3-4 more chapters left of this story! Thank you for sticking around guys, you make writing fun :)

26.

Sneaking past Indigo is impossible.

I grab two walkie talkies -- proppimg one up on a nearby table and pocketing the other-- and am inching towards the door when he says, "Ebony... please don't."

I sigh, turning to face him. Onyx is snoring heavily on a beat up sofa some feet away, completely oblivious to the situation. "I'm going alone. You can't stop me."

"You'll need help," he said, getting up off the chair he was dosing off in. "How can you fight them all alone? And do you even know where to find Gold?"

Dammit. I hadn't thought that far...

"Listen, Indigo," I say, straightening my stance, "I will be going alone. You can't tell me that you or Onyx would survive if you went. After Scarlet--" my voice breaks involuntarily, so I clear my throat, "--after Scarlet, I told myself that was the last person I will lose to them, and with Copper almost dying-- you're not going, and that's that."

"Then why are you going? Think of Copper, what will he do if you get yourself killed?"

"I am the only one who can do this. I have... I have power, Indigo, that needs to be used to fight for those who can't fight for themselves. That needs to be used to protect, to send a message."

He arches a brow at me, surprised at my answer. "What message is that?"

"That human beings will no longer be the playthings of Demons or Psychics, or Gods, or whatever else wishes to control them. I am going to protect them. That's who I am now, who I choose to be."

Indigo goes to argue some more, but closes his mouth, adjusting his glasses. "I want to tell you not to go... but I believe you. You are, as far as I know, the only one to be able to fight this. And because of that, I'll follow you anywhere you go."

I smile, "Thank you, but not this time. Copper needs you here, and Onyx is worn down."

"Aren't you tired, Ebony?" Indigo asks me gently.

I don't know why, but his question gives me the sudden urge to cry. Yes, I'm very tired, but there is no time to rest.

"I have to go," I say, "so will you tell me where to find Gold?"

Indigo stares at me, debating on letting me go probably, but finally lets out a defeated breath, walking over to a cabinet to grab a pen and paper. He writes down directions before handing the slip to me. "Be careful."

I nod, pocketing the paper and taking the car keys. Without another word, I walk out into the night. The sky is lightening, the stars pale in the sky, shrouded by thin tree branches.

When I reach the car, I pop the trunk open. Micheal Benson is sleeping inside, drenched in sweat.

Whenever I start to feel bad about our treatment towards him, I flashback to him blowing Iris' face off, and any pity I might be feeling is swiftly tossed away.

I kick the bumper, shaking the car and jarring the man awake. "Hey, wakey wakey."

"Please... please let me go," he begs in a frail voice.

"No can do," I intone, "if I let you go, you'd keep hurting people."

"You're hurting me," he says in exasperation.

I think back to when I called Copper out on being just like a Demon. This is probably how he felt... and it's not a good feeling.

"You see," Benson laughs at the confliction on my face, "you want to be a hero, but the world doesn't work like a movie, girl. I wanted to be a hero too, but even then, you have to hurt some people to keep other people safe... isn't that the truth? In being a hero, you become a monster."

I lean down, looking him in the eye, "I never wanted to be a monster until you people made me be one."

He stares right back. "Look at that axe you carry around like a badge. You had it in you all along."

I throw the walkie talkie down at him, and he flinches. "That's in case I don't come back from the warehouse or from Gold's. Indigo has the other. If I fail, they'll come get you. Later." I slam the trunk shut, trying not to be shaken by what he said.

Steeling myself, I jump into the car and make my way back to the warehouse, my intentions to clean it out and finally end Gray.

At the gate, I unclip my axe from my back. I had cleaned the blade of Copper's blood, wiping it until there was no traces left of the blight made by Gray. It glints at me in the moonlight as I stare down at it in my hands.

Hero or monster, or both maybe, it doesn't matter. Either way, I know what I have to do.

Bracing myself, I axe a hole through the chain link fence. It breaks easily, easier than I would have expected. But I always knew that Bellona wasn't just an ordinary weapon.

Slipping through the hole I made, I trudge up the hill to the building. They won't be expecting me back so soon, so I have the upperhand.

I move stealthily around the building to the door we had escaped from earlier. Of course it's locked, but that won't stop me.

I give myself a little shake, cracking my neck and clenching and unclenching my fingers. I focus and build the heat, which is becoming almost second nature to me.

A minute later, I blow the door wide open with a loud bang.

I run into the building without hesitation, axe poised to strike, knowing that I have drawn the attention of the Demons.

That's how this will go. There will have to be no hesitation.

Hack, kill. Hack, kill. Hack, kill. That's it.

The first Demon rounds the corner, and I do just that.  I send my axe into his neck, and his head comes clean off, body dropping to the floor.

There is another, and another, and another.

Hack, kill. Hack, kill. Hack, kill.

By this time, a whole flurry of Demons have become aware that I am in the building, and they run down the hall at me.

I build up the heat again while dodging and hacking, struggling too as they grab me.

The bastards are strong, and I am flung into the wall by one, my back hitting against it roughly. I hit the ground, but look up at them, and blink to release the pressure that is screaming in my ears.

A dozen of them are blasted back by the impact, a few even erupting in spurts of blood, the blunt force trauma to their heads sending a shower of blood over the hall.

I pick myself up off the floor and fly at the remaining Demons with my axe, slicing off heads and limbs as I go down the hall.

But that was only the first wave, as expected.

The second I hear roaring their way down the hall, and these ones have guns, fully expecting me.

I know that I will have to push past the pain if I am to survive this, so despite my aching head, I draw up the heat again.

As soon as they come around the corner, they open fire, but I blast the bullets back at them, striking almost all of them. They topple to the ground, some falling over each other.

I gun it straight at them while they are staggered.

Hack, kill. Hack, kill. Hack, kill.

Heads roll all over the floor when I am done. I have not escaped unscathed. A Demon tore at my arm before I axed her, and another bit into my shoulder before I hit him with the hilt and took his head off.

Blood leaks down my chest. I lean against the wall, catching my breath, my arms strained from swinging the heavy axe. I hear the third wave coming. 

"Ebony!" comes Gray's voice, "Do you have a death wish?"

I do, just not for my own life.

I approach the third wave the same as I had the last two. Demons depend solely on their brute force, they do not strategize because of their confidence in their strength. This has lead them to be predictable.

I blast them back, firing their own bullets into their bodies, and when they run at me, I run right to them, throwing them off guard. I swing, and they lose their heads, one after the other.

Gray is at the end of the hall, and his composure crumbles more and more every Demon he loses. He backs up as I take out the last five.

I have been knocked around a fair bit, my ankle might even be fractured, it kills to walk on. But I inch my way toward Gray, my body and axe soaked with blood.

His face twitches in fear as he pulls out his gun.

I laugh. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

His hand shakes as he points the barrel at me. "Look," he says, "Copper had it coming, okay? It had nothing to do with you, you and me are okay. Got it? We're okay."

"You're wrong," I snarl, "Copper has everything to do with me."

Sensing his end, Gray bolts into one of the rooms by him. I follow after, as fast as my limp will allow.

He is breaking open a window, looking for an escape. He turns and fires three rounds at me, one which I dodge, and the other two I send back at him.

They hit him in the back, and he gasps, turning to stare wide-eyed at me, hands covering the two holes in his chest. He drops to his knees.

I stand in front of him, staring down at the man who betrayed everyone he possibly could for power.

"I don't blame you, you know," I say to him quietly. "You're only a product of these two systems. They made you this way. They made every Shade this way."

He stares up at me with hope in his eyes, and a gargle comes from his mouth, maybe a plea, maybe an argument, I will never know.

Tears roll down my cheeks, looking at the pitiful man in front of me, who was unmade by S.H.A.D.E. and then corrupted by the Necro Proxy. Once, Gray was some guy, who lead a normal life and had a family who loved him, a family that probably misses him right now. That man is gone, replaced by this sad soul kneeling in front of me. I think of the first time I see him, the way he stomped the small light of his cigarette out."Good bye, Gray."

I bring Bellona across his neck, and he is gone.

I stagger out of the warehouse, past all the bodies I have left in my wake.

I walk back to the car, taking my time, knowing that there is no one left to pursue me. When I get there, I pop the trunk. 

Micheal Benson takes the sight of me in with horror. "....Oh my God...." he mumbles. "What the fuck are you?"

"What does it matter?" I drone.

I reach down and undo his hands that are fastened together.  Then I undo his legs. He is petrified still the whole time, and I smear blood on his suit as I work to free him.

When he is undone, I back away from the car a bit, then nod my chin for him to get out. "Go."

His eyes are so round as he climbs out of the trunk, as he gains his footing against the car. "You're letting me go?"

"Yes," I nod again. "Go on."

"Why?"

"Just go!" I scream at him, raising my axe.

He whimpers and stumbles off into the woods, running god knows where.

When I'm sure he's gone, out of ear shot, I climb into the back seat of the car, curl into a ball, and cry my eyes out until the sun comes up.

And then it's time to face Gold.