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   There were screams as the four of them walked into the seven story building. The frightened humans were directing their fear onto Riley and Jocelyn, who walked with darkness all around them and looked as if they had invented evil.

But most of all, they were curious. Curious about this being who had black glossy skin and eyes like binoculars seeing into outer space. Curious about the naked and fragile looking young witch carrying a man twice her size who also happened to be wearing one of the heaviest looking armors in all of Hell.

These buildings were all a lot of these innocent humans knew. This was their home, their safe haven and a place they knew they trusted with their lives. Seeing non-humans walking in was more than a surprise, it was a warning that things weren't going to be so calm anymore.

"What is going on?" said Bishop, one of the youngest Rogues and the one in charge of the human base they were currently in. He had just walked out of a room after being notified of the supernatural disturbance at the front of the building.

"This is fascinating," Jocelyn said as she took in the attention the humans were giving her from a very fixed distance. "I have never seen this many humans in one area before."

"Are you going to explain yourselves?" Bishop asked when he paused in front of them, his brown eyes staring disappointingly at the two girls.

"It's better if we go downstairs to the basement," Pearl said and Fiona nodded in agreement.

Bishop sighed deeply, still staring at the girls like they had just made the biggest mistake of their lives. Still, he led them to an elevator where they descended into a more private area where no eyes or ears could eavesdrop.

"Where have you guys been? The Leaders have been on my ass ever since the news spread," Bishop said as he sat behind a large wooden desk. "And who are these people? Why would you risk the safety of the humans by bringing in non-humans?"

"Oh, I'm very human" Jocelyn said, pointing her sharp fingernails at him.

"Does everyone know about what happened in Rev?" Fiona asked as she took one of the seats in front of the desk, facing Bishop. The room was dark but made everyone feel like they were back on Earth.

"Yes. There's nothing but chaos out there. The Leaders are scared shitless for these humans. The escape spell isn't anywhere near close to being finished. We are all running out of time."

"But we have the white witch. Isn't that all they need to get us out of here?"

"Not in her state. She's barely conscious and we expect her to open a massive portal that will let us free? I don't think so."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Pearl demanded, angrily pacing back and forth. "We've done everything they have asked for years. They should have some answers before it's too late for all of us."

"You can start by telling me who these people are and why I have an unconscious prince in my base."

"This is my brother and that's the Jocelyn," Fiona said.

Bishop blinked. "Come again?"

"We don't have time, foolish boy," Jocelyn said as she dashed in front of Bishop in a blink of an eye, her barely alive hands gripping his neck tightly, squeezing like she was trying to send a message but not harm. "We are here to give you all of our secrets to help you and your precious humans."

"Is that so?" he replied.

"I am going to wake my son," she said as she let go of Bishop and walked to the corner of the basement, where Hart floated peacefully in her shadows. "And when I do he may not be the same. While I wake him, you girls should tell him everything I told you."

"But you haven't told us everything."

"What more is there to tell when the obvious is as clear as ever?" she said. "Siren is going to destroy everything and take the throne for herself. And when I lift Hart from his slumber, he will also wake up Lucifer. It's going to be a party."

"Wait . . . As in now?"

"Yes, you stupid girl, now."

"Oh, no," Pearl said, panicking as she paced even faster now, her hands on her temple as she thought hard. "What are we supposed to do? If the reason no one has seen Lucifer is because he's been asleep then what is going to happen when he's awake? I have never heard stories of Lucifer ever walking around. It could have been thousands of years since the last time he was out and about."

"But can you imagine the look on Siren's face when he's free? Oh, I don't want to miss that for the world."

Pearl glared at her. "Is this some kind of joke to you?"

"Pearl . . ." Fiona started.

"No!" Pearl shouted. "I am tired of these crazy psychos and their power trips. I have no time to for this. We have bigger things to worry about right now and that's the humans. If neither of you want to help, then leave."

"Why are you looking at me?" Riley questioned. "I have done nothing to you."

"Maybe not to me, but did you forget about Daniel?"

"What does that have to do with you pointing fingers at me?"

"You loved him, Riley. I'm not going to pretend I understood your relationship because nothing makes sense when it's in hell. But you both had a strong bond that you abandoned as soon as Hartheon walked back into your life."

"Maybe I did love him in the beginning," Riley said. "But Daniel was never going to see me the same once I changed. It doesn't matter if I changed into a demon or this obsidian witch. He was always going to be the one to abandon me. So I abandoned him before he had the chance to hurt me."

"So you hurt him instead? Someone who regardless of what he thought about demons always stood by your side, defended you, fought for you so the Leaders wouldn't send out an army of Rogues to kill you."

"You were there. You heard him call me a monster even though I was still me."

"NO! NO YOU WEREN'T!"

"Please stop!" Fiona cried.

"Since you have so much to say, SAY IT!" Riley shouted back.

"WE have been a family for YEARS," Pearl screamed, face to face with the witch and completely unafraid of him. "We have all gone through so much pain and suffering. Our family over the years has become smaller as we lost more and more brothers and sisters. But we were still strong, we had each other, we loved each other, and then you changed."

"You don't see what I see. You don't have the power I have to know how it truly feels to be in my place. If I tell you I am still me, then you better fucking believe it. Every time I remove my armor, I am risking my life. But I do it because I know it makes you guys more comfortable. Because I still care about all of you. Because I am still the same person inside."

"So what you did to Daniel was you caring?"

"He attacked me first," Riley muttered.

"But you left him like that. He is still going through the pain. We had to CHAIN him because he was trying to kill himself to end the torment. Our Riley would have never done that to anyone. Like I said . . . power trip."

Riley closed his eyes and raised his right hand, calling out to the curse he left beneath Daniel's skin. As soon as he felt it had vanished, he opened his eyes. "Took it away."

"Oh, good job, Riley. Good fuckin' job!" she said, flailing her arms.

"If this is what you thought about me, then why didn't you say anything? Why did you pretend like we were friends all this time?" he asked.

"Because Fiona is my best friend and even she understands me."

Riley shot a look at her, but his sister couldn't look back.

"Don't drag me into this," she said, her voice shaking.

"I always heard stories about you and Hart on Earth and I didn't think they were true until he came back. You really do have some messed up connection to him and I can't even try to make sense of it. He killed your sister and you forgave him. He sent her to suffer an eternity in Hell and you went along with your relationship completely forgetting about her."

"DONE!" Jocelyn said happily and floating back away from Hart as he slowly opened his eyes, revealing that they were black.

Everything happened in slow motion to Riley, like he was experiencing everything in a different state of mind that he wasn't in control of. Hartheon rose and every source of light for miles went off, leaving everyone blind. Riley and the Rogues had an advantage in the dark over any other human or creature, so they could still see him as he hovered in the air. What frightened them the most was Jocelyn's sudden mood change. She went from being a crazy bubbly mom to shaking at her core.

"M-m-master," she whimpered, kneeling.

The air was cold, something rare in these parts of Hell where everything was constantly hot. The Rogues shivered as the air tickled their human skin. They could all sense something was not right about Hart.

"It's . . . not Hart."

"I am sorry, Riley," Jocelyn said, tilting her head down to avoid his eyes.

Riley's eyes went to Hart as he grew out wings, but these were not his. They were bigger and they were white. He raised his hands over his head as the building began to crumble. And the most troubling part of this? So did everyone else. He looked back at his sister in time to see her crumble to pieces like shredded flesh and bones. His sister, Pearl and Bishop died screaming in agony before their lives was taken right in front of him.

Everything trembled like an earthquake, throwing him and Jocelyn around as the ceiling above their heads opened, letting in rays of light through. Riley screamed as pieces of his friends and sister hit his skin, leaving trails of wet blood and gore.

Jocelyn grabbed Riley and summoned a bubble of protection. She pulled him closer as the building went down and debris fell over them. Riley saw that her magic was white, which was impossible considering she was a full black witch.

When it was over, Riley crawled to the spot where his sister died. There was nothing left of her.

"Why . . . WHY?!" he screamed.

"I'm sorry, Riley."

Riley turned and grabbed Jocelyn with all his strength and pushed her through the protective barrier, sending her through feet of red cement from all of the blood of the humans who died in the building.

"TELL ME WHY I SHOULDN'T GIVE YOU THE MOST PAINFUL DEATH IMAGINABLE!"

Jocelyn pulled herself up after seeing she wasn't hurt. "Hart was supposed to wake up, but I woke up the wrong one. I didn't know what was going on inside his mind. It turned out both of them were inside. The stronger one received my call of awakening."

"Is . . . is Hart gone, too?"

"No. Lucifer won't be in control of Hart's body for very long. That's why he's going to find his body, then Hart will be free."

"Why did he kill them?" he asked sadly.

"It's Lucifer's power. It kills everything around him."

"But it didn't kill us."

"No, it didn't. You were protected because of your armor and I was protected because he didn't want me to die. He instead . . . he took . . . he took the darkness from me." She began to cry as the realization hit Riley.

Lucifer took away what made Jocelyn evil. He took away what he had done to her. He brought back the old Jocelyn before she had contacted him, before she had given birth to demonic twin babies, before her powers turned dark. She was a white witch once again.

"Do you know what happens to them after death?" Riley asked even though he knew the answer.

"They're gone."

Riley couldn't contain the pain his heart felt. He screamed, letting out his frustration. His powers manifested and blew up what was left of the building and pushed it far away. Never in his existence had he felt more alone than in that moment.

◊◊◊

"We need to find the other Rogues but I was never trusted with that kind of information," Riley said as he scanned the globe in front of him. Jocelyn was going through his books behind him, mumbling quiet words to herself. She may have had her darkness removed, but she had gone through so much that her crazy could never be cured.

"Why do you want to find the others?" she asked.

"Because they're going to need my help. Annetta is still weak and I don't know the contents of this escape spell. It seems like they're struggling and are running out of time. With Lucifer awake they might never be able to get the humans out in time."

"Why do you want to help them?" she asked quietly.

"Because my sister died fighting for them and I couldn't save her. That's why. Any more stupid questions?" he said, shooting her a look.

"They're south," Jocelyn said shyly.

Before Riley could check the southern region of hell, red circles appeared all over the floating globe. Something was happening. Something bad.

"What's going on?" Riley asked, confused.

Jocelyn approached him and inspected the globe.

"They all seem to be heading into one direction. What's in the center of this area?" she asked, pointing at an empty patch of land in the middle of nowhere.

"Could be a wormhole? But what are they? I've never seen this happen except when we found Annetta, except it was a white dot," Riley said as he spread his fingers over the magic sphere and zoomed in on the area with all of the attention.

They couldn't believe what they were watching. It was thousands of demons and their giant bats all flying into a portal. It was like seeing an army of ants riding into one tunnel. As he zoomed in further, he saw something that made his heart skip a beat.

"They're here," Jocelyn whispered as she looked towards the bridge.

Riley's eyes widened as his armor returned to his skin. He walked to the center of the platform and stood directly in front of the bridge. There was nothing that he could see, but then again this realm was all clouds like a private heaven; the start of the bridge couldn't even be seen from where he stood because they were peacefully hovering over the area.

"It's impossible," Riley whispered back. "This is my world."

Riley froze as he saw the first bat shoot through the gust of clouds. Jocelyn jumped in front of him and summoned a silver transparent screen that protected them from the storming army. Jocelyn screamed at Riley, trying to get his attention but he was paralyzed with fear.

The army rushed all around them since they couldn't break through the shield, so Jocelyn stretched it and covered them entirely. The demons were now coming through every direction and not just the bridge. They were appearing from the sky, from below the platform, and neither of them could explain how.

"RILEY! I CAN'T HOLD THEM OFF FOREVER!" Jocelyn shouted as the sound of wings and glorious chants deafened them.

"I've . . . I've always been on the run. I've been chased and hunted by Siren and her followers for most of my life in hell. And now they think they can just show up into my home and destroy it?"

With one swift motion of his hand, Riley destroyed Jocelyn's shield and jumped into the air. He let out a monstrous shriek that released a toxic ring of magic from within his body. The ring expanded fast and passed through the thousands of demons and bats but it only seemed to have affected the bat's ability to fly because they fell from the sky. The demons had to jump from their ride onto the bridge but it wasn't very large to hold everyone.

"KROXIA!" Riley shouted as he flew higher and then dropped down on one of the demons who was going for Jocelyn. He dug his sharp fingers into his neck and ripped his head off with ease.

The tentacle guardian roared over them as more demons entered Riley's home. Jocelyn used her powerful white magic to send dozens of the demon soldiers into a small vortex that tore them to pieces.

Riley brought up his dagger and transformed it into a staff. He knew his power was endless and if he combined it with the power of the dagger it could be what saved his home. Dark electrifying magic shot through his hands, traveled through the staff and shot straight down the bridge. He held the staff tightly as it guided the magic through his hands and into a straight path in front of him. Any demon touched by this magic was instantly disintegrated.

"GET OUT OF MY HOME!" he screamed emotionally.

As much power as he had, he could not clear this realm. A lot would die, but more showed up in the cold distance. Kroxia's tentacles were doing the best they could in the air but the sky was no longer grey from the eerie weather, it was dark because of this army. And it didn't help that Riley couldn't stop thinking about his sister, his friends, and most of all Hartheon. Without them he'd be alone. Without them he was finally going to feel what an eternity in hell was.

Hart was all he had left and he wasn't even positive that he was alive or that Lucifer would ever let him go.

He could escape, but he'd leave Jocelyn behind and he didn't want to do that even with the things she had done. Hart still loved her and he didn't want to take that away from him. There was one thing he could do but it was going to destroy the bridge and possibly the entire platform.

They aren't going to stop. This is what she wants, he thought.

They weren't going to stop even if Riley fled. This was their plan all along. Siren knew they couldn't kill him, but they could take his home. Riley never had a permanent home, but each one was very special to him. And this one wasn't even just a home, it was an entire world that he owned and ruled. It was strange and puzzling, but it made sense to him because it was his. If anyone was going to destroy it, it was going to be him.

"TAKE MY HAND!" he shouted.

Jocelyn smoothly darted away from a couple of demons who jumped at her and touched his skin. Riley converted their physical bodies and turned them into shadows. They looked up at the tentacles that were waving bodies and throwing them into the platform, crushing their bones.

"What's happening?" Jocelyn asked as she looked back down at her shadowy figure.

"I'm unleashing the eye," he said, concentrating on the beast and sending telepathic thoughts.

Kroxia screamed and it was so loud demons exploded before them. The bridge shook and cracked beneath their feet. As the guardian's piercing screech bombarded their ears, clouds were suddenly pushed away from a specific direction. It was Kroxia's real form.

An eye as big as stars emerged from the sky. It looked down at them as the purple colors in its iris turned black. Kroxia's voice turned high pitch until they couldn't hear it anymore. Everything went quiet for a moment before a kaleidoscopic laser shot from the eye. The beam destroyed everything and anyone it touched. Clouds dispersed from the immense heat created by the eye and turned Riley's world upside down. No longer were there clouds and mysterious storms in the background. Kroxia was fully visible in the sky and behind her were hundreds of planets. They were in space.

Kroxia's form wasn't just an eye, she was a planet herself. Tentacles were spread out all around her. At the moment they were not lashing out at demons but were circling around her body like needles.

The multicolored beam went through Riley and Jocelyn's body but didn't harm them because they were shadows. The bridge shattered completely and destroyed everything around them, leaving an open dark sky in its place. Riley hovered with Jocelyn and looked down at the falling pieces of his home and sighed sadly.

As soon as Kroxia's beam disappeared, clouds came back and covered her so that she was invisible in the stormy realm. It was cold and quiet once again. No more demons entered and the rest had been killed by the laser.

"What now?" Jocelyn asked, her eyes filled with innocent curiosity.

"We have to keep going . . . I guess," Riley said quietly. "We have to find the rogues."

_______________________

[Author's Message]: I apologize for the long wait and if this chapter is short. There's only two more chapters and the next two are one of the most important ones. I am so excited for this series to finally end even though there's supposed to be a four book. That won't be happening anymore because it's going to get in the way of my publishing schedule. But if you're a massive fan, don't be sad, because this series is getting re-written and WILL be published as a book. Just make sure you're following me to get updates on when this happens. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I cannot wait for the next two. <3