I screamed. I couldn't help it. Evanora had taken a deadly hit for me.

"EVANORA!" Victor cried out. His was instantly on his knees, cradling her body close to his. She was still alive. Her breathing was shaky and offbeat and she looked as though she was in immense pain, but she was still alive.

And she was barely holding on.

"Why...why would you...why would you do that?" I asked shakily. I kneeled down and brushed some hair out of her face as Victor began to sob. Alex grabbed Evie's hand and held it tightly as tears began to fall down her freckled cheeks.

Despite all the pain she was no doubt feeling, Evanora smiled at me. "You're the leader s-stupid. Y-you can't...you can't d-die." She stuttered.

"But you can't either." I gasped. "Evie..." My vision began to blur with tears.

"We're going to get you out of here, okay? We're going to get you out of here, right now." Alex said comfortingly. I could tell he was holding back tears. I could see the whites of his eyes slowly turning red. He was going to break.

"None of you are leaving this facility alive." A voice growled.

Victor, Alex and I all looked up suddenly. Dorian walked out of the shadows, his hair down and wild and his eyes crazed.

"Thirty-eight years! For THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS I've had to fight my way to the top! I had to fight to get here! And NOW FOUR BUBMBLING TEENAGERS are trying to take that away from me??"

He summoned a sword out of thin air. The hilt of it began to frost over just a little bit. "You four aren't going to survive."

Evanora gripped Alex's hand a bit tighter. I looked over at him and I saw why. His eyes were blazing red and I saw smoke curling out of his mouth like a dragon.

"Alex," I pleaded. "We have to get Evie out of here. She's hurt, we can deal with Dorian later.

"No." Evie said suddenly. "Now. D-deal with him n-now."

"Evie, we-"

Alex cut me off. "We're done messing around, Dorian!" He yelled. "You've hurt too many of us. You've KILLED too many of us."

Victor sent Evanora one last smile before standing up next to Alex. "You've sat on you high horse for too long and its time someone put you in your place. Even if we are bumbling teenagers."

I looked down at Evie who smiled at me softly. "Go." She whispered.

I cast her one last worried look before I stood up and scowled at Dorian. "We're taking you down once and for all for hurting us, or family and our friends."

"I'd like to see you try." Dorian growled.

Alex let out an angered yell and before my eyes he burst into literal flames, hair and all. He ran at Dorian, who deflected all Alex's punches with ease. Victor shifted into a cougar and pounced at Dorian, getting in a solid scratch to his jaw. Dorian cried out in pain before he whipped around and slammed the hilt of his sword upon Victor's head.

I rushed at Dorian with a battle cry as a sword materialized in my own hands. Our sword clashed as we glared at each other. My blood boiled as Dorian smirked at me and began to push my sword closer and closer to my throat.

"This is very different from our first encounter, Circe. If my memory serves correct, you ran from me when I attacked you. My! My! Look who's grown!" A fireball whizzed past his face and he was forced to back away from me as Alex stood by my side protectively. Victor walked beside us, his eyes locked on Dorian.

"We've all grown, bitch." Alex seethed. I could practically hear the venom dripping from his words.

Dorian's eyes traveled to something behind us and he grinned. "Not all of you."

My eyes widened. Evanora

I looked behind me and she was gone. My heart jumped in my chest and I whipped around to confront Dorian before I froze up.

Dorian had Evanora held back by her neck and he had his sword pointed at us. "Ms. Moore here hasn't grown that much. She hasn't grown at all, if I do say so myself."

"H-help me..." Evie pleaded shakily.

"You know, one would think that months on the one would at least make Evanora here a little bit tougher. But she's still the weakest out of you four."

"That's NOT true!" Victor snapped, shifting back into his human form.

"Oh but it is! You all just refuse to see it. You're pulling wool over your own eyes!"

Evanora coughed as Dorian's grip on her throat tightened and she coughed up a little bit of blood, wincing at the pain the action brought to her wound.

"Let her go, now!" Alex boomed.

"Or what? You'll combust again? Well newsflash Human Torch, that little trick was cool at first but now it's getting annoying." Dorian scowled.

"Dorian, let Evanora the hell go." I seethed.

Dorian's eyes met mine and something flashed within those multicolored irises. He smirked and raised an eyebrow at me. "You're getting very ballsy Ms. Lewis."

"So have you." I retorted.

He looked me up and down. "Perhaps, but who here has the upper hand?"

He began to creep away from us, dragging Evanora along with him as her blood dribbled down his fingers and made a trail behind them.

"Now, I'm going to leave this building scot-free and you three are going to stay right here until I'm out of sight."

"But we can't-" Alex began.

"He's threatening Evie. We don't have much of a choice, Alex." Victor hissed.

My eyes never left Dorian's as we retreated. Victor was wrong. We did have a choice. Acting faster than my mind could compute, I summoned a spear.

"Circe, No!" Victor cried. But it was too late. The spear was already flying through the air and sailing towards Dorian. His eyes widened and he let Evanora go so that he could shield his face. I quickly rushed over to help Evanora to her feet and lead her over to the group just as the spear sliced his face.

"You little-" Dorian's threat was cut off mid sentence as Alex summoned a wall of fire between Dorian and the exit. There was going to be no escape for him.

I was beyond pissed. Dorian had finally pushed a button this time. There was no way I was going to let him out of here alive.

"Oh shit." I heard Alex mutter. The room began to shake and the lights began to flicker. Thoughts of Dorian's blood paining the linoleum floors raced through my mind. Even death itself wouldn't be a fit punishment anymore, but it was the best this I could do to make him pay. I felt my claws materialize around my fingers and based on Dorian's wide eyes staring at my mouth, I could tell those strange fangs had come back too.

"You pathetic, manipulating ASSHOLE!" I literally hissed. "You are going to regret ever crossing paths with us."

The lights continued to flicker on and off, more rapidly this time. He wouldn't survive. This room, this lighting, these people, my face, they would all be his last sights.

I promised myself I would never summon them back, but as anger consumed me, I realized that I would have to break my promise. The lights suddenly exploded and darkness enveloped the room. I could see Dorian's fearful expression as he held his face. Alex and Victor quickly rushed behind me, Evanora held in Victor's arms protectively.

Suddenly the lights flashed on and Dorian screamed in fear at what he saw. On either one of my sides, two creatures stood. Those same creatures I'd summoned that day in the cafeteria.

"What...what are those?"

"Your worst fucking nightmare." I hissed.

The last time, I wasn't able to control them, but now, I could feel them waiting to be commanded. They wanted me to let them kill Dorian.

So I gave them their wish.

The rushed at Dorian with insane speed and ripped at his flesh. Dorian screamed as he tried to fight them off, but they were too strong, too powerful for him to take alone, even with his powers.

One of the creatures slammed Dorian into the wall head-first and slowly began to tighten its claws around Dorian's neck. Dorian gasped and heaved as he tried to catch his breath to no avail.

I mentally commanded the creatures to wait and suddenly they stopped, turning to me.

I walked over to Dorian who was now nearly a bloody pulp. He looked like he was in immense pain.

Which was just what I wanted.

"I hope you know what this means." I seethed. "My face is going to be the last face you see before you die. I'm going to be the one to kill you. And I'm going to relish it."

To my surprise, Dorian laughed. He actually laughed!

"Do it!" He hissed spitting out blood as he spoke. "Go ahead, kill me! Add another ghost to haunt you!"

I froze up as he spoke. "You know you already have the blood of many people on your hands. Everyone who's death you've been involved in. All those Elementalist who've given their life to your cause, They were just kids, Circe, and you sent them out to fight. Now their dead. They don't have a shot at a normal life anymore. Because of you." I took a step back. He was right.

"And Ms. Duboise. Oh poor Ms. Duboise. She never stood a chance. If you just would have done things differently. Maybe she'd still be al-"

"SHUT UP!" I screamed stabbing him in the chest with the claws I hadn't realized I summoned. Blood dribbled down Dorian's chin, staining his teeth red.

"And let's not forget...Evanora..." He practically whispered. Then the light faded from his eyes and he fell limp.

I collapsed to my knees weakly and the monsters disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving Dorian's dead body slumped on the wall.

Tears blurred my vision and stung the scar on my cheek and I stared at the ground. Dorian was right. I'd killed more people than I helped. There was no excusing this. I was a monster.

"Circe! Get over here." Alex rushed. I looked up and then I remembered Evanora was hurt.

"Evie!" I cried scrambling to my feet and running over to her. Her skin was sickly pale now and her face was sweaty. Her clothes were stained in blood and her once tied up hair now hung freely and stuck to her face.

Alex ripped off his hoodie and held it up to Evanora's bleeding abdomen. She winced at the contact of it.

"Did we...did we win?" She asked weakly.

I wiped my tears away and nodded with a forced smile. "Yeah, Evie. He's gone. He won't ever bother us again."

Evanora nodded with a small smile of her own. "I knew we would."

"We can live in peace now." Alex added, reaching for my hand. I gladly held it in my own."

"Peace..." Evanora hummed. "That sounds...that sounds...nice..." She took a deep breath and then her chest slowly fell. Her head fell over a little and the light drained from her eyes.

She was gone.

I covered my mouth to stifle the scream that was rising up in my throat and buried my face in Alex's shoulder, my body shaking with silent sobs.

This couldn't be happening. It WASN'T happening. Not Evie. Anyone but Evie. My heart ached and my throat began to swell as Alex's wrapped his arms around me silently.

"We have to get her out of here." Victor said, holding Evanora's hand, refusing to let go. "She's hurt pretty bad, but we can still help her. The healing pods at Eros should still be working. If we can just-"

"Victor..." I sniffed. "Vic, she's gone."

Victor shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "No. No she's fine. We just have to get her out of here. She'll be okay. She'll be fine." His voice cracked and he looked into Evanora's dead eyes.

"Vic, man, come one. We have to go before someone else finds us in here." Alex said softly reaching for Victor.

"NO!" Victor exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Evanora in a tight hug. "We can't leave her here! We can still help her, guys, please LISTEN! We can still help her!"

My heart ached, but I stood up and grabbed one of Victor's arms gently trying to pry him from Evanora. "Victor, come on, she's gone. There's nothing we can do anymore."

"No! No! Guys we can still help her!" He insisted.

Alex grabbed Victor roughly and began to drag him down the hall and away from Evanora.

"STOP WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WE CAN STILL HELP HER! WHY ARE WE LEAVING HER HERE? PLEASE, WE CAN STILL HELP HER! LET ME GO!"

Victor screamed and struggled the whole way to the car. I closed my eyes and tried to tune out his anguished yelling, but I couldn't. Tears slipped out of my eyes as we drove away from the building.

'I'm sorry, Evie.' I thought. You deserved better