(Continued from The More Things Change...)

She had been watching the two demons fight waiting for her time to strike. It was pure providence that these particular two were beating the living Hell out of each other. She particularly had a connection with these two demons as she was also in the dreaded alley when it seemed like everything including they're former friendship fell apart. She was once Wonder Girl, she was once Harm's girlfriend, but now she was neither. She was Cassandra, and during the years she'd gotten a knack for killing demons. She had to if she was going to take down one specifically. It wasn't like she hadn't tried to give Harm a chance, she did, and he returned the favor by killing Cissie and Traya, then going off to Hell to do Lord knows what.

Looking back to a teenage girl Cassandra made a motion and the girl moved up next to her. The girl's name was Lian Harper, daughter of Arsenal, though she just went by Lian. They threw away their identities when they became demon hunters. But this was the apex, the initial reason for they're collective obsession with demons. Cassandra usually wouldn't have wanted Lian to be with her on a mission this dangerous, but she needed to have someone she trusted as backup and this time it was with good reason. Lian would be able to handle the angel, but Harm...Harm was all hers. They were just waiting for the perfect time to attack.

Harm and Duo stood right across from each other with their hands on each other's necks both trying to choke the other one out. While Harm had the advantage of superior stength, Duo had the advantage of the energy fingers which were steadily digging their way into Harm's neck. It was quite obvious neither of them really cared whether they died or not, they wanted to take the other one to Hell with them. But an arrow that suddenly went through Duo's arm as well as the gun shot that went into Harm's shoulder distracted them both. "I don't know how you got any of your allies all the way out here, but..." "Harm...you...idiot! If they were my allies why would they shoot me too?" Harm didn't have a reply as he let go of Duo's neck and she did the same trying to pull the arrow out of her arm. There was something weird about it, sure it hurt but there was more...it was burning her more and more even after she painfully pulled it out.

Harm on the other hand felt more than burning from the bullet that remained in his shoulder. It began to throb and by the time Harm realized he really should have gotten that bullet out of his shoulder, it had exploded taking his shoulder and to be honest the whole arm with it. Cassandra and Lian stepped out of hiding to Duo and especially Harm's suprise. "C-Cass?" Harm stammered as he fell onto his knee holding the area where his arm should be. "It's been awhile, lover. I prefer Cassandra now." Cass coldly stated as she unholstered the gun on her left holster to match the one she already fired in her right hand. Not only did the bullets explode but they were magic based, he wouldn't be able to just pull them out. Harm's eyes began to narrow, he hadn't seen Cassie since she left after they're last...fight, she'd obviously trained to fight his kind but this fight was only going to end up like they're last one. With him the victor.

Harm's eyes flashed white and there was a huge flash that momentarily blinded everyone else. After it dissipated, Harm stood good as new, sword in hand. "I missed you, baby." Harm taunted as he edged towards Cassandra, to have her raise her guns to him once more, if she could take him out at long distance that would be just the way to go. "Seems like you found ways to keep yourself busy." Cassandra said as she gave a glance to the battered, Duo, her former friend. But this demon was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Giving a nod, Lian jumped into action with a kick across Duo's facem, flooring her. As soon as Harm turned to see what was happening to Duo, Cassandra pulled the trigger on her guns repeatedly sending those magical bullets, hoping to blow up Harm. But this time they weren't as effective as Harm used his demonic speed and his sword to deflect the bullets with a cocky smirk. Meanwhile Duo was just getting up to see the teenage girl looking intently upon her. Cassie had returned as well and was trying to kill her, it was what she deserved, but obviously time and pain had molded Cass and she wasn't the same Wonder Girl she had known. And who knew what her partner here would do when they realize that Supersonic was still alive. She hadn't done much of worth in her life, but Duo wasn't going to let anyone close to her suffer ....not anymore.

Harm could only smile as he circled Cassandra waiting to strike. This was so perfect he couldn't have planned it any better if he tried. Not only would he get the chance to slaughter Duo, but now he got the chance to kill his former girlfriend as well. In contrast to Harm's smile Cassandra's face was stern, emotionless. She wasn't enjoying this in the slightest but it was something that had to be done. She'd even gone to the point of urging Robin to leave him alone so she'd be the one to take him out. These bullets weren't working now that Harm knew what to expect, but his overconfidence would be the downfall.

"Oh baby, come on. Can't you do better than this? All that time you've been gone, you must have learned more than exploding bullets? Maybe I should see how good you are..." Suddenly, Harm disappeared into the shadow of one of the bullets. There was a few moments of silence except for the ongoing battle between Duo and Lian, suddenly Harm appeared in front of Cassandra grabbing her face. "...Or maybe you want the contact to be a little...closer." "Or maybe I wanted you to get stupidly cocky and get in close enough for me to do this." Or at least that's what Harm would have heard if his hand wasn't over her face. He might have even been able to get out of the way before he heard a click of a device that looked almost like a high tech handcuff clipped onto Harm's wrist. Taking his hand off of Cassandra's face, he looked slightly confused since the other part of the device was clipped on Cassandra's wrist.

All was revealed as a sudden shock that felt like lightning went from Cassandra to Harm. His yell distracted Duo for just a moment, not for his concern necessarily. But if he was about to die she wanted to see it. But in a fight like this attention is everything. Lian on the other hand wasn't fazed in the slightest and took advantage of the situation by pulling on Duo's braid with a hard knee to the spine. As Duo was falling, Lian moved swiftly pulling the mini crossbow off her side and firing an arrow into Duo's shoulder pinning her to the ground. "I know all about you. Cassandra told me you had a thing for pinning people with your spears. Thought the irony would be...appropriote...." Duo glared up at the teenage girl and tried to return the favor by forming spears of her own, but she was too exhausted. These arrows were coated with something and whatever it was it was draining her energy.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Lian shouted as she was shot with an electric blast. She quickly turned to Cassandra wondering if it was her to see that it was the one who had been lying on his back almost the entire time. Supersonic wasted no words as he circled Lian at a blinding speed delivering multiple blows. "M-Marxy?" Duo stammered as she looked at her friend saving her once more, though who knows why he did it. It was her fault that he was like this. "...you...okay?....." Super said as he was by Duo in a flash. She smiled up at him, "..Yes...I am now." Though she didn't mean that physically, she was almost positive that those arrows were poisoned. But it wasn't chemical, like Cassandra's weapons they seemed to be both mechanical and magical. Supersonic pulled out the arrow and put his hand over Duo's wound, she didn't know what he was doing but she was beginning to get some of her energy back.

This was shortlived as soon Lian's ammunition was aiming as Supersonic. But luckily the arrows couldn't pierce Super's skin. He basically used himself as a human sheild to protect Duo. Duo's eyes went wide as she heard Super whisper the words. "..I'm....so sick of this..." It was a coherent sentence, was he faking all this time? He couldn't have been, she had sensed his soul, it was sincere. Something about the battle had...slowly shaken him out of it. Turning slowly toward Lian, Super's eyes flamed brightly. His mind had been locked away behind the insanity so long, but he was annoyed, he was tired and probably most importantly he was seriously pissed off.

You'd think that he'd have been angry with Duo for the state he was in. But even in his insanity he saw her as a friend. He didn't have her soul reading power, but somehow he knew that she wasn't fighting for herself, she was fighting to defend him. Maybe that's the reason he went the extra mile to regain himself, maybe he saw her defending him as an appology and defending her would be his way of accepting it. The maybes don't really matter when you think about it. The point is that he's tired of all the death and killing and betrayl. He's sick of it. And now Lian was about to feel what extended years of frustration can do to a person.

Meanwhile, you'd think that Cassandra would be smiling as she had Harm on the floor striking him with multiple strikes of lightning from her to him. But she wasn't, she had the same emotionless expression that she'd had the entire fight. Try as he might, no matter how hard Harm tried to shadowport away, he needed to focus to do it, and with all the strikes he didn't have any time to think. Like seemingly all of Cassandra's arsenal there was something odd about those lightning strikes, regular lightning wouldn't be able to hurt him like this. Lying almost motionless on the floor Cass didn't stop her onslaught of electricity. She knew Harm well enough to know that until he was dead, he could always come back.

This was proven as finally Harm mustered up his strength to pull Cassandra towards him and deliver a hard headbutt to her. The moment of acknowledgement was all he needed, as he delivered a kick to the side of Cassie's head knocking her to the floor. All the blasts had definitely weakened him but thanks to how close they were because of the handcuffs, he didn't have to use quite as much strength. Pulling on them repeatedly, Harm hit blow after blow onto Cassandra trying to hit her critical points. This is normally where he would have begun to brag but he knew that even though he might have been winning, there was no telling what other suprises Cassandra had up her sleeve. He had to keep this as close to hand to hand as possible....or did he?

A dark smirk formed on Harm's face as his hand began to glow red, his energy transferring to the handcuffs making them hotter. "Agh!" Cassandra yelled as she felt the handcuffs beginning to literally burn her hand off, she gave her wrist a slight twist and the cuffs unlatched on her side giving her some breathing room, or so she thought. Harm took advantage and performed one of his signature moves, of using his super strength to punch his opponent in the stomach and with his fist still there, turning on his energy and blasting them, point blank range. Cassandra flew to the ground, instinctively grabbing her stomach as she once again thanked Zeus for her Wonder-endurance, since that might have killed anyone else. Once again his confidence was getting the better of him as he slowly began to stalk the former Amazon, thinking he was the winner. Cassandra proved him wrong as soon as he got close enough with an uppercut to Harm's jaw.

Just because she preferred to use her magical devices to weaken Harm didn't mean in the slightest that she couldn't fight. Cassandra had been trained by the Amazons before she left them to find other ways to take out demons, she could handle herself quite well in hand to hand. Delivering punch after punch, kick after kick, the two combatants laid into each other neither one backing down in the slightest. Looking at the two of them you'd never know that they had fallen in love with each other, that they'd kissed on the Ferris Wheel or that Harm had given Cassie a teddie bear at the same carnival named "Billy" for good luck. You'd think that you were looking at two sworn enemies having they're final battle, winner takes all. There's a thin line between love and hate, indeed.

Back on the other side of the field, despite Supersonic's rage and superior power, Lian proved that she was a force to be reckoned with. She'd been trained by Cassandra to fight the worst of demons, so while Supersonic hadn't been an expected obstacle, she rose to the challenge. Supersonic may have been faster and stronger, but it seemed everytime he'd go for a blow or an electical blast, she'd interrupt it with either a suprisingly powerful blow herself or using on of her many devices. At the moment she was using there daggers that had a strange green aura around them. They had been particularly useful since they could get past Super's invulnerability as his multiple wounds showed. At one point she seemingly had Super beat until a red energy spear stopped her in her tracks. Super had been able to suck out most of the poison, which although magical in nature still held the same principles as regular poison.

And while Duo might have objected to it at the time, Supersonic had also forced just a little bit more of his essense into her for energy. While it may not have been as effective as food, it was enough for the moment. Lian not only had to worry about Supersonic, but Duo who was gradually regaining her strength. This may have seemed like a total mismatch but the fact of the matter was that demons rarely travelled alone, this wasn't the first time she'd have the odds stacked against her and if she had anything to say about it, then it wouldn't be the last either. Duo did her best to launch spear after spear as Supersonic buzzed around the spears attacking inbetween. Lian growled slightly as it seemed that even though Super had just started fighting again, the two were working so well together. Duo kept the long distance shots, while Super, who could take the most damage stayed in close. Of course the reason behind this was that some of Super's soul had remained in Duo since the day she killed him, the fact that he put more of it into her only strengthened their bond.

Reaching behind her, Lian threw what looked like an explosive device towards Duo, but before it could get to her, Super had already caught it. But this turned out to be Lian's plan, since the moment Super touched the device, it popped open but there wasn't an explosion. A pink goop burst out of the device and covered Supersonic. Try as he might no matter what he morphed his hands into he couldn't slice out of it, it had successfully bound him up like a mummy. Knowing this would distract Duo, Lian threw one of the glowing dagger which went right through Duo's arm. Duo tried not to acknowledge the pain, but knew from experience that she needed to get that dagger out fast and did just that. But as soon as it was pulled out an electrical shock went from the dagger through her body as she fell to the floor. Lian gave the dagger she still had in her hand a quick twirl as she went in for the kill.

Supersonic continued to struggle against the pink goop but it seemed to be in vain. Until an idea triggered in his mind. Using his claws, he sliced off a tiny piece of the goop and absorbed it into his arm. Now he was able to morph his arm and his head into the same substance and absorbed the rest of it. When he could finally see clearly, he saw Lian about stab Duo with one of those glowing knives, "Let..her go...!" and like before, not looking behind her proved to be a problem as Super suprised her with yet another electric blast. Looking like nothing but a blur, he sped up to Lian with a swinging kick to the side of her face.

Meanwhile, Harm and Cassandra continued their vicious battle. As even as it looked, Harm was beginning to show some strain. He'd more or less been fighting all day while Cassandra had just started with him. The longer the fight went on like this the more it would favor the former Amazon, and they both knew it. Trying to clear his mind to think of a way to turn the fight around an idea struck him as Harm began to chant through the blows. Knowing this couldn't be good Cassandra started to redouble her efforts and try to stop him midspell, but it turned out to be too little too late.

Soon Cassandra found it very difficult to move and then impossible. Harm's trademark smirk appeared on his face. "High level holding spell." He said obviously proud with himself, even if it was somewhat cheap. But really that's the good thing about being evil, you can be cheap and it's not so bad because it's expected. Of course what Harm didn't expect is that like Lian's daggers, the handcuffs that were still connected to Harm's wrist served another purpose. "N-now!" As soon as the struggled words fell from Cassandra's lips, the handcuffs sent a huge shock of Cassandra's lightning through Harm before exploding, blowing off Harm's hand as well as throwing him to the floor and breaking his control over the holding spell.

She immediately went for an attack but Harm unexpectedly launched right at her, driving her to the ground this time. Wrapping his hand around her neck, he began to apply more and more strength to the choke, momentarily taking time to heal his hand. Though that moment was enough for Cassandra to hit Harm with a blow to his stomach but it wasn't enough to get Harm off of her as he continued the the choke and pulling back his other hand, charged it with red energy. It was the moment he'd been waiting for. Cassie was helpless under him and one blast away from oblivion. "Bye bye, baby." Cassandra merely looked up at him with hatred, she had hoped that this time would be different, but Harm still won... He looked into her eyes one last time before he unleashed his Hellborn power, until he realized...he couldn't do it.

"DAMMIT!" Harm swore as he took his hands off of Cassandra who gasped for air, while glaring at Harm in confusion. He had her, the fight was over, what was his game? Her confusion only rose when she looked closer at Harm to see that he looked genuinely frustrated. "I don't know what you're pulling but I'm not going to fall for it!" Cassandra said as she was still prepared to fight, but oddly enough Harm had his guard completely dropped, it had to be some kind of trap. "...Whatever...just...kill me already..." Cassie's eyes narrowed as she looked at Harm, feeling that she figured out his plan. He stopped fighting thinking that she wouldn't attack him without him defending himself. Reaching down on the floor she picked up one of her guns and aimed it at Harm. "Too bad you didn't give this same chance to Cissie and Traya.."

"I DIDN'T KILL THEM!" Harm shouted with such ferocity that it suprised not only Cassandra but stopped the ongoing fight between Supersonic, Duo and Lian. Every impulse told Cassandra to pull the triggers, just kill him then and there so she could rest in peace. "You didn't kill them. You honestly expect me to believe that? You called them out, a bunch of demons appear out of nowhere and next thing you know they're dead and you apparently went off into a portal. If you didn't kill them yourself you were behind it!" Her hand twitched slightly, trying to pull the trigger but the fact was that she wanted to talk about this before it was over. "But I wasn't! I tried to stop them! Think about it Cass! Why would I do something like that knowing you'd hate me! Dammit, I-..." Immediatly a shot was fired, but it purposely missed.

"So help me, Harm if you were going to say you loved me I'm going to blow your head off your *&#$ing shoulders!" Harm seemed even more visually frustrated as he slowly walked closer to Cassandra never taking his eyes off hers. "Cass...you've known me since I was good, evil and....now. When have I ever lied to you?" "DAMMIT HARM, YOU'RE LYING NOW! IF YOU DIDN'T KILL THEM WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!?" Harm let out a sigh as he looked as his former love. "I...called Cissie and Traya because I...-" "SPIT IT OUT!" "I wanted to get you back, okay! They were the closest ones to you except Duo! But those demons came and wanted me to go with them, something about my father wanting to see me, but I didn't want to go! But there were too many of them... I tried to stop them but Cissie and Traya got killed in the crossfire. They probably would have attacked the rest of the school if I wouldn't have gone..."

"IF THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING IN ALL THIS TIME?" "...you never gave me a chance to." Once more Cassandra wanted to pull the trigger, he was lying...he had to be. "That...that's not true..." By now Harm was literally in front of Cassandra and had moved the gun so that the barrel was right at his chest. "..I guess I didn't give you much reason to think otherwise...but you were so convinced I was evil you didn't really give me a chance to defend myself... And look at us now, even when I tell the truth you don't believe me... I brought it on myself really. I guess I didn't help matters later on when we fought, but...I found out something about my father...my biological father...and...it just...really wasn't the time to call me evil and accuse me of killing the two that I tried my best to save...Look. Cassie if you really don't believe me just pull the trigger. I deserve as much anyway..."

Cassie's eyes were beginning to water as she threw her arms around Harm dropping the gun. She didn't care anymore, if this was just a trick that he was using to kill her at least she could cling to the idea that he wasn't evil...well completely evil anyway. Oddly enough Harm had the same idea as he returned the embrace, while the others simply watched the two of them confused as all Hell. "So...what do we do now..?" Harm released just enough of the embrace to look Cassie in the face with what looked like the starts of a genuine smile on his face. "..well...I guess we do what we can to help The League...but there's something I want to ask you first." Cassie gave Harm a warm smile as she looked back at him. "Yes Will, I still love you." Harm gave Cassie a passionate kiss before he pulled away slightly. "Actually...that wasn't the question..." With that, much to Cassie's suprise, Harm's costume disappeared and he was Will once again. But even more shocking, he was getting down on one knee.

"Oh!" "My!" "GOD!

"Will what are you doing?!" Cassandra said as she stood still almost like she was paralyzed. They had been trying to kill each other less than 5 minutes ago, he couldn't really be.. "What does it look like I'm doing?" Harm said as he gave her a warm smile. He couldn't explain it, but ever since he met the amazon she'd always had this hold over him. It was like he was two different people and she always tended to bring out the better of the two. "..Cassie?.." "...um...yes, Will?" Harm opened his hands and a puff a black smoke appeared, as soon as it dissipated, all that was left was a small black box. "Will? This is just so...so sudden. How can you ask what you're about to ask after we just...I've hated you for 3 years, Will. And it doesn't help that you've made it clear that you don't think the League's got a chance at whatever's happening. It's not fair to propose when you think we're going to die anyway.."

"No...that's the perfect time to propose. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure we live through this. I promise. But the fact of the matter is whether we live through this, whether we die, whether we die later trying to stop something else, or if by some weird twist of fate we end up immortal it doesn't matter. I love you Cassie and I want to be with you for however long or short we have to live. Without you in it my life was meaningless. It's like...when you left...you took my heart with you. I know...I know you can do better than me. A lot better than me in fact, but.." "Will...just shut up and ask the question..." A smirk crossed Harm's face as he looked up at Cassie. "Cassie, will you marry me?" Looking at Cassandra you could tell that if this was a ploy by Harm to butter up Cassie so he could kill her, boy was it working. "Of course I will.."

As the two embraced each other in a kiss, Supersonic looked back and forth between Duo and Lian, not quite sure what to do. Really, the thing to do would probably be to clap but there were only three of them there, it would seem kinda...stupid. Not to mention it might ruin the moment. But the three of them couldn't help but to smile as it seemed in a world full of violence and death, love still finds a way. But the sad truth is, as strong as love is. Sometimes it just isn't enough. At first nobody knew where it came from, a red energy blast headed towards the newly engaged couple. On first glance it seemed that this had been a ploy by Harm, that he'd become not only senselessly cruel, but one Hell of an actor, pun intended. But it became quickly obvious that this wasn't the work of Harm.

"W-Will? WILL!" But he wasn't there anymore, the energy beam had sliced through Harm like a hot knife through butter, leaving the demon nothing but ash. It had happened so quickly that he couldn't have defended against it if he wanted to, and it turned out the same could be said for Cassandra. Another red blast came through not even giving Cass the chance to really let it sink in that her fiancee was dead. Duo, Supersonic and Lian stood open eyed looking at the remains of the two before finally looking at the source. "Wow...that was so Shakespearian. But I thought I should at least have let her answer the proposal, I'm not completely heartless ya know." Duo and Super had the most confused looks on their faces as they looked at the teenage girl who called herself Wraith. This made no sense, sure she'd shown a dislike for Harm but why kill him after he turned back to the side of good? Why kill Cassie too? "I know. You're probably wondering why, right? Fact of the matter is, I'm not a nice person. Plus it would take too long for me to explain it. Just take pleasure in the fact that I didn't kill the archeress too because of guilt by association. Of course you and Duo were safe to begin with, Marxy. Been nice seeing you again but I gotta go. The next world's calling for me as I'm sure it's calling those two piles of ash right now."

And with a dark laugh the mysterious girl disappeared leaving the three remaining metas...heroes...whatever once more looking confused as they saw the wind blowing away the remains of the two, their collective ashes blowing away together, once more joined together at least in death. Lian dropped to her knees as the tears began to well up in her eyes. Cassandra had been her teacher, her mentor, the closest thing she had to a mother, and now she was gone. Lian looked up as he felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Super looking down on her. "I know this isn't a good time, but we should go. The others need our help and I'll be damned if I'm going to have anymore people dying on me. I'm sick and tired of all this death." He clasped Duo's hand as she nodded, she knew he was right too. Harm might have been one evil S.O.B but he didn't deserve that, and Cassie..she'd just gotten her life back just to get it taken away again. But they were going to help The League before their death, so the best the three of them could do would be to continue with that plan, and if they survived, find Wraith and have a little "talk". Super held out his hand to Lian, who wiped the tears from her eyes and accepted it. Morphing his hand into a mechanical device a portal appeared and out of it a familiar cycle came through.

"Um...hey. It's...good to see you..." Super wanted to smile as he looked at his cycle. He hadn't seen Electro since he snapped, who knew what the cycle had to do to get by in that time. "It's been awhile. The ladies need a ride." Had this been a few years ago, Electro probably would have made a perverted comment at the statement but looking at Super's face he knew it wasn't the time. "Yes, sir. The more things change huh?" "I hope not Electro. This world couldn't change fast enough if you ask me." And with that there were two electric streaks heading towards Colorado, in hopes that they'd be able to change the world for the better.

The End
(or is it? Might work on finishing "What If..." as well. Have to reread it first though.)

>_> I dont mean to spam, but, can someone help me figure who to like make story lines and bassicly how to work the rpg and story lines please. :mellow:

Sure thing man. I'm in class right now. *looks around suspiciously* Shhhhhhhh. But I'll PM you after it's done. :D

(( This was an absolutely awesome possible story ending, by the way. Just wanted to let you know you did a great job with its writing. ^_^ ))

(Awww glad you liked it. I'll finish the others as well...eventually...)

(( ......there are others?))

(A couple I haven't started yet. There's a couple of cool stories that were just never finished.)

(( Ah, I imagine that happens-good stories never being finished-when the rps depend on so many people managing to post within reasonable timeframes. And then, also, the fairy of inspiration sometimes decides to flit away at random moments. I think it has ADD ))

((I think we all have ADD aswell....))