Welp, we've officially hit over 9,000 views! :D To celebrate this momentous occassion, I present another chapter! Thank you all for the suggestions and ideas on the last not-chapter; some of them will come into play next chapter (and some in chapters further on).

The song for this chapter is "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence.

*Martha's POV*

"Martha!" Donella said as she ran over carrying the limp cat in her arms. I couldn't see him breathing. "You're James's goddess, right?" I nodded numbly. This can't be happening. "Do whatever you have to to keep his spirit from leaving." Donella handed the cat off to me, grabbing my arm. She pulled me with her down the street as we ran to where "Wag" had been caged. I focused on the cat in my arms and could just barely feel him there, my Waggles. I closed my eyes—trusting Donella to guide me—and focused on that faint spirit, seeing it in my mind's eye as a wisp of red light weakly flickering in darkness, a candle flame about to go out. I reached out to him, noting that in this place, I shone a bright purple. There, I have you, Waggles, I thought as I cupped my hands around the wisp. I focused my energy on him, trying to make his light brighter. As long as I held onto him he wasn't flickering anymore, but his light wasn't growing.

I distantly heard a door open, and split my attention between Wag and my surroundings. We'd entered one of the houses. Wag's brothers had already brought his body in and laid it on a bed in the back room. "Martha, you've got a hold on him?" Donella asked quickly.

"Yes, I've got him, but he is incredibly weak."

Donella nodded. "Good. You focus on holding his spirit together. We'll work on straightening him out. Just don't let him go; it may get worse before it gets better." Donella moved me to a chair by the head of the bed and had me lay the cat on the comforter next to Wag. Now that they were both somewhere still, I could just see their chests rising and falling. That gave me a little hope. I closed my eyes again and focused entirely on my wizard.

For a while his light remained steady and small. When I felt something in his spirit shift, his wisp of light became fitful and nearly went out. Panic spiked through my heart. No, you're not going anywhere, I thought to Wag, though I doubted he could hear me. I tightened my grip on him, careful not to squeeze too tightly; I could hurt him myself if I didn't pay attention. The longer I held onto him, the more I noticed my energy didn't seem to be enough to keep him here. His light was slowly dimming and fragmenting despite my efforts.

I opened my eyes to see Matt, Phil, and Tom intensely concentrating on some white magic that enveloped Wag's body. Sweat was beginning to bead on Phil and Tom's foreheads, and steam rose off of Matt. Donella appeared to be in-between spells and noticed me as she wiped some sweat from her own forehead, panting. "Martha, what is it?"

"He's fading again. I'm doing the best that I can, but I can't hold him here much longer." Tears started to well in my eyes as I noticed doubt flit across Donella's face, but that doubt was swiftly replaced by grim determination.

"This is taking longer than we thought. We ran into some complications, but those are resolved now," The wizard assured me as she started to unbutton her coat. She must be starting to overheat with the amount of magic she's using. That's happened to Wag once or twice. Donella looked at Wag's unconscious form sadly. "We'll keep going. Try to make him want to stay. Remind him what he's leaving. We can do so much, but he has to fight too." She pulled her coat off and tossed it to one side. Her hands and eyes started glowing red as she went back to work, speaking softly in a language I didn't recognize. I briefly noted the myriad of scars decorating her skin before returning to my own task, wondering what that woman had been through.

Instead of being content holding on to him as I had been, I now tried to connect to his fragile mind. I needed to talk to him. Wag? Wag, can you hear me?

I didn't so much hear a response, but I did feel one in his emotions. Sadness and regret cut through my heart like a knife. I almost staggered back from the shock of them, but forced myself to stay connected.

Wag, you don't have to go. The wizards are working on you right now; you're going to be fine, I thought in my most reassuring tone.

The sadness and regret were replaced by emotions harder to define. My best guess was doubt and hopelessness—or maybe resignation.

James Waglington Hayes, don't you dare give up on me! I mentally yelled at him. You mean a lot to your friends and brothers and to me. We need you here.

A messy tangle of emotions rolled through me too quick for me to identify, but they settled back down into sadness and doubt that were stronger than before. He didn't believe we needed him.

I was stunned by that realization. I didn't have the time to try convincing him now; he was slipping away while we talked. I tried a different approach. Didn't you tell me you keep your promises? I prodded.

Wag responded with an unexpected hint of anger and regret, but I sensed I had his attention.

You promised to try to live. You promised that you would help me find Steve. You can't leave yet; I know you are not a liar. I felt bad being manipulative, but if it was the only way to convince him to live, then so be it.

I felt nothing from him at first. Then a wave of anger hit me, followed by what I could only describe as hurt. It was a different hurt than I'd ever felt. I worried briefly if the spell Donella was using had gone wrong, but when I checked on Wag's spirit, he seemed a little more substantial and bright than he had before. So if anything, something had gone right.

That's it, Wag! Keep fighting! You're doing great.

The only response I got from that was more sadness and anger. I was pretty sure I could expect the silent treatment when he got back.

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to see Donella, tired, but smiling at me. The three brothers looked in much the same shape. "We're almost done. I need you to loosen your hold on him for the last part. We need to finish anchoring him to his body."

I nodded and went back to my angry wizard. They're almost done, Waggles. Try to relax.

There was that hurt again. I flinched slightly as I backed away from his mind until I couldn't feel his emotions anymore. Focusing on the red wisp I was still holding, I cautiously opened my hands to allow him more space. To my delight, the small wisp started growing and taking the shape of a familiar human. I released him completely and stepped back, staying close enough to help if anything should go wrong. When I heard Donella announce that they were done, I let Wag be and opened my eyes, fatigue from using so much energy catching up with me. I was still a young goddess after all.

Phil and Tom were leaning against one of the walls with their eyes closed, breathing hard, and Matt had slid down the wall by the open window into a sitting position. His normally smoldering skin was reduced to embers, and it looked like he'd passed out. Donella was sitting on the foot of the bed, keeping an eye on her patient. A few strands of her chocolate hair were plastered to her face by sweat, and she was absentmindedly running her fingers over an angry scar on her left wrist.

I turned to look over their work. Wag was breathing more deeply and evenly, as if he were asleep. When I looked up at his peaceful face, I noticed the gash there for the first time. It had not been treated yet due to his magic instability. "Is it safe to heal his wound now?" I saw Donella nod out of the corner of my eye. I removed my right glove and raised my hand to Wag's face. I stopped however when I heard a warning growl. The cat, which was now curled up on Wag's far side was staring me down with his ears back, daring me to get any closer.

The doe from earlier snorted at the cat from where she stood in the doorway. The cat's grumbling quieted, but he kept watching me as I finished reaching my hand to the ugly wound. I focused some of my remaining energy on willing the tissue to heal. All that was left when I finished was a thin, jagged scar the color of silver cutting across his left cheekbone and tattoo. That had been easy compared to holding his spirit together. Before I withdrew my hand, I found the large cat sniffing it. He rubbed his head against my hand before hissing at me and curling up beside Wag again, facing away from me.

"I think that's his way of saying 'thank you', though I'm not sure why he dislikes you," Donella commented. Nodding at the doe who had decided to take a nap on her discarded coat, she added, "Cats can be a bit moody in my experience; that's why I picked Akatena for my familiar,"

That reminded me of what I'd felt while connected to Wag's emotions. "Donella, does any of the magic you used have side effects?"

She looked from Wag to me, concerned. "It is possible. Much of the magic I utilized to save him is used infrequently at best in our world, and I've never had to do this much on one wizard all at once. Why do you ask?"

"While I was convincing him to stay, I felt a good deal of pain coming from him. I couldn't tell what was causing it though."

Donella immediately stood and walked from the foot of the bed to stand even with Wag's head. The cat soundly ignored her as she passed him. She held one hand an inch above his forehead and closed her eyes, muttering something under her breath. I could see her eyes moving against the inside of her eyelids. After a minute or so, she stepped back with surprise and sympathy written across her face.

"You don't need to worry about him. I've dealt with this before. I'll talk to him when he wakes up, which should be pretty soon; he was aware enough to try pushing me out of his mind," She said with a half smile. "Why don't you take Wag's brothers over to the tavern to rest? I'll come get you and his friends once I've talked to him and explained what's happened." Something about the way Donella said it made me think it wasn't a suggestion, but I agreed. I was fairly tired from my part in saving Wag, though I had more magic left than the others by the looks of them.

Phil and Tom ended up having to help Matt walk, even after I gave his magic levels a boost. Wag's youngest brother was prone to magic exhaustion, apparently. We helped him to the sofa in his house. None of us had the energy to carry him up the stairs to his bed. He was snoring before we'd made it back to his front door, and I grinned as Phil closed it behind us. As we slowly walked back up the lane to the tavern in silence I realized it was already past noon. We had been working on Wag for longer than I'd thought. I was surprised the wizards had been able to hold out for that long. I looked over at Phil and Killertom with new appreciation.

I noticed Tom stumbling as he walked. He was almost in as bad of shape as Matt had been. I'd heal him, but my magic was completely spent after trying to help Matt. I recalled the potions I had in my bag. I'd left it back at the house Wag and Donella were in. "Go ahead; I'll be there in a few minutes." The two brothers were too tired to question me as they started up the steps of the tavern.

I quickened my pace as I headed for the house. I quickly came within view of it, but I stopped when I heard a sound through the open window I had heard only once before: Waglington crying. The previous time had been when Wag was coming off his brief addiction to meth; withdrawal had given him wild mood swings. This sounded worse. I wondered what could have upset him so much, remembering that Donella had wanted to talk to him alone. I didn't want to eavesdrop, but I did want to know what was wrong with my champion. A goddess is allowed to know that much, right?

 :( Today is not a good day. Please talk to me and distract me. Warning: I need to vent.

Remember that big lab project I was working on ~1 1/2 weeks ago? Well, I just got the grade back for that, and I got a 66. Normally 1 F doesn't bother me that much (I have off days), but this class... This class has several "projects". If you score below a 70 on any of these projects, you automatically fail the class. That was one of them. I just officially failed my first class in the history of ever. (I'm usually an A and B student.) And there were only 2 weeks left until the final!!!!!! >.<

The really bad part is, I knew better. I knew I was getting overwhelmed earlier in the semester, and I was seriously considering dropping the class (that would have been a first too) and retaking it separately next semester. But I listened to my coworker who is taking the class too, and tried to stick it out. *fuming and glaring daggers at my coworker* That is the last time I take the same class as anyone at my work ever again. I study better on my own, anyways.

I found this all out last week, but I had to tell my boss today. (It's a lab procedures class; for the projects I had my boss as my "preceptor". She had to sign off and comment on the assignments before I turned them in.) My coworker was working on the next project due tomorrow, and my boss was wondering why I hadn't asked her to sign off on mine. I usually get mine done before my coworker. :/ My boss is generally a jerk (*refraining from using less polite words that would be appropriate*), but I think she could tell I was genuinely really upset about it. I may have started to cry a little... *buries my head in the sand in shame*