"Hey, E! I have finally returned. Andy said I couldn't until a couple of weeks, which I don't understand why." Angie seems much happier as she makes her way into the room.
"It's good to see you again." I smile, the pain that has been pulsing through my body is easy to ignore now.
"Oh my-!" She hurries as fast as her body can move to me. From the terror on her face I can only assume that I look absolutely horrific.
"...E-ethan..." Her voice trembles.
"I'm okay, don't worry about it." I close my eyes briefly.
"Ethan, don't close your eyes!" I can make out her hands against my face.
"I'm just resting them." I feel so faint.
"Hang on, Ethan!"
Angie sounds a bit muffled and once again I can only be greeted by losing consciousness.

"Angie, what happened?" There's a voice I don't recognize speaking.
"...Andy has been beating the Songbird while you were gone." I recognize Angie's voice next to me, "Are? Are we doing the right thing? This seems a little much don't you think??"
"Actually I've been wanting to talk to you about that." The second voice makes their way closer. "From my few weeks spent with the others, I haven't seen any of that rage that Andy is always talking about. They seem pretty peaceful and there's a whole basement full of healthy and happy children."
"Wait, really??" Angie asks the same question I was thinking.
"Yeah." The voice confirms.
"Maybe we should tell them that Ethan is here? Maybe Andy is wrong??" Angie questions.
"How long has he been unconscious?" The second voice asks.
"It's been a day since you returned Trixie. He's been out since then, the other doctors say that he lost a lot of blood and they can't heal his scars."
"If we tell the others, it'll definitely start a fight." Trixie groans, annoyed, "His friends are very protective of their groups. And he seems to have some kind of relationship, or the start of one, with the stone giant."
The room falls silent briefly.
"Can we force him awake?" Trixie asks.
"Why would we do that?"
"I'm not sure, I just have a strange feeling that everything is about to get a lot more complicated." Trixie shifts and I can hear her pace the room, "I think you should join them down in the basement. You don't need to be on the upper floors if a fight breaks out."
"So it's time to expose him." Angie sounds upset, almost heartbroken.
"It is. I can pose as Songbird until he is delivered back to Felix." Trixie states.
"How are we to get him out? Andy knows everything." Angie asks.
"Andy may be our leader but it doesn't mean that he is liked by everyone." Trixie replies, "Prepare him to be moved. I'll be back with help."
"Okay." Angie sounds a little happier.
I felt something begin to shift around on my body. I groan and try to open my eyes; briefly catching a glimpse of Angie unhooking machines.
"Don't worry E, we'll get you out of here safely." Angie mutters softly.
I wasn't worried.
I just wish I could wake up more to be involved.

"Is that Ethan?"
I recognize Felix's voice.
"Yeah, Andy had captured him and had my twin pretend to be him to keep you off the trail." Angie admits.
"You what!" Felix growls.
"How did you even get past Andy?" Jack's voice swings in.
"My sister is putting her life on the line. She's taking his place in the bed while Joshua here helped me carry him to you." Angie explains.
"We need to get him to Amy and May immediately." I can feel Mark's touch as he probably moves to get me to the medical ward.
"I ought to tear you limb from limb!" I hear Felix shout.
I shake my head, forcing my eyes to open, "D-don't hurt her..."
"E, you're awake!" I hear Angie as she makes her way to me.
"... don't hurt her..." I repeat.
It was hard to think clearly and the hallway lights were burning my eyes.
Her warm touch makes my head clear and I let out a breath, "We have other things that are more important. Mark, it was Andy."
"What was Andy?" He asks as the group begins to head back to the medical ward.
"The reason for the slaughter." I answer.
Mark stops completely in his tracks staring straight at me. I couldn't read his expression. "...what?"
"He sort of admitted it to me while I was captured. He explained that he was once a scientist and helped make the experimental testing on everyone." I try to explain what's fresh in my mind.
"Andrew was responsible for telling them about our escape? The slaughter was not my fault?" Mark's voice comes out in a hushed breath.
Jack makes his way to Mark but doesn't get close enough before his own body transforms. The tail snakes from his back side as horns grow from his skull.
The inhuman screech that comes from him sounds like a crying wail.
Felix shoved the rest of us behind him, "Stay back!"
Mark hadn't moved.
Tears begin to stream down his face.
Clearly he was suffering but why was Jack affected?
Jack wails again and then raced off in the direction we had just come from.
"Jack-!" Felix called but it was too late.
Mark turns around and goes to follow his partner, his body morphing into that of his demon form.
"That's not good." Felix grumbles and then turns back to us, "We need to get back to everyone else and make sure we evacuate as many as we can!"
"What happened??" I ask.
"You may have told them the truth but it only broke them further." Felix replies, beginning to pick up his speed. He groans softly as some of his body was beginning to change as well.
"What's happening to you?" Angie asks him.
"I may be the second Songbird, but Mark was built differently. He broke the most out of all of us, his sadness and rage will affect us." Felix tries to explain, "It's why Jack originally broke. Sure the slaughter hurt him but to see his own partner shattered..." He stumbles slightly, before shifting to smash himself into a wall. The pain shifting his mood, to slow down his change.
"I don't know how much help I will be. If I completely change, I will lose my senses. Get to Tyler, he knows exactly what to do in this situation. Warn everyone, it's going to be a bloodbath." He slows his run to stop behind us.
"If I follow you I will only be a danger to everyone." He grits his teeth, his eyes beginning to change as another wail from Jack echoes down the hallway; sending chills down everyone.

Angie slams the door open to the cafeteria, gaining the attention of everyone. Bob jumps up from his seat, my thoughts reaching him first.
"Tyler, evacuate!"
Tyler's head snaps up from his book, and then hurries to a part of a wall, beginning to smash it.
"This way everyone, quickly quickly!" Wade urges everyone to hurry through the open way that Tyler made through the wall. "We have five minutes!"
"GO GO GO!!" May takes the lead through the path.
Tyler makes his way over to Joshua, "Ethan? What is happening?"
"I don't have time to explain everything but Mark, Jack, and Felix have gone off to fight Andy." I rushed out, "Felix told us that you knew what to do."
Tyler nods, "Follow May, she'll lead you to a safe place."
"What about you?" I grabbed his arm before he could take off.
"I have a duty to fulfill, whatever you do, do not follow me." He patted my hand, giving me a smile that always made my stomach fill with a giddy feeling but now it felt like worry.
"But-" I start and he shakes his head, "No buts, do not follow."
He lets go of my hand and then took off in the direction we had come from.
"Tyler!" I yell, "Joshua! Put me down!"
"I can't! Tyler said not to follow." Joshua counters, tightening his grip on me.
"Josh, E, let's go!" Angie whimpers as she makes her way through the pathway.
"We can't leave him!" I yelp.
"He's a guardian Ethan, he'll be alright." Wade tries to comfort me as we are the last through the hole in the wall and a couple behind us seal it shut.
"Go, go! Don't stop!"
Everyone's voices were beginning to merge together. It was bringing my headache back. The building began to shake and I could feel the flow of energy. The rage and the sadness.
It felt like it was pulling at something deep within my chest.
The large group swiftly filtered their way through the hall/pathway through the walls and began to descend the stairs.
We must be headed to the basement.
"I'm worried about them."
I hear Angie mutter.
She must be worried about her sister.
Wait, her sister! Trixie could die at their hands!
"Put me down!" I demand.
Joshua, shocked, slowed and placed me down in the ground, "What's wrong?"
"We have to go back!"
"We can't, they sealed it off."
"Trixie could be in danger!"
Joshua grumbles quietly, everyone had already left us behind.
He looked torn between the two decisions before turning around and heading back the way we came, "This is stupid."
I hurry after him, my body protests, but I ignore it.
By the time I caught up to him, Joshua already had the sealed hole open again.
"They are going to chew my ass out for this."

It took a while but we finally found where the battle was taking place.
Andy looked absolutely terrifying.
Tyler looked strange.
His rock skin now had very sharp pieces sticking out of his shoulders and upper back.
Blood was everywhere.
On the walls, the ceiling, and the floor beneath them.
Mark was kneeling next to Jack, who was harboring a wounded side.
Felix stood slightly in front of Tyler.
"He looks pretty banged up." Joshua whispers as he gestures to Andy.
I nod as I take in how the once scientist looked. Some of his black tar skin was missing from his body, revealing the human underneath.
"They must be overpowering him." I whisper back.
"Let's find Trixie and get out of here." Joshua gestures for me to crawl after him as we make our way around the fight, using broken furniture to hide behind.
"Why did you do it!" Felix demands.
"Research purposes." Andy chuckles, "Why else? You are all just pawns in a chess game. Moving pieces here and there is simple. Placing people where you want them is easy and breaking them is even easier."
"We used to be friends and you did all of this just to see what would happen!" Felix screams. The aura in the room is tense and it makes my chest constrict.
"I did. See, watching the Songbirds turn into something useful was very interesting. You went from helpless singers to demons. Creatures capable of destroying anything in your path and all it took was a little bit of rage." Andy smirks.
"A little bit of rage?" Mark's voice cuts through the tension, "You murdered them! The rage we felt was absolutely uncontrollable!"
"Maybe so but look at you now, you can fly and demolish anything." Andy counters.
" I didn't want to be able to demolish anything! You stole our lives from us! Society will never accept us again!" Jack winces.
"Sometimes you have to pay the price for the greater good." Andy tilts his head back and forth like he's cracking his neck; preparing for the battle.
Felix charges in anger, blinding his weakened senses, and Andy cracks him straight in the ribs before sending him flying into Mark and Jack.
Tyler rushes forward, ducking Andy's fist and catching the man in the jaw with a strong left hook.
Blood flings out of Andy's mouth.
The demon stumbles backwards as Tyler glares at him. He doesn't speak a word to the scientist, who chuckles dryly, "And the failed guardian, still trying to make himself useful. Was it strange to do what you were made to do but it just wasn't enough? They shot you in cold blood and hoped you to die. The very people you were supposed to protect betrayed you. Does the guilt eat you from the inside out? You took Jack's wings. You cut Felix deep, nearly killing him. How does it feel to live with those you've almost killed!?"
He was trying to catch Tyler off guard.
Worm his way under his skin, in his mind. Tyler lets out a heavy breath. A little blood escapes his mouth.
He's injured!?
"What's wrong? Not as strong as you used to be? I guess that reactivating the project was a perfect call." Andy grins smugly and takes a few steps back to distance himself. Tyler may be weakened but he is still quite the foe and Andy had sustained a few injuries.
Mark makes his way next to Tyler.
The two give each other a glance.
They break out into a sprint.
Mark jumps up and throws a flying punch. Andy barely steps to the side, grabbing Mark by his wing, and slicing it with his claws. The painful howl that escaped him hurt my ears.
Andy kicks Mark away and turns to the charging stone giant. "I'm going to finish this!" He thrusts his body forward, his claws turning into a sharp weapon and he catches Tyler straight in the middle of his abdomen!
I watched in utter horror as the attack went straight through him!
The blood splattered on the ground behind him.
I never saw fear in Tyler's eyes before.
He coughed violently and the crimson liquid flung from his mouth.
"TYLER!!!!"
I grip my chest as there's a pop followed by the most unimaginable pain I have ever felt.