9 Lives

Chapter 29, The Final Battle

We were gathering up our gear to battle Dougleman. He'd gotten our note, and to our surprise, he sent one back saying we were to fight in front of his main headquarters. It said to meet up with him in three days at the crack of dawn. We started plotting our battle strategy before Dpugleman even accepted our offer. 

I grabbed my gun, two swords, a pocketknife, and a handful of smoke bombs. I wouldn't need the gun, we'd agreed to use swords, no other weapons allowed, but I didn't trust Dougleman one bit. Who knew what he would pull? The whole crew was wearing protective full-body armor under our usual cloaks. The armor was heavy but bulletproof. Wearing it, we were untouchable. Although we were charging straight into battle, I was surprisingly calm. I thought I would be a nervous wreck.

We all gathered outside Rafael's place, Rafael counting us off, and when we were all present, I led the group to Dougleman's main headquarters. My crew was my responsibility. I was put in charge since this was my battle. If anybody died, it would be on me. My fault, and yet I wasn't worried. All these lives were in my hands, but I wasn't worried. We marched over to where Dougleman was waiting for us, my ego inflated, confident that we would win.

Because if we didn't, it was all over.

Dougleman was playing a fair fight, cocking his head to the side, his arms crossed, waiting for my signal to attack. I strode forward, Aron and Jacob flanking my sides, and shook Dougleman's hand.

"Let's play fair," I hissed. "don't give me any of your twisted crap." 

"Alright," Dougleman drawled, his lips twisting into a malicious smile.

As planned, Luke was hidden, waiting for the signal to attack Dougleman from behind. Dougleman knew the whole crew, but he didn't know Luke was alive, so we couldn't have any others hiding away. 

Sometimes the good guys can't play fair. Nobody's unimpeachable. Life's a game where everybody ends up dead either way. But we wouldn't die early. We wouldn't give Dougleman that satisfaction. We would fight tooth and nail. It would be worth it when we damned Dougleman to hell.

It was my call. I took a deep breath and barked, "Attack!" Swords clashed, mine at Douugleman's throat, him pushing it at me. I kicked him in the groin, and Jacob attacked him from the side, tackling him to the ground and punching him repetitively in the face. I whipped around and sliced two of Dougleman's soldier's heads off in a quick, smooth movement. I couldn't afford to be slow; one wrong move and you're dead. The thing was, Dougleman's soldiers wouldn't kill me. They'd been ordered not to kill me. If they did, they would have the power. Therefore, I wasn't worried about them. 

I charged through the crowd and knocked down five more of Dougleman's men, swinging my sword aimlessly like a madman. I glanced around and, to my relief, noticed that no one from my crew was down. We had the upper hand in this battle.

Perfect.

Dougleman had managed to push Jacob off himself and was dueling Rafael and his snakes. Rafael was a hell of a fighter, moving gracefully, knowing when to jab his sword at Dougleman. He managed to scrape Dougleman's neck before Dougleman backed away. 

There was no time to think because a handful of Dougleman's soldiers ran towards me with their swords drawn. I stabbed one in the heart, then sliced his head off.

Eight more to go, I cut off two more heads, six more two go, I ripped off two microchips, crushing them in my hand. I whipped around, drew my second sword, and stabbed them clean through the heart.

Four more to go, two backing off, the other two tackling me to the ground.

"Master, we have her down!" One shouted.

I tried to break free from their grasp, clawing at the hand around my neck. Dougleman charged toward me, a maniacal grin on his face, ready to kill me.

I wasn't worried. 

It was time. Jacob whistled loudly, and Luke jumped off the roof and onto Dougleman, tackling him to the ground. Jacob ripped the two soldiers off me, his wings spread. I jumped off the floor and sliced their heads off, Jacob still holding them, their heads in his hands and their bodies crashing to the ground. I looked away. 

Dougleman didn't even know what hit him. It was the first time I'd ever seen him look confused. 

"You're supposed to be dead!" Dougleman spat. "You threw yourself off that roof!"

Luke just smiled, drawing his sword. He lunged at Dougleman, who jabbed his sword right back. They twisted and turned, one trying to cut the other. Aron snuck up on Dougleman from behind to assist Luke, kicking him to the ground, Dougleman landing face-first on the hard pavement. He tried to peel himself on the floor, but Aron shoved his boot in Dougleman's back with the strength to break it. Dougleman gritted his teeth but wouldn't scream. He was too prideful. Libby was passing by and kicked him in the mouth, cackling like a witch, and jumped onto one of Dougleman's soldiers, slicing the soldier's head off,  still laughing. 

Dougleman only had nine soldiers left. Victory was almost ours, and it was so undeniably simple to obtain. It was so sweet, and I was drawn to it the way an addict was to alcohol. We outnumbered Dougleman immensely, and you could see the repentance in his eyes - perpetrator's penitence before the others backed off and I lunged at him, my blade stabbed him clean through the heart. Those once hateful green eyes went cold, emotionless.

He probably realized that we'd destroyed his microchip before he died. 

Dougleman was done for, the rest of his soldiers crashing down to the floor, microchips failing, and time froze as we basked in our glory, tears of relief pouring down my cheeks. Some were injured, but otherwise, my whole crew was fine. Nobody had died. We cheered and howled, everyone gathering for one big group hug, not caring that we were bouncing on dead bodies. Jacob lifted Dougleman's corpse above his head like a treasure, his eyes glowing red, glorifying our victory. Jacob probably wanted to rip Dougleman's dead body to pieces for killing Seph, and so did I, but we held ourselves back. By defeating Dougleman, we rebuilt our lives out of scratch. We could start all over again. 

A day blessed by the winds I would never forget. No threat to humankind's existence remained. I silently swore to myself that I would never kill again. 

I could finally live out the rest of this life in peace.