As soon as Izzy drew the sword, the eyes of the monster in front of her (was it the Wolf? Trevor? Did it matter anymore?) widened in shock, but quickly narrowed into a murderous glare. Just as Izzy lunged, it too made its move against Izzy, striking with such speed that she was barely even able to track with her eyes. As it came into the range of the blade, Izzy was just able to slash it from shoulder to hip. Whether it was by pure luck, the monster's overconfidence, or by some grace of the vampire blood in her, Izzy was unable to say. The blow was shallow, but she had struck it, and the slightest amount of relief settled into Izzy as she felt the blade make contact.

However, that relief lasted perhaps the smallest amount of time that she was mentally able to comprehend. The aberration's advance was not halted by her blow, its momentum carrying forward its attack. It slashed at her with its clawed hand, the speed and strength of the blow feeling like a gale-force wind. An excruciating pain bloomed across Izzy's abdomen, and she was set flying back dozens of feet, eventually smacking into the outside wall of the school building.

As soon as her vision had stopped blurring, Izzy was able to see two things. In front of her there seemed to be two figures, one sprawled on the ground, and one standing over it. However, she squinted to focus at the scene, and the sight was an alarming one. The prone figure was the aberration, writhing on the ground and clutching its torso, obviously wracked in pain. The standing figure was not a person at all. They were Izzy's legs, still standing, as the muscles and tendons had locked from sheer shock. Looking down at herself, Izzy saw that the aberration had savagely cut her in half at the waist, and a tremendous trail of blood and organs spanned the distance between her and her disembodied legs.

Shock was setting in quickly, and the pool of blood under her was growing rapidly. However, there was practically nothing she could do. The pain was so great and the wound so severe, she was practically paralyzed where she laid, propped up against the side of the school. Her legs eventually toppled over, and the aberration continued to roll around in agony, mewling incoherently. There was no visible wound that Izzy could see, but this was natural. The Aberration Slayer had cut the aberration, not Trevor. To that extent, at least, her plan had succeeded. Perhaps it was worth it. Perhaps she had saved Trevor, and dying for his sake had made it worthwhile.

However, something wasn't right. The Wolf's anguished cries turned to screams, and then to roars. An unstable power seemed to surround it, as far as Izzy could sense. Much like a candle burning brighter the moment before it is snuffed out, the Wolf was giving its all into one last, defiant act. Even when dying, it was still an aberration, and it was tearing Trevor's human mind apart. Their union had begun to malfunction.

Trevor's scream began to mingle with the roar of the Wolf, overlapping, synchronizing. Focusing as hard as she could to see the scene, Izzy saw something that defied explanation. The Wolf itself was manifesting physically, but only as much of it that had been cut apart from Trevor. Fur had grown up along his extremities, and his hair had grown out into a long, dense mane. Emerging from his chest as though it were bursting out from within him was the Wolf itself, a spectral canine form that gnashed its fangs and howled defiantly, giving Trevor the disturbing approximation of having two heads. This wasn't right at all. The plan had all gone wrong, and Izzy was already dying, with nothing she could do about it.

[i]"Foolish servant. If you cut the power, of course the machine will break."[/i]

Izzy had an auditory hallucination, presumably from her pain and blood loss. A hallucination in which [i]he[/i] rebuked her. Hallucination had to be correct, as in that moment Izzy noticed that the vampire child had abruptly appeared standing before her. So suddenly had he appeared, that the question was not how long he had been there, but if he even [i]was[/i] there. Such was the indefinite nature of aberrations. But he didn't speak, even now. This bedeviling child, the shadow of the former Cerasus Orion Damocles, wouldn't possibly speak to her.

[i]"What an absurd use for my prized blade. You have made a beef brisket of this aberration. It makes me laugh."[/i]

Perhaps the hallucination would have continued, but the child suddenly plucked off his own left arm. As if pulling the arm off of a toy. Of course, he was not a toy, so his red blood flowed out in a tremendous amount, and he splashed Izzy with it like a priest sprinkling holy water. There is healing power in vampire blood, and so in a miraculous manner, Izzy's lower body and legs grew back out from underneath her. Her clothes even wove themselves over her regenerated flesh, as the half-corpse she left a few yards away evaporated into thin air. Izzy realized then that this was the extent to which she had returned the child's power. Cerasus had always been leagues more powerful than her, and so even a fractional return of that power was still immense.

[i]"Same as ever, you can only see what's in front of your eyes. You've forced me to live, servant, don't think that I'll let you die."[/i]

The child stuck its arm back in place, again like putting a toy back together, and took the blade that had been clutched in Izzy's hand.

[i]"I will show you how it is done. [b]This[/b] is how you use the Aberration Slayer."[/i]

The vampire child strode up to the howling Wolf, silent as ever, but with all of the bearing of a king. He looked somewhat absurd with the blade twice as tall as he was, but handled it with the utmost confidence. The Wolf was much to preoccupied with its own troubles to notice him much, and so put up no resistance when the child skewered it through the chest, stabbing the Wolf's emerging form straight through the mouth. He pushed the blade further, pinning Trevor's body to the ground with the sword, like a butterfly in a display case. The utterly trapped abberation could do nothing as the child latched onto its neck, digging his fangs into Trevor's flesh. The Wolf attempted to drain the child's power, but it sucked all of the Wolf's energy right back. They attempted to devour each other, but in comparing the small-fry Wolf to the King of Aberrations, there was no contest.

The white fur along his limbs and the wolf growing out of Trevor's chest disappeared as the White Wolf, and the Wolf alone, was devoured. It was being absorbed by the vampire child. The embodiment of Trevor's stress was being absorbed. White hair turned back, fangs and claws and dog-ears disappeared, and Trevor was left lying on the ground as though he had fallen asleep in his underwear. As soon as the Wolf had disappeared fully, the vampire child disappeared with his sword, as though neither of them had ever been there.

Despite her returned lower body, Izzy had still lost a great amount of blood, and her consciousness was fading. As her world was growing black, she noticed a man standing over her. Weird smell, sandals, it was Riley. He picked her up in his arms, carrying her like a child, and spoke to her gently.

"There, there, let's get you home. I'll take care of the rest, just sleep. Everything is gonna be just fine."

However, with the last of her awareness before blacking out, she heard Trevor mumble, as though he was talking in his sleep, "No, none of this is fine." Trevor was right, as always.

[center][u]The next day...[/u][/center]

Izzy awoke in her bed, the same as always, with her brothers roughhousing downstairs. Alive, intact, and while considerably groggy, none worse for the wear despite her flirtations with death. Even so, she could not yet relax, as there were a great number of loose ends she needed to tie up.