The villain laughed. She had him just were she wanted. He could not move. When she blasted the foul hero, he would see her love. He did not love her now, but he would when the one he seemed to care so much for was gone. She would see to it that it happened this way.
"I'll make you pay," he hissed as he cut his young partner's bonds, and then stepped away. Her frightening, silvery eyes followed him as he moved. Her anger and hate at not being loved took hold, and she smiled evilly. With a snap of her fingers, the creature in her dark pentacle unleashed a dark, vicious beam of energy, and he leapt easily out of the way.
"Then you will witness both your ends." She snapped her fingers again, and he was forced further from his injured partner, who was too weak to get off his knees. Nathaniel's strange cohort, a birdlike creature of small size, handed the one who was hardly more then a boy a single strip of paper with a series of words on it, and one of the beast's two heads turned towards them, sensing something amiss. The beast unleashed beams from both heads, one at each person. The young man flinched, but the energy splashed harmlessly onto a dome-shaped shield, and rocks crashed from the ceiling to bounce off it. The beast rotated its other head around, managing to crack Nat into a wall with its thick, long neck. It unleashed twin beams on the shield, causing it to crack.
"One more strike, and your precious partner will cease to be." She still wanted him, and was surprised at his next move when she snapped her fingers. The young man closed his eyes.
"Haydn! No!" He raced toward the partner he had just begun to like, hoping to stop this destruction one way or another. The creature released a single beam from one head, and when the beam hit, dust flew, and then there was silence.
Time seemed to stand still while the dust covered everything. The beast threw itself against the barrier of the pentacle, and the villain stopped it with a word. She walked through the dust, surveying the damage she had caused.
The kid opened his eyes and cried out. With his arms encircling him, Nathaniel too, was unable to move. A ragged, gaping hole went over halfway through him. He heaved, puking up blood. The kid looked at the villain, anger misting his vision.
"Even an immortal cannot survive that much blood loss. Let him fall, then stand and meet your fate." The villain had made her final decision. If she could not have the man she loved, no one could.
"Haydn, can you hear me?" The boy heard the whispering voice, and then realized Nat was speaking into his mind.
'I can.'
'I need you to give up your energy. Neither of us will survive long in our current states.'
'Will it hurt?'
'No. there will be no pain.' Nat felt suddenly stronger, and he transferred his remaining power to his kid partner, whispering into his partner's mind what he needed to say. So Haydn spoke, and found his strength kept growing, and a light surrounded them.
The villain saw the light, and realized it was not over. She felt a power that was growing steadily stronger, and the dust was blasted away. She stared.
"How is it possible? How have you merged, where did this power come from?" Haydn and Nat both were standing-more like leaning-on each other, and he seemed to be guiding the kid's movement from behind him. The kid made a motion with his hand, but the villain did not recognize it.
"That... is why... we cannot... be... together. This power... comes from... within... from others... Not... Yourself." Nat whispered through Haydn, shaking from exertion talking caused him. He gave a ragged gasp, then gritted his teeth. With a loud shriek, Nat's bird friend became a monstrous phoenix, flinging flame at the beast in the pentacle. The beast screamed as fire splashed all around it, and fled into its own world. The villain fled the building as well, which began crashing down around them.
The two sank back to the floor, and Nathaniel fell to the ground, unmoving and bleeding. Haydn groaned, lifting up his hand to cover his eyes as the phoenix set the building ablaze, then encircled them in its furnace-hot wings. The great bird lowered its head until it was near Nathaniel, and gave a wailing cry.
