24.

Copper and Onyx drop the cases and ready their guns.

They can't have much bullets left.

I try to work the heat up again, but I am spent, and I am dangerously close to losing my sight.

"Copper," I say anxiously, moving towards him.

He immediately catches onto my problem, reaching a hand out to steady me. "You can't see?!"

"Barely," I try to keep the panic out of my voice this time. "It will pass."

The marching grows closer.

"We need to get out of here!" Onyx urges, backing up and gathering the cases. "Is there a vent or something in that room?"

Copper grabs my hand and leads me into the room with him. "We need to barricade the door."

"I just pushed everything to the back," I groan, feeling helpless.

And now the March is only around the corner.

"Get behind me," Copper says low, pushing me behind him and aiming his gun.

Onyx aims again as well, and although I can't see him, I can hear his ragged breathing. He isn't ready to die yet. He's scared.

And that's when I remember Jade.

"Copper, I may have a plan," I say, running around him and back out into the hall.

Jade's body is a blur, but I have to act quick. Copper is right behind me, trying to pull me back. "Ebony! What are you--?"

"The chip in her head. It's connected to Gray. I was able to do it before... transcend."

About five Demons whirr around the corner, running with unfathomable speed directly at us. Copper shoots round after round, and three of them drop.

Onyx has our back and takes the other two down, but then another batch comes around the corner again. The boys shoot, and I place my hands on Jade's mangled head, trying to focus.

It's not working. It just won't work.

I let out a cry of frustration. It was a long shot, but it was our only shot.

"Running out of bullets!" Onyx yells to us, and by Copper's tense jaw, I can tell that he is too.

I try again as another wave of Demons soars from around the corner, jostling each other as they tear down the hall towards us, teeth and eyes flashing.

Copper's gun clangs, the chamber empty. He throws the weapon at an oncoming Demon, the gun moving end over end through the air until it strikes his target in the forehead, knocking the monster off balance. He picks up Jade's gun and begins firing again. I stop trying to transcend long enough to skid one of my guns across the floor to Onyx who immediately begins firing shot after shot.

FOCUS! I internally scream at myself. I was electrocuted the last time I was able to transcend to everyone, would I have to be in pain again?

Fine. I concentrate harder, my nose starting to gush out black blood again. My head starts to tremor, my teeth bashing together.

Where are you, you piece of shit? 

Click.

I am in my Blank Room, the images still floating around.

But instead of Copper to greet me in the center of the room, there stands a confused Gray.

He is disheveled, no longer as suave as when I first met him. His hair is sticking out like his hands have been in it too much and his Valentino suit is all wrinkled.  His eyes are darting every which way, turning to get a better sense of where he is at.

"How on earth...?" he whispers.

"Chips back-fired against you. You've given me a clear path to your mind."

Gray pins me with a glower. "You're a fucking freak! You think sending me off to lala land with you is gonna stop what's happening out there? My Demons will tear you all to pieces!"

"They won't, unless you want to die with me, right here and now."

Gray clenches his fists, raising his chin at me. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Remember when I said I would blow myself up? Well, since you're gonna kill me anyway, I thought you'd like to come along with me."

He begins to storm towards me, but a jagged white shard bursts up from the floor, stopping just short of his neck. He backs away, eyes enormous. 

"This is my domain, Gray. There are no Demons to hide behind here. It's only you and me," I say.

Gray lets out a laugh I think is supposed to sound unaffected, but he cannot suppress the nervousness he's feeling.  He points to an image of Scarlet, slumped in the prison cell, dying. "Copper and your friends are probably already dead now! Just like those dykes and that slut, Jade! You think this changes anything?"

"You have to the count of five to call your horde off."

"You don't call the shots! I am the king! I rule here!"

"One."

"You think you can  save him from me?"

"Two..."

"You wouldn't kill yourself just to kill me! To protect them? No way!"

"Three..."

"Ebony, you bitch--!"

"Four..." I start building my heat, and the images floating around me start to shake and break apart.

"No! No! Stop it!" He grabs his own head, feeling the pressure.

"Five--"

"Okay! Fuck! Okay!"

I let the heat die out. "Call them off, now."

"I have. I did." He is seething, his face screwed up in rage. "You freak. You bitch." He looks around at my memories, seeing everything that I am, that I have become.

He sees Copper smiling down at us, back in Onyx's apartment as I take his hand, and his face breaks into a laugh. "Smile while you can... smile while you can..."

"We're walking out of this warehouse. You're gonna let us go. I can get into your head now anytime I want." I don't know if this is true or not, but I use the threat anyway.

Gray continues looking around at the images, and I feel increasingly vulnerable. "I never was able to connect with a Shade like this, probably because I'm not a Red. I always wanted to try though. To have Gold notice me. But my Blacks just kept dying. All the good ones were given to Copper. And now you're just gonna walk out of here with him and get all the glory, get Gold's praise?"

"This isn't about glory."

Gray looks away from an image of Fuisha laughing in the front seat of the Impala. "Then what is it about?"

"Freedom."

"Oh, Ebony," Gray laughs, "didn't you know? There's no such thing. If S.H.A.D.E. by some miracle did let you go free, I would always be right behind you, every step of the way so that you'd never have a moment's rest."

Dread falls over me. Jade was right. It's not so simple. I can't just walk away.

"Well. Go on, now," Gray smiles, noting my sorrow with satisfaction, "run away. I'll see you soon."

I let go of my hold, my vision fading back to reality.

The hall has slipped into a tense silence. Demon bodies litter the ground.  I see Copper in front of me, gun still raised. He is panting and he's been scratched across his back, his shirt torn in three large rips, blood soaking through the fabric.

Onyx is on my other side, leaning against the hallway wall, looking ready to pass out. 

I taste blood and feel the warm streaks running down my lips and off my chin. I am so messed up right now.  To stand would be a herculean task.

"Copper?" I croak out.

He jumps, turning his head to look at me. "Jesus, finally! Are you okay? What happened?"

I look down, realizing my hands are still pressed into Jade's deformed skull. I whip my hands away, feeling sick. "I synced with Gray. I was gonna kill us both if he didn't let us go."

"That explains the silence," Copper sighs. "Been a while since any came."

"I can't do this anymore, guys," Onyx wheezes out.

"You don't have to. Gray has called them off. We need to get out of here fast though, before he can cook something up to stop us."

We grab the cases, and somehow, we all move towards the nearby exit, leaning on each other, stepping around Demon bodies. "Jade," I remember.

"We can't," Copper says, his voice downtrodden.

I nod, and we keep moving. As soon as we whip the door open and stumble out the side of the building, Indigo comes sailing through the trees in the Corolla, jumping out to grab the cases from us. "Oh my God, what happened?"

"I'll explain later," I grunt, handing mine to him while trying to help support Onyx.

"Ebony!" Comes Gray's voice from the door. "You're forgetting something!"

And that's when it happens.

Bellona comes flying through the air, her destination deadly.

I hear Copper gasp, I feel his body stiffen beside me and then drop to the ground, the blade of the axe embedded into his back.

I feel myself go cold.