged easily.

"STAY STILL! FIGHT LIKE A MAN!"

Darkness drew back his sword and threw himself forward, burying the blade deep in Semiazas's shoulder. The demon roared and dropped his huge axe, letting it crash to the ground with an impact that caused tremors. With his free hand, he reached across his body and took Darkness in a massive grip.

"NOW I HAVE YOU!"

He lifted him high into the air, intending to dash him against the ground. Darkness tried to fight free, but Semiazas was too strong. Desperately he attempted to swing his sword, but black spots swam in front of his eyes as the oxygen was cut off to his brain prevented him from attacking accurately. His infernal glory was gradually snuffed out as his human constitution reasserted itself, and the dozens of wounds that scored his flesh began to burn in place of his power.

At that moment, two things happened: the people on the plane succeeding in forcing the Grigori out, repelling the demons more through surprise than skill and strength, and the Grigori at the rear of the advancing mob became aware of a second threat to their rear. A wall of fire swept out from a small figure standing on the ridge, causing the ranks of Grigori to blister and disintegrate like dry leaves before a forest fire.

Semiazas goggled at the twin failures of his troops and, with a roar of dismay, discarded Darkness and turned on his heels, bounding off across the plain. The surviving Grigori took to the air and followed their master, leaving Darkness, Tilpin, Gwen, the people on the plane, the other Children, Revenant, Adam and Izumi, who looked at the destruction she had caused from her vantage point on the ridge, in peace.

* * *

"You saved us," Adam said as he looked down at Darkness.

"I was only the catalyst," he replied as Tilpin tended to his wounds.

"So modest. Shouldn't the saviour of humanity be a little...bolder?"

"I've been bold enough for one day. I need to get these people home, and Gwen too."

"I think it'll be safe to do that now."

Darkness looked up at him. He was sitting in the ruins of the plane, while Adam stood over him. He too had been patched up, though it was less necessary for him. "Thanks for the permission."

"I doubted you, Antichrist. I thought you'd abandoned Hell to its fate. We looked to you to be our leader, and we thought you'd ignored our cry for help."

"Well I didn't have much choice but to come here did I?"

"Destiny has a funny way of working things out."

Darkness looked past Adam at Izumi, who was curled up in a seat, sleeping. "And what about her? Are things going to work out for her?"

"I don't know yet."

"Are you going to look out for her?"

"Are you?"

"I'm going to keep looking out for all of them. And for you, for that matter."

"That's a lot of responsibility."

"Not as much as you'd think – you can't die, for a start. That takes a load of my mind." He stood up and limped his way across the aisle. The surviving passengers were gathered in a loose huddle and he stood before them again.

"Time to go home," he said.

They looked at him with drawn, scared faces.

"But before I send you back, I want your promise that you'll remember what happened here."

"How could we forget?" Daisy asked him from the front of the small crowd.

"I mean...remember what I said before. Few of you trusted me when this began, and I expect there are many who still don't. Some – perhaps most – of you voted for MacDonald and placed into power a man who condemns me as the Antichrist. It turns out he's right: I am the Antichrist, but I want you to carry a message to your friends, your family, your colleagues. This is a new truth: stronger and more enduring than that which came before. There is a war coming, and I am on your side. If you fight against me, if you oppose me, then you aid the forces that seek to destroy you. You hammer the nail in humanity's coffin, and condemn yourself to damnation. I have tried to make the choice to follow me the appealing one, but the truth is that it is no choice at all: join me, or die. I will protect you against the children of the afterdark, but I cannot protect you against yourselves."

He stepped away from the huddled group towards Adam and went to walk past him. Adam leant closer, speaking to him in a low voice.

"Hard words."

"It's a hard truth. You know that."

Adam nodded. "The world will burn because of your words today."

"Just as Hell burned because of my indecision. There's nothing I can do about that now – I am the Herald of the Apocalypse."

"That's right. Everything burns no matter what you do now. So why tell them so much?"

"I want them to die with their heads held high, fighting for the right side. We're all going to die – even you, eventually – I want us to walk into oblivion with dignity."

"Such a pessimist."

"These are pessimistic times. I'm going home. I have to help my friend."

Darkness walked towards The Children and Revenant. Adam watched him go, then knelt down beside Izumi and drew a cold finger across her cheek.