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(If you want to make the moment more epic, turn on "He Who Brings The Night" by Two Steps From Hell in another window and listen during the entire transformation scene and ending.)

When the doors swung open to greet Kyasha, Jaxus, and their battalion, little could have been done to assuage their suspicions. After receiving Grimlock's invitation to the unveiling of his so-called "ultimate power", Kyasha spent nearly the entire night planning an ambush counterattack and personally choosing the men to accompany her.

Needless to say, she didn't exactly trust her new ally very much.

And yet there she was, entering the old Behaku palace in the hopes of witnessing, gaining, or perhaps even stealing an incredibly powerful energy source! Her mind raced with the thoughts...

"Grimlock!" she cried. Her call echoed through the dark corridors.

"Lady Kyasha!" his voice came from nowhere but echoed as though he were yelling from down the hall. "Welcome to my parlor! I'm sure you know your way around the place, do join me in the throneroom won't you?"

Kyasha signaled for her men to maintain tight battle-readiness as they began treading forth into the abandoned fortress. The vixen led the way, nostalgia flooding her mind as she walked the halls that had for so long been her home.

Finally they reached a set of huge wooden doors that hadn't been there when Kyasha was in Behaku conscript. She ran her paws over the wood and pushed, but they were too heavy. With a flick of her wrist, she called for two large, burly-looking Behaku to step forward.

The two bulldogs grunted and heaved until the door began to give and finally swung open.

There in the center of the hall stood the crew that had proposed the meeting: Grimlock in the middle with his crow perched on his left shoulder, the two pale women to his right, and the pure white, faceless, smoky creature on his left.

"Again, welcome!" Grimlock said arms out. "We're so glad you could make it tonight!"

"Well, you made us an offer we couldn't refuse," Kyasha said with a small smile on her face.

"I remember," Grimlock chuckled.

"So, what is this power Grimlock?" Kyasha asked, stepping forward. "I feel we're entitled to some background..."

"Oh fret not, dear Empress!" Grimlock said, stepping out of the line and making a few slow-paced steps towards the vixen. "All will be revealed sooner or later. For now, I wish to cordially invite you to the formal display of my ultimate power; may I?"

Kyasha blushed subtly and held out her arm.

"It would be your honor," she said as his scaly arm wrapped around hers and began leading her to the now-opened portal in the wall. She looked slightly confused. "This wasn't here before...did you build all of this?"

"I can't say I did. There were, perhaps a few things that the great Lord Swade didn't tell you aren't there?" Grimlock asked with a devious smile.

"That's for sure," Kyasha rolled her eyes. "What is this place? Why did Swade keep it secret?"

"In time, in time, my dear," Grimlock laughed. "Ever the curious one, my little fox..."

Kyasha blushed again and coughed. Grimlock's charm and charisma were smothering! He was probably one of the only men to ever make her blush, a great accomplishment in the long run!

He led her into the main chamber. It was alive with life! The lights had been replaced, shining over all the walls, bathing the room in a whitish-blue light that made all the machinery seem less old. The machines themselves were untouched save for a few dustings and washings to remove the cobwebs. The inner mechanisms weren't tampered with, for obvious reasons.

There was a literal network of wires and cables running along the ground, connecting the machine to different computer terminals and generators. It looked like a heart and vascular system, with the cables giving life to the central organ which hummed constantly. Kyasha couldn't help but gawk.

"What...IS this?" she asked mouth agape. Grimlock smiled at her humorous reaction.

"THIS...THIS is the future of the world, my dear!" he said excitedly. "This is the key to a new age, a whole new reality! An entire world...all for us..."

"For us?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

"Well, for our factions...you know what I mean," he said, turning back to the machine and smiling brightly. He reached down and gripped her paw, squeezing it gently. "But yes...for us personally as well..."

"Our future..." she said and continued looking around. As her eyes scanned the room, she noticed a few small cages with large leather tarps over them sitting in corner of the room. She pointed to them. "What are those?"

"Oh those..." the lizard said with a malevolent chortle. "Those are just the...various batteries..."

"May I see them?" she asked hopefully.

"Certainly!" he said cheerily as he motioned for her to take the lead. She walked up to the cages and threw the tarps to the side.

There, cramped in the cages was an assortment of creatures. One was a large, steel-gray dragoness, her mouth muzzled and her limbs bound in shackles. Another was a green female cobra, tied to her own tail and gagged. The last two were in the same cage, though, and unbound. They were young lizards with Komodo Dragon-esque qualities and terrified looks on their faces.

"Where did you get these?" she asked.

"I feel the term...trophies...would explain their appearance here rather appropriately yes?" Grimlock said with a toothy smile.

"Ahh, what magnificent trophies they are! I presume you won them from Swade's little band?" she asked, smiling.

"You presume correctly!" Grimlock said with a slight bow. "Save for the last two...they came from Swade himself..."

"How do you mean?" Kyasha asked.

"They're his children..." Grimlock said his mouth half-cocked in an evil smile.

"You can't be serious...he's had children?" Kyasha's eyes widened.

"Would I lie to you?" Grimlock asked.

"I surely hope not..." Kyasha smiled devilishly, tracing one of her claws down his cheek. Her sharp nail made a paper-thin slice along the lizard's scaly cheek followed by a small drop of blood.

"Then hope no more," he said with a sharp flick of his tongue.

Kyasha giggled and stepped around him, making her way towards the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked disappointedly. She stopped at the door and looked back at him over her shoulder.

"Nowhere without you..." she said sexily and motioned for him to follow. Grimlock's eyes flashed and he raised an eyebrow. Then he shrugged and began walking towards the door after her.

"Well, there's a time and a place for everything!" he called to his captives over his shoulder.

There was a slight sense of nausea as Dameon, Kane, Darrow, Eve, and Holi appeared on the veranda of the Behaku palace. It had been some time since Dameon had teleported them anywhere and it would definitely take some readjustment to get used to again!

"My brain...feels like dead..." Kane moaned, shaking his head slowly.

"You get used to it," Dameon said with a laugh.

"Alright Dameon, well here we are," Eveser said. "What do we need to get from here anyway?"

"I need to stop by an old...trophy room sort of. It's where I keep all my things from back when I had this form. All of my armor and my Carnian weapons. Believe me, Carnian armor is no laughing matter..." Dameon said, walking through the doors and into the hallway. "Stuff's harder to cut through than a good lie..."

"Very well," Eve said and began to follow him. They allowed him to lead them through the winding corridors and passageways until finally they reached a wall.

"Hey, Dameon?" Holi asked. "Are you sure your sense of direction around this place is still reliable?"

"Sure is!" Dameon said happily, holding out one of his ridiculously long-clawed hands and resting it on a particular part of the wall. The block indented where he had pressed and then the whole wall itself lifted into the ceiling! "Seriously, how good am I at having secret chambers?"

"No argument here," Holi laughed.

They proceeded into the chamber with tentative steps, following Dameon through the dark hall until they finally entered a small, closet-like chamber. Dameon held his hand to a nearby torch and lit the wick with his fingertips.

In the light, they could see a glass armoire. It was full of armor and weapons on racks and stands, some of the most cruel-looking weapons imaginable rested in the structure. Eve shuddered at a particular one that looked like a hook with a knife on the end. Dameon opened the glass doors and pulled the finely designed, very intricate metal from within.

With a sigh of nostalgia, he slipped the garment on and tightened it. He reached in and began snapping the weapons onto his belt and arms, pulling out a long sword and snapping it onto his back. Finally he turned to face the rest of the group.

"Well, how do I look?" he asked.

"Like a killer," Kane chuckled. "Well, is this everything?"

"Just about, we gotta stop by my own room for a moment," Dameon said, walking out into hallway and then continuing to exit the secret passageway with his friends behind him.

"So Dameon, I've been meaning to ask you," Darrow said, stepping up to the armored monster.

"Yes?" Dameon said with a smile.

"There ain't any bad blood between us, y'know, from those times back in the old days," Darrow asked, taking off his hat.

"Darrow, my friend," Dameon said, wrapping his arm around the tiger. "I'm not the kind of man who holds grudges anymore. Least of all against the people who've been fighting to help me get my children back. No, there's nothing between us."

"I just wanted to make sure that...if we maybe don't make it outta this fight, that we don't hate eachother to our dying breaths," Darrow said with a smile and put his hat back on. "Arronix always told me 'never go to sleep angry at someone, you never know if you'll see them again'."

"Arronix was a wise man," Dameon said with a smile. "I knew him longer than anyone I think. I can tell you that no matter how much I hated him..."

Dameon's voice trailed off as the group approached the doors to his chamber.

"Dameon?" Darrow asked. Dameon looked around like a startled deer.

"Do you hear that?" he asked. Darrow cocked an ear and listened intently. His eyes widened.

"Sounds like..." he said, his voice trailing off as well. Eve listened as well, catching an earful of a small moaning cry coming from within Dameon's bedchamber.

"Sounds like someone's dying in there," he said with a look of worry on his face.

"I think someone got here before us..." Dameon said and rushed towards the door. He raised his foot and heaved it into the doorframe.

There was a loud splintering explosion and the door went sailing into the room!

Dameon stormed in and stopped when he saw what was making the noise...

"...Oh...hello?" Grimlock said with a nervous smile on his face. Kyasha's eyes were wide with surprise as well, her claws gripping tighter to Grimlock's shoulders from underneath him.

"Hi there," Dameon said with a small smile, his eyes glowing green.

The Behaku and Carnians in the throneroom saw their leaders walk away together, knowing obviously what they planned to do. But when they heard the loud thumping and the cries from Grimlock, they could tell that something was either very wrong...or that Kyasha was a force to be reckoned with on every front.

There was a loud boom and then Grimlock sailed into the room and landed on his back!

"Oof!" he cried as he bounced against the ground. He got to his knees and struggled to stand. He called out to the others in the throneroom. "Gentlemen, we have guests..."

Dameon and the rest of the group entered after him. Grimlock finally got to his feet and shook his head, blinking his eyes once or twice out of shock.

"Well!" he said with a smile. "I didn't expect you to show up so soon! I must admit I have been caught off guard!"

"I'll take you apart," Dameon growled.

"And I see you got your powers back!" the lizard clapped. "Perhaps even more than before? You look positively smashing as a Carnian!"

"I can see myself doing the smashing part," Dameon grinned malevolently.

"Oh I'm sure you can!" Grimlock laughed. "But what good would that be? If I were to die right now, your children would be dead so quickly, they wouldn't even have time to blink! Not to mention the similar fates of my...other captives..."

Eve's eyes blazed with rage.

"If you hurt her..." he said with a low snarl.

"You'll kill me?" Grimlock laughed.

"Two times over," Kane stepped in, stamping his paw against the floor angrily.

"Well that would be rather counterproductive don't you think? I mean if I die, they die...and if they die, I die? It would appear our fates are linked!" he laughed. Eve began walking towards him menacingly. Grimlock shook his head disapprovingly. "Ah-ah-ah...you never seem to learn do you?"

He held out his palm, revealing the small hole in the center. At first, Grimlock's eyes were proud...but then they became scared...

"What?!" he asked in shock, holding his hand out more forcefully and looking at it worriedly as the dragon continued to advance. "I don't understand..."

"Maybe I learn more than you think..." Eve said with a smirk, turning his head to reveal Bezimen's null-frequency generator.

Again Grimlock went sailing across the throneroom, landing on his back as Eve retracted his claw from the devastating uppercut he had just delivered. Grimlock groaned.

"Ok, maybe I have been using that trick a bit too much," he said, beginning to get irritated. "But what you fail to understand is that I am no one-trick horse..."

He clenched his fists and held them to his sides. His teeth ground angrily against themselves as he began to glow with a red light.

"I am no fool, I am no jester...I am power in its basest form...I am the energy through which all is created!" he held his fists to the ceiling and opened them as a blast of red energy exploded from within them and into the stone roof! "And through which all is destroyed..."

"Then let's see which of us has the truly greater power," Dameon said, stepping up besides Eve and brandishing his claws.

They were at a standstill until Eve suddenly began to waver...

"What the..." he mumbled as he began to sway on his feet and wobble. Dameon looked over to him and then he too suddenly began to quaver until the both of them fell flat on their faces!

"Dameon! Eve!" Holi and Kane shouted respectively and ran to their sides. They knelt next to them and tried to wake them...they soon were as well on the ground, knocked completely unconscious.

Even Grimlock was stunned! He looked around warily, trying to determine the cause.

He didn't notice the faint, thin, white gas escape from their nostrils and climb back into Oxide's hand. Oxide chuckled and turned to Grimlock.

"I felt that a battle here would risk too much damage for the precious machinery in the other room," he said with another small chuckle. Grimlock smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"Well done," he said with a smile. "There is too little time for these games."

"Shall we begin?" asked Oxide.

"Immediately," Grimlock nodded. He looked up at the door again to see Kyasha standing there, blade drawn with the sheet from Dameon's bed wrapped around her naked form.

"You," she growled at Grimlock.

"Me?" Grimlock looked around. She nodded slowly.

"Bed...now," she snarled. Grimlock looked at Oxide and the two shrugged synonymously.

"Gimme five minutes..." Grimlock said and ran after the vixen.

Eve's head was swirling when he finally began to realize that his eyes were opening.

"Oh god..." he moaned, trying to reach up to rub his temples. He found that his claws were completely immobile, no matter how hard he tugged, he could not move them!

He looked around, realizing that he was in fact stuck in a small cage manacled to the floor with concrete! He cursed angrily and looked around.

"Cyllea?" he called. There was a muffled response and a small groan from next to him.

"Eve?" he heard Kane's voice say from the cage next to him. "That you?"

"Yea it's me buddy," Eve said with a smile. "Feeling ok?"

"Just peachy thanks," Kane laughed and looked around as well. "Where are we?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Eve said with an exasperated sigh.

"Ahh, I see you've decided to rejoin us!" Grimlock's voice echoed. Eve looked up to see the lizard crouched down next to the cage.

"Where's Cyllea?" Eve asked angrily.

"And Teya?" Kane hissed.

"They're safe," Grimlock said with a smile. "The last thing I would want to do is have them hurt! Believe me, dragon...they're more important to me than you could ever know..."

"My lord..." Oxide said, leaning over and tapping Grimlock on the shoulder. "It is time."

"Splendid," Grimlock said and rapped his knuckles against the top of Eveser's cage. "Well boys, no time like the present!"

Grimlock's crow swooped down from the ceiling and landed on his shoulder. It squawked and chirped in his ear for a moment or two before the lizard's eyes grew wide and his frill quickly shot up.

"Oh dear..."he said. He looked back at Eve. "That would explain everything..."

Eve looked at him with no less hate.

"Yes...now I see," Grimlock kneeled down by the cage again. "That aura...I have wondered why it is so strange since the day we first met!"

"What are you talking about?" Eve became suddenly interested. Perhaps Grimlock knew something else about Bahamut?

"Your aura...it is split! There are two souls inside of you! One of them is the purest thing I have ever encountered, something I cannot explain...but the other is dark...darker than anything I could have ever dreamed of in even my most corrupted nightmares!" he said, smiling. "You are the last piece, dragon. The last piece of this puzzle...the key!"

"My aura is evil?" he asked.

"No, not yours...but something else's! Something that I desire very much..." Grimlock grinned evilly. "You may be familiar with the name...Dirge..."

Eveser's eyes shot open! He looked around the room suddenly, beginning to remember Dameon's description of the machine...

"No...no! No no no no!" he cried, furious.

"Oh yes dragon!" Grimlock laughed. "I knew you'd remember!"

"Grimlock...you don't understand..." Eve said, beginning to sound worried.

"I think I understand completely...perhaps even more so than you think you do," Grimlock stood up. "Ever since I first learned of my Carnian heritage, I have been striving to learn everything I can about my people. I learned that the Carnians were a proud race, lead by the most powerful being in existence: Morbossus Gride. Yes, Morbossus...the Scourge of Life, Death of All Things Living, the Darkest Pox in Written History! I learned all I could about him. All about his reign, his strategies...his downfall..."

"Grimlock, listen to me..." Eve became angry again. "Dirge is a monster!"

"I know! Isn't it grand?!" the lizard said happily. "Tell me dragon...can you not see it yet?"

"See what? That you're a fool?" he asked.

"No, no, not that..." Grimlock laughed. "Can you not see the...relationship...between the two?"

"What are you...?" Eve's eyes trailed downwards. "Morbossus Gride...Gride...G-R-I-D-E...Dirge..."

"Precisely," Grimlock snarled. "They are one in the same."

"And the crystals, the ones that Dameon found all those years ago..." Eve began to realize.

"The artifacts in which he was imprisoned," Grimlock finished. "Yes...it all becomes clear now doesn't it?"

"But I beat Dirge before! He wasn't a god, just a psychopath!" Eve half-stated, half-snarled.

"No...what you defeated was a strange reflection of Swade's mind on some of Morbossus' powers," Grimlock said. "The Dirge you fought was not reborn of Carnian blood. This machine seems to suck energy from objects and inject it directly into the host, making for a much different creation than what Dameon originally intended. He thought that it just separated the good from the bad...but Morbossus' evil was so great that the good half was simply forced out! Dameon's mechanical body was an odd medium for the energy to travel through I imagine, it must have ruined the transformation. That's why Dirge was so...off-balance ha-ha!"

"Listen! You NEED to listen to me...you've got to understand this, please!" Eve shouted. "Dirge will kill ALL of us! Even you!"

"Oh I think not, dear Eveser," Grimlock said, standing up again. "You see...we've arranged something of an agreement. We've had plenty of time to discuss the outcome of today..."

With his last sentence, his crow squawked loudly. Its caw sounded distorted and demonic...

"And now all I need...is you!" Grimlock said and poked Eve on the nose. He stood up and made a movement with his claw. Three Carnian soldiers immediately rushed over and opened Eve's cage.

Eve struggled and snarled as the monsters pulled him from the cage in chains and immediately muzzled him. He growled and thrashed, but the aberrations were too strong and he was too tightly bound. They dragged him towards the machine.

As Eve looked around, he could see the machine in all its unholy glory. There were three podiums in front of each of the three pillars that held the gyro rings onto the main base and into each one was a person.

He recognized Teya chained to one of the podiums and Cyllea on the other...

"Cyllea!" his muffled cry came from beneath the muzzle. The dragoness looked at him with an equally distraught expression, but her eyes were calm. This made Eveser pace himself; he stopped his thrashing and instead began to pray his mate could read his thoughts...

"Cyllea...no matter what happens...I love you. I love you so much, and nothing they can do to any of us can ever change that," he thought furiously. "If we die here tonight...then we will always be together. If we don't...well, they better just pray that we do..."

Cyllea's eyes calmed him until he had passed her and the procession had reached Teya's podium. One of the Carnians released his grip on Eve and made his way to Teya, undoing her chains and lifting her exhausted form onto his shoulders. Eve looked into her eyes as she passed, tired and weak, barely able to go on...

"Hold on Teya," he had wanted to say. "We'll get through this..."

"Eve..." she whispered as she was taken back to the cages. Grimlock came sauntering up to the bound dragon and looked him in the eyes.

"Well, dragon...I must confess," he began. "I honestly don't know if you'll survive this. However much I want you to, I can't say with certainty that the machine won't simply drain you into a husk! But...here's hoping, my friend..."

Grimlock again poked him on the nose and turned to walk back to the machinery control panel near the door as his crow flew to the final, unoccupied podium. Eve could see Dameon's form hulking behind the controls...

"Well now, Lord Swade," Grimlock said happily as he approached the beast. "We're about ready to begin!"

"I can't do this," he said, his voice deep and furious. "I won't!"

"Oh but you will!" Grimlock said with a smile that quickly faded. "Unless you want to see your little darlings melt away..."

He reached into a crate and pulled out Dexter by the scruff of his neck. Dameon's eyes went wide and he lashed out at Grimlock, only to end up tugging wildly against the chains that bound him to the floor and receiving a sharp blow to the face from a nearby Carnian soldier. The blow was so powerful that he spat up a few small droplets of blood onto the gray stone floor.

"I'm sure it will be more painful for you than it will be for them," Grimlock said, his black needles extending from his fingertips. "And judging by how many times I've used this before...that would be HELL of a lot..."

"Stop it!" Dameon cried. His son was gripping the wretched hand that clasped him, whining and struggling to get away from the razor-pointed death that aimed his way. Dameon's eyes were practically glassy with misery...

"Damn the world...or damn your family," his inner voice gave him the final choice. Dameon's mind raced...

"I have little time, Dameon!" Grimlock shouted, holding the needle ever closer to the crying young lizard.

"Alright!" Dameon shouted, stamping his foot on the floor. "Alright...put him down and I'll do it..."

"That's what I wanted to hear..." the lizard said and dropped Dexter back into the crate and shut the lid. His cries could be heard even through the wood. Dameon gave one last look to Grimlock.

"Not now...not today...but someday...someday I will find you, Grimlock," Dameon's cold voice seemed to penetrate every muscle fiber in Grimlock's being. His clothes suddenly felt cold and his skin became clammy. Grimlock's heart actually began to race for probably the first time in his life.

"Very compelling, Lord Swade," Grimlock said, glancing towards the machine nervously. "Now then!"

"Batteries ready, my Lord!" Oxide called from a small console near a large generator. "Machinery at full power!"

"Excellent!" the lizard said happily. He turned to look upon the Sisters, who were presiding over a large box of different occult objects and the small, red tooth-like object from the beginning clasped in their unified hands.

"The various energies have been absorbed, Serga," Cura said with a smile. "Spiritual force capacity at maximum."

Grimlock walked over to them and gently took the little red tooth from them. With a smile and a grimace, he popped it into his mouth and swallowed it whole, coughing for a few seconds before shaking his head and giving the Sisters each a gentle stroke on the cheek.

Grimlock, now smiling and ecstatic, turned to Dameon and grinned. It was returned with a cold stare that again made Grimlock uncomfortable...

"Lord Swade, get ready to activate!" he said with a nervous smile. He looked at the manacles in the center of the gyros anxiously.

He removed his neo-armor, placing it on the ground next to him and then doing the same with his undershirt and greaves. His whole extremely well-defined upper torso was exposed as he began the ascension to the manacles and the cold, upright steel table that lay before him.

He was accompanied by Oxide and another Carnian soldier. When they reached the top, Grimlock turned around and rested his back against the freezing steel. The manacles were locked around his wrists and his ankles.

"Oxide," Grimlock said to his friend just before he turned around to leave.

"My Lord?" the gaseous creature asked.

"If I do not survive this...kill them," Grimlock said with a devious smile. "ALL of them."

"The Behaku, sir?" Oxide asked in surprise.

"All of them," Grimlock repeated, his smile fading as his cold resolve took over. He became emotionless, staring at the opposite wall blankly with nothing but a look of icy willpower on his face.

"Very well, Lord Grimlock," Oxide said and turned. He made his way halfway down the staircase and then melted into a ball of smoke and drifted behind the control panel with Dameon. "Mr. Swade..."

Dameon looked at his hands and then at the control panel. He made a fist and contemplated just smashing the whole thing to bits...

With Grimlock out of the way for now, he could easily wreck the machinery! It would take time to get himself out of his chains though...time that every enemy he had in the room would take to slaughter his children, his friends, his mate...

He couldn't do it...

For the sake of his cursed heart he had to be the death of the entire world...

He began tapping reluctantly on the keyboard. There were loud clanks from within the machine, like enormous gears finally connecting after years of inactivity. There was a deep rumbling followed by a thunderous bang from underneath the floor that made most in the room jump!

"This should be most interesting," Kyasha said with a devious grin from her makeshift throne next to the door.

*Start music now*

The machine finally began to clink and click to life...

The gyros began to rotate slowly around the creature strapped to the table in the center as small electrical sparks began to zip and fly all over the pillars.

Grimlock looked around eagerly as the gyros began to speed up, beginning to go faster and faster. The sparks became large arcs of electricity and began shooting all over the room! The lights began to dim and brighten erratically, as did the screens of the consoles placed across the room.

Grimlock suddenly convulsed and began seizing! His eyes squeezed shut as he writhed and gritted his teeth in pain...

His skin began to look distorted, as though there were hundreds of worms crawling underneath it, making odd pulsations that started rushing towards the center of his chest.

Dameon looked away in shame as a light began to grow in Grimlock's chest, getting brighter and brighter as Grimlock began to cry out in agony!

Dameon looked over to the others who were chained to the podiums. Eve and Cyllea were also writhing as the machine became active. Eve had begun to glow with a black light around his struggling frame.

"I'm so sorry," Dameon whispered. Eve's black aura had begun to disappear now into the podium to which he was chained. It ran in small sparks through the wires and cables and up into the gyros that had begun shooting white lightning into Grimlock's already pain-wracked body...

He looked over at the crow, which had been sitting upon the podium on its own. It had also begun to glow with a black, deadly aura. The crow squawked loudly and then flapped its wings violently! Its feathers flew all over the place as its skin grew tighter over its body...

Finally bird's skin was ripped away and disintegrated in the wind as its skeleton, made entirely of black light, was sucked into the podium like dust into a vacuum cleaner!

Grimlock's undulating skin began to squirm with more intensity, the light in his chest becoming brighter and stronger. It was strobing, the light, something Dameon hadn't seen during his transformation...

It grew darker and darker until it had become a sort of strobing black and red color emanating from Grimlock's chest. Dameon reconsidered smashing the control panel...he had no idea what it would do at this point.

"Maybe it would just kill that slimy lizard and end all of this insanity...or maybe it would just kill Eveser and Cyllea, and leave Grimlock alive...it might even just kill them all..." he thought to himself. "Would Eve want me to do it? I know he'd sacrifice his life to save the world...but would Cyllea? Would it even save the world?"

"We're running low on power!" a Carnian growled from the battery control console. Oxide's head snapped over to him.

"Redirect from all unnecessary processes, we need more time!" he called.

"The machine is at maximum efficiency! There's no more energy left!" the monster called back. Oxide gave a vicious cry of rage and slammed his fist into the wall! He looked over to Swade. "Do something! Where do we get more power?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, friend-o," Dameon said with a smile. Oxide growled. He puffed over to the cages where the others were kept and opened one, dragging a semi-conscious and chained-up Darrow out into the room. He pulled him by the scruff of his neck over to the podium where the crow had since been completely disintegrated.

"You are strong," Oxide said out loud. "You have much energy to offer."

With that, he lifted Darrow by the head and slammed his face into the podium! Darrow screamed in pain as the machine sucked his energy away. He struggled and ripped at the manacles holding his hands together, but to no avail...he was too weak.

Oxide looked around as the machine's energy signals rocketed! The battery readings went off the charts as all of Darrow's power was absorbed into the deadly machine...

"Perfect! PERFECT!" Oxide cried happily as he pressed Darrow's face down harder onto the altar. Darrow's cries had now become weakened gurgles and there was blood seeping from the side of his face that was against the metal.

After what seemed like hours, Oxide released the tiger and let him flop onto the ground lifelessly.

"Your service has been honored," he said and walked back to the control panel with Dameon, who was watching with eyes full of hate and fury.

"If you were ever loved by anyone, Oxide," Dameon began. "Pray that Darrow doesn't live to know them."

"If he gets back up, I'll ALLOW him to kill me," Oxide mocked.

"Don't make bets you aren't prepared to pay," Dameon muttered to himself with a smile, noticing Darrow's hand twitch slightly.

Grimlock's shape had been drowned out in the light, which was enveloping everything, beginning to create a sort of sucking sensation. It was like a vacuum in space, sucking things out of an airlock. Behaku and Carnian soldiers were being yanked off of the floor and dragged screaming into the large ball of black and red swirling light. Upon contact with the light, they were immediately degenerated into skeletons and sucked up like so much dust.

Oxide stood unfazed, standing arms-crossed, looking into the light unaffected. Even Dameon had to grip a nearby pillar to keep from being pulled off balance. Kyasha was holding tight to one of her largest warriors who had grabbed onto an outcropping in the wall and was at this point straining to hold on.

The light was unbearable; anyone who didn't shield their eyes surely became blind! It was even supernova-like in its beauty, but as terrifying as a black hole...

Suddenly, the sucking sensation stopped. Just like that.

The room went quiet.

The light was still there, but everything else had stopped. The arcs of electricity, the lights dimming and the consoles blinking in and out. Everything.

Then the light ball imploded into itself like a balloon with the air sucked out!

The ball was miniscule for a split second and then literally exploded outwards like a bomb! It vaporized the nearby consoles, the cables, the lights, and the other bits of technology Grimlock had brought. The light turned into a fine mist and dispersed into the air like smoke on the breeze. There was again...silence.

"Lord Grimlock?" Oxide asked, looking at the still form in the center of the gyros. It didn't breathe, nor was there anyone else in his place.

"It didn't work..." Dameon said quietly to himself, his eyes beginning to practically shine with happiness! "It didn't work!"

Dameon heard a thump behind him.

"Don't jump to conclusions..." a familiar, dark voice whispered in his ear.