The combat demon deflects Victoria's wide over head swing with the head of her hammer, just in time to catch a cosma-augmented gut punch from Jackie. She nearly doubles over, but manages to mostly hang onto her composure and grabs the top edge of his breastplate, tossing him away from herself and turning toward me. Victoria is still getting back to her feet after being knocked to the side. Once she's back in the fray, it'll be much harder for the demon to focus on me, the obvious weak link, but until then I'm just going to have to hold out.

I already know there's no point in seriously attacking here. Much better to focus on evasion, maybe landing some opportunistic blows here and there to throw her off and make her strikes less likely to land. She starts with a wide horizontal swing, and I slide under it. Unfortunately this puts me close enough that she can easily bring the hammer down on top of me, and I'm forced to frantically roll to the side, going for a light slash at her ankle once I've found my feet. She lets out a yell that sounds more annoyed than agonized, and barrels into me, shoulder-first. I admittedly wasn't expecting that, and I take the brunt of the tackle, exhaling most of the air from my lungs in one quick burst.

I decide to let myself be carried by the demon's charge, trying to dig in my heels at this point probably won't do my legs any favors. After a few steps she stops short, tossing me several feet away onto the concrete. I manage a half-decent landing roll to avoid serious injury, and by the time I've regained my footing, Victoria is upon my assailant again. Both her and Jackie are flanking the demon from opposite sides, and I suspect at this point my contribution to this fight has finished. They're both sturdier than me, I doubt they'll have much difficulty.

Sure enough, they're coordinating quite well. Each time she turns to block or counter one, the other darts in for a quick strike to her blind side, and then back out. She can barely lay a finger on them, and she's clearly becoming more and more enraged the longer it goes on.

I leave them to it and go check on Penny, who is still where she fell to the ground earlier, crying profusely. I crouch down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you gonna be alright? I think it might be a good idea to get you out of the building."

She nods and begins to get to her feet, shakily. "I just… I thought I could help them. I thought I could fix my mistake."

I still don't fully understand what's going on between her and that doll, but getting her to safety is more pressing right now. I let her lean on my shoulder and start to walk her to the door. When we're almost there, I hear a thunderous boom from behind us, and turn around just in time to see Jackie and Victoria hit the ground, about 10 feet apart from each other, while the combat demon in the middle of them throws her hammer at us with a giant overhand swing. Immediately I leap to the side, pulling Penny along with me, but a sickening crack followed by a shriek informs me I wasn't quite fast enough. I turn back and see that the hammer hit her lower leg. I'm no doctor, but it's clearly not supposed to be bent like that. I glance back toward where the demon and my allies were fighting, and see her marching purposefully toward me. They're both struggling to get back to their feet, and I think I see Jackie coughing up blood.

"You're not getting away again, angel!" She yells as she marches toward me. "I wouldn't be in any of this mess if it weren't for you, you're not about to just turn and leave!"

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I pull Penny, who's breathing heavily and trying not to put any weight on her injured leg, up to the wall and stand in front of her, sword raised.

"Oh, please! If you were capable of standing up to me I wouldn't be here right now! You barely know how to hold a sword, and you obviously haven't taken proper ownership of that halo or you'd look a hell of a lot more intimidating than you do right now."

Without a word I leap toward her and swing my sword in a wide arc. Jackie and Victoria clearly got injured pretty badly, they're still having trouble rallying. I don't know how much I can really do here, but I've got to try.

Predictably, my attack is easily swatted aside with one hand, and before I've even landed she's delivered a savage punch to my gut with the other. Every last morsel of air is expelled from my lungs, and I feel as though every organ in my torso is ruptured. Probably several of them are.

"Stay down. There's nothing more for you to do here, kid. There never was. Soon you'll all be smeared across the cement, and everything will go back to normal. You should count yourself fortunate that you haven't broken anything that can't be fixed, or you might be facing down a worse fate." Fuck. Has this all just been a waste of time?

I do stay on the ground, simply because I'm struggling to fill my lungs with air, a necessary prerequisite to standing back up. I can only watch in horror as she walks over to where Penny is leaning against the wall, and raises her hammer. It's all I can do to crawl slowly toward her as she prepares to swing.

I'm disgusted with myself. This whole time, all three of these people have been doing everything they can for me, and I haven't been able to offer them anything in return. I've held onto them like a parasite and begged for scraps of help and tried to find shortcuts to get out of this situation. I've never taken any of the responsibility onto myself, and that's really been my problem the entire time. I just wanted out, but that's truly not an option.

I finally manage to swallow a lungful of air, and struggle up onto my hands and knees. As I lunge forward to grab the combat demon's leg, I manage to let out a guttural scream, and the world becomes blindingly bright.

The pain in my chest suddenly becomes much more manageable. It still hurts, to be sure, but I just don't care anymore. I may not be able to see, but I stand up and wrap my arms around the demon, who seems to have been stunned by whatever that sudden bright flash of light was. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I wrench her away from Penny, and to my surprise we both go careening across the factory floor. I manage to force my eyes open, and can see… Much, much more than I'm used to, in every direction. Whatever that light is, it seems to be following me, just above my head. Behind me, which I can for some reason see without turning my head, are a pair of shining, silvery metal wings.

Without a thought, I slam the demon down onto the ground below me and bring a knee down on the back of her head. I can feel her nose break underneath me. I reach an arm out behind me, still looking down at my opponent, and see my sword soar across the room to me. As I grip the handle, the blade erupts into bright yellow flame, almost as bright as the shine above my head that, I'm just realizing, must be issuing from my halo. Neither of us says anything as I plunge the sword into her back. I think she's too stunned to speak, and I no longer have anything to say. The flames eat away at her, and as I let go of the handle, leaving her pinned to the floor by the blade, the light of my halo finally dies back down to its normal glow.

I blink in shock at what just happened, and look down at my arms. My skin is a sterile gray, and eyes have opened all along their length. It doesn't last long, the eyes are sealing themselves and my skin is quickly returning to its original tone. The wings behind me fold themselves against my back, and fade away. Once the last of the changes is gone, I drop down to my knees, suddenly wracked with the pain in my torso again. I'm vaguely aware of Victoria and Jackie making their way over to me, before I pass out. The last thing I feel is the cold cement floor against my cheek. It feels refreshing, comforting even. I sleep restfully for the first time in a long time.