It was an eerie silence after the detonation.  Kate wasn’t sure if she had been deafened at first, but the tearing of the door as she forced her way from her truck was audible so at least she wasn’t deaf.  She staggered out and saw Nyx stepping out of a damaged delivery van form the other side of the massive red stain that had been Asmodeus.  The lower half of the dragon was still there, but the head down to about the middle simply wasn’t, and nothing was left of the other one but scrap metal.

And glowing ghostly entities trying to extract themselves from the corpses.

“Nyx!” Kate shouted, “Don’t let them escape” Kate shouted launching herself at Asmodeus’s spirit form, her gold sword flowed over her hands like claws and she tore into him.  For a moment she thought that she might even be able to see the rage and fear that he felt at the end, his spirit losing all cohesion and dispelling his essence completely in the process.

Nyx queued in fast as well, drawing her gold along her blade and lunging at Lazarus’s spirit form and shredding it.  All his power dispelled immediately and what little was left would be reabsorbed onto the hell he had come from.  With Lazarus’s now powerless spirit form drifting off to join Asmodeus back in their proper place she could feel a sudden weight lift off of her.

“And that” Nyx shouted in triumph, “Is for my DAMN LEG!”

The pair stared at each panting for air for a few long moments, smiles slowly spreading across their faces. “We got them.”

Nyx started to laugh, “We fucking did it didn’t we?  Oh they are so FUCKED!”  Nyx jumped a bit, the relief of the situation washing over her followed by a wide beaming smile.

“Ohh screw you, you bastards” Kate shouted after the demons then joined in with the laughing, smiling ear to ear that it was finally over.

“Ohh man.  That was WAY too close... uh” Nyx paused and pointed, “There’s another one!”

Kate turned to see another ethereal light rising from the wreckage.  She held up her arm to stop Nyx from attacking this one too.  There was definitely something different about this one.  It didn’t have the malice or anger of the others, it didn’t feel like a demon at all. 

After staring at it for a long moment Kate said “Wait. I think its….” Kate stepped closer and lifted her hands to the light, cradling it and pulling it close, “I think its Victoria.”

“The one that started all this?” Nyx crossed her arms, “Wasn’t this shit show a result of her experiments?”

“She made the cyberware, yes, not the demons.”  Kate explained, “She was Atasi’s friend too.  So, I’m going to bring her back with us.”

“So that thing there is… what a… soul looks like?” Nyx asked stepping closer.

“Something like that yes, normally they don’t stick around much, but Victoria was far from normal even before this mess started.”

“Fine, keep an eye on your new glowing friend” Nyx said, “I just need a drink and to actually see my daughter again.”

“You should see about getting the soldiers out of that chopper first”

“Right…”

Back at headquarters things had significantly calmed down.  They weren’t totally done.  There were still demons wandering the city in possessed bodies, but with the major powers done no more were being made.  No more hell gates were being opened and the stragglers were being rounded up and disposed of.
“Any luck with the … patients?” Kate asked.

“Some” Atasi said with an actually smile for the first time in a long time, “most were fully dead, so once we got the demon out, they were just a corpse.”

“That sounds bad”

“Well at least it means the person wasn’t in there suffering.” Atasi said gesturing at a few sleeping forms laying on hospital beds, “Other’s though, we actually managed to save, demon’s gone, they have their bodies back.  No undoing the cybernetics of course, and they probably will need a LOT of therapy, but they are alive.”

“You’ve done amazing things” Kate praised and wrapped Atasi up in a hug, “I honestly wasn’t sure it would even be possible to save any of them after they got borged.

Atasi rested her head against the taller woman’s chest, “Oh you saved plenty by stopping the monsters in charge of this mess.  Things are even cleaned up enough that people have started going home.”

Kate nodded, “I hear Nyx is taking a year of vacation to be with her husband and kid, can’t blame her.  I don’t see Alethea either.”

“I think my sister has locked herself in a room with Skyler on a semi-permanent basis.”

“Lucky guy”

Atasi giggled, “For a given value of ‘lucky’ I suppose.”

“Assuming she doesn’t break him at least then” Kate said, “On the notion of vacations though, how about you? Escaping the lab any time soon?”

“Well I still have some work to do trying to non-lethally, un-possess, people.  But there aren’t many left there.  Afterwards I think I will go back to my room and not leave my bed for a month.”

“Long time to sleep” Kate said, then grinned, “Unless you aren’t talking about just sleeping.”

Atasi blushed, “I was being hyperbolic not… well…. But you know… uh…”

“Yes?  Something wrong?”

“No, nothing wrong” Atasi waved her hand, “just if you… wanted to come with me… I wouldn’t say no.”

“Well I’m not about to say no either, though you should know before… anything… uh… happens that I don’t really…”

“You … you’re a virgin” Atasi finished blushing harder.

“Ya.  That.   So I’d probably need some… pointers…”

“Well, I’m not exactly ‘Mrs. Experienced’ myself” Atasi said, “It could be a bit like the blind leading the blind.  As far as bed stuff goes.”

“We’ll just have to improvise then” Kate said with a grin, “I can barely wait.”