For a man that had just been kidnapped by three people, Dr Abbas was surprisingly calm. We'd got him to our car and he gave us directions without much hesitation, whatever these two said to him while I was listening to Stephy play must have been pretty impactful to get him to be so compliant. Apart from directions, it was a quiet ride, the mood reeked of shame. Meg steered us out of Point Reeves Northbound, driving with the coastline at our side for pretty much the whole trip. Stars dazzled in the waves of the night tide. The moon this night was sharp like a sickle, its light and edges cutting through the cloudless night, sending its reflection cascading against the sea. The cool winter air, brittle and salty filled my lungs, calling me back to the family trips so long ago. While we were driving, Rev did make the point that Dr Abbas could just be driving us out to nowhere for us to never get to where he kept it. But, when I looked over to my right where he sat, I saw a man who, though reluctant to help, was more worried about something else besides relic. He sat carefully with his hands laced together upon his lap, seated upright against the chair only slipping from his posture when he would peer past the seat in front of him. After an hour and a half of driving, the terrain started to raise and more trees took root in the area. You could faintly hear the waves crash against the cliffs below as we zoomed down the open road. Rev had been uncharacteristically silent for the last two days and it was beginning to bug me a little so I dipped into my brain for a second to find him training, he was fighting a training dummy and just going at it.

"You good there?" I asked, he was clearly in deep focus because he looked startled to see me.

"Oh hey," He simply said before going to beating on the dummy.

I went up to him and grabbed his shoulder. "I said are you okay?"

He stopped and sighed heavily. "Yeah, I told you I was good earlier."

"That was last night man. You're just being oddly quiet, I mean we kidnapped someone and I haven't heard a peep from you."

"I thought you liked it quiet in here." He said as he looked away from me.

"Don't be an ass, just want to know what's going on."

He spun around with fury, he looked ready to blow up on me but stopped himself and took a breath, "Look man, I get what you are trying to do, but I need time. Hell was... Hell was Hell. Now that I'm out, I know the exact date I'll be dragged back down there to have everything happen to me again. It's a lot. Let's not forget there's that." He pointed up at the rip that looked tamer now than it was before. "I've just been trying to focus and keep my calm."

"You don't have to do that alone you know. You showed me that before we died. I mean if we are stuck with each other, we might as well use it." I looked him in the eyes.

He gave me a half smile. "I think somethings happening out there." His voice simply guided me out of my head to the doctor leaning forward to look out the windshield.

"My house is up there," Dr Abbas said to us, pointing out to a house that sat by the edge of a cliff overlooking the north pacific, a tree giving it modest cover from the road but not obstructing the house from natural light from hitting it.

"Damn! Archaeology pays good!" I commented after a whistle.

We pulled up to an automatic gate that the good doctor opened with a remote he kept in his suit jacket, his were slightly shaky as he placed it back in the pocket. I didn't like this plan, kidnapping the poor guy and getting him to hand over something that he worked hard to find but what choice did we have? As we drove in we could really see that he cared for the aesthetic just by the lead-up to the actual house. We were guided up to the house by neatly trimmed hedges on either side of the car, it eventually opened up to this huge, bricked driveway with an oxidized copper that displayed for people in togas holding up a large vase over their heads which spewed water from the top. When I could finally see the house in all its full glory, there were no other words than beautiful. The front of the house had shrubs lining the edges of the house, before the red oak windows and patios. Vines grew up to the first floor of the house, stopping only moments before touching the roof, coiling around the windowsills and intertwining into the design of the balconies above. Intricate pillars to hold up a section of the roof the overhung in front of the entrance. Attached to the side of this house was a long two-door garage, the whole thing seamlessly blended into the entire house without breaking the aesthetic.

Meg stopped the car in front of the entrance for us to get out with ease and once on my feet before this grand entryway, I felt pathetically tiny. Once at the door, Dr Abbas fished his key out of his pocket to unlock the door, his hands shaking as he tried to aim the key into the hole.

"Are you alone here," Cory asked, looking down at the crooked welcome mat at his feet.

"Yup, just me." He said, his voice cracking slightly.

"It's an awfully big house for one person. Especially one person with a ring imprint on his finger." Cory prodded.

Reflexively reaching for his left hand, suddenly his emotions shifted to anger. "Look, you came here for Project Heavenly, not my life, so let's just get this over with." He finally got the door open to the interior.

The inside was a historian's wet dream, displayed right at the entrance was a medium-sized bronze statuette of a man riding a horse that was placed in a glass case upon a granite pillar. To the right, the space opened up to what was probably meant to be a living room but instead what was here was a bunch of artefacts from different eras and areas. A few of the cases contained It was essentially a miniature museum. At the back of the room, full-length windows with glass doors on each of them took up space on the walls, magnificent white and gold curtains still open to allow us the chance to see the well-tended garden that sat to admire the world beyond the cliffs. To our left, was a corridor that lead to the garage, kitchen and more rooms. We trailed behind the doctor as he hastily made his way past his mini-museum and up the stair that was up against the left of the wall. He took each step two to three at a time to get there faster with the three of us not straying far behind in case he tried something. We walked down a long corridor, past multiple rooms with different things in each, from guest rooms to what I swear was an in-house bar.

Dr Abbas stopped for nothing and continued to speed walk to a door at the end of the hall which he had locked as well. He didn't fumble with his keys this time, moving with a new form of determination. Easily and swiftly, he opened the door to his humble study. You'd think in a house this grand, he would give himself a large study to show it off but no, from all the rooms we had seen this was the smallest. Sure, for a mansion like this, it doesn't mean much, but just from how he was in the short time I've known him, it makes sense. It was a polished cherry wood room, everything from the floors to the wall was this elegant reddish-brown wood that brought warmth and humility to the study. Beside the wall with the ornate window, there was a fireplace built into the opposite wall. Around it, the walls were covered in bookshelves with an assortment of books and other smaller relics that clearly meant a lot to him as everything seemed spotless within these four walls. His desk at the end of the room was modest, nothing too fancy like the one in Hell or too simple like in a library. It had pens and splayed-out pieces of paper, a laptop in the very corner completely aligned with the edges to give him the most workspace and a picture frame on the other side. The doctor rushed in and slammed the picture down before going up the wall behind his desk.

"It's back here, so just give me a second while unlock the safe." He said as he moved aside some books on the shelf. "Take a seat by the fireplace or something."

"I think, I'll just watch you," Cory said as he walked up to the desk and sat at its edge as he watched the doctor shuffle aside the rest of his things.

Meg walked through the office, examining the books and artefacts in awe, she had tried hard to look professional and tough this whole time but I could see her excitement to be surrounded by these relics. Along with the computer stuff, she was just a big old nerd under that mess of orange hair. I already felt weird about being in this guy's house uninvited so I kind of stood in the corner trying not to touch anything or disturb our poor host more. Cory just watched him fumble around at the shelves with a distant look. Once everything was out of the way, Dr Abbas did something, pressed a button maybe, and the whole shelf recessed into the wall before effortlessly splitting apart to reveal a vault about three-fourths my height embedded directly into the wall. It was beginning to seem like this room had been made smaller to fit it. Even Cory seemed bashful by what was in his presence. The doctor let out a hefty sigh as he got to work on the vault, it definitely contained something important by the number of things there were to just unlock it. Keypad, fingerprint, retina scanner; it felt like every protection method under the sun was used on this one vault. With time, there was a loud metallic click that echoed through the silent study. The door creaked open as if it hadn't been touched in decades, nonetheless, the door was open. The doctor slowly reached in and carefully carried out a bundle of wrappings that clearly weighed down in the doctor's hands. He places it down on the desk and points to it.

"This is it, one of the greatest achievements in my life." He sounded completely dejected as he spoke. "Now just take it and leave please."

"We might as well see what all the trouble is about first," Cory said as he started to unravel the cloth surrounding it with not nearly as much care as Dr Abbas. He looked like his heart was going to lunge out of his throat as watched in horror.

"At least be careful." Meg tried to intervene but the demon petulantly moved away as he opened it up onto the table. What lay before us were two stone tablets, fairly weathered yet neatly kept. Scared upon each of them were symbols and symbols and sketches that looked like a five-year-old just figured out what a pencil was

Then I spotted something that sent boulders into my gut and shivers down my spine, I felt like I was about to puke from just looking at it. My eyes were almost misty in disbelief at the sight of it. "Cory, why is the Mark of the Damned on this thing?" My voice finally broke through my throat as I shakily pointed at the symbol of the seven-pointed stars with each of its corresponding symbology in circles at the tips of the star.

This was the second time I had seen fear in the demon's eyes, first with Lucifer and then right now. His eyes darted to the spot and he moved me away just to get a closer look at the tablet. "You know that symbol?" The terror in Dr Abbas' voice was gone as his curiosity returned to him.

"Baba?" A voice cut through the intensity of the moment, catching us all off-guard. We all simultaneously turned our heads to the doorway where a boy around twelve years old with curly brown hair and light olive skin standing at my shoulders height. The same boy that was in my dreams. He looked at all four of us in the room with confusion but specifically, at Dr Abbas whose look of horror had returned tenfold.

"Grayson! What are you doing here? You're meant to be at your friend's house tonight." The doctor walked up to the child who had walked into the room, embracing him in a deep hug. He spoke to him as if his suspicions had been confirmed.

"Aman got sick, so Mrs Keldric dropped me off. She said she tried to call you but your phone was busy."

"Oh, I'm sorry buddy. Hopefully, he gets better soon." The man said to the boy before him, speaking in a comforting tone.

"Who are they?" The kids pointed to us who still stood at the desk.

"Oh, they are helping me with one of my projects. You just head back to your room and I'll come to check on you after we are done."

"Are the people outside also with them?" He asked extremely causally. Glances shot between Meg, Cory, and me then to Dr Abbas who looked like he was going through all the stages of grief at once

"What people?" Meg asked the boy.

"The people who just parked outside, I think I also saw someone in the back garden. Are they not?" He asked, beginning to pick up on the situation.

"What did you bring to my home?" Dr Abbas snarled at us.

"We told you that we weren't the only people who wanted Project Heavenly," I said to him.

"Is this the safest room in the house?" Cory asked the doctor.

"Yes." He replied with a spirited sureness.

"Good. Do not leave this room for any reason other than for the sound of one of our voices. Keep the tablets safe and when this is done, you need to leave. Get your family off the grid." Meg said taking charge as she pulled her batons to existence. "We will deal with the guests."

Cory cracked his knuckles and smiled as he and Meg walked out of the room, I started to follow only to look back at the scared father and son. "We'll keep you both safe, okay. Trust us."

Behind us, the door locked multiple times before the room behind us fell silent. Cory had already thrown his jacket away and rolled up his sleeves for the upcoming fight, Meg did not look as excited but was prepared nonetheless. I concentrated on the palm of my hand and a small flame flickered to life within it, I was slightly glad to see that they were back. The three of us silently walked back the lengthy corridor, our footsteps light against the rug that lined our path. From ahead of us, a loud burst echoed from downstairs, the sound of glass shattering to the floor along with voices mixed within it. We slowed our approach as we got close to the stairway, Meg raised her hands as she created a mirage around us to cover our presence as we looked down at the other invaders. There were eight of them, all wearing black jackets with a swirling design on them to show they were with Vortex. They had kicked down the front door and shattered the back windows into the mini-museum. There was no clear leader from how they wandered around below but two of them had guns.

"Rev, be ready to come out," I told the voice in my head, I could feel him give a nod of understanding from within.

Meg tapped us on the shoulders and pointed down the stairs as an indication to follow behind and be ready. It was Meg then Cory and I down the stairs and we got about halfway down the stairs before one of the Vortex women spoke up.

"I can see you three on the stairs." Her voice sent shivers down my spine in the most awkward way. I looked at Meg and she just looked at the woman who spoke. All the people looked up to where they thought we were, the ones with guns aiming roughly at our position. The one who spotted us though was staring right through us.

"Guess you can see illusions too then," Meg said confidently, walking down the stairs towards her. Whatever ounce of fear she had was gone.

"Guilty." The other woman replied with a cheeky smile. "So here's how this is going to go."

"I'll save you the breath. You aren't getting Project Heavenly and I'm not going with you." Meg sneered at the girl in front of her, her grip on her batons tightening.

"Well, that saves time. Take 'em out." She said to the rest of her crew/

It was a mess at that point. The woman reached for a sword in a shattered display case and brought it down towards Meg. Cory launched off the railing and landed on one of the people below and I crouched down to cover, igniting my hands. From where I was, I rained fire at the people who tried to use their bullets on the others. As I took cover after a few balls of fire, right by my head, an arrow of blue light ripped through the wall and embedded in the wall opposite me before shimmering away. I scuttered down the stairs as fast as I could as more arrows cut through the wall, vying to hit a part of me. Rev was all of a sudden very vocal, he shouted orders at me which was not helping much with my own thoughts. He shouted at me to get close and give the others cover, telling me to leave Cory to fend for himself and focus on protecting Meg. An arrow finally hit its mark as it ripped through my left arm. A yelp left my lips before I stifled my pain and pushed forwards as Rev said. I ran past Meg and the illusionist and they were going at it, in their corner of the room it looked like an acid trip gone horribly wrong as flashes of colour and visions of multiple Megs and Illusionist beat the snot out of each other. I wouldn't even know where to start helping her out in that situation. Over in the demon's corner, he was soloing four amps at the same time having taken out one already. What that left me with was two people in the back of the room, one with a blindfold over his eyes and a bow in hand, the other standing beside him creating hard-light arrows for the blindfolded man to fire. Every shot he took was centimetres away from hitting me, the only thing stopping them was the last-second inclination of which way to dodge. Guy with the bow can't fire without the other guy, which made him my first target.

I fired two fireballs at Hard light, forcing him to switch to make a shield leaving blindfold with nothing. He deflected both projectiles and dissipated the shield into a long sword, raising it to meet me. Each swipe was made with no real follow-up, he had swung a sword but he didn't know how to use it but that didn't make him any less dangerous to someone with no weapon. All I could do was deftly dodge his blows. In my head, Rev yelled at me to flash him which would have thrown me off my game at any other moment, but I remembered back to his fight with frostbite and understood what he meant. With one more dodge, I lifted my hand close to his face and let out a burst of bright flames which was just enough to have the blade lose form. From there, I got to work. I threw jabs and hooks fast and hard, getting in as many hits as I could while he was out of it. He tried to form an object with powers, but I swatted them away and followed up with another attack. He was too reliant on his powers in a fight which made it easy to overpower him. I kicked out his knee to have him buckle down to the floor and struck with a final hook that knocked him out.

Just as I thought I was out of the clear, a thin thread flew over my neck and was yanked back. The line dug into my throat, choking me out. My feet were no longer on the ground as I was lifted off the ground, I flailed and kicked against the person who had me trapped with no reward and I felt my neck split open slowly. I tried to burn through the thread but it seemed to get stronger the more I resisted. With the last fragment of strength in me, I reached back and grabbed onto whatever skin was holding me up and sent out a flurry of flames into them. More and more I poured out my flames until my feet hit the floor, the thread loosening off my throat allowing me to breathe once again. While catching my breath, I saw blindfold rolling on the floor, yelling as he tried to extinguish the flames. His bow, which he had used as a garrote, still hung around my neck as I panted heavily. I pulled it off and looked around the room and saw the Cory was finishing off with a woman who had turned her arms into vines, spinning her around over his head before tossing her into a wall. On the other side of the room, the acid trip had settled down and could make out the two people fighting clearly. Meg had sustained some deep cuts along her thigh and arm but fought hard. She blocked a strike from above with one of her batons and used the other to jab the illusionist in the gut. The other baton bashed her across the cheek before she caught the illusionist's arm behind her back and with one pull snapped it backwards with an awful crack. The illusionist fell to the floor hollowing in pain with Meg standing above her viscously victorious

"You mortals do know how to throw a party, I'll say that," Cory said as he dusted off his shirt. I ran over to Meg who looked like she was struggling to stand.

"Are you okay, can you stand on your own?" I let her lean up against me, giving her as much support as I could.

"It's gonna take a lot more than a few cuts to take me out of a fight." She scoffed.

A yelp filled the air as a boy was thrown over the top of the stairs. Dr Abbas landed against one of the few pillars within the mini-museum, bruises on his face with blood dripping down his busted lip. He weakly stared up at the broken railing at the top of the stairs wear another Vortex man stood holding the tablets under one arm and in the other dangled a squirming Grayson, over the edge.

"Alright, I'm leaving here with the kid and the tablets. Anyone of you tries anything and I make the kid two tons and he breaks his neck in the fall." He shouted to us, scanning the room and seeing all of his friends unconscious.

"Let me go you asshole!" Grayson screamed at the person him.

"Don't hurt my son, please." The doctor cried out as he tried to pick himself off the floor, supporting himself with the pillar.

"He'll be fine if all of you stand still and let me-" the man continued to shout at us from above when the boy in his hands held his hand open to the air materializing in his palm was the same sword the illusionist had been using. He reached back with the sword and sliced at the hand of the man that held him, severing the hand from the body.

The boy's face shifted from pride to fear as he started to fall but Cory reacted quickly and dashed forward within a blink of an eye and caught the child in his arm. He placed him down carefully and stared upwards, The man above screamed in pain as blood spurted out of the stump of his arm. He tried to say something but Cory was flying in front of him with the fury of Hell burning in his eyes. He grabbed the tablets out of his hands and placed them aside before grabbing him by the neck and whispering something in his ear, I'm betting something along the lines of 'enjoy Hell' or 'I'll be there to make you suffer' before throwing him with all his might at one of the only unshattered windows. He flew through, slamming against the ground hard, bouncing several times with the same speed that he left with before his body flipped over the edge of the cliff to disappear into the waters below.

Grayson ran to his father, who was barely standing, and embraced him tightly. "You're an Amp?" his father simply muttered to the boy.

"I'm sorry baba. I didn't want you to get mad. Please, I'm sorry. Please don't me mad." The boy begged his father, tears running down his face. The sword was still tightly wrapped in his fingers.

Dr Abbas lowered him to one knee awkwardly, taking the sword out of his hand and placing his hand against his son's face. "Son, I'm not mad at you. I'm just glad you are okay." He said before pulling his son back in for another hug.

Cory flew over to us and dropped the tablets in my hands and looked at Meg and me solemnly, "We should let them be. Keep them out of your problems."

"We can't just leave them here. Vortex will probably come for them." I spoke in hushed tones to keep our conversation to us."

Meg grabbed the tablets from my hands, still wrapped in their wrappings and placed them in her backpack. She also pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled on it with Cory and me just watching. Eventually, she finished and limped over to the father and son. "Is it only you two or does someone else live here?" She asked calmly.

"My wife... but she's out of town for work."

"Tell her not to come home and tell her to meet you here." She said as she held out the paper to him. "It's a safe place for you and your family to stay until this is over. Pack quickly and call the police to deal with them. I know you have no reason to trust us, we just stole from you and destroyed your home but we just want to keep you safe."

"After all this, you expect-" the doctor started, too weak to really shout but his voice still firm, but Grayson took his dad's hand and looked up at him.

"Baba, I trust them." The boy simply said, his eyes still misty. Dr Abbas looked at his son, then at Meg. He kissed his son on the head before taking the paper from her.

"Hahahaha," a burst of tired laughter echoed from the corner behind us where the illusionist lay with her crooked arm.

"Lucifer, what now. Can't you lot just stay down?" Cory groaned.

"You won't win the war." She laughed, the pain clearly displayed dancing her eyes.

"This isn't about a war for me," I said to the girl below me.

"But it is for The Foxhole. They can't fight without their money, or their people, or your sister." She spat.

I felt Rev try to take control as my anger began to grow. "Are you threatening my sister?" I asked as I strode towards her, my hand igniting on their own.

"It's not a threat. Vortex is at their little safe house as we speak and they are going to end it all tonight." She said as she began to cackle, my heart sinking as she spoke. "Maybe if you leave now, you can watch her breathe her last breath."

Without thinking I brought my shoe down on her mouth, her teeth shattering inward. Then once more, knocking the lights out of her. I would have gone for a third but Meg was there holding me back. "Oliver, if she's right we need to leave right now."

My breathing had sped up and my thoughts were raggedy, I looked at Cory. "Fly us there now."

"Runt, you don't give me orders."

"This isn't the time to be a piece of shit. My sister and my friends are about to die. So, fly us there now." He said poking him in the chest, my voice violent with the threat to harm.

He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. A second later, we were lifted into the air at high speeds. All I could hope is that we wouldn't be too late.