"Good morning," Nikolai said to the sleepyhead-ed Halone as she yawned lazily, stretching her well rested limbs.

"Morning sunshine," she greeted warmly, earning a smile from the man.

"So, your answer?" he asked, eyeing her intently.

"I'll do it. I'll go with you," she said, Nikolai breathed a sigh of relief, "just let me get my kids and we'll go right now."

"Okay, I'll wait where we met in the forest," he said, Halone nodded and as the pair crept out of the cave they were greeted with a sight that made their blood run cold.

Leiden. Staring right at them.

"Coward!" Leiden roared as he lunged for Nikolai's jugular.

Halone instinctively dove between them, shielding Nikolai as Leiden snarled in frustration.

"Traitor! You're on the demons side and you can rest with the rest of them!" Leiden snapped with vicious; relentless cruelty at Nikolai before his eyes locked on to Halone, "I hope it was worth dying as a traitor to justice and glory!".

But then he paused.

"But I guess the least I could do is have you die a warrior's death," he said as his jaws opened.

"I was in a dark place, but I see clearly now, and I'd rather die fighting than live another second in this Hellhole!" Halone erupted before launching, fangs bared and claws poised, for a bloodthirsty fight.

And try as they might, fighting him fang and claw, the larger beast of Leiden's animal form easily overpowered the both of them, before he dragged them into a pit which SIN was already in, chained and beaten.

Above the pit was the rabid cheers of the rebels, as Halone peered up she caught glimpses of their mutilations. Since leaving the torture chamber she stayed inside her cave, not venturing outside for anything but her children who played in the wilderness with no rebel presence.

What they saw horrified her.

They were disfigured, horribly so, from being partially cannibalised by other rebels. Screaming for their bloodlust to be quenched as spitfire flew from their mouths-the hot, metallic twang of fresh blood lingering in it.

Her heart stopped when she saw her boy Shadow being forced to watch the mayhem, tears streamed down his eyes and as she shouted out encouraging and comforting words up to him they were immediately drowned out by the noise of the crowd.

She felt helpless, and immediately she could feel Chi panic all over again. The flashbacks. Of Ash with his fangs bared, the smell of her own blood, the wet gurgle sound as she choked on it. She done the only thing either of them could do: they broke down into hysterical, wailing sobs ripped straight from a deep well of raw, ragged pain.

Leiden jumped down into the pit, his already bloodied fangs poised as he lunged for Halone.

"Wait Leiden no, please stop!" Alexis cried from above the pit, her words to drowned out by the crowd.

Leiden and Halone encircled one another, their tail raised and snarling rabidly as they stared one another down.

"Any last words?" he taunted.

"Go fuck yourself," she snapped.

"Ah, always the silver tongued poet," he quipped.

And with that he launched for her, sinking his fangs deep into her shoulder as she yelped in pain, blood flowing from the open wound.

"Halone!" Nikolai cried out in shock before he threw himself at Leiden, "bastard!" he roared as he slammed into Leiden's flank, Nikolai's claws slicing open his skin and causing him to let go of Halone, who dropped to the floor in a bloodied heap.

"Don't you know chivalry is dead? Just let the whore in distress die like she should," Leiden remarked with a cold laugh before he rushed at Nikolai, knocking the black and white creature onto his back before locking his jaws around Nikolai's throat, Nikolai tried to scream out for help but the pressure of Leiden's fangs was pressing in on his voicebox.

"No!" Halone cried, she ran towards Leiden and bit down as hard as she could on his thigh, and when Leiden spun around to try and shake her off of him Nikolai rose up, sinking his teeth into Leiden's exposed throat. 

Leiden shook Halone and Nikolai off his bleeding body, the pit was soaked in blood by now.

They continue to fight to the rabid roar of the cruel crowd for what felt like an eternity. The adrenaline of the fight was wearing off, replaced with a sting of the painful wounds and the dizziness and cold feeling of severe blood loss.

Leiden slammed Nikolai into the wall, bruising and breaking multiple ribs, which he hit with a thud before slumping down in a bloodied, panting mess.

As Nikolai staggered, dazed and confused, Leiden focused on Halone, who was struggling to get up after sustaining a deep laceration to her thigh.

Leiden slowly skulked over to her, a sick and sadistic smirk on his lips that had been carved open into a Glasgow smile. Blood dripped from his muzzle, thick and sticky and crimson.

He placed his paws down on her chest, crushing down on her lungs, beginning to make her choke on her own blood flowing into mouth from other wounds, she squirmed helplessly as Nikolai coughed up wet wads of coagulated blood.

All this time SIN had been secretly wearing down his chains and just as Leiden placed a paw on her throat, ready to rip out her jugular, he ripped out of her chains and sprinted towards Leiden, tackling from away from Halone, who he stood over as a protector.

Leiden rushed towards SIN and SIN rushed towards Leiden, meeting in a mix of blood and fangs and claws as a swift but brutal fight endured-ended when Leiden pierced SIN with the long, blade like claw, that was his forearm in between the shoulder blades.

As the three of them laid in a semi conscious state, bleeding profusely, Leiden slowly slithered over to Halone.

"Don't...don't do it," SIN begged wearily, dragging himself by the arms to Halone.

His plea fell on deaf ears as Leiden put his paw on Halone's throat. Slowly Halone reacted, her eye creaking open and sliding up to see Leiden's blood soaked muzzle looming over here.

"You fought like a coward, not that I expected much demon a treacherous whore," he said.

"At least I died with my pride. That's more than you could ever do," she answered, her words stone cold, she looked past Leiden to her crying boy.

I'll be with you in spirit, always, she said her prayer out to the sky.

And as Leiden was about to kill Halone SIN mustered the last of his strength to jump for Leiden, his bloody fangs aimed right for his throat. Not as revenge for Beelze's death, not as a way to continuing the cycle of sadism but rather ending it for a better tomorrow, a better future-freeing him, and Nikolai and Halone, of the past and dispelling the shadows that haunted them with the light that saved them.

____

And that concludes my story bar an epilogue. I hope you've enjoyed it so far