Down the main streets of Phoenixspire stood many shops, inns and homes. People bustled around busily between all of them collecting wares and groceries for their peaceful lives. They smiled and chattered, stopping to gossip with friends and family. Everything was bright and rather normal in the city. Everything except that one shop. No one looked at it. No one went in it. It was as if it were invisible to the eyes of all.

All except Kittiana Youngblood.

Once that particular person wandered down the street, this strange shop would be the most noticeable building in sight. It was not only the magic that would aim to draw her eye, but also the name upon it's welcoming sign.

Doctor Makou's Emporium


A creaky front door would lead straight into a lavishly furnished, yet rather old fashioned room. Various relics and severed heads lined the shelves and walls, leading straight up to a table where a familiar top-hat wearing man would be sat. Opposite him lay a spare seat, one which he would extend his hand towards when the vampire finally entered.

"Miss Youngblood, we meet again." He spoke lowly with that wide grin of his.

Kitty's lips curled up into a snarl, looking at Makou with distaste. She greatly disliked the fact that Makou had a shop in her daughter's kingdom, she didn't want him anywhere near Jaya. "Regrettably." Her voice was also low, but with underlying tones anger and a scowl on her face. "Care to tell me what you're doing in my daughters kingdom?" Her heels made clicking noises as she walked across the wooden floor towards the chair, she didn't sit down, instead she rested her arms on the back of it.

"This is your daughter's kingdom?" Makou raised his eyebrows in a mocking expression, with a tone of voice to match. "I would never have known. Pure coincidence. "He smirked as he leaned back in his chair, letting his hand drop into his jacket's inner pocket to retrieve a pack of cards. "Please take a seat, I insist. We have much to discuss." Passively he began shuffling the cards in his hands, watching Kitty intently all the while.

"I have an offer for you, Miss Youngblood, but first I wanna get to know the real you." By this time he lay the cards down infront of him, retrieving three from the top of the deck. "Won't you entertain my curiosity just for a little while?"

Kitty rolled her eyes, pulling the sl3eves of her jacket up to her elbows before sitting down. "The real me?" She scoffed then leaned forward with a grin of her own, eyes sparkling with malice. "Well if you insist on knowing, the real me wears heals now so I can shove them into people's eyes and gouge them out without lifting a finger." Then the smile disappeared and she leaned back in her chair with a scowl on her face. Her eyes roamed the shop briefly, memorizing exits and things that could be used as weappns. 

Then her eyes flicked back to the tarot cards, "Tarot cards?" The smile on her face this time was slight, and didn't scream of malic3. "My grandmother used to use those."

"Oh they are quite wondrous things, aren't they?" Makou smiled as he spread the three cards before him on the table, eyeing Kitty as he did so. "Let us see what they hold for you, Miss Youngblood." Flipping over the first card he began to commentate; "Your Past."

Kitty's tiny smile turned into a deep scowl at the mention of her families, those were memories she didn't fancy bringing up in such scrappy company. Although when he brought up Dan, Kitty tensed and she looked at the flicked with such a profound longing. She still never had a chance to make things right with him. Then the longing turned to anger, but a calmer quieter one, her eyes flicked back to Makou but her eyes now had slitted pupils. "Can you just carry on already?"

"I get it, touchy subject." Makou let out a low laugh, moving The Tower aside slightly to then reach for the second card. "If you're in such a hurry then it's time for who you are now." As she flipped over the card he commentated again: "The Present."

Kitty just scowled at the man, she knew full well that no place ever quite felt like home and that anytime it started to someone died. Most of her friends were dead or simply out of her reach and far away. Her eyes flirted back to Makou, they had been staring at the ceiling as she thought. "I do." Speaking truthfully seemed like the only option present, he'd probably know if she was lying anyway. But Kitty had given up on the thought of a home, she didn't trust happiness anymore. She was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Then it seems your future is exactly what you wanted," Makou smiled as he reached for the last card, turning it over slowly to reveal it's face.

Kitty chuckled, swirling a lava-like flaming finger around for a moment as an amused grin formed on her face. Did he actually think she would so quickly make another deal with him? "Do pray tell what makes your disgusting little head think I'm going to make a deal with you?" Leaning forward her face turned deadly, the amused expression dropping as fire seemed to seep from the skin of her face, casting odd and freakish glows on her skin. "Besides, even knowing as little as I do. I know there will be a catch."

"Did I not honour our last deal, Miss Youngblood?" Makou smirked knowing his words were technically true. He had as promised imprisoned Sam'anar without killing him, and the others had weakened him as per their end. Now he stared at Kitty, waiting a few moments before he continued. "But you should take my offer, because I can offer the second thing you truly want." A single hand swiped over all three cards, changing the faces of them all.

Kitty's eye twitched and her hair burst into flames, the only sign of her anger as she kept her face a calm and neutral mask. She was going to accept the deal, she already knew she was going to. As pathetic as it was, she wanted to talk to him so badly. Tell him...Hell she didn't know what to tell him. Within the recent period of time she had done a lot of shitty things. "Say I take the deal, what do you want in return?"

"I just need a hand with a small task. You see with your little lover's soul in my possession I have access to everything of his. His mind, his realm, his powers to an extent. Everything... except his vault..." With a wave of his hand Makou shifted the wall behind him, revealing a metallic door with square indents on the walls by each side. He stood up and spun on his heel, reaching a hand out for one of the indents. As it approached the square his skin turned chrome-coloured, mirroring that of Sam'anar's.

"Come, Miss Youngblood, give me a hand and we can have a deal." He smiled slightly more sincerely than before, gesturing with a nod towards the other indent for her hand.

Kitty walked up to the door, but did not put her hand on the indent. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Makou with an accusatory glare. "Just so you know, if you so choose to use any of the items in this vault against Earth, Phoenix Spire, or the planet at the other end of our deal, I will hunt you down and kill you. And should you think this threat is nothing more than words, take a long look at my enemies and where they are. All but one is dead, but only because I chose to let her go." Her tone was monotone, devoid of emotion but her words rung true. This was not simply a threat, but a promise. "So do not think lightly of making me an enemy." 

Then she turned and pressed her hand into the indent.

"There is only one item in his vault, I believe." Makou nodded as she pressed her hand in, causing a shift of mechanisms behind the door. Within moments a soft click rang out, and the door now stood slightly open. "Many thanks, Miss Youngblood." He said, removing his hand from the indent and hold it palm-up towards Kitty. "Now first, your date." Suddenly he blowed on his palm, sending a green dust-like energy at the vampire. 

When it made contact with her she would be blinded for a moment, having to wipe the dust from her eyes to see where she was now. A vast emptiness that looked so familiar, alongside the figure of Dan before her. He was in his human form, looking at her with a great sadness.
"Kitty..."

Meanwhile Makou turned to the vault, prizing open the door to look at what lay inside. There he saw it; the only thing in the small room. Atop a pedestal floating in it's cosmic containment, he reached out and seized it.

The Dagmaer Grimoire.

The Grimoire would be closed when he seized it from its confines, glowing with  reddish black energy that gave it a chaotic nature. The book bucked and wriggled, as if trying to fly out of Makou's hands. Any attempts to pry the book open without the proper blood line, resulted in the book scanning the users weaknesses and pulsating with what would weaken them most. In this case, Holy or Purge magic pulsate from the book towards Makou. 

Meanwhile Kitty saw Dan's face and frowned, it wasn't often that she saw him that sad. She didn't like it. She ram over to him, throwing her arms around him and squeezing him as tight as she could without hurting him. "Moron, why did you break your deal?" She mumbled this and then pulled her head up to look at him. "Why would you make a deal in the first place and why couldn't you go through with it?"

Makou chuckled slightly as he felt the tingling sensation of Purge magic. Feeling as such he let the book floating above his hand safely, examining it as he walking over to the indent where Kitty had pressed her hand. Gracing his hand over the area, a soft glowing light made a scanning-like pattern, drawing the DNA and pattern of her palm and fingers. Then he pulled this essence into his own hand, slipping it into a glass vial on his belt. With the two things he came for obtained, he vanished from the emporium to fulfill his other end of the deal...

Dan chuckled slightly as Kitty called him a moron. 
"I couldn't kill you all. I thought it would be easy simply pressing a button and destroying the planet, but actually killing you with my bare hands, that made me realise how wrong I was." His gaze shifted down. "He promised he would protect Jaya, and that she would be successful and strong if I destroyed the crusade by any means necessary."

"Obviously now I see how deceptive he was, and here I am." He gesture his arms outwards to the empty darkness. "My father's here too, somewhere. It's frightening that Seh'makou has two celestial souls, and gods know what else."

"We can fix this though. Beat him at his own game. Be patience, concentrate on your new kingdom, on Jaya, and on the Union. Makou won't resist offering more deals, and if you manage to outsmart him on one, he'll have been beaten on his own terms."

"Meanwhile I'll try find a way I could return to having a physical body..." His gaze shot to the side, as if he were looking elsewhere through other senses. "It seems Makou has the Grimoire, and intends to trick it into opening with your DNA..." Dan sighed, scratching his chin in thought. "Don't antagonise him about it, I doubt he'll attempt to destroy it or use it on anyone. Believe it or not he's not out to destroy the galaxy."

"He just thinks it's his playground..."

"Oh, I've already got a plan for Makou. I just need to gather some ingredients. Make a few deals with other less than pleasant people..." Kitty trailed off and winced, pressing a hand to her forehead. "You can't ignore me forever Kitty Kat, did you really think you could get rid of me? A spell and poof?"  Behind Dan a glitch in the empty blackness seemed to appear, it looked like something you'd see from a television screen. The glitch grew bigger, until it took on the form of a person. Corsetta. A Grudge version of Corsetta at least, the vampire looked sickly and there was patches of skin that were that of a black snakes. "Sh." Kitty hissed under her breath, her eyes slowly moving to Corsetta who just laughed. But then she started coughing as black sludge oozed out of her mouth. "Oo, you talk now huh? C'mon let's have a conversation. Make him think you actually are crazy. I'm only in your head after all. And you need me." 


Kitty shook her head, looking back to Dan with a defiant look in her dulled blue eyes. "To get him I need to make some personal sacrifices that could end very very badly. If I succeed in figuring out a way to get you out of here, I'm going to need you there to stop me if I get my hands on that book after I finish with Makou." "Aww the little Kitty Kat needs a leash. How cute. Pathetic." Drawing back from him Kitty brought her hands out, fire beginning to crawl across her skin. "I'm not sure if he'll be able to open the book with DNA and finger patterns, the spell on the blood that allows only my bloodline to open it may require blood. Magic can be fickle." Kitty ran a hand through her hair, suddenly looking stressed as the skin of her hand rippled. "As much as I would like to enact my plan before he tries to open the book, I don't have what I need right now." 

Kitty flexed her fingers, the fire on her arms and hands began to pulse and grow higher and hotter. "I can't make you an actually physical body as of yet. Well by physical I mean humanoid. But I can make a fire golem..." Turning she flexed her hands once more, fire began to shoot from her palms and remain stationary a few feet away. It took several minutes before the fire took on a human like shape, the fire on Kitty's skin died off. Then she walked over to it, pressing a fingertip to the golem's forehead, the fire she touched darkened as she began to draw a shape into its forehead. When she drew away a thread of fire connected with her hand and the golem. As it was still her fire she needed to sever the connection between her and it so that it could be habitable for a soul or just as an empty soldier. 

Kitty reached down with her free hand, withdrawing a knife from her heeled boot. Raising her hand again, the blade began to glow before she sliced downward. Her knife easily cut through the fiery thread, severing it and leaving the fiery body behind. "Not my best work, but it should do the trick for as long as I need to make an actual golem out of mud and then transmute it into flesh and blood." Kitty turned back to Dan and shot him a look with a raised eyebrow. "Did you seriously just tell me not to antagonize someone? Seriously? Me?" "Even I know that was just stupid." Kitty walked up to Dan, flicking him in the forehead. "Did Makou just touch you in the head as he put you in here? Or have you just gotten progressively dumber upon becoming a Celestial."

Dan watched and listened as Kitty moved and spoke, forming a fire golem in the mean time. When she finished with her joke about being a Celestial he stifled a sigh. 
"It's complicated," He began pacing now, arms folded as he thought before continuing. "He's syphoning my celestial powers to fuel his own magic. If there was a way his hold on my soul could be broken, and that's a strong if, I don't think I'd be the same again..." His eyes darted sideways, giving Kitty a grave look.

"What use am I if I escape? I've only ever done well when I had an entity to use magic; The Blue Demon, Death, Celestialhood. Without them I'm nothing..." He finally gave in to his sigh, dropping his stare on Kitty. "There's a possibility of escape, but I'd need help from the other resident in this darkness. The only other person who's powerful enough to maybe force a release..."

Meanwhile, Makou stood upon the ground between Vampire and Lycan territory, looking around with curiosity at the realm. He pondered for a moment, before finally twirling his cane in the air. With a determined grunt he slammed the cane into the ground, causing the whole realm to shake and tremor. By the time it had ceased, a new sight covered the sky.

Stars.

Kitty looked at Dan with a frown on her face, moving closer to him so she could grasp his folded arms. "You don't have to be the same. You can be better. The issue before was that you were restrained, by rules, by magic, by other entities. This time it can be just you it can be your choice."  "God you sound like one of those self-help motivational speakers."  Kitty shot a glare at Corsetta then she looked to Dan. "You are not nothing. Look at what you've accomplished, you not the entities." 

Kitty waved a hand, stepping back from him as she shot a fireball into the air, then a bolt of magic. The two collided and the fire turned blue, and it took on the visage of the blue fire demon from the last time she saw it. "The others that were possessed by the blue fire demon were weak, they so quickly succumbed to it. But you forced it to bend to your will. You were the only person to hold on to it and control it for as long as you have. You forced it from your body and you killed it." 

Kitty swept her hand, the blue fire demon visage transmutated into a skeleton. It fell to the ground, but then got up and stood in front of Dan. "Death, an entity with considerable power. Yet, you overcame him and bent another entity to your will yet again." Another swipe of her hand, the skeleton turned into a being of stars and galaxies. "Celestialhood. In the palm of your hand you could create galaxies, cosmos, planets. You had the power of creation at your fingertips. Yet you gave it all up, because your morals told you that you could not kill your friends." 

Kitty gave him a smile as her hand fell, the starry being falling with it. She walked close again and laid her hands on his forearms. "There is so much good in you that I'm envious. You destroy everything in your path through sheer force of will, and you seek to protect those you care about." Her smile faltered slightly, withdrawing her hands from Dan's arms. "Even if they have done things that hurt you." But then she rolled her shoulders back and looked him in the eye. "You can be anything you want Dan. I can make you anything you want." Taking in a deep breath Kitty tilted her head to the side, curiosity and hope reflecting in her now brightening eyes. "But the question is....




...What do you want to be?"

Dan nodded as Kitty spoke, remembering each entity and the deeds he had done with them. Once her show was over and the important question was asked, he looked at her silent for a moment before replying.
"I have an idea, but first of all I've gotta get out of here." He looked around at the darkness, before shouting all of a sudden. "Father!"
Something stirred in the black horizon and before long another figure stood with them. This time it was a blue eyed elf; the humanoid form of Nozdormu.

"You called?" The other celestial replied, looking at Kitty curiously. "Oh, another one of my murderers." He gave a quick smirk before looking to his son.
"We need... some help..." Dan started, although he struggled to find the means of properly asking. "I need to escape here, not just for my sake by my daughter's. Your granddaughter. Your soul is strong enough to distract Makou's psychic defenses, giving us the chance to break me out and into..." His gaze flickered to the golem. "That thing..."

"And why would I do that?"

"Threaten to rip his ears off and shove them down his throat."  Kitty's jaw clenched, rubbing her forehead again as Corsetta flounced by, glitching in and out as she stood in front of Nozdormu. Corsetta coughed and spat in his face, black sludge spattering on it, but the sludge glitched in an out like a bad tv connection. It was all in Kitty's head too. But perhaps she'd indulge in Corsetta's less than pleasant tendencies. Rolling her shoulder's back she fixed Nozdormu with a fiery glare, "We can do this pleasantly, or my way. Your choice." 

Kitty then smirked slightly, putting a hand on her hip. "If you help us get out we'll also be out of your hair, no one here to annoy you. And your son can speak from experience that I can be very very  annoying." Kitty put a finger to her chin, a thoughtful expression formed on her face. "You'd also be helping us get revenge on the person who has you trapped here in the first place."

"Well since it was my own son who traded my soul in the first place as if it were his to bargain with..." Nozdormu shot Dan a harsh glance, before sighing somewhat. "However, I will help you. Not for you, but for the family. Our legacy cannot continue without you or your daughter." His hand raised, conjuring a bright blue light in an orb. "What is your plan?"

"Kitty," Dan turned to her, then to the golem. "You need to prepare a teleportation for us. Once Nozdormu breaks the defense, you get us out of here. Maybe to your new world, anywhere away from Makou." At this Dan approached the fire golem, placing his hand on it to transfer himself into it's shell. "Guess I'll ride in this thing for a while..."

Once he was inside the golem is former body disappeared. He turned his head, looking down at his odd arms and body. When he had finished examining himself he gave the others a nod. Nozdormu nodded back, then unleashed the blue light in a large explosion that shook the darkness around them. Cracks began to appear in the distance, a visible sign the hold was weakening.

"Now."

Kitty nodded, withdrawing a piece of chalk from her coat pocket and getting on her knees. In a quick and frankly rushed manner she began to scribble out magic scribbles onto the black ground. "Didn't mum teach you how to color in the lines as a child? Or did she just die before that could happen." "Shut up." Kitty snarled at Corsetta, then resumed her work as her sickly doppelganger cackled and gargled with laughter. "Dan, if things start to go south out there with Makou I need you to run. He might accuse me of breaking out deal, although our deal has since been already completed so anything after that is fair game, but just in case...Diana is in the other dimension at the moment and if Makou has already moved it to a planet then she should be there too. Find her if things go south."  

Kitty stood up, she had drawn five circles, one large one and four small ones connected to it with a large amount of runes drawn into them. She aimed one fiery palm at one of the smaller circles, a bolt of fire leaping from her palm to burn within the middle of the smaller circles. Glancing at another circle, she sighed and grabbed her hair. "I needed a haircut anyway." About five inches of her waist-length red hair morphed into lava then dropped onto the ground. Bending down she scooped up the lava in her hands, then threw it into the air. With one hand raised she kept it in the air while the other hand grabbed for the knife from her boot again. 

Kitty began carving symbols and runes into her hand, blood dripping onto the ground as Kitty's jaw clenched. When she finished carving her hand up she tucked the bloody knife away, then flecked the carved hand. A bolt of ice shot out at the lava orb, it then dropped in the form of cooled earth. Kitty grabbed it and put it in one of the other circles. Holding a hand over a third circle, another bolt of ice shot out, but Kitty's other hand shot a small fireball at it. The ice turned to water which morphed into an orb and hovered over the third orb. The cuts on Kitty's hand healed and she retrieved her knife once more, carving new symbols in before letting that hand hover over the fourth circle. A small gust of wind burst from her palm, taking the shape of a swirling orb of air over the fourth circle. 

Kitty straightened, pressing the tip of the knife to her chest. Her jaw clenched again when she started to push it in, but only half an inch. As she withdrew it a white wispy energy with streaks of black running through it followed the bloody tip of the knife. With a flick of her wrist she sent the energy at the fifth and largest circle, the runes suddenly came to life in all the circles, glowing and spinning wildly. She kept the knife in her hand, the other was outstretched towards Dan. "Come on."

The cracks began to spread, encompassing the entire darkness around them. Nozdormu's hand stayed aloft as he channeled the blue energy, seemingly unchallenged for now. Soon however the realm began to push back. He was visible strained to keep his hold on the spell, looking desperately to Dan and Kitty for them to hurry their escape. By the time her runes were in place, Nozdormu's hold broke. He fell down, slumping to regain his energy. Slowly the cracks began to heal, but not before Dan took Kitty's hand and they went together in the blink of an eye.

The clearing they ended up in was easily recognisable as not being far from the city, since the grand tower of Phoenixspire, with the statue of the fiery bird atop, stood proud in the distance over the treeline. Dan knelt down on the ground, burning some of the grass as his fiery form made contact. Golems made hastily in other realms were not particularly used to dimensional teleportation, that much was obvious by the state of his form. 

"Bloody hell..." He managed to sigh, turning his half-distorted golem head to Kitty. "I'm gonna need something less... Fake..." His body then slouched down, allowing him to try and hold himself together. Literally.