Author note: Hi, everyone! If you've gotten up to this point and have been enjoying it so far, I'm sorry that I couldn't update this story until today. I was really busy with schoolwork. Being a freshman is tough, it really is. Anyway, before I start this section I just wanted to say that there will be some mild gore in this chapter and the next one after this. If that bothers you, then okay, but this is just a warning for that. Okay, bye :3 ~ @awesomeri14

Foster watched the new foreign exchange student fly up into the air, his eyes widening in wonder and confusion. How was he doing that? He searched for strings, wings, anything that could possibly be holding him up, but there was nothing visible that could be helping him fly. Foster turned away. He didn't have time to worry about that. The kid was a distraction to Danny. This would give him time to help Lily and Kara escape. He ran to Lily's side. "Are you okay?" he asked, untying her. "I am now," she told him. "Ow..." Foster studied her. "What's wrong? What hurts?" "My arms, and my leg..." Because of Lily's short sleeved shirt, Foster noticed the red lines along the skin of her arms from the ropes that Danny had tied her up in. They had bound them to her chest. It had to have caused her arms to fall asleep and to have been turned in awkward positions. What concerned Foster much more, however, was her left leg. Lily's leg had a gaping bloody wound on it close to her knee that almost caused him to cover his mouth from nausea. "Danny used his claws...to c-cut me open," Lily cried. "He said it was my p-punishment for not telling him where K-Kara was." Foster tried to think rationally. "We'll deal with that horned lunatic later. You've lost a lot of blood, and you need to get to a hospital. You'll probably need stitches." Foster, with some difficulty, lifted a now weary and traumatized Lily to her feet. "Stitches?" she gasped. "I can't get stitches! That would be hideous on me!" Foster rolled his eyes, then glared at her. "Well, I don't think your circumstances would be any better if you didn't get stitches. Your leg would be scarred, or you could bleed out." Lily caught a glimpse of her injured leg, and winced, giving Foster a little smile after tearing her gaze away. "You're right. Thanks for the help." Foster gave her an almost cheerful smile back. "Oh, it's no big deal. Any friends of Kara are friends of mine." The two found a way inside of the school the moment they saw that Danny wasn't watching them. "Go call 911 using a school phone so that an ambulance can come pick you up," Foster told Lily. "Why can't you...come?" she asked. Her eyes looked glassy, and it looked like it was getting hard for Lily to breathe, so Foster helped her over to a nearby phone. She, oddly enough, didn't protest to his assistance, and waited for him to answer her. "I need to keep Kara safe as well as I can. She is my girlfriend, after all. You'll be fine on your own here. Just stay out of sight." Seeing Lily hesitate, Foster said, "If you don't call for someone to help you, then you'll be beyond help." Lily nodded and limped around a corner, bringing the phone with her and dialing the number for emergency services. Foster watched her go and then went back outside to confront Danny and help Kara. 

Kara watched with admiration as Shade hovered around Danny's head, distracting him so that her friends could escape. His wings gleamed as he flew in circles around the monster's head and held the sword out in front of him. Was anyone else seeing this? Probably not. She turned around to see Foster and Lily move away to safety, and she silently cheered them on, willing them to keep doing what they were doing. She'd have to tell them later.

Shade brandished the sword, turning it around and around in his hands. Danny snarled at him. "Get away, pesky Guardian! You cannot save the girl. Our plan is much too far along to be stopped now by one measly fairy."  "Your plan?" Shade narrowed his eyes. He looked for a perfect angle of attack and kept talking to the demise beast, hoping that he wasn't paying very close attention to what he was doing. "What plan?" "I can't tell you. Those are my master's orders. But mark my words, fairy boy. You have no chance of winning against us. None." Danny grinned deviously. "I'll crush you in my claws." Shade laughed. "I seriously doubt that!" He flew side to side, dodging the demise beast's unfocused blows. His eyes found the beast's weak spot-his scaleless backside. Yes. He'd stab him right there, right in the center of his back. The beast kept swiping at the air, swinging its claws, becoming more and more frightening, but Shade dodged each and every one of his moves, and could easily ignore how fearsome he was. He'd seen scarier things, after all. Finally the beast noticed the disappearance of its human captives. "Those imbeciles escaped?" he howled. "No! How could they-" While the beast had been complaining, Shade had flown behind him and reached the correct spot. With a sickening sound, the mighty fairy sword had gone right through its entire back to the other side. What had once been Danny stared silently at the bloody end of the sword that now protruded from its body and had torn through its flesh. The monster roared in agony, its cries echoing throughout the area. Shade pulled the scarlet stained sword from the beast's back as it toppled over with a huge slamming sound. Its terrifying features were vanishing-its pointed fangs becoming rounded human teeth, its stag horns retreating back into the sides of its head, its tail dwindling away to nothing, its scaly gray skin losing its armor and turning to a pale peach color. Shade knew what was happening now. Demise beasts had the ability to change their shape to defend themselves while they were in a body that wasn't their own. Its powers were gone now because of its severe injury, and its stolen body was returning to the way it was before. The beast had been screeching and writhing around on the roof as it changed back, its roars gradually turning to Flightless screams. Now all that remained were the beast's yellow cat-like eyes. Shade landed, sheathing his sword and folding up his wings again. He walked over in front of the defeated creature, who now looked more like a human that had been tripped, although its blackish red blood pooled around it. "You," it gasped. "How could this happen?" Its voice was a whisper now. "I'm skilled in combat is all," Shade said. "Now tell me who your master is." "But I'm forbidden to-" "Tell me who he is, and why you came here..." Shade ran his fingers along his belt, along the knives that were there. "...or I'll torture the information out of you. Trust me, you don't want that. Plus, you've only got five minutes left to live. I suggest you speak." Danny's face twisted in fury. Its black hair, so much like his own, hung in front of its piercing yellow eyes. The sides of the demise beast's stolen body's head was stained with blood. "Fine. My master is known as Hurricane. He will bring about the downfall of humanity and the rise of my kind. I was sent here to capture Kara, a half fairy, half Flightless female who is apparently important to my master. Once he gets her, you, and all the rest of your little friends, will die horribly." It snickered. "You don't stand a chance against him." "Kara?" Shade couldn't believe it. That foolish girl was half fairy? He forced those thoughts away, knowing that he couldn't think about that now, even though there hadn't been an existing Hybrid in decades. He had to get rid of the beast first, and discover its secrets. "What does this Hurricane guy want her for?" "I do not have to answer that, because you...have not...defeated me!" On each word the demise beast spoke, its voice changed even more to its altered true voice, not the voice of its helpless host. "My heart must be pierced! My true heart, the one in my altered body. Your failed attack only weakened me briefly. If you were to hurt me fatally now, you would only kill the weak Flightless boy I inhabit." Shade narrowed his eyes at him. "I'm perfectly fine with that." "I know you are, warrior, but someone here would not be. I can sense emotions, and someone here wants this fragile waste of skin and blood to live." The demise beast stood up, blood dripping from its chest wound and splattering onto its host's black and white sneakers. Its eyes flashed. "Kara is here, after all. She was with you in the building. I will find her, and even if I come to an end, insolent boy, my master's followers will find her. She is safe nowhere." It cackled, showing its once again pointed teeth. "Now to deal with you." The beast's eyes glowed brightly, and it murmured an incantation. Shade's eyes widened. He took out his sword, but the beast tossed it away from him with magic. It tumbled through the air, and then plunged blade first into the roof, sticking there from the fall. It was close to the the edge of the roof. Shade turned to get it, but realized that he wouldn't be able to reach it in time and whipped out a gleaming silver knife. He ran towards the beast, ready to end its miserable life, but he didn't get there in time. The beast gestured its still human fingers towards him, its chanting finished at last. It laughed maniacally, and Shade was lifted into the air by dark blue misty magic swirling around him, the world as it was then suddenly vanishing. He saw a horrified Kara rushing towards him. It was far too late for her to help him now. "Shade!" she cried. "Shade, what's happening to you?" Shade knew that Kara needed to be kept safe. As his head started to become veiled in the smothering magic, he only said, "I've failed you. I'm sorry." As the world faded away entirely, he heard her yell, "No! Leave him alone!" then only heard sobbing. She had probably realized that she couldn't be saved.

After a few seconds of being held up in the air, surrounded by magic, Shade was confused. His throat wasn't closing up, his vision wasn't turning to black. Why wasn't he dying? Wasn't this spell meant to kill him? Shade felt a sudden sharp pain along his back and his chest. He breathed in air at  this to keep himself calm. He had been trained to barely react to any physical injuries, but this wasn't just physical. It felt like something inside of him was shifting, reforming...and he had never been trained for that. Also, this hurt much more than anything else he had ever felt. What was going on? The pain became agonizing, spreading through his back and his wings to his legs and arms. He clamped his jaws down so that he wouldn't cry out. It was only a pain spell, enough to knock him out so that he could be kidnapped. Also, he wouldn't dare show signs of weakness to his enemy. That's all it was. Just a little pain spell. He could take it, he could withstand this, he could do it. He could take it, he could take it, he could- Suddenly pain blossomed through his head. It was too much. Shade screamed, his hands holding his head as if he could stop his torture. The pain enveloped him, worse than before, and a series of cracking and snapping sounds seemed to come from him as shadows shrouded his vision and his mind.