(Warning: Very long A/N at the end of this, but please do read it. It's got some important information, including a new fanfiction and stuff about a possible book 4. Thanks and enjoy the chapter.)

Selena and Samantha stared at Alex's motionless body for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was only a minute at most. Selena, too shocked to cry or even think, looked down at her hands, clenched in her growing anger. 

Serena, she thought. If you've stuck around this long, I need you.

Selena heard a small giggle in the back of her head, and suddenly felt herself changing again. She closed her eyes, and saw the silhouette of her other half standing before her. "This'll only take a second."

"Take your time, white feathers. Do whatever you need to. I'll be here."

When Selena opened her eyes and looked at herself, she was once again completely white. Her head was clear for the first time in years, and she knew what she had to do.

She reached out her hand and gently touched one of the bars of the cage. It immediately shattered into tiny fragments of metal, along with the rest of the cage. Once free, she checked on Samantha, who was still weak from fighting and sitting on the ground.

"Selena..." the demon girl said in awe. She had seen Selena as only an angel before, but never as calm as she was now.

"I'll be right back, Samantha. Stay here."

"But, Selena! They could-"

Samantha was cut off by the sound of a gunshot. It hit Selena in the chest, causing to Samantha to scream, and then cut off when she noticed the bullet bounced off of her chest and landed harmlessly on the grass.

Selena delicately plucked the bullet off of the ground and stood. She looked over to the person who had shot it, still holding his gun toward her. 

"I'm sorry, but you seemed to have lost this. Allow me to return it to you."

Selena then simply tossed the bullet to the man, but what looked like a simple toss had much power behind it. The bullet went straight through the man's chest, and then lodged itself in the chest of the man standing behind him.

Hunters then began to step back in fear. Selena paid no mind to them, and instead hurried over to her brother. 

Once she was beside him, she fell to her knees and examined him. He was still breathing, but ragged and short. She placed a hand over his heart and closed her eyes, praying for him to be alright. Eventually she just tried to pour any power she had into healing him, not knowing if it would work or not, but she continued to pray and beg for her brother to live.

Slowly, she felt herself becoming weaker, as though she had used up all of her strength. She stopped before she had used it all, not wanting to pass out and be captured again.

Finally, she felt the urge to cry. As the tears formed in her eyes, she felt that there was nothing she could do to help her brother.

From somewhere in front of her, she heard a final gunshot ring out. It wasn't aimed at her, and she honestly wouldn't have cared if it was. She heard footsteps approach her, and glanced up quickly to see that it was her father.

"Daddy... I can't..... There's nothing.... I...."

"It's alright Selena. Everything will be alright."

"But I can't help him!" Selena sobbed.

"Selena," her father said gently. "You may not have completely healed him, but look." He motioned to Alex. "He's still breathing because of you. And a lot better than he was. You didn't heal him. You gave him more life."

Selena glanced up from Alex to her father's smiling face. "So Maria can save him?"

"More than likely, as long as you stay by his side."

Selena let out a small cry, but this time of happiness and relief. She reached over Alex and latched onto her father, hugging him tightly.

"Alright, I need to radio Maria and Finny to meet us back in the city. I'll be right back."

Selena obediently let go of Sebastian and let him go. She glanced around and noticed that all of the hunters had disappeared from sight. She could still sense a few that were running, but decided to let them go. Most of them were probably doing what they did just for the money to provide for their families. Selena knew what it was like to not have her family. She didn't want to force other families to have to struggle through the same situation.

Selena was pulled from her thoughts by footsteps that were growing nearer. She quickly glanced up, and sighed in relief when it was only Samantha.

"Is he alright?" She asked, her voiced shaking.

"Dad said he should be if I stay with him and Maria gets here in time."

"Thank goodness."

Selena nodded.

"Hey, white feathers."

Yeah, Serena?

"Tell Dad something for me."

Selena listened closely, then replied, Don't worry, I will.

"Hey, Samantha? Can I ask you a question?"

"You can ask me anything, Selena."

"Do you love my brother?"

Samantha was taken aback by the question, but quickly regained herself and answered honestly. "I'm not sure. I've never really loved anyone before. Why do you ask?"

"Because I think he really likes you. I'm not sure if he loves you or not, but he seems to at least really like you."

"Well, I really like him, too."

Selena looked up at Samantha and smiled brightly, her angelic glow brightening. She turned back to Alex, feeling her strength growing again, and put it all toward prolonging his life until they would meet up with Maria.

Sebastian returned to them a few moments later. "Samantha, feel up for a walk?"

She nodded. "Don't worry, I can make it!"

Sebastian nodded, then turned to his daughter, sitting protectively next to her twin brother.

"Selena? Can you walk?"

Selena thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. I've been transferring most of my energy to him. I've just been keeping enough to stay awake.

Sebastian nodded. "Well, luckily I told Maria that we would be waiting for her and Finny here, so if you need, Finny can carry you."

Selena glanced down to hide the slight blush that rose on her cheeks. "Alright."

A moment later, the blush was gone as she remembered what Serena had told her. "Oh, Dad! Serena said that she could sense some demons still trapped around here somewhere. She wanted you to go help them if you could."

Sebastian thought for a moment, probably trying to sense the demons himself. A moment later, he nodded. "I'll do that while we wait for the others. Maria said they should be here in a few minutes, and this shouldn't take long." 

With that, Sebastian was gone, running for the building where his wife-and Selena's mother-had been imprisoned for 11 years, and then murdered, to save the other demons trapped inside.

Selena glanced to Samantha, who smiled at her. She smiled back, then went back to keeping her brother alive for as long as she could.

(So, that's the end of this chapter. I'm trying to make this story an even forty chapters, but if it comes up short, there's nothing I can do about it. So, now that that's out of the way, does anyone mind if I vent a little? I mean, I'm going to either way, but whatever. Thought I'd ask.

So I've never been one to care about reads or votes or things like that, but I do tend to overthink things a lot, which is probably what I've been doing. I was looking at my stories recently and I noticed that with each chapter and each book, less and less people are reading. I feel like my story has hit it's peak multiple times, and it seems that what I think is cool has been driving people away from my story. I want to write something that's fun for me to create, but I also want you guys to like it. So why have people not been reading like they used to? Is my story getting worse? Or are people just not into this kind of thing anymore? I don't know what's going on, but like I said, I'm probably just over thinking it. Maybe those 1,000+ people that haven't read yet just haven't had time to read my short little chapters yet.... hehe...

So anyway, if you read through my ramblings and worries, you deserve a cookie. Sadly, I have none, as it's almost one a.m. when I'm writing this, plus I don't have the ability to share a cookie with each of you over the internet. If only there was a way.

Also, happy late New Year! Let 2016 be the best year yet!

Lastly, and since it's on the bottom it must be the least important. I need to know if you guys desperately want a book 4. I have absolutely no ideas for a fourth story except for one that someone wrote in the comments somewhere that I forgot where. So while I'm looking for that, if anyone else has an idea for book 4, please PM me so I don't lose it. Hehe... 

And I just thought of something else, so this one must be the least important. I have my very first ever Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction posted. So if you're into Yu-Gi-Oh and you want to check it out, go ahead. It's called "The Devil Gamer." Be sure to read the note in the description, and you can look over the actual description if you want. It sucks.

And if you made it this far, you deserve a whole sheet of cookies. You guys should, like, comment something to do with cookies if you made it this far, crazy as you want. (You don't have to, of course, but it might be fun!) Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter of Recovering the Lost, and I'll see you all in the next chapter! Love you all!)