a/n: last chapter!

"Well this is a change of events." Crita raised an eyebrow, looking at the woman in front of her before turning back to see her boss, looming in the doorway like some sick phantom. "Should I take her instead?"

"Of course not." Digorn scowled and chewed on his thumbnail. "I told you to get the boy, so now you will get the stupid boy."

"You heard him," said Crita to Nimue, "So move."

"No. He's only used for experiments because of his human side, so it would probably give even better results if you-"

"Ah, but he only wants Dot."

"I won't let you do that."

"You're fighting a losing battle here."

"Maybe- but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep going along with his games. It's me or nothing."

Crita turned her head back to her boss, her unspoken question hanging in the hair.

"The boy." Rung his response, echoing through the room like a funeral bell.

"I'm sorry, dear." Said Crita, before letting go of Nimue's wrists and peeking over her shoulder to see Dot.

"I said, I won't let you do that." Warned Nimue before she swung her clenched fist towards Crita's face, connecting with a dull thwack and pushing the woman backwards. Through pain, a nosebleed and watering eyes, Crita fought back with a kick that hit her opponent on the side, making her grunt in pain.

Digorn said nothing as a tense fight ensued, Crita somehow managing to hold her own against all six of Dot's self-knighted defendants. Well- not that anyone except Nimue knew the first thing about fighting. Nsia used to take karate classes when she was younger, but that was about it. Tiro managed to hurt himself more than anything else in the confusion.

The boss only stepped in when the faint sound of breaking glass was heard, and Dot's gentle yellow shirt was steadily becoming stained with a bright blood red, a stain that was only spreading as time went on.

"Shit- the pendant-" Felix and Nimue raced towards him with Digorn a few paces behind, the fight forgotten as everyone stood dumbfounded, staring at the hybrid as he bled.

Nimue pulled off his shirt and removed the broken necklace, wincing when she saw the jagged edge of his butterfly pendant, smeared with blood. She then inspected the wound for any stray shards of glass, breathing a sigh of relief when she found nothing.

Felix ripped a clean section off of Dot's ruined shirt, the soft cotton fabric tearing with ease when faced with his adrenaline-enhanced strength. He pressed down on the wound, not knowing the first thing about first aid but wanting to stop the bleeding any way he could.

Nsia broke out of her trance and stepped forward, reassuring the pair that she was a doctor and began to help Nimue in any way she could. Thankfully, although the cut was bleeding heavily it didn't seem to be too deep, and Dot (apart from being very shaken and dizzy from the blood loss) wasn't in too much pain.

"Can we get him a transfusion?" Nsia asked Nimue, doing her best to ignore Digorn's looming form as he sat between them.

"No. His body would reject any blood type, so he just has to save what he's already got. Luckily-" Nimue looked up at Crita, who nodded and strode out of the room. "We have invented things to help him with that."

They sat motionless for a few painful minutes before Crita returned, holding some sort of clear liquid in a conical flask and medical equipment used for stitches. Nsia wasn't sure of the liquid but Dot seemed to know what it was the instant he saw it and leant forwards as Nimue poured it down his throat, leaving her speechless as his wound began to almost... knit itself back together, Dot's strength steadily returning.

He still wasn't fully healed, so Nimue gave him a few stitches in silence to help tie the rest of the skin back together in the right place as it continued to repair itself.

Once the danger had passed, Nsia slumped back and took a deep breath. "He'll be okay." She told the others in the room, and felt the tension lift.

"Someone must have accidentally kicked him and broke the glass during the fight." Said Felix, letting his eyes wander towards Tiro, who squirmed uncomfortably; muttering a small "Sorry." as he recalled how he had become a messy hurricane of swirling limbs during the fight, knowing that if anyone had somehow managed to kick the one person they were trying to protect... it was probably him.

"Right." Digorn grabbed Dot by his hair and tugged him upwards as he stood, paying no mind to the little bit of blood that leaked from the boy's wound as he stretched it. "I will be taking him now. Good day to you all."

Nsia grabbed Dot's foot and yelled, "Wait!", but Nimue remained silent, head swimming with other ideas.

She stood up as slowly as she could, heart thumping as she made her way towards Digorn with a dizzy head and hesitant steps, clutching the jagged remains of the pedant in her fist.

Was she actually going to do this?

There was no way she could do this.

No way.

No way.

No... no more time to think!

She interrupted her own chain of thought as she felt her body move without her even having to tell it to do so, her arm swinging upwards and falling forwards, this isn't going to work, forwards, he's going to fucking kill me, forwards, but I won't let Dot hurt anymore- and straight into the side of Digorn's neck.

No more.

The jagged, broken glass shards shredded through his flesh as she plunged it further in, seeing how he turned his head towards her with a face painted in shock, his own arm swinging up to try and push her away to no avail- she grabbed his whole head with her other arm and pushed all the way through the front of his neck, effectively slitting his throat.

His raspy gurgles filled the room as he tried and failed to breathe, dropping Dot as he brought both hands to his neck and tried to hold himself together while blood spilt freely from his mouth, down his hands and towards his arms, staining the sleeves of his neat suit a bright crimson.

No one else dared to make a sound except Nimue and Felix, yet again the only pair to hurry to Dot's side and hold him as he watched a man die.

Just 'a man'. Not his father. Because his father, his father was the one sitting by his side, cradling him and telling him that everything was going to be okay.

Once the gruesome noises of Digorn's futile struggle had died down, only silence reigned. The only person that didn't feel remotely happy about this outcome was Crita, who stared at the corpse in absolute horror as she watched her next paycheck fall into the afterlife.

Now, there was only one question. What next? No one dared to break the silence to ask, but all were thinking of the same thing nonetheless.

Digorn was the only thing that tied them all to this place; a monster who was now lying face down in an ever-growing puddle of his own blood. They were free to leave, yet no one seemed to be able to move (excluding Crita, who sprinted out of the room in search for any sort of secret stash of money her boss has stowed away. She thought that she probably deserved the compensation, after just watching a man have his throat cut.)

After an amount of time that seemed to the group to last at least a year, they made their way out of the building. "Hold on." Said James, reaching into his pocket. "Is there... is there anything in there you want?" He gestured towards the desolate building.

Nimue, Tiro and Dot all shook their heads, the woman still holding the bloody butterfly pendant in one hand and her son in the other. The bat hybrid allowed her to do this, but kept his head resting on Felix's shoulder- just in case.

"Good." He replied, and raced back inside, hand still concealed within his pocket.

Shortly after that, Crita ran out- holding a large black briefcase that she wouldn't let anyone go near- and sprinted off into the distance.

It was only a few short minutes after she had left that Dot pointed up at the sky, leading the group to see black wispy trails of smoke rising up from the building and drifting off into the night. "James!" Cried Nsia, but she needn't have worried- her husband returned just after they had noticed the smoke, holding up an orange lighter that he flicked on and off periodically to show what he had done.

"I thought it would do us all good to see this place gone forever." He said with a grin, coughing slightly before going to hug his wife. "I'm not sure how it will burn, but I lit anything that looked flammable so hopefully the bloody place will at least be damaged."

They stood and watched the fire for hours, not saying much as the flames licked every inch of the building. At some point, maybe nearly midnight, maybe just before dawn- no one knew, no one was paying attention to the time- rain began to fall from the sky, putting out the last few flames with a hiss.

The lab was now a charred, black, mess- and they were all free.