The Three Wrathful Guardians Who Only Wanted To Protect...

Everyone began ascending the final set of spiral stairs up the the final hallway directly to Panila's office. This was the last leg of their fight before they could all be done with this, and hopefully get their missing friends back. 

But as they began to climb, the sounds of chains began to wring around the staircase. "W-What's that sound?" Avis asked to everyone, only to see Rat run away as fast as she could. "Run! Panila! No Time!" 

Avis turned back to see a swirling mass of chains beginning to flood up the stairs. Everyone began running away as fast as they could, but Avis tripped up, and do to how cramped it was, couldn't fly away. "Go!" She yelled as Chains began dragging her backwards, but Vinea leapt down with Grey, trying to yank her back with them. 

"W-W-Wait, n-not again!" Avis yelled, not wanting to get ripped in two again. Ven, Tika and Biz where already running away anyway, but Grey and Vinea gave each other a smirk. "We'll go down with ya, bird brain." Vinea laughed as Chains began clinging to his vines and Grey geting dragged away with them. 

The three couldn't help but laugh over how they were going down like this, in a stupid self sacrifice like in movies. Ven felt hesitant to leave them, but could hear their accepting laughter, snickering a bit himself as the rest burst through the door to the hallway and shutting it. behind them. The sound of thudding chains could be heard before...

Silence.

Rat was taking deep breaths as she stared at the remaining members of her little crew. "Damn... I did sorta like those guys." She sighed, helping Ven up. But he let out a sigh as he remembered the last time he was here. 

But all those memories were quickly dismissed when Biz yelled at the two to; "Duck!" Rat and Ven didn't even hesitate as a stream of fire, ice and electricity all shot towards them. "Oh come on!" Rat yelled in slight frustration as at the end of the hall was Strike Team Cerbi, every member battered and weakened. 

They were all huddled together in front of the doors to Panila's office, not even strong enough to move, but refusing to give up their duty to their warden. 

"We refuse to die."

"Not until our duty is done."

"We aren't going down until the bitter end!"

The three yelled together as they each held a sub-mind. Rat rolled her eyes with a smirk. "Boooring." She said flatly before firing a beam of light at the three, exploding into a fiery mess as she laughed, motioning for the rest to go on. "Let's go, chuckle dumbasses." But Tid-Bit quickly took control; "They aren't dead! They activated the hearts!" She yelled through Ven as Rat looked a bit stunned before getting hit by a claw that took up nearly all of the hall.

She was sent flying back, but created a wall of light to stop herself from falling out the windows. The once gloomy red and black hallway was soon wiped out by a single swipe, letting the simulated moonlight shine down on them as the entire roof was now gone.

Chains seemed to protect Panila's office as the four of them looked stunned at the monstrosity that was before them.

A large, more decayed black wolf head looked down at them with a smirk; "You're nothing but bugs to Panila!"

The white jackal, now more decayed and ruined, leaned down from the dust cloud as she gave a taunting grin; "We are her loyal dogs!"

And the orange fox, missing half of their face let out a laugh; "We are Cerbi, The Hound Protecting Hell!"

With one casual wave of their claw, the dust cleared, revealing the three were melded together, a 3 headed creature with the fur of all three fused together. Biz looked stunned at the sight, not because it was a gigantic hound that could easily crush them, but because she realised who they were.

"C-Cerberus... I-I-I thought... T-They... They... My babies!"

Biz began to cry, looking at what had become of her missing child. But now wasn't the time for that, as Tika quickly grabbed Biz, trying to figure out what to do. "What do we do?" Ven said as he turned to Rat, but even she seemed nervous now. "Well... I... We could... I... Damnit! I got nothing..." She grumbled but she saw a familiar figure begin to emerge from an inky puddle near them.

"I think I know just the woman." Iyu said with a smile as she opened her zippers and pulled out a spare heart and tossing it off the building. Biz looked at Iyu with a cold glare, knowing exactly who she was. "Why is that... Monster here!?"

Rat motioned for Biz to shush before asking; "What is your grand plan?"

"Something that was Never to be." 

With that sentence being spoken, a shadowy black blur shot towards Cerberus, knocking it off the tower. As Cerberus fell, the figure landed, revealing to be a 10ft tall lanky feminine with visible stitches on her naked, featureless, all black body. Having an almost animalistic looking mouth and no visible eyes, it turned to Ven with what seemed like a smile. "Hiiiiiii..." It said with a wave, its white hair swaying, revealing a few strands of purple.

Ven couldn't help but feel that their was something familiar about the figure, but, like Biz, couldn't place where. He knew it was Nvr2b, but she didn't feel the same, well, also the fact that she was now double her original size didn't help.

"Nvr, please deal with the project. Please." Iyu said with a smile and motioned down. Nvr gave a nod before disappearing in a blur of speed. "What the hell is Nvr?" Rat asked as he went over to Iyu. 

"Splice's personal body guard. A sad case really. She was supposed to get married on the day she died. The day the world ended. Splice decided to bring her back as the ultimate bio-weapon. Something Never Meant To Be."

Ven and Zamtika looked between each other. "Oh... And uh... Where did Splice happen to find this body?" Zamtika nervously asked. "They said they found her outside Dio's Ale. Crushed under a gazebo."

"Shit... Is Nvr actually..."

"Meri? I suppose that was her name." Iyu smiled. Ven let out a sigh as he basically had a whole family reunion in the short time he's been undead. Everyone soon looked over the ruined tower to see Nvr was actually holding her own against the gigantic hound. 

"Burn alive!/You'll be frozen solid!/I'll shock you till you drop!" The three yelled as they each fired a combined elemental attack at Nvr, who swiftly dodged, running along the side of Detainment. She quickly activated one her heart ability; "Ruptured Shambles." She said with a giggle as her hand trailed across the spire, exploding the rocks into piercing spikes that fired out and hit the Decaynine. 

"Just get her!/I'm trying!/Stop arguing and crush her!" They yelled, imbuing their hands with flames as they began trailing a gigantic claw behind them, managing to slice Nvr in half. "Stupid bug./That was easy./ That was... Fun." They all smirked as they grabbed the top half off Nvr's body, only to see the her body quickly regenerate from her second heart ability. 

"What!?" The three yelled in unison as Nvr quickly leaped away, quickly trying to figure out a battle strategy. "Brute force won't work, too much strength. Decapitation? Cannot with current heart set. Size alteration? Could use one of Rat's devices.... Not enough time. Current outlook? 37% chance of victory." She thought to herself in less then a second before calmly blocking the next attack from Cerberus.

Iyu sighed, looking at the battle below. "Hmm... I think Nvr may lose this one. Oh well." Iyu sighed, getting ready to leave but Rat stopped her. "If ya think it'll help... Let her use Mollia's heart." She sighed, though Iyu gave a big grin as she pulled the heart from one of her many zippers.

Iyu shoved her hand inside one of her zippers and it emerged out of Nvr's chest. Nvr quickly took the heart from her friend and shoved it in her chest. 

Nvr began running up the tower as Cerberus tried climbing up behind her, chasing her like an unrelenting dog after its prey. But once Nvr reached the top, she leapt backwards as time felt like it had slowed for everyone as Cerbi emerged. 

"We'll get you!/We won't give up!/This is our job!" Cerberus yelled, trying to grab at Nvr, only for her to distort for a moment, appearing below where she was a few seconds ago. Nvr began dragging her hand up Cerberus's body as she activated her Ruptured Shambles once more.

All three heads of Cerberus let out howls of pain as their body began exploding from the inside out, the three sub-minds bursting fourth from their chests and falling out as Cerberus collapsed against the tower, barely on the cusp of its life.

Nvr landed next to everyone and took out Mollia's heart, handing it over to Iyu, who in turn handed over some clothes for Nvr as she shrunk back into her usual look. "We... Only have Panila now... WE ONLY HAVE PANILA!" Ven yelled in triumph, cheering on Nvr as they began to talk.

"Zamtika... Take me to Cerberus." Biz asked solemnly, and much to her own hesitance, Tika nodded and carried Biz over to the dying Protector. The three heads were bickering over who caused their defeat, but they all began to laugh together as they knew it was the end. 

Rat sighed as she saw Biz approach Cerbi, and instead of telling her to leave them be, she snapped her fingers, giving Biz limbs made of light so she could have a private moment alone. Tika put Biz down as she approached.

"My... My babies. How you've grown." She smiled, stroking each of their faces in a comforting, motherly fashion. "Biz.../The owner of the underground's Underground.../Mother..."

"I... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I stopped searching. I-I just... C-Couldn't face you, or myself."

"We.../We.../I... Don't forgive you." Bark and Chew were clueless on what to say, but Bite knew what they wanted to say. "You... Lost us. You aren't our mother. Panila is. But... We still love you..."

"We love you... Mom." The three laughed as they began to finally die, Biz was holding back the years of supressed emotions she had kept bottled up, but it didn't work. She began to cry as she hugged her children, repeating over and over how sorry she was. 

"I love you... Cerberus."