Anti-Venom

16

The sky is black, pitch black with no stars on show, no moon; nothing. The pavement is drenched with sickly red blood mixed with rain water. Both substances are falling from above; the rain from the clouds, the blood from the fire escapes of the alley he stands in. His clothes are soaked through with both the water and the blood, his usually dark blonde hair is now dripping red, his eyes are a glowing amber. His skin is a very stark white. He is a portrait perfect killer right now.

With a deep inhalation, he picks up on the scent of somebody who is still alive, a young girl who has been hurt by human hands. He follows the scent, and tracks it much like a hound would track a fox. Only rather than tear his prey to shreds, he takes pity on the poor girl. By the time she lays eyes on him, the blood has washed away from his face and hair. His clothes are already dark enough to hide the. Looks that is undoubtedly staining them. She doesn't see him as a threat like many others have tonight, because to her he is t a threat, he is a helping hand. Little does he know right now, that she is also his saviour.

"Rick." He hears a voice breaking through the stormy night. He spins round faster than is visible to the human eye, and takes up a defensive stance in front of the little girl. Before him he sees a boy taller than he is, brown hair, brown eyes. He looks to be in his late teens. Something tells him too that he knows this boy somehow, that he's met him before.

"Rick you need to calm down now." The boy tells him.

Patrick can't help the urge he has in him to lunge at this boy suddenly, so he does; but is thrown back by some unseen force. For a moment he is confused, but then he tries again; and once again he flies back.

"Come on Rick it's me, it's Ryan. Come on you know me." The boy tells him. "You know how this works, you keep running at you and I'll keep knocking you back."

Without a word, Patrick looks to the little girl, and back to Ryan. He makes a move to advance at Ryan once again when he sees the boy raise his hand.

"Don't worry." Ryan tells him. "I'm not going to hurt her, I'm going to send her to sleep so she's not scared anymore."

Still without words, Patrick watches as the little girl falls asleep, and then turns back to Ryan. He snarls a little, and backs up towards the girl before sitting beside her, and running a hand gently over her forehead. Red hair, just like Gwen.

"She looks a lot like Gwen used to look." Ryan speaks up again, which most definitely gets Patrick's attention.

"Yeah that's right I'm a friend of Gwen's." Ryan smiles. "Remember? She's back at my house, she's sleeping. You came out here to do some damage in order to try and save her."

"And you." The vampire final speaks. "I lost my baby. Somebody did this to theirs."

"I know, I know Rick it's awful." Ryan keeps calm. He's feeling weak though. Calming Patrick is taking a lot more magic than he is currently capable of.

"Ryan." A new voice calls now, a somewhat quiet and nervous voice. Ryan looks round and smiles soundly at who he sees, the person who is there knows exactly how to help, but he can't get directly involved, Ryan has to do this bit alone.

"Spencer?" Patrick asks.

"Yeah." Ryan tells him. "He's gonna save Gwen's life."

"He can get her through transition?" Patrick asks.

"No." Ryan replies, "But he can reverse it. That's something I can't do, it's something only an innocent can do."

Ryan watches now, as does Spencer and those who now appear to accompany them; as Patrick's eyes begin to shift back to blue.

"Come on Rick, you know us." Ryan pleads again as he feels Patrick shut him out once more momentarily. But it is short lived, and soon the vampire relaxes, and quickly closes his eyes, and brings his hands up to cover his eyes.

"Don't let me see what I've done." The man now begs. Guilt begins to fill him now, as they knew it would, so with Spencer's help Ryan kneels beside the mn to calm him.

"Hey the way any of us see it is you ended this little girl's suffering, and as soon as the gates between the realms are open. Those who did it to her are going to pay." William speaks up now.

"Is she alive?" Patrick asks, and allows himself to look down to the girl.

"Yeah." Joe smiles.

"You wanna bring her home?" William asks, "Pretty sure she's gonna need someone to look after her."

"What about Jareth?" Patrick asks.

"Andy has to raise him." Joe says with an air of disgust. "But he has proven himself incapable, so I guess that'll be my job now."

"I can't raise my own son?" Patrick asks.

"Not with the training he's going to need." William shakes his head, "But he'll still love you, and I'm sure once he's ready he'll like your company."

"I'm ready." Spencer suddenly speaks up.

"What?" Patrick asks now, and looks up to all of them. He looks straight to Spencer in particular, who is actually dressed in white, and has Pete stood right now to to him.

"The gate needs to remain open to keep the balance." William begins. "Right now it's closed. Remember our conversation?"

But Patrick can't remember anything from the last day or so, only Gwen and Jareth.

"Only the complete blood loss of an innocent can open it again." Ryan picks up. "Which is where Spencer comes in. He's got the right level of purity, but he has to willingly give all of his blood to the other realms. His spirit will be taken to be with my parents."

Patrick can't believe what he's hearing, and looks to Spencer, who is now in Pete's arms and is crying.

"No, no there has to be another way." He protests. "The girl."

"Are you really that heartless?" Brendon asks.

"No." Patrick shakes his head.

"Well then." William declares. "Pick her up, Spencer, take us to the archway."

Spencer nods, and within moments, the entire group appear in the very place where Ryan's mother fell. They aren't alone though, there waiting for them is a woman Spencer hasn't seen for a little while now. She looks a mixture of proud and heartbroken, and carries a powder blue blanket in her arms,

"Mom!" Spencer cries out, and goes over to the woman, throwing his arms around her. She returns the hug, and then takes a step back to look at her son.

"My boy." She smiles. "You have no idea of how proud I am of you."

Spencer just sniffs and nods. He turns then as a cough is heard. Around a pit in the ground, William, Pete, Ryan, Joe, Brendon and Matthew stand.

"I won't partake in this." Patrick declares from the spot where they arrived. "I can't."

"But I'm not allowed to do it to myself." Spencer tells him. "Patrick please, at least come over and sit with me, with the group."

"Only if you're sure." Patrick allows himself to respect Spencer's wishes. "I just, I don't want to condemn you to hell."

"I'm going to be free to roam between light and dark." Spencer tells him, "and given I'm a warlock, I'll be able to come back and visit every so often. I'm not sacrificing myself to the devil. Im not sacrificing myself to a god. Im doing this to restore balance and most of all I'm doing it to save Gwen. When you get home tonight she'll be awake and she'll still be human. She'll still be a child of light. I'm fixing what Andy broke. Besides, Ryan's here, you'll be able to talk to me through him 24/7."

"We don't have long Gwen's heart is giving up." Matthew calls over. Patrick and Spencer look at each other now, and then go over to where the group is stood. Pete takes one of Spencer's hands, the boy's mother takes the other hand, while Spencer just focusses on falling asleep.

Within moments, it's all over, and a sense of relief is immediately felt. All weaknesses begin to fade, Brendon's markings reappear, Ryan feels his energy flow back, but perhaps the most surprising thing is the fact that Although Spencer's body is led motionless on the floor, he is also stood across the room, surrounded by a great light, and sporting a pair of wings so bright with the colours of red and gold, and black and white, and with eyes that glow gloriously blue.

"The gate is open." He smiles at his friends and his mother, who look to him confused.

"Oh my..." Ryan smiles and laughs speechlesy for a second. "You're a Phoenix."

"Yeah." Spencer nods smugly.

"Which is?" Matthew asks.

"It means he's not going anywhere." Patrick smiles greatly. "We're stuck with him for eternity."
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Ok so I think next chapter may be the end