Cory looked at herself in the mirror.  She began to think of all that her brother had done for her.  He accepted her back into the family, even with all the carnage she had unwillingly caused.  Garret had also reunited her with Brad, her lost love.  He even married the two.  In the middle of these thoughts, Cory heard a sound coming from Angelise’s room.  She had a feeling go down her body, as if something was about to happen.  She got up and walked to the room.

Angelina went to put her daughter in her crib.  When she reached the room, Alma was there.  “I have to go home now...” she spoke softly.  “I just hope everyone buys the story you concocted...”  “...you mean the one of you being a ghost?” Angelina smiled.  “I’m sure they will.  There’s an Alma Hargrove in the Deadwood cemetery.  In fact, you can see her grave from Garrett’s.”  Alma smiled.  “Thanks.  No one would have believed the truth...”  Angelina looked at Angelise.  “...say hello to King Garret and Queen Angelina for me...”  she spoke.  “I will, Lady Angelina...” Alma replied, bowing.  Angelina smiled.  “I’m gonna miss you...” she whispered.  “You were a good friend...”

“Just great, Raye...” a demon cursed.  “...wake the whole damn castle up just because you wanted to eat some tonberry’s soul...”  Raye turned around and snarled.  “I was hungry, Amy!” she complained.  “I’m still a growing young succubus...”  “So am I, but you don’t see me going through men like they were potato chips...” Amy mumbled in retort.  “Whatever...  lets just kidnap this kid for our uncle...”  Raye was not in the best of moods.  “More like Lita...” Amy piped in.  “She’s been making uncle’s plans since we got here.  Our uncle is so obsessed on killing Gatoris once and for all...”  Both of the demons began to hear Angelise crying.  Amy walked to the crib and tried to pick her up.  For her effort, some external force blew her against the back wall.  Raye forced herself to suppress a laugh, then she attempted to grab Angelise.  She was met with a more violent force.  This one slammed her first against the ceiling, then the floor, with her coming to rest suddenly against Amy on the back wall.

A voice came from Angelise’s doorway.  “I didn’t realize that Pikachu’s nieces were so... what is the word I’m thinking of... inept.” it spoke.  “Good timing,” Raye spoke up.  “Could ya help us out, Cory?”  She gave them a look of pure hatred.  “You insane?” she yelled.  “First, I’m not kidnapping my niece.  Second, I’m not under your dear uncle’s control anymore.  Finally, you’re a couple of dumb succubi anyway.”  She smirked and walked over to Angelise.  As Cory bent down to pick her up, Gatoris and Rini entered through the window.  Using this distraction, Amy threw something at Cory.  It connected with her arm, and she nearly dropped Angelise.  “Stupid succubi, huh?” Amy bellowed.  “That mind control serum ought to kick in rather fast...”  Cory then went limp.  As she fell over, Gatoris caught her and Rini caught Angelise.  When Cory didn’t spring back to her feet immediately, Amy began to sweat and check to see what she had thrown.  “Whoops...” she began, “that...was the... sedative...”  Gatoris placed his sister on the ground and grabbed Amy by the throat.  “I guess Nova never found you two...” he muttered.  At Gatoris’ mentioning of that name, the demon Senshi’s eyes grew large.  “...so I’ll do her a favor.”  As he began to choke Amy, Raye got his attention.  “I suggest you let Amy go if you want to see these two alive again...”  She held Rini’s neck with an iron grasp, making her wince.  She slowly began to pass out from the pain.  “Don’t... worry... about me, Gatoris... save... Angelise...” she muttered before falling to her knees.

At the instant Rini’s knees hit the floor, Angelise let out a deafening cry.  The force knocked both Rini and Raye into the portal from which the demons had entered.  With Gatoris distracted, Amy injected him with a sedative.  Instead of falling backwards as she had hoped, Gatoris fell forward, nearly crushing her.  After rolling him off, Amy surveyed what was left.  She decided to take Cory and Gatoris back with her, seeing how Angelise was being uncooperative.

Cathy Mackenzie lay on her bed, looking at her pendant on the table. Though she smiled, there were tears welling up in her eyes.  She sat there a few minutes, alone with her thoughts.  Without making them, they brought up her memories of her brother.  She remembered how he was distant after Kathleen’s death.  He acted as if he didn’t care anymore.  But until now, she never understood why.  “I get it now...” she whispered to herself, half-sobbing, “...I know why you acted like you didn’t care about anyone, Garrett...  You were afraid that if you admitted that you cared for someone, you would lose them...  That’s why you acted as if losing Kathleen was nothing....  It’s why you didn’t want to admit to Angelina that you loved her...  But I saw the internal pain it caused you.  After Kathleen died, you were afraid to love again.”  She sighed and paused for a moment.  After drying her tears, she kissed the pendant as she had every night since she had it.  “Good night, Kathleen,” she whispered.  “Take care of your uncle and dad for me...”

Gatoris stared at the blackness that now surrounded him.  It was dark, yet all was visible.  From out of nowhere, there was a voice.  “It’s okay, Unkie Garrett…” the voice whispered.  Gatoris was startled by being called that.  Then a figure appeared to accompany the voice.  It was a little girl, who appeared to be about six.  A thought suddenly ran through Gatoris’ head and he cried.  The girl walked over to him and gave him a hug.  “It’s okay..” she spoke.  “Mommy asked me to take care of you.”  Through the tears, Gatoris managed to whimper “What... good is that? I’m...”  “...you’re still alive, Unkie Garrett...” the girl finished his sentence.  “You were knocked out.  I think I found a nice guy to help you out.”  As Gatoris hugged the girl, he noticed the way her back felt.  He felt she had wings, but not of the normal angel variety...  The little girl smiled and gave Gatoris a kiss on his cheek.  “Everything’s gonna work out, Unkie Garrett...” she whispered as the darkness began to fade...

Gatoris awoke groggily in a dungeon cell.  Immediately, he looked about for Cory and Rini.  “Forget about them...” a voice whispered from the bars.  “I want to talk about us...”  Gatoris turned around and saw none other than Lita... in a wedding dress... and there was a huge bulge about her stomach...  “I still love you, Garret...” she began.  “Even though you haven’t been there for me and our children, I want you to be with us...”  Gatoris turned away suddenly.  Their... children? he began to think.  How long has she been starving herself?  There is no way they had children!  Lita then patted her stomach.  “She will be our thirty-ninth.  Come home with us, Garret...”  As soon as she said that, Gatoris noticed something under her feet.  “I’d get to the hospital if I were you...” he snickered.  “Your sand just broke.”  Lita began to pout.  “Dammit!” she yelled.  “Lillith told me that this was sure-fire...”

“What the bloody hell does me mum know, anyways?” a voice spoke from behind Lita.  “She was stupid enough to try and feast on the master’s soul.  We all know that he doesn’t have one...”  The man speaking was just slightly taller than Lita, with sandy brown hair.  There was a patch over his left eye, and the pupil of his right was a bloody red.  “The hell do you want, Heretus?” Lita boomed.  “One, your uncle wants ye to return that sandbag to the mines when you’re done with it...” he chuckled.  “Two, I am here to escort the condemned to our master.”  Lita sighed.  “I wanted to have some more fun...” she began to whimper.  “That’s why Cory is still around,” the one called Heretus replied.  “Our master is almost done repairing her mind...”  Lita smirked evilly.  “My older sister is back...” she cackled as she skipped off.  As soon as she got out of hearing distance, Heretus laughed.  “What a bleeding idiot!” he scoffed.  “Cory’s still in her cell.  I’ll take you to her and Tyranna...” he spoke to Gatoris.  The last name caused some confusion.  “Who the hell is Tyranna, and why do I want to see her?  And why are you even talking to me?”  Gatoris blurted out.  “You’re one of Pikachu’s damn generals!  If I had my sword right now...”  “Calm down, lad!” Heretus yelled in his gruff Scottish accent.  “A wee lass came to me in a dream... she told me that I was to help ye get out of here...”  Gatoris stared into Heretus’ good eye.... he could sense a kindred soul within... one fighting within itself...  “Who is this Tyranna, and what happened to Rini?”  Gatoris said, finally calming down.  “They are one and the same now...” Heretus sighed.  “Tyranna is Pikachu’s daughter, more commonly called Wicked Lady...”  Gatoris’ jaw dropped to the floor.  “Her aunt has entrusted her into my care.  I guess I can be considered a double-agent...”  Gatoris sighed.  “I’m going to get all of us out of here, Heretus...”  “Please, do me a favor, Gatoris...”  Heretus grunted.  “Call me Michael.  Pikachu is the one who gave me the cursed moniker of Heretus.”

Cathy Mackenzie looked at the pictures in front of her.  She was finding it hard to focus today, since she had been up most of the prior evening helping take care of Angelise.  Angelina had a test that she had to wake up early for, so Cathy offered to stay up to watch over her niece.  But now it was noon, and she felt like she could sleep for days.  But first, she had to grade these pictures the elementary students had drawn.  The assignment she had given them was to draw pictures of their family.  The first-graders seemed eager to do this homework, and they put in as much detail as the could.  The one in front of her had caught her attention.  It was from a little girl in the class who had drawn her parents and herself.  The way it was drawn was that the mother was holding the daughter, and the father had ...wings.  Perhaps this child’s father died and she perceived him as an angel?  She also noticed that the name on the paper was Cathleen.  Cathy looked into her gradebook and looked for that first name.  She did not find a first-grader by that name, or in any grade, for that matter.  This made Cathy think.  Could this be some kind of sign?

“...that girl has potential...” a male voice came from behind Cathy.  This startled her, for she hadn’t heard anyone enter her classroom.  The voice also sounded quite familiar to her.  “Yes she does,” Cathy replied, “only, I can’t find her in any of my classes...”  She began to tremble as she remembered the last voice that sounded like this man’s.  She began to remember her fiancée, Noah Martin.  He was Kathleen’s father, but he had died in a plane crash on his way to see her... on the day that she died.  “I’m sure my daughter would have done just as great had she made it this far...” the man continued.  The voice was beginning to drive Cathy insane.  It sounded so much like Noah’s, but it couldn’t be him... could it?  “...I’m sorry to hear that, sir.”  Cathy remarked.  “What was her name?”  The man replied simply and solemnly “Kathleen.”  Cathy finally turned around to see who she was talking to, and she fainted.

When Cathy came to, she was in her mother’s house, in the living room, on the couch.  How did I get here, she wondered to herself.  The last thing I remember is turning around to whoever was talking to me...  Cathy then remembered what she saw when she had turned around.  Although it had been six long years, she could remember his hazel eyes, his raven black hair, and his smile.  The smile stuck out the most with him.  Just seeing him smile seemed to make everything around him happier.  Cathy then sighed.  She thought that all had disappeared six years ago.  She glanced up to the calendar: six years to the day, to be exact.  It was October 13, the day that Kathleen had died, and the day she thought Noah had died.  If Noah had died, then who was that man she saw?  “It’s nice to see you woke up,” someone said.  It was the same voice as before.  “N... Noah?” Cathy said weakly.  “I...I thought... you were...”  “No, I didn’t die.” he replied.  “But I feel awful for letting you believe that for so long...”  he sat down next to Cathy.  She immediately sat up and hugged him.  Cathy then realized she wasn’t wearing her pendant...  “I put your pendant on the table while you were out.” the man explained.  Noah figured because such a long time had passed and Cathy thought he had died that she had moved on.  “When is your boyfriend... or whatever... getting home?” he asked.  Through the tears that she was trying to hide, she weakly squeaked “When did you get here?”  Noah was in shock: she had waited, even though she thought he was dead?  “You... you mean you waited for me?” he managed to utter through the tears that were about to erupt from him.  She pried her head from his shoulder and nodded her head.  Noah smiled.  “I’ve been trying to find you for six years...” he spoke.  “I kept calling you and calling you...”  Cathy placed her head back on Noah’s shoulder.  She had the habit of keeping the ringer on the phone turned off, unless she was expecting a call.  “I thought you had tried to...” Noah began.  “...I did.”  Cathy sobbed.  “Garrett went on a rampage when he found out Kathleen had died,” she began to explain.  “He had punched out a pane of one of the chapel’s stained-glass windows, and I grabbed a shard of the glass.  I took it to my wrist, and I was just about to...” she finally choked up on her tears.  After a minute of her sobbing and Noah comforting her, Cathy continued.  “Garrett jerked my arms apart.  All I managed to do was scratch myself lightly.  My brother saved my life...”  Cathy began to cry harder.  “Shall we go visit him?” Noah said after a moment.  Cathy just nodded.  The two walked to the Deadwood Cemetery.

Heretus and Gatoris made it to Cory’s cell in a short time.  As Heretus fumbled for the key, Gatoris punched at the lock.  With all his rage and strength, he managed to break the door open with that punch.  Cory jumped back, a little frightened by what her brother had just managed to do.  “Now let’s find Rini and get the hell home...” Gatoris mumbled.  “I wish it were that easy, lad...” Heretus sighed.  “The hell you mean, Michael?” Gatoris yelled.  “Tyranna is within her again...” he moaned.  “She has to learn that no matter how much she wants her soul to be free, she cannot free it by killing herself.  Whenever she succeeds, her father regains control of her...”  Heretus growled and punched the wall.  A sizable dent was left in the wall, and he was left with a bloody hand.  “I keep telling the lass that, but she will not listen...”

Pikachu looked at the young woman laying in his bed as she awoke.  He grinned, realizing that his plan was working perfectly.  The girl stirred and looked around.  “Wh...why am I in your chambers, father?” she asked with a light Irish brogue.  When she saw her reflection in a mirror, she added “...and why am I in little Usagi’s body again?”  Pikachu smiled more.  “She had an accident, and she wasn’t using her body anymore, so I gave it to you, Tyranna,” he replied.  If she had not been under her father’s powers, Tyranna would have sensed Rini’s spirit within her.  “That, and I have decided to give you the birthday present you always wanted:  Your freedom.”  Tyranna smiled and cried, surprised by what she had just heard.  Her father was going to set her soul free...

Noah and Cathy stood before Garrett’s grave.  Cathy had since stopped crying.  As she watched, Noah kneeled before her brother’s grave and placed a flower upon it.  “...and I had always thought you didn’t like me, Garrett,” he spoke softly.  “But I get it now.  You were being protective of Cathy.  Though you were the younger brother, you cared for Cathy as if you were twins...”  Cathy’s tears began to return as Noah spoke.  She remembered the words that accompanied Garrett stopping her: Noah wouldn’t want you to give up your life just because he and Kathleen are gone.  He would want you to go on.  Cathy’s eye then caught a grave marker with a familiar name on it.  While Noah was paying her respects to Garrett, she walked to it.  The name on the stone read Alma Hargrove.  She recognized that name as Garrett and Angelina’s friend.  She also notice the date of death: 1884.  She shook her head, thinking it was only coincidence...