Sydney's body was still on the table, but two more corpses had joined- her? It? The body. The taurus and the capricorn- Leigh and Charlie. At least the simple stab through the chest wasn't contributing much fresh blood.

The table had been pushed aside to one wall, and the remaining members of The Few sat alongside it, bound up in ropes and cables, and blindfolded with cloth.

Percy wasn't here, but he seemed to be gathering things- someone's laptop was open on the end of the table, as well as a few miscellaneous cables and a phone.

I had motioned for Rhamiel to wait behind the door, and so far he was obeying. A took a few more steps in, accidentally trudging through a rusty puddle of blood as I did so. The sound caused a couple people to flinch.

"Who's there?" Glenn asked desperately. Though some of them seemed a little bruised, none of them were hurt. Besides the dead ones.

"Uh, Mannie," I said.

Someone groaned. Kell was closest to me, and had a nasty hit on his cheek. "Just cut us loose before he gets back," he said.

"Shit, should've brought a knife."

"I have a knife!" The mildly muffled voice of Rhamiel came through from the crack of the door.

"Toss the ring over here and don't come in."

"You know, you could easily burn one of us dead if you miss a cut with that thing- which you probably will," Stacy said.

"If you're going to make quips like that, I definitely will," I muttered, struggling to make the ring-sword work.

"Are you... still with Rhamiel?" Kell asked. For the sake of convenience, I ignored him.

"No, you're doing it wrong. Here, I saw Rhamiel do it more like this-" Blake said, attempting an elaborate trick with his fingers, "Or was it like this? Give me a moment, I'll get it."

"Only angels can use angelswords," Noel said.

"I've gotten it to work before..." I kept the ring on. "Oh well, I guess I'll have to use my hands. Blake, you too."

"I only have one hand."

I shrugged, and started with Kell. Removing the blindfold was simple, but I struggled with the ropes.

"This is going to be it. I am going to die here, after years of warfare, because you are unable to untie a knot." Kell sounded especially bitterly.

"I'll figure it out," I told him.

"I already finished with one of them!" Blake said from somewhere behind me.

"You're so bad at this that the guy with one arm is moving faster than you," Kell complained further.

"Stop."

"How about your friend comes over here and does me first, and you wait in another room while we finish freeing everyone else?" Kell pouted.

"Aren't you a hellhound? Why don't you just shift over and break out."

"Can't do it in these restraints." Kell mumbled.

At that very moment, Percy swaggered in from one of the doors, prepping his twin blades the moment he saw us.

"What are you doing back here?"

"It's been eight and a half hours," I said.

"That's a factual statement, not an explanation."

"Eight and a half hours is quite a long time," Blake added.

"You're still only saying facts."

"Still with the facts and not the answers," Percy was pacing the room now, scoping what we had done, "Obviously you've taken their side- not like I can fault you for loyalty to your superiors- and are attempting to remove them from my captivity."

"Pretty much," I said, "Look, Percy-"

"Percial." He grit his teeth.

"Right. Sorry. From what I've heard, you're supposed to be a good guy. So maybe reconsider this whole thing?"

"I'm doing my duty."

"Would Michael really want this?"

Percy shook his head, his mouth gaping like I was a complete idiot. "Obviously. Michael wants every demon dead. Filthy inlufulgi like yourself deserve no other fate."

"What'd you just call us?" Blake asked.

"Rhamiel was the only captive angel," I said. Of course, I hadn't known about him- there was a chance there were others I didn't know about either. "Everyone was too scared to take any others."

"I don't know that, and I don't believe it." Percy pointed a sword towards laptop on the table. "Two deaths and no one's given me much, so I must turn to live television to assist me. You are useless, so you may leave. Third time and I kill you." He thought that last bit over. "Or, you know, whatever."

"Okay, look. I feel a bit bad about getting this whole mess started-"

"You should." Glenn grumbled.

"So I'd like to get this done without any more deaths, or torture, or... televised hostage situations."

"I agree," Blake added helpfully.

Percy grimaced. "I'd love to agree. Getting my hands dirty is not my game, but my duty. I told you, I- I get along with some demons. But part of me must always remember to whom I owe my Grace." He half shrugged. "I have to provide justice for my own."

"See, this is good. We can, uh, talk it out if you want." I was going to motion to the table to sit down, but realized it would be hard to talk with a corpse between us.

"You don't have the authority to be authorizing diplomatic acts," Percy said, and I was about to make a point on how that didn't matter when he suddenly spoke in a panicked voice, "Someone's missing. There were eleven here, and one of them left. You freed one of them."

"Yeah, not sure how that's a surprise considering it's what we came here to do," Blake said, "I cut someone free, the one with the pink scarf."

Just out of my vision, a hellhound reared itself and leapt at Percy. I realized it was the aquarius, Jamie- the hound's large and lean body shared her nubby horns and pointed fox ears.

Percy was taken by surprise, and rolled with her as she went in for a killing bite- but his reflexes were too good, and he crossed his blades and shook her off. He turned aside and quickly got onto his feet.

Jamie made for an agile hellhound, a lot smaller than most I'd seen. Normally they were easily the size of an adult, but she must've been about three feet tall max, with a skinny form like a greyhound. Though Percy dived towards her, quickly slicing his blades with expert precision, she was easily able to dodge and avoid him. In all likeliness, he wasn't used to fighting a hellhound her size, and all his known techniques didn't apply to something smaller than him.

In such a confined space, Blake and I had fallen to the floor in the corner near the door. Percy kept lurching towards her, determined and quick with his blades, but she kept jumping back and skipping around, finally darting past him when they hit the corner. Then they'd start again.

She wasn't trying to attack, obviously putting all of her energy into evasion. Her claws were visible and canine teeth were bared in anticipation of a mistake.

Blake nudged me and whispered, "Should we intervene?"

"We're not running away."

"I didn't say that."

"Just a reminder." Percy and the Aquarius completed another lap around the room. "She might be waiting for someone to help her. But we aren't capable of that."

The angel and the hellhound completely another lap around the room, neither changing their strategy. Maybe trying to exhaust the other.

"I wish I could actually see what was going on," Noel sighed impatiently, like someone was actually going to get up and untie her in the middle of this battle.

Another room crossing complete, and Percy tried to change things up, slashing Jamie as she skirted past his legs. She whined, but didn't slip up in her movement, ignoring the shallow pink gash on her side.

"Can I become involved yet, at this point?" Blake and I were sitting near the door, and Rhamiel was leaning right against it, peeking through the gap.

"Absolutely not."

"I'm disregarding that. Give me the ring and I'll break them up."

"For the last time, you're like a loose canon of distrust. This will... work out."

"No, it won't," Rhamiel said plainly.

"He's the only one who can use the sword ring anyway, right?" Blake said, "Just give it to him."

"This is terrible," I said, but I slipped the ring off my finger and slid it through the crack of the door, "You owe me."

Rhamiel dramatically kicked open the door a moment later, angelic spear in hand. "Alright, this time of games is over." Percy and Jamie didn't stop to look at him, though their eyes did move slightly to take one short glance.

Rhamiel took a few steps forward, twirling his spear in his hands with what appeared to be nervousness.

"Him." Kell hissed at me. I thought it best to ignore him again and pray for the best.

Rhamiel jammed his spear haphazardly between Percy's blades and Jamie. Percy's attack became tangled in the jab, and he fell on his momentum, just barely avoiding falling onto the floor.

"What are you doing?" Percy shouted, and not a moment later Jamie leapt at Percy, her claws catching his clothes and ripping three bloody lines down his back.

It seemed to affect him less than it should have, and he spun around and began to contest with Aquarius again, albeit a little bit slower.

This time Rhamiel dove the end of his spear wildly in Jamie's direction, and ended up tripping one of her feet. It was becoming increasingly clear that he was very out of practice with his weapon of choice, and evidently not planning to support either side.

She stumbled over the shaft for a moment, but like Percy, was quickly back at her parrying. In one of her laps, she nicked Rhamiel's calve, just light enough as to not slow her down, but just enough to cause some pain.

Rhamiel stood relatively useless in the center of the room, the two fighters continuing their infinite rounding.

Percy finally slipped up, going in for a sharp cut towards Jamie and then doubling over with pain from the cuts on his shoulder. He winced, but before he could return fully to his senses Jamie took the opportunity to dives towards him, leaping straight for the neck.

Rhamiel acted, not too slow this time, and jammed his spear right through her. It wasn't at all near her vitals, but it was certainly enough to immobilize her, and she fell back to her human form. Rhamiel dumped her body on the floor in front of Percy, like a cat leaving a gift for its owner.

Percy stood above for a few moments, panting heavily, while Jamie did the same. He chose not to finish her off though, and instead lunged for Rhamiel.

"I just helped you!" Rhamiel cried, jumping backwards and narrowly missing Percy's attack.

Percy said something in angelic, too quick to even make out, and Rhamiel answered similarly. They continued to circle each other, weapons drawn, but then they both leaned against the wall and breathed it out.

"That takes care of that," Percy said, finally.

Rhamiel said something in angelic, and Percy huffed his reply. I listened tensely. It figured this was the turn things were going to take- but, in my defense, I had only been trying to help.

"Five down, seven to go," Rhamiel said. I'd been expecting as much.