"You haven't seen anything yet." Damien said with a manic grin as he looked at Oliver. Suddenly, Danny and Oliver heard Nate's voice in their heads. Wait for my signal.
"Tell me: how do you value a human life?" Damien asked as he continued to hold the barrel of his gun against Nyx's temple. The group stared at him in silence, refusing to play his sick little game. "Going once." Damien said before he used his thumb to pull back the hammer of the gun, causing Nyx to flinch. "Going twice..."
"A human life...." Danny spoke calmly, but the hint of desperation was hard to miss. "Cannot be measured by ideals or simple words. A life can only be measured individually, by those who would preserve it, or take it away."
That's good, Danny. Keep him talking.
Damien nodded slightly, "A very selfish answer I must admit. You mean to say that you would fight so hard for this girl. But a life like mine isn't safe from you, you deem me unworthy." Danny tensed. "Your ideology isn't very different from mine."
"He is nothing like you." Oliver stared sternly as his fists clenched. Suddenly, Damien sent shadow tendril towards him, too fast for him to react with a barrier, and held him up slightly by his throat. Nate and Danny flinched with wide eyes.
"Mind your own business." Damien growled at Oliver as he grunted and choked slightly. Damien used two other shadow tendrils to hold down Oliver's arms. Damien turned his head back to Danny with a calm look. "As I was saying, I wish to present to you an opportunity to put your ideology to the test. So I have a simple question: Would you rather me shoot this woman named Nyx Valentino? Or..." Damien paused as he took the gun away from Nyx's head. "Would you rather me shoot you?" Damien finished as he pointed the gun at Danny.
Danny gritted in teeth in shock as his mind started racing. "W-What?" Danny choked out quietly. Nate looked at Danny with intense worry as Damien spoke again.
"You...or her?" Damien reiterated his question as he pointed the gun at Nyx's head again. Nyx whimpered slightly in fear as she closed her eyes. Danny's hands began trembling as the next half a second felt like an eternity.
"How about you, cabrón?" Danny and Damien both looked at Nate when he spoke suddenly. However, Nate was looking at Damien, his eyes flashed red and Damien's eyes flashed red to match.
"Damien...I am sick of your games, and you have endangered my loved ones lives for the last time. Now...throw down the gun." Nate spoke with an empty tone, but everyone in the room could sense the pure hatred lacing his words. Damien tossed the gun to the side and away from him, Danny took his chance and ran to Nyx to untie her. When he was about halfway in between Nyx and Nate, he was halted by a familiar voice that rocked him to his core.
"That's enough, mijo." Nate gasped softly as he watched his father fall from the ceiling and land next to Damien. Gabriel's eyes immediately flashed red as he locked eyes with Nate and he immediately took control of his son. Danny was frozen in initial panic before the bone chilling noise of a gun cocking behind him caused him to slowly turn around. He saw Nate pointing his handgun directly at him, his eyes were still red. But this time Nate was not in control.
"That's better." Danny looked back at Damien as he shook his head after being controlled for a few moments. "Now do you see why your struggle is pointless? Do you see why your ideology is fundamentally flawed? You will give your life for the lives you wish to save, but when a gun is placed against your head, you cower in fear? This is why you are weak. So now, I will...pump the gas so to speak." Damien looked over at Gabriel and nodded. Gabriel then looked back at Nate and nodded. Nate wordlessly shifted over to his right slightly and pulled the hammer back. Danny's eyes widened as he quickly realized the situation he was in.
"Nathan has been ordered to fire the gun when I give the word, no matter where you move, he will not change where he is currently aiming. You can either stand still and the bullet will kill you, or you can move out of the way...and the bullet will kill Nyx." Damien said through his smile, clearly pleased with his sick little game. Danny looked at Nate before his head lowered, his lip slightly starting to quiver.
"It would be you, wouldn't it?" Danny whispered at Nate, Damien lifted his head slightly, almost intrigued. Danny chuckled softly, "After what I did back then...part of me had a feeling it would end up in a scenario quite like this..." Danny turned around slowly to look at Nyx, she was crying with a look of fear on her face. "Nyx...I know I did some pretty bad things, and I know that you would probably want to save my life, since I saved yours that night...but I can't let you do that. I can't let Nate shoot the woman he loves." Danny looked down again so he wouldn't have to see the look of pain in her eyes. "I'm sorry...if I ever hurt you." Danny looked back up at her with a soft smile.
A vision crashed into Danny's mind. Damien utters the word fire before Nate fired his gun and Danny saw himself get shot in the back of the head as he was facing Nyx. Danny was brought back into reality and he closed his eyes, locking in his decision.
Damien smiled, "Fire." He uttered before the silent room was pierced by a gunshot, Danny flinched but was quickly surprised when he didn't feel a thing, no pain, no nothing. He whipped around and saw that the bullet had been stopped by a black transparent barrier. Danny quickly looked over at Oliver, who was still being held up by his throat with his hands held back. He was grinning weakly as he locked eyes with Danny.
"I don't...need my hands...to use my Gift." Oliver choked out as he struggled to breathe. A small smile spread across Danny's lips before he watched the barrier shoot towards Nate, colliding with him and knocking the gun out of his hand. Danny looked back at Damien with hatred in his eyes.
"Looks like someone miscalculated." Danny said with a newfound confidence before he ran forward and lunged at Damien. Danny pulled out his knife as Damien reacted and flicked his first two fingers upward. A shadow tendril shot up from his shadow to try and stab Danny under his chin. Danny saw it coming with his Gift and pivoted his body and narrowly avoided it. Danny brought up his hand with a forceful grunt and slashed upward with his knife. Damien gritted his teeth in pain as he knife cut him slightly across the chest. Damien had stepped back so the knife didn't cut him as deep as it should've. Danny heard Nyx's voice in a muffled grunt before he was kicked to the side by Gabriel, hard. After Danny was sent to the ground, he lifted his head and made a split second decision. He grabbed his knife and whipped it behind him, right at Gabriel. The knife stabbed into Gabriel's right leg and he cursed loudly in Spanish. Danny took his chance and took off towards the gun that Damien had thrown away.
Danny quickly slid across the ground and scooped up the gun before another vision crashed into him. He saw a shadow tendril stabbing into his heart from above. Danny knew he couldn't effectively dodge this strike from the position he was in. So instead, he lifted the gun and fired upward, destabilizing the tendril for the moment he needed to get out of the way. Danny then scrambled to his feet and fired the gun two more times, this time he was aiming for the tendrils that were holding Oliver's arms back. He then lifted his gun and pointed it to his side, severing the final tendril that had Oliver by the throat. Oliver dropped to the ground, landing on his feet as he coughed a few times and rubbed his throat.
"That's more like it." Oliver said in a confident tone as he started rubbing his wrists. It was at this point that Gabriel had gotten to his feet and removed the knife with a loud grunt of pain.
"You brats..." Gabriel said angrily before he locked eyes with Danny, his eyes turned red and widened as Gabriel took control of him. "Enough of these games, Daniel...shoot yourself in the head." Gabriel growled in anger. Danny's hands trembled violently as he slowly lifted the gun to his temple. Oliver looked at Danny and his eyes widened in shock.
"DANNY, STOP!" Oliver yelled as he lunged forward and grabbed the gun. He started trying to wrestle it from Danny's grasp. A loud gunshot sounded alongside Danny's yell of pain before he stumbled backwards and fell down onto his butt. He was clutching his shoulder which was already starting to bleed. Oliver looked at him in shock as he realized he had accidentally just shot Danny.
After a second that felt like an eternity, a second gunshot sounded. Oliver looked over while Danny was still distracted by his agony. Oliver saw Nate, completely free from control when Gabriel switched his target to Danny. He had his gun raised with smoke flowing gently from the barrel, Oliver followed where the gun was pointing and saw Gabriel already on the ground.
Nate had just killed his own father.
Another sudden noise jolted Oliver, his head whipped to the source and saw Rhys and Nerissa run into the room. Nerissa looked around before her eyes widened in horror when she saw...
"Danny?!" She yelled in concern when she saw Danny's bloody hand clutching a gunshot wound on his shoulder. She ran over to him as her mind flashed back to her holding up her brother, Dante, as he was bleeding to death from his own gunshot wound. Part of her knew that Danny's wound wasn't particularly life threatening in the short term, but if he didn't get attention soon, he could bleed to death. "Danny, what happened?!"
Danny looked at his sister with a pained look, "Believe it or not, this wound actually saved my life." Danny said quietly before he groaned in pain again.
Rhys saw the state of Danny and he felt slight anger invade his system. He managed to shove it down again before anything terrible happened. The group's attention was gripped when Damien chuckled darkly. Oliver quickly lifted his hand and pointed the gun at Damien as Nate changed his aim to Damien as well. Nate's brow furrowed as his hands trembled from what he had just done. Damien stopped, quickly considering his options before he had settled on the best course of action he could come up with. Damien was many things, powerful, frightening, maybe even a little insane. But he was still young, and he had already died once, he didn't want to die again.
"It seems I have miscalculated." Damien said quietly as he stepped away from Nyx, who was still in shock from the past two gunshots. She was watching Danny, he was still sitting down, holding his bleeding wound with a trembling hand. "I can't let you kill me though, sorry about that." Damien said in a rather empty voice before something strange happened. The shadows surrounding Damien's feet started to darken and open up before Damien fell into the ground. It was like a strange hole had opened up under his feet and he fell into it, he was just...gone. Nate and Oliver sighed deeply before they lowered their guns, Oliver immediately looked over at Danny with a subtle look of deep remorse on his face.
"Danny, man, I'm really sorry. Are you okay?" Oliver asked him.
"Wait, you did this to him?" Nerissa said with slight anger.
"Nerissa, he saved me. Gabriel was trying to make me kill myself." Danny said flatly, to which, Nerissa choked up slightly and moved to hug him gently, careful to avoid his wound.
"Oh my god, I'm so happy you're okay...we have to do something about that wound...but I...I still can't use my Gift from that stupid drug..." Nerissa's eyes started to mist. Oliver glanced over to Nate and his eyes softened as he saw that Nate was staring off into space. He hadn't even gone over to free Nyx. Oliver sighed before he walked over to Nyx and ripped the tape off of Nyx's mouth. She yelped slightly in pain as Oliver kneeled down in front of her.
"Are you alright?" Oliver asked softly, but his tone was flat and serious.
"Just untie me, Oliver. Please." Nyx responded in a flat tone. Oliver stood up and walked behind her, he knew that now wasn't the time for a witty rebuttal. He bent down again and untied Nyx, she stood up and rubbed her wrists to ease the aching. She lifted her head and looked at Nate, who seemed like he wasn't even aware of his surroundings. When Nyx finally reached him, she essentially walked into him in a tight embrace. Nate's facial expression didn't change and his eyes didn't leave his father's corpse. Gabriel may have been a manipulative monster who would do awful things for a paycheck, but he was still Nate's dad.
Nyx released him from the embrace and gently placed her hand on his cheek, "Darling, can you hear me?" Nyx gently moved his head to look at her, Nyx watched as Nate's pupils slowly focused onto her face. His eyes widened for a moment before he leaned forward and hugged her tightly.
"Nyx, oh god, are you okay?" Nate whispered quietly next to her ear as he hugged her, the relief evident in his voice.
"Yes, I'm okay. But I'm more worried about Danny right now." Nyx said as she looked in his direction. Nate followed her gaze and it finally clicked that Danny had been shot.
"Oh fuck, Danny!" Nate said before he moved towards them.
"I'm fine, Nate. I just...kinda lost a lot of blood. Rhys used part of his shirt as a makeshift bandage for me." Danny said as he shifted to sit up more. Nate noticed the shred of Rhys' shirt that was wrapped around Danny's arm and shoulder. It was already starting to bleed through slightly, it was a sloppy fix, but it bought them some time until Nerissa's ability came back. "Rhys, where's Orion?" Danny asked with concern in his voice.
Rhys looked at Danny for a moment, like he was thinking hard about what he was going to say. "We had to leave him against the lieutenant that was guarding Neri."
"What!?" Danny asked with concern as he leaned forward, he winced when the movement bothered his wound.
"Danny, he didn't give us a choice, he told us to run and that he would be fine." Nerissa said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. Danny didn't get an opportunity to respond to her because the door to the room had opened again. Everyone looked with surprise and worry, thinking they had another fight on their hands.
But it was Orion, he looked slightly bruised and his nose looked like it was bleeding, but the blood had dried.
"Orion? Are you okay? What happened?" Danny asked with concern.
"Nineteen..." Orion said quietly with an empty voice. The group sat in silence for a moment, knowing exactly what he was saying. Orion stepped forward and wiped the dried blood from under his nose. "We're going to go get Soul...right?" Orion asked quietly.
"Of course we are." Danny said as he slowly stood up.
"What?" Rhys protested. "Danny, you've been SHOT...and Nyx and Neri still don't have their abilities back. What if her old man is up there?" Rhys scolded his friend.
"I don't care, Rhys. None of us would be alive without her!" Danny raised his voice. "She saved my life in the arena after the Erebus Mafia attacked the compound. She made sure that YOUR ASS got out when Nyx was mind controlled if I remember correctly. And let's not forget, the only reason she went back to this hellhole was FOR US. I don't care how dangerous it is, we have to try." Danny looked determined, almost angry at Rhys for even suggesting that we leave her behind.
"I want to try." Nyx spoke, her eyes still slightly droopy from exhaustion.
"Hermosa, you don't have your ability yet, it will be far more dangerous for you. I don't want you getting hurt..." Nate said to her quietly as he turned his body to her. Nyx turned her body towards him and took his hands in hers.
"Darling, I understand your concern, I really do, but Soul deserves people risking their lives for her. She deserves to be in the light, not to be forced into the darkness, that's not where she belongs." Nyx finished her explanation as she looked at Rhys. He sighed as he closed his amber eyes.
"Alright, you're right. We have to try." Rhys admitted with an irritated voice.
"I still have two dragons left, it shouldn't be too difficult. Do you guys remember when they last injected you with the drug?" Orion asked as he looked in-between Nerissa and Nyx.
Nerissa shook her head, time had become a strange thing to comprehend for her. Nyx thought for a moment. "What time is it?" She asked.
"8:17 pm." Oliver said as he checked his phone. Nyx thought longer.
"Shit...I still have a long time." Nyx said quietly.
"Here." Nate said as he handed her his handgun. He wanted her to at least have some protection, because he knew her well enough to know that she would not stay behind.
"Nerissa, do you think you'd be able to take a life?" Danny asked her as he handed her his handgun.
"Kuroi and potentially Damien? Absolutely." Nerissa said determined as she took the gun. The group started walking to leave the room at that point, ready to go upstairs and confront the worst evil to plague this city.
It was time to slay the King.