* * *

The exhilaration was met with frantic bare feet rushing to keep up with Hera—Or who they thought was named Hera, and instead, they were met with a blaring alarm to fuel their beating hearts.

Even if there were a few who were feeling mistrust towards "Hera," the witches had turned to become the forefront of the escape route. However, the alarms that were violently ringing above them had signaled dozens of armed guards, yet Sage did not dare let them stop their chance at escaping. 

There was hardly any place in this building or vicinity that didn't have water, and the large metal pipe over their heads seemingly called to her.

It was easy to bend the will of the water to soak and drain out, but the blessing in disguise was the never-ending amount. It coated the floors and allowed the males to be caught in between the frozen chunks, as she pulled out a small trick she learned from the mermaids.

A blessing she would be thankful for when it returned it back to her pups.

Almost like blowing a kiss, she sent a chilling breeze to enact the water, hoping that the guards would feel the agonizing burn that her females had felt for the past few hours.

"Which way exit?" She called out, turning to look at the woman behind her—Of course they had their own theories on where things were placed in the building, it was Elena who came closer to the groaning humans. Ultimately snapping their neck without a single hesitation and searching the male's limp body for any clue as to how to get out.

A witch that Sage hadn't spoken to before had also gone up there, feeling a rise of power now that the human had been pinned. "Which way to the exit?" She hissed, though it was all for not. Or wasn't until Elena's eyes turned up in attention, slightly motioning the fact that what happened to his partner might ultimately end up happening to him.

"U-up, yo—you have t-to go—Up." Elena looked towards Hera once more and with a confirming nod, the she-wolf twisted her hands and sentenced the male to the same fate.

"Up, alright...Stairs? An elevator? Do they have any keys on them?" A witch called out, and Hera had undone the frozen traps that bound the deceased humans. Letting their bodies fall fluently to the floor as the water dispersed around them.

"Keycards," Sage explained, her eyes locked on the small boxes beside each metal door of the facility. Yet when she looked off towards Willow and the pups, she needed to be quick.

Armond was still at large and there was no telling what the vampire would do with everyone in the escaping party. Especially to Willow.

Throughout all the metal corridors, revealed endless mazes which was making it very difficult to manage, with different numbers leading to another set of horrors that nobody wanted to encounter awake. What happened on Tuesday was left for only Darius and the doctors to see, as Sage couldn't handle what poked or probed her during the times she was left unconscious.

The alarm had called out, and Sage could've sworn that a few witches cursed under their breath. But it was Poppy's shriek that alerted them to the oncoming of more troops.

While Sage didn't know all the wolves by name, it was very easy to sync with them. Nothing was holding these she-wolves back, especially when the shock of Sage's abilities mandated their reaction.
Humans were ingrained with a fight or flight concept, and thus...It was proven once again, especially when it came to things such as magic.

These guards weren't the same as those in the gym, these were skinnier—Which reminded Sage that one male had a target on his head.
"I need to find scientist." She called out, and all the females around her grinned. Knowing that her tone suggested vengeance, and thus they continued onward. Sage had managed to leave her birthplace without striking the heads of the lab coats that tortured her for two decades.

She and the rest deserved this.

And she certainly would call Darius, as she needed to make sure this place would burn to the ground. It had to.

Truthfully, the anxiety of being trapped in a maze of never-ending rooms was mind-boggling. Yet it faired well that it was still technically prime time for the facility to be active, or so said the clock plastered on the wall that deemed it to be seven o'clock.

"We can split up, search for a—" Maeve started, but received a silencing growl and hiss from Hera. "We stay together, stronger together. Kill everyone and find more wolves if we can." It didn't take long for the witches to conform to her now, but Maeve still had some underlying issue.
Especially when she used to run the show.

"Willow," Hera called out, the tone she used instantly catching the she-wolf off guard. Though it did earn her the attention of her mother. "When you come here with Armond, how do you come in?" The woman looked around the room, cautiously twisting and turning her head.

"The numbers, they're going up not down." That was certainly a hint, and thus they started making progress. Especially since Willow's prime memory of entering this place included a '1' marking the doors.

However, when they neared Armond's room, she gasped—It wasn't his scent that hit him first.
It was the growl.

And while Sage twitched a bit, she didn't allow it to affect her entirely. "Go, I take care of Armond." Maeve had mixed feelings about Hera—Whatever her name truly was, the sheer look of determination was boundless.

Yet the anger was much higher.

"You—You dare say my name?!" He yelled, and Sage smirked off at him with a shrug.
"You're a bad vampire. You need to die."
"And what do you plan to do, wolf? You're nothing but a shell of a human with what my scientists have done to you. If you surrender now...I won't hurt you, badly." Sage had already started shaking her head when she heard the word surrender.

It wasn't in her nature, hers or her wolf.

In looking at Willow, Sage bit down onto her palm—hard enough to make it bleed. And before her mother could question or protest, she started to push it towards her mouth, much like Donald had when first instigating her abilities.

The only issue is, Sage did not recall what the witch had spoken. Leaving the blood to be open for the male across the hall to smell.
Course she's heard about a Vampire's frenzy, where they turn more beast than normal. Enzo claimed that he had only felt it a few times in his life. And that was because he had found fulfilling blood—As older generations needed more to sustain themselves for longer times.

Yet this was their approach, something that Sage didn't fully understand. The only thing she had worked out was that wolf blood tasted much better than when they were suppressed.

So it was no surprise when Armond came charging with his unnatural speed, yet she instantly sprayed him with gallons of water in both the floor and ceiling. The surprise made him sloppy; thus, he was pinned to the wall much easier than she expected.

"A witch! I should've known!... You tasted too sweet to be a wolf." He said with a bit of spite in his tone, yet what she wasn't prepared for either—Was a loaded punch to the side from her mother. Instantly making her lose focus to the frozen water particles withholding Armond back.

"You might have your mind blocked from me, Hera, but my sweet Willow will always be bendable to my will. I cannot wait to break you into submission, break you the same way I broke her." The snarl from the male caused Sage to snap, the whiteness in her eyes calling forth the goddess of either realm of Lycan and Witch as the words fell out with ease.

"Magia est vivere," the saying loosely meaning 'magic is alive,' as Sage allowed the words to course through her and straight into her mother. Making Darius' hint that Sage needed to be energized enough to allow her mother it as well.

Willow did not have the same reaction as Sage had with Donald, instead, she simply lost the forced will that Armond had placed on her. However, in the midst of it all, the male hadn't been contained in the icicle fortress—Leaving the Luna of Crescent Moon unable to use her water as quickly as she wanted to.

"You little bitch—What did you do?!" The words of Luke echoed in the back of her mind now, that magic was all fun and fancy. But it didn't matter if she didn't have a good punch or kick to go along with it.

So she did just that.

Providing a clean uppercut before kicking back against the wall he emerged from.

"I'm not your wolf. I'm not your prize! I'm not yours!" She yelled, thus her hands now wrapped around his neck. Beautiful clear for a solid break had Willow not shouted at Hera.

"You need to go! You can't kill him!" She shouted, no longer being condemned but still helping him and his actions. "Mom, listen, we have to go!" The words had slipped without Sage's consent.

The truth was out there now, and the dark chuckle that followed made her shiver.

"Oh, my sweet Sage...You've come back to be? I was hoping you'd taste the same but you've come into your Hyrbid abilities quite nicely. And a Mate? Pups? I have plans for you, sweetheart, just you wait and—" She was about to tackle him yet again, but Willow stopped her.

"Go, sweetheart...Go." It didn't help that the tussle with Armond most likely broke a rib or two, and then the slam against the metal walls had caused a clear break somewhere for the side of her head to start bleeding, leaving her only option to leave...Even if every fiber of her being didn't want to listen.

If her mother said she couldn't kill him, without the filtered words of being compelled—Then she knew the truth. That there would be a certain way to kill Armond, and she'd need to find it. But as of now, she needed to go—And that meant blocking her path.

"Dad misses you—We miss you," Sage whispered, and the clear face of decades of abuse had caused the woman to crack. The bond between mother and daughter allowed years worth of emotion and suffrage to float back and forth.

Willow learned everything—All of the turmoil her daughter had faced. And the opposite happened for Sage, the secrets of Armond weren't very clear. But one thing was for certain, that he wasn't just a vampire.

He was something else. Something more.

And Sage was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Wolfie, you need to keep moving. The stairs are coming up. But I don't think the others waited for you.

It's okay, they can't see just me. I'll hide in water or—Or something.

You can't use up too much more magic Sage, it's dangerous. Your mom's already fighting off Armond's compelling, she was going to try and follow, but it looks like he injected her with something.

What?

She's unconscious, hun.

The conversation with Darius allowed her to focus on something that wasn't the impending pain coursing through her side. It earned her the new stance of a hunched shuffle, but ultimately it was much worse when she found the staircase.

They weren't always an issue, but right now, when her ribs were seemingly on fire—She couldn't suppress the groans and vocalize just how god-awful it was.

Whatever the hell that Vampire was, it was making her feel like her stomach was turning inside out and back again.
Then again, with her wolf being so far from the surface...It would most definitely be the Lycan healing that's causing her to fall behind.

She huffed in solitude when she emerged from the staircase, the building only offered a decent waiting area that looked monumentally like any horror movie that Liam and Jack would put on to tease her.

Whenever they were placed in a hospital or would visit one, they expressed how dog-shit the movie turned and suggested turning it off.

Yet Sage never did, and she was thankful she didn't as it was structured like a human waiting room. Yet it was nothing short of a blessing as the lack of armed guards or anyone behind the desk allowed her to continue on, through the glass doors and into the front yard.

It wasn't at all the same as before. One side was based off a hill while the others managed elsewhere. But now it made sense as to why everything looked as though it was underground.

The military base was stationed on a hill, and Sage could only make that distinction because of the faint paint that read 'ARMY 10-02'.

While she couldn't go in the direction of the water, she walked another few steps towards the forest and breathed. She'd be able to make it to the moving group with a few sprints of Whisping, but first, she needed to do something.

With her body weakened and Darius unable to make a proper connection to her wolf, there was truly only one thing left for her to do.

Coming to a complete stop and turning around to face the damnable building once more, she pulled her knee full up into a kick before slamming it back down to the earth. The rumble that followed quickly started from the moment her heel touched back down, and the earth shattered apart from the spot and beyond, going directly towards the building. 

But her next action had come with a sign of hesitation as she heard the thunderous sound of a Helicopter making its departure in the opposite direction. Making Sage grit her teeth to hold back an aggravated roar of disappointment.

Sage's arms came upwards in a blocking stance before they were easily bending to the weight of the world. She had no strategy, nor did she truly mean to throw a showcase of water to sink and down the better of the building. But there it was, and just as she was going to deliver the final blow, a voice stopped her.

"Hera...? W-what are you doing?" The little pup questioned, and Sage looked towards Clementine as though she were a ghost.
Had the group left her behind?
Were they captured and brought back?

The damage was already done, and the yelling surpassing the collateral destruction of the building was already set in place. "Killing every last one. No mercy." She growled, and far be it from her to allow her mythical vines to come up—Her personal signature.

While her arms were aching, begging her to stop her assault. She flourished the grave and only settled when the overgrowth reached full capacity.

There would be no more rebuilding from this, nor would there be any survivors—Not when she had missed the onsetting roar of a helicopter settling over both her and the building. Darting off in what Sage would assume to be West given that the sun was in that given direction, but she truly felt too disoriented to tell.

In picking up Clementine, she made started with unsteady steps toward the baseline of the tree before bending down to look at the pup fully. "I need you to go on my back, okay? We're going to Whisp." The little girl frowned, not knowing what the word meant, but still followed the instructions Hera had given.

There was no time for a demonstration, not when Sage was about four minutes from losing consciousness again. So she offered her back and secured the young pup before enacting her last bit of magic for the night. It was fairly easy to pinpoint the group, they truly hadn't made it all that far to make a significant distance.

Another reason why Sage flooded and drowned the better part of the army base.
It deserved that and more.

But also secured that they wouldn't be hunted down by these Underground members.

Just as Sage neared the group, she slowly came to the normal speed and continued in a slow pace to greet them. Only to be met by one sharpened spear. It seems in her being absent for ten minutes, Maeve has returned to being the Alpha.

"You're not welcomed with us any—"
"Shut up and listen." Sage bellowed, not daring to give her the satisfaction. "There's a cave that way, if you don't want to stay in the rain meet me there." She said, returning to her valiant last bit of energy and thus—Managed just as the rain was oncoming.

Whatever struck Clemtinue as being resourceful, the pup hurried outside and carried as much as she could of fallen bark, sticks, and branches.

Having worked closely with an elemental coven that is comprised primarily of fire starters, the least she could do at this moment is create some warmth. Especially when those making the trek forward would need a place to dry off.

"Ignis." She instated and the small gasp from Clem confirmed that it had worked. It was a bit difficult to fight off the impending spots in her vision to inform the young pup on how to cater the growing fire and keep it maintained.

However, one thing was for certain, the nap that follows would be a blessing—And a curse.

Rest sweetheart.
I love you.

______

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Author's Note:

Only a few edits in this, as I hadn't made it clear that Armond and Willow escaped while this Underground building was destroyed!

The bigger changes are just around the corner!

In other news, I've put more time into editing these two stories instead of working on The Luna of Crescent Moon, which I'm starting to realize is more important to the world-building than I thought when starting the 'what if' story for fun.

Expect that story to be completed before we start our journey to Grey Hallow ✨

Anywhooo, I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your week!

And Happy Valentines day❤️