Half of My Heart

He struck the ground once.

Neves was still in hiding when he heard the recognisable sound of thunder from Black Robe's guandao as it struck the ground and he knew that he would have to try and save Guard Six from the psychotic old dodger. They had merged yesterday and he had teleported to hide the fact that they were not who Ouyang thought he was. Six was safe up until the first cruel act he was asked to perform and he refused, which caused the old man to doubt him.

"Never in my long life have I ever punished anyone cruelly for that kind of crime, and I never will. I will not kill, it is not justified."

"Black Robe, your reputation gives everyone the impression that they will be punished for the slightest infringement of the law, and yet you don't want to punish this one for spying on me?"

The old man asked, as he walked around the room by himself. Six had taken the pain away from his arthritic joints, but not the condition which meant that it could easily be restored. The spy who had been caught was Gelan's guard and Six would have used any excuse not to harm him while hoping that Neves was close enough to hear what was going on. But all activity had ceased the moment Black Robe had announced his arrival and the old man knew that he had been tricked.

"I will not let you go, whoever you are. You will stay trapped in this body, for as long as I live and later, after I die . You are doomed to stay with me forever."

Ouyang threatened Six who replied by removing the pain blocker from his arthritis which hit him with a bang, and he fell in agony as his bones roughly grated against their own surfaces when he tried to walk. Neves was close by and had heard everything. There was no way that he was going to leave Guard Six trapped inside this monster, and he mentally spoke to Gelan's guard asking him about his gifts and what he was capable of doing. The young guard had telepathy of course but he could also heal, which Neves wasn't very pleased about, but it was a small price to pay in comparison to what he was hoping to achieve. He explained to the guard about transferring Guard Six to him but he would lose his gift of healing, which would be given to Ouyang Zhen.

The young guard never hesitated when he agreed. He would never have left a brother guard with that monster for eternity, and Neves began to concentrate on the exchange, while a battle went on outside.

In the mansion, Ava was stunned when she saw Wei descending the stairs in full black, and the guards immediately dropped to their knees. She approached to speak to the Spirit as she gazed into Wei's eyes behind the mask.

"Look after him Lord Black. Keep him safe," and she stepped back and nodded in respect before they all vanished.

Black Robe and the guards appeared quietly in the area around the laboratory, and took their places before he raised his guandao and struck the ground once. The rumble of thunder shook the earth and the sound echoed throughout the building while the windows exploded outwards, stopping everyone in whatever they were doing. Many ran trying to escape but were stopped by the weak security team who were paid to protect the project, even though they didn't understand what it was. The Guards began firing dark energy towards set points close to the exit doors, mainly to cause panic and force the workers to leave while they watched for Ouyang and Neves but saw neither as they directed the escapees to the containment areas, before they returned to hit the building with a second round of fire.

In the laboratory, Neves watched Guard Six fight to get out of the old man's body, as his semi-transparent image became visible over the face of the host who fought back to keep him in place during the swap. It usually worked faster than this but he was in a building saturated with alien dark energy, and fighting against a stubborn and dangerous psycho, he couldn't hurry. One of the security men saw what was happening and ran into the lab to help his boss by stopping Neves, but when he was close enough to attack, he suddenly dropped with the hunter's blade buried in his back and Track stepped out of hiding to collect his knife.