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Description
June 16, 2016; Tartarus

The group went tumbling and screaming into the abyssal dimension. Ava quickly activated her thrusters as she fell through the void. She ejected her wings, and stabilized herself. She quickly looked around for her friends, and was relieved to see they had all landed safely, albeit painfully, onto floating platforms.

Ben called up to her. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she called back. “Where the hell is Lucy?”

Her question was quickly answered. Another crackling rip opened up in the void, and from it Lucifer came barreling into Tartarus, armored up and fully battle ready. He let out a battle cry as he tackled Ava in the air, sending her smashing through a platform.

Ava was disoriented, but she quickly shook it off and activated her thrusters, pushing back against him. She used her palm blasters to force him backwards, giving her time to reach behind her back and pull out the Scythe of Michael. She quickly ejected it out to full length, and lunged forward.

Lucy grinned and drew his sword in response, swinging it upwards to block her furious blow.

“Hot damn!” he exclaimed as she struck again, and again. “Been ages since I've seen that thing!”

Each of them struck back and forth as fast as they could, darting across the void with no general direction.

“I know, I was there when Eve stabbed you through the heart!” Ava said, punctuating her sentence with another swing.

“You saw that one, did you?”

“And I loved every minute of it.”

“Then you're gonna love this!”

Lucifer activated his own palm blasters, and with them he sent her flying into another platform, the impact sending shards of reality everywhere. Lucifer then charged down, sword in hand, and landed on top of her. He aimed the blade at her neck and used his thrusters to push against her hands as she tried to push him away.

“Guys!” she called. “I could use a little help here!”

“On my way Champ!” Ruby said. She started hopping across the floating platforms up towards Ava, as did the rest of the crew. Everyone started pulling out their weapon of choice. Carter and Jess drew their batons while Chelsea donned her electric brass knuckles and cracked her joints. Ben and Ruby went for their guns and kept their hidden blades on standby. And Jacob extended his staff to full length, before falling against it, brow furrowed.

Ruby was the first to make it to Ava's side. Her first instinct was to rush up and knee Lucifer right in the face, disorienting him just long enough for Ava to blast him off of her and take flight.

“Thanks,” she said, to which Ruby responded by blowing a kiss. Ava smiled, and then she charged forward, slamming into Lucifer and slamming him into a platform, shattering it entirely.

“Not so fun on the other end, is it?” Ava asked.

“Barely a scratch!” Lucifer laughed, wiping the blood from his nose. He charged forward and swung his sword at her again. She dodged and unleashed her Scythe in response, taking a swing at his neck as he ducked and tried to get her in the side. She quickly grabbed his sword and thrust it downwards, and then used her momentum to swing up and kick him in the face. He winced in pain and used his hand blasters to send her flying. Ava barely missed crashing into the platform that Jess was standing on, and Lucy charged after her. Jess saw her chance, and quickly jumped onto his back when he flew by. He snarled and tried to tumble her off, but she already had her baton out and the sparks crackling.

“Well ain't this a shocking turn of events?” she quipped before driving the end of her baton onto the back of his neck. He shouted and spasmed and quickly did a hard barrel roll to thrust her off of him. Carter managed to catch her just in time and the two started hopping across more platforms to catch up with the angels.

“Watch your back!” Gabriel was frantically saying. “Check your side! Watch the swing!”

“Gabriel!” Ava shouted as she clashed blades with Lucifer. “I swear to God if you keep backseat driving I will delete your consciousness from this thing!”

“Well you don't have to be rude.”

Ava swung the Scythe as hard and fast as she could. Sparks leapt off of both their weapons as the battle raged on. Lucifer managed to land a few cuts in her arms. Then he reared his sword back, and thrust it upwards towards her face. She tried to duck back in time, but the blade still managed to catch her across the lip, giving her a nasty bleeding scar just below her nose. She touched her fingers to the blood and scowled at Lucifer before charging him again.

She sent him plowing through three platforms, then activated her blasters and sent him hurtling towards Ben and Chelsea. Ben stood ready and grabbed Lucy's arm as soon as he fell into range, then he used the dark angel's momentum to swing him around and toss him towards Chelsea, who cracked her knuckles and delivered one mean punch to the Devil's face.

Lucifer went spiraling back towards Ava, who started to swing her Scythe again. But Lucy proved surprisingly adaptable. He quickly activated his thrusters and flipped over her as she swung, and he used his blasters to send her crashing downwards into the void.

Ava smacked into a larger platform that Jacob was standing on, ripping a hole out of the center as she fell past him. Lucy quickly made to follow, his wings carrying him down that direction.

“Ava!” Jacob looked up towards Lucifer and started running. As Lucifer neared, he leaped towards him, slamming the end of the staff into his side, using his own momentum to knock Lucifer off course. Fortunately, it worked. As the Archangel smashed down, the rest of the platform began to crack, pieces breaking off. Jacob had managed to roll to his feet, when he planted the staff and let out a curse. The section under him broke apart, and he lost his balance, crying out as he slipped over the edge.

Ava heard her friend's distress call and she quickly regained control of her wings and thrusters. She jetted herself upwards, ignoring the little sparks that were leaping from sections of her armor, and she caught Jacob. She quickly flew him over to solid ground near Carter and Jess, and launched back into the fight.

“Oh… oh crap,” she heard Gabriel say as she started slashing at Lucifer again.

“Ngh! What?” she asked, not standing up to the blows as well as earlier.

“You're not gonna like it.”

“Having technical issues, Ava?” Lucifer mockingly laughed, swinging his sword again. Ava quickly ducked and swung back with the Scythe. She did notice the sparking cracks that were developing in her armor, and it was making her worried. Still, she fought on. She noticed a platform above Lucifer’s head, and she quickly used her hand blaster to blow it to pieces, sending many of them flying into Lucy's head.

“Agh!” he shouted. He promptly grabbed a smaller platform and swung it around, smashing it into her like a bar fight chair.

Ava went spinning, and accidentally smashed into Ben and Ruby. The three tumbled onto the platform floor with a painful thud.

“Watch where you're flying, Champ!” Ruby dizzily said.

“Sorry!” Ava apologized. She stood up and shook her head. “Gotta focus…” she said. She activated her thrusters again, and took to the skies, though her flight patterns were starting to get a little wobbly. Lucifer was right there to meet her again, and the clash of blades and blasters continued.

He grabbed her arm suddenly and spun her around a few times before hurling her upwards, smashing her into the platform above where Chelsea was standing. Chelsea was tossed across the void. She almost fell back down into the void, but Jacob and Carter caught her hand and hauled her up with them and Jess.

“Thanks twerps,” she told them.

“No problem! I will never let you live this down,” Jacob grinned, running over to Jess with his pistol at the ready. Carter gave Chelsea a quick salute before joining the two in pelting Lucifer.

Ava tousled with the Devil some more, the two of them spiraling uncontrollably in random directions across the void as they tried to punch and kick and slash at each other.

“I can tell you're weakening, kid!” Lucifer mocked.

“And I can tell you need a breath mint,” Ava spat back. He was right, though. The suit’s power was fading fast, and he seemed like he was still at full strength despite the chips and sparks in his own armor. Ava could see a few of the metal plates in her armor coming detached from how banged up they were. But she knew she had to keep going. She couldn't let him win. Not after all she had lost. Not after all that would be lost. She couldn't let it end like this.

She fired a few shots from her hand blasters in rapid succession, trying to beat him down to her level if possible. He dodged most of them though she managed to land a few, but it was hardly enough. He grinned at her, practically feeding on her growing weakness. He kicked his thrusters up and tackled her again, slamming her into the platform where Chelsea was rescued and splintering it into multiple chunks that her friends had to quickly jump on.

All four called out her name, noticing the damage building as well. Ava could hear alarm buzzers going off inside her suit. Gabriel tried to say something but his panicked tones only came out in garbled static.

“Oh this is good…” Ava whined. Something suddenly popped like a firework somewhere along her wings. She saw her left wing smoking heavily and she lost more and more control of where she was going. She started to panic. She spiraled around the platforms, accidentally knocking into some of her friends. Lucifer grinned at this, and as soon as she came barreling in his direction, he reared back his fist and sucker punched her hard across the jaw. Ava tasted blood and swore she was going to throw up from the dizziness. Lucifer grabbed her arm as she started to spin away, and he thrust her across the void, making her drop the Scythe and smack hard into Ben and Ruby again. The platform they were standing on shattered and drifted. Ben and Ruby received some nasty scars and bruises, and possibly a broken bone or two. Ava meanwhile went crashing wing-first into a chunk of platform, sending shards flying everywhere and ripping chunks of hardware clean off her suit. She yelled in pain and grunted on impact and then struggled to stand once she finally stopped moving. She felt warm blood rushing up and down her body, staining everything with patches of dark red. She felt something solid in her mouth and hoped it wasn't a tooth.

Sounds were muffled to her ears for a moment as she caught her bearings, but she wasn't very cheered to hear what her friends were screaming at her once they came into focus.

“Ava look out!” they were screaming.

Ava looked over her shoulder just in time to see Lucifer rising up behind her, smiling that toothy smile like the vile demon he was. Ava tried to lift her arm and activate her arm blaster, but when she did, her gauntlet suddenly flickered and crumbled off of her arm. She gasped and looked up at the dark angel. He held something in his hands, and she choked on her own breath when she realized it was the Scythe.

“You put up a good fight, Ava!” he mocked. He suddenly pulled the Scythe in front of him, and in one fluid movement, he thrust it down over his knee. And it snapped in half like a twig, it's lights dying out immediately in a pitiful series of sparks. “But my baby brother's toys aren't gonna be enough to protect you. Or your friends. Or the universe!”

“Get your ass down here and fight me one on one and then we'll see how tough you talk!” Ava spat.

“I’d love to, Ava, I really would.” He raised his arm up. His hand blaster started to charge up with a crackling ball of energy forming in his palm. “But I've got a world to destroy. And guess what? You have the grand honor of being the first one to go! Say hi to daddy for me, won't you?”

The energy ball grew and grew. Ava tried to get up, but she couldn't. Her mangled armor and bloody everything made it near impossible. All she could do was sit there, staring down the barrel of a gun, offering a silent tearful apology to both her parents, and waiting for it to come.

Lucifer grinned, his wrinkles and scars highlighted by the glow of his weapon’s energy. It made a deep whirring noise, the energy ball collapsed, and the beam shot out at break-neck speed.

“No!” Ava heard someone cry out. Her eyes widened, and in the most traumatic split second of her life, she looked up just in time to see Ben hurl himself onto the platform between her and Lucifer.

And she saw the beam plow straight into his back.

She barely even processed it. She simply felt the air get ripped out of her lungs and her heart rip into pieces. His eyes locked onto hers, just long enough for them to connect before his rolled back into his head, and his whole body started tumbling over the edge into the dark void below.

“Ben! No!” she cried. Then some primal strength unleashed itself into her body, and she pushed herself to her feet with the last of her adrenaline, hurling herself over the edge after the trail of smoke that his smoldering back was leaving behind.

Description
June 16, 2016; Tartarus

The group went tumbling and screaming into the abyssal dimension. Ava quickly activated her thrusters as she fell through the void. She ejected her wings, and stabilized herself. She quickly looked around for her friends, and was relieved to see they had all landed safely, albeit painfully, onto floating platforms.

Ben called up to her. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she called back. “Where the hell is Lucy?”

Her question was quickly answered. Another crackling rip opened up in the void, and from it Lucifer came barreling into Tartarus, armored up and fully battle ready. He let out a battle cry as he tackled Ava in the air, sending her smashing through a platform.

Ava was disoriented, but she quickly shook it off and activated her thrusters, pushing back against him. She used her palm blasters to force him backwards, giving her time to reach behind her back and pull out the Scythe of Michael. She quickly ejected it out to full length, and lunged forward.

Lucy grinned and drew his sword in response, swinging it upwards to block her furious blow.

“Hot damn!” he exclaimed as she struck again, and again. “Been ages since I've seen that thing!”

Each of them struck back and forth as fast as they could, darting across the void with no general direction.

“I know, I was there when Eve stabbed you through the heart!” Ava said, punctuating her sentence with another swing.

“You saw that one, did you?”

“And I loved every minute of it.”

“Then you're gonna love this!”

Lucifer activated his own palm blasters, and with them he sent her flying into another platform, the impact sending shards of reality everywhere. Lucifer then charged down, sword in hand, and landed on top of her. He aimed the blade at her neck and used his thrusters to push against her hands as she tried to push him away.

“Guys!” she called. “I could use a little help here!”

“On my way Champ!” Ruby said. She started hopping across the floating platforms up towards Ava, as did the rest of the crew. Everyone started pulling out their weapon of choice. Carter and Jess drew their batons while Chelsea donned her electric brass knuckles and cracked her joints. Ben and Ruby went for their guns and kept their hidden blades on standby. And Jacob extended his staff to full length, before falling against it, brow furrowed.

Ruby was the first to make it to Ava's side. Her first instinct was to rush up and knee Lucifer right in the face, disorienting him just long enough for Ava to blast him off of her and take flight.

“Thanks,” she said, to which Ruby responded by blowing a kiss. Ava smiled, and then she charged forward, slamming into Lucifer and slamming him into a platform, shattering it entirely.

“Not so fun on the other end, is it?” Ava asked.

“Barely a scratch!” Lucifer laughed, wiping the blood from his nose. He charged forward and swung his sword at her again. She dodged and unleashed her Scythe in response, taking a swing at his neck as he ducked and tried to get her in the side. She quickly grabbed his sword and thrust it downwards, and then used her momentum to swing up and kick him in the face. He winced in pain and used his hand blasters to send her flying. Ava barely missed crashing into the platform that Jess was standing on, and Lucy charged after her. Jess saw her chance, and quickly jumped onto his back when he flew by. He snarled and tried to tumble her off, but she already had her baton out and the sparks crackling.

“Well ain't this a shocking turn of events?” she quipped before driving the end of her baton onto the back of his neck. He shouted and spasmed and quickly did a hard barrel roll to thrust her off of him. Carter managed to catch her just in time and the two started hopping across more platforms to catch up with the angels.

“Watch your back!” Gabriel was frantically saying. “Check your side! Watch the swing!”

“Gabriel!” Ava shouted as she clashed blades with Lucifer. “I swear to God if you keep backseat driving I will delete your consciousness from this thing!”

“Well you don't have to be rude.”

Ava swung the Scythe as hard and fast as she could. Sparks leapt off of both their weapons as the battle raged on. Lucifer managed to land a few cuts in her arms. Then he reared his sword back, and thrust it upwards towards her face. She tried to duck back in time, but the blade still managed to catch her across the lip, giving her a nasty bleeding scar just below her nose. She touched her fingers to the blood and scowled at Lucifer before charging him again.

She sent him plowing through three platforms, then activated her blasters and sent him hurtling towards Ben and Chelsea. Ben stood ready and grabbed Lucy's arm as soon as he fell into range, then he used the dark angel's momentum to swing him around and toss him towards Chelsea, who cracked her knuckles and delivered one mean punch to the Devil's face.

Lucifer went spiraling back towards Ava, who started to swing her Scythe again. But Lucy proved surprisingly adaptable. He quickly activated his thrusters and flipped over her as she swung, and he used his blasters to send her crashing downwards into the void.

Ava smacked into a larger platform that Jacob was standing on, ripping a hole out of the center as she fell past him. Lucy quickly made to follow, his wings carrying him down that direction.

“Ava!” Jacob looked up towards Lucifer and started running. As Lucifer neared, he leaped towards him, slamming the end of the staff into his side, using his own momentum to knock Lucifer off course. Fortunately, it worked. As the Archangel smashed down, the rest of the platform began to crack, pieces breaking off. Jacob had managed to roll to his feet, when he planted the staff and let out a curse. The section under him broke apart, and he lost his balance, crying out as he slipped over the edge.

Ava heard her friend's distress call and she quickly regained control of her wings and thrusters. She jetted herself upwards, ignoring the little sparks that were leaping from sections of her armor, and she caught Jacob. She quickly flew him over to solid ground near Carter and Jess, and launched back into the fight.

“Oh… oh crap,” she heard Gabriel say as she started slashing at Lucifer again.

“Ngh! What?” she asked, not standing up to the blows as well as earlier.

“You're not gonna like it.”

“Having technical issues, Ava?” Lucifer mockingly laughed, swinging his sword again. Ava quickly ducked and swung back with the Scythe. She did notice the sparking cracks that were developing in her armor, and it was making her worried. Still, she fought on. She noticed a platform above Lucifer’s head, and she quickly used her hand blaster to blow it to pieces, sending many of them flying into Lucy's head.

“Agh!” he shouted. He promptly grabbed a smaller platform and swung it around, smashing it into her like a bar fight chair.

Ava went spinning, and accidentally smashed into Ben and Ruby. The three tumbled onto the platform floor with a painful thud.

“Watch where you're flying, Champ!” Ruby dizzily said.

“Sorry!” Ava apologized. She stood up and shook her head. “Gotta focus…” she said. She activated her thrusters again, and took to the skies, though her flight patterns were starting to get a little wobbly. Lucifer was right there to meet her again, and the clash of blades and blasters continued.

He grabbed her arm suddenly and spun her around a few times before hurling her upwards, smashing her into the platform above where Chelsea was standing. Chelsea was tossed across the void. She almost fell back down into the void, but Jacob and Carter caught her hand and hauled her up with them and Jess.

“Thanks twerps,” she told them.

“No problem! I will never let you live this down,” Jacob grinned, running over to Jess with his pistol at the ready. Carter gave Chelsea a quick salute before joining the two in pelting Lucifer.

Ava tousled with the Devil some more, the two of them spiraling uncontrollably in random directions across the void as they tried to punch and kick and slash at each other.

“I can tell you're weakening, kid!” Lucifer mocked.

“And I can tell you need a breath mint,” Ava spat back. He was right, though. The suit’s power was fading fast, and he seemed like he was still at full strength despite the chips and sparks in his own armor. Ava could see a few of the metal plates in her armor coming detached from how banged up they were. But she knew she had to keep going. She couldn't let him win. Not after all she had lost. Not after all that would be lost. She couldn't let it end like this.

She fired a few shots from her hand blasters in rapid succession, trying to beat him down to her level if possible. He dodged most of them though she managed to land a few, but it was hardly enough. He grinned at her, practically feeding on her growing weakness. He kicked his thrusters up and tackled her again, slamming her into the platform where Chelsea was rescued and splintering it into multiple chunks that her friends had to quickly jump on.

All four called out her name, noticing the damage building as well. Ava could hear alarm buzzers going off inside her suit. Gabriel tried to say something but his panicked tones only came out in garbled static.

“Oh this is good…” Ava whined. Something suddenly popped like a firework somewhere along her wings. She saw her left wing smoking heavily and she lost more and more control of where she was going. She started to panic. She spiraled around the platforms, accidentally knocking into some of her friends. Lucifer grinned at this, and as soon as she came barreling in his direction, he reared back his fist and sucker punched her hard across the jaw. Ava tasted blood and swore she was going to throw up from the dizziness. Lucifer grabbed her arm as she started to spin away, and he thrust her across the void, making her drop the Scythe and smack hard into Ben and Ruby again. The platform they were standing on shattered and drifted. Ben and Ruby received some nasty scars and bruises, and possibly a broken bone or two. Ava meanwhile went crashing wing-first into a chunk of platform, sending shards flying everywhere and ripping chunks of hardware clean off her suit. She yelled in pain and grunted on impact and then struggled to stand once she finally stopped moving. She felt warm blood rushing up and down her body, staining everything with patches of dark red. She felt something solid in her mouth and hoped it wasn't a tooth.

Sounds were muffled to her ears for a moment as she caught her bearings, but she wasn't very cheered to hear what her friends were screaming at her once they came into focus.

“Ava look out!” they were screaming.

Ava looked over her shoulder just in time to see Lucifer rising up behind her, smiling that toothy smile like the vile demon he was. Ava tried to lift her arm and activate her arm blaster, but when she did, her gauntlet suddenly flickered and crumbled off of her arm. She gasped and looked up at the dark angel. He held something in his hands, and she choked on her own breath when she realized it was the Scythe.

“You put up a good fight, Ava!” he mocked. He suddenly pulled the Scythe in front of him, and in one fluid movement, he thrust it down over his knee. And it snapped in half like a twig, it's lights dying out immediately in a pitiful series of sparks. “But my baby brother's toys aren't gonna be enough to protect you. Or your friends. Or the universe!”

“Get your ass down here and fight me one on one and then we'll see how tough you talk!” Ava spat.

“I’d love to, Ava, I really would.” He raised his arm up. His hand blaster started to charge up with a crackling ball of energy forming in his palm. “But I've got a world to destroy. And guess what? You have the grand honor of being the first one to go! Say hi to daddy for me, won't you?”

The energy ball grew and grew. Ava tried to get up, but she couldn't. Her mangled armor and bloody everything made it near impossible. All she could do was sit there, staring down the barrel of a gun, offering a silent tearful apology to both her parents, and waiting for it to come.

Lucifer grinned, his wrinkles and scars highlighted by the glow of his weapon’s energy. It made a deep whirring noise, the energy ball collapsed, and the beam shot out at break-neck speed.

“No!” Ava heard someone cry out. Her eyes widened, and in the most traumatic split second of her life, she looked up just in time to see Ben hurl himself onto the platform between her and Lucifer.

And she saw the beam plow straight into his back.

She barely even processed it. She simply felt the air get ripped out of her lungs and her heart rip into pieces. His eyes locked onto hers, just long enough for them to connect before his rolled back into his head, and his whole body started tumbling over the edge into the dark void below.

“Ben! No!” she cried. Then some primal strength unleashed itself into her body, and she pushed herself to her feet with the last of her adrenaline, hurling herself over the edge after the trail of smoke that his smoldering back was leaving behind.