First Storms 4

Blake helped the last of the civilians out of the rubble of a toy store before resting on the sidewalk. He sighed deeply, looking around at the Shield vans that had parked. Ross and Shawn were talking to a guy who seemed to be their superior.

"Thirsty?" Sarah asked, handing him a bottle of water. Blake took it and drank all of it.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Sarah said, "Guess this is a first for you, huh?"

"Of this scale? Yeah." Blake said, "The last time I saw a daemon attack, I was younger. It was just one though."

"I was in the Daemon incident."

Blake looked at her. "That bad, huh?"

"Not really. Shino and I were younger then, so we weren't in the center of the conflicts. We did see a lot of daemons, though."

"What about those who were in the center of the attack?"

"There were no survivors."

Blake looked away. He thought this was bad. But at least they were able to save civilians. "So if you saw all that, why did you stay?"

Sarah looked at him and smiled.

"I'm waiting for my sister."

"Was she the Rebecca you mentioned earlier?"

"Yeah. Her. She was good. Sometimes annoying and lazy, but she was a very good sister. She went on a mission a year back and she rarely sent back messages."

"Is that bad."

"No. She's like that." Sarah said, "But I do miss her."

"So if she comes back, would you leave?"

"Depends on her." She said.

Blake smiled. But then a sharp ringing went through his head. His eyes opened wide open and closed them.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh…its nothing." Blake said, looking away, biting his lip. "Nothing at all."

Barry looked round at the deserted street. The overturned cars, the torn down wires, Diego was going to have a headache with the press. He walked off, limping, and clutching his right arm. He looked down at the bodies of a family and sighed. Bending down, he closed their eyes. "Rest well." He said, before getting up. Though he had rushed quickly to the surface, he had already been too late. At least ten people had died.

"You can come out now," Barry said, to the individual in the dark. But there was no response. He smiled and turned away. The person was possibly scared.

"Don't worry, I'll just have to check around, okay?" Barry said, walking away. He reached a light pole and leaned on it. He was dead tired. He hadn't killed this many daemon since the daemon incident. He smiled. This wasn't one, though, but still… it reminded him of…

Barry spun around quickly, barely dodging the blow to his chest. The daemon had left a deep wound across his chest. He grunted and staggered backwards as blood spilled. "Dammit!" Barry cried out. The wound had reached his shoulder, making his spear feel heavy in his hands, He snapped his fingers and threes spheres formed behind him, firing at will at the daemon. But the daemon didn't even flinch, as the aura spears bounced off him.

"Show off," Barry grunted. He pointed his spear at it, slowly going back. The daemon tilted its head and grunted. It opened it arms, which for some reason resembled flesh, and immediately a red energy beam began to form

"A vestÖrer?" Barry cried out in shock. This daemon was no ordinary daemon. It was entering its white stage. He had to kill it off, even if it meant taken it with him. Barry rushed at it just as the daemon fired at him. Barry dodged, only to be rammed by its tail. Before he could even hit the wall, the daemon rushed towards him and with a crushing blow, rammed him into the ground. Barry coughed out blood, struggling to get up. His spear had been knocked out of his hand.

Barry felt the pain, he just couldn't register it till he was in the air. He couldn't even cry out. The daemon's tail ripped through him, rending some of his organs on the way out. Barry dropped to his knees, his hands over his bloody belly. He dropped to the ground face first, unable to move.

The daemon stood over him, looking down at him, as if considering whether to leave him to die or to devour him fully. It was then he got a full glimpse of it. It had two eyes with a third above its left eye. It had one horn on the right side of his face. Its body resembled that of a human, minus the tail that is. And the black scales all over its body. But there were patches of human flesh all over it. It's left hand, its leg, part of it face. But then he couldn't sense anything. Not a single thing.

Barry crawled away, with difficulty. He could feel his life slipping away, but he wasn't going to let go that easily. He had already left the Inquisitors once, and he wasn't going to do so, even if it was permanently. He managed to back himself against a wall, watching the daemon. The daemon shook violently for a moment, but soon approached him.

Out of nowhere a long slash appeared across the daemon's chest. The daemon quickly turned to see two other inquisitors rushing towards it. It grunted, before breaking into the sewers and running off.

Martha and Kyler stopped immediately in front of Barry.

"Barry!" Martha exclaimed, "Talk to me Barry,"

"Is it that bad?" Barry asked.

"We'll get you to a hospital. Don't worry."

"It's that bad, huh." Barry asked. Martha couldn't say a word. Kyler nodded, bending down. "Don't worry, we'll get you to a hospital.

But Barry already knew. And they knew it too. Even if an ambulance got to him, he'd die on the way. If he remained there, he'd die. This was the end of the road for him. Tears streamed down his face.

"So this is it, huh?" Barry cried out, "dammit."

"No, don't give up just yet, "Martha cried out, "You can still make it."

"It's over for me." Barry said. "It's my time."

"No! I'm not losing you too."

"Kyler, you…you'd be there for her, right?"

"Yeah, pal." Kyler said, grabbing Barry's arm, "That's a promise."

Barry managed to smile, looking at his closest friend. Was this really it? All the time he had spent with them? All the shared suffering, shared moments, all too just be another memory to them. There was so much he wanted to do, wanted to say, to correct. He reached into jacket and removed a necklace out of it with a crescent moon, given it to Martha.

"Give this to…"

Barry couldn't finish the line. He really wanted to, but then he couldn't. There was just not enough strength left. He only went limp as the darkness took hold of him. Leaving his two closest friends to mourn over his lifeless body.

Kyler closed his eyes, holding back his tears, as Martha cried in his arms. Barry O'Neil. His one and only best friend. Gone.