The end of the end.

Chase’s P.O.V.

Chase’s eyes flashed in anger as they fell upon the witch smirking down at the chaos, bearing a miniature replica of the Sphere of Yun in one hand, and a mangled crow in the other. Her lips moved and Chase registered that she was speaking, but through the chaos of battle he could hear nothing.

She dropped the bird on the roof and in an instant she was gone, before she reappeared right before Chris.

“Ah,” she said, savoring the air as she inhaled, “If feels good to be in full power again- no- I was never quite this strong.”

She raised her fist over her head and brought it down in a lightning quick motion, and in response, the entire right half of the area shook with horrible violence as everyone in the vicinity fell to their knees- including Brooke.

Wuya’s eyes connected with Chase’s as she looked condescendingly upon him.

“How long I’ve waited for this day,” Wuya said menacingly.

“You would sink so low as to ally yourself to a useless old hag such as this?” Chase said, as calmly as ever, from his entrapment.

“Useless?” Chris inquired, “As promised, she made sure that, should the need ever arise, you would be incapacitated to aid Brooke as I killed her. Unfortunately, the need did arise, and you are, quite incapacitated.

Almost involuntarily, Chase glanced back towards Brooke, still on her knees, not even looking up at the scene. Was she really so surprised? Chase continued to peer down as onyx tresses draped over her eyes. Though he hated the man before him with all the loathing he could conjure, he couldn’t help but find himself wishing that he had truly been in love with Brooke- if only to spare her the pain she was feeling now.

He suddenly turned back to Chris, filled with resolve to destroy him. In his current predicament, however, this was going to prove a bit difficult.

Brooke’s P.O.V.

Brooke was staring at the grass she was clutching beneath her fingers.

Wha… what was going on?

In all of five minutes her entire world seemed to crash and burn. Chase had been right, Caliph’s intuition had been right, everyone in the world seemed to have seen what Chris was except for her.

She felt like a fool.

She glanced upward at the solid bubble Chase had just been closed in. She had no idea what it did, but a gut feeling that it was some sort of shen gong wu. Couldn’t chase escape? If he could why didn’t he already?

Then the horrible thought struck her.

What if he couldn’t? What if Chase and all his abilities were stuck in there. While she was on all fours in her wedding dress, the despicable thing, in the midst of a dangerous battle, unarmed.

And when had Wuya gained all that power?

She could hardly wrap her mind around all that was going on. Everything was going all wrong- and it was all her fault. She felt like the scum of the earth. Weak, in the way, and causing nothing but trouble.

She felt humiliated for believing that Chris loved her, and angry at herself for making herself come to care for him as well.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her scalp as her head was violently tugged upward by her hair.

“Unhand her,” she heard Chase call in a dangerous tone.

As Brooke’s head was forced up she found herself staring into the face of her fiance, who was wearing a menacing look.

“I’m sorry Brooke,” he began, ignoring Chase’s command and tightening his hold on her hair. The pain was searing as she had to force the tears that threatened to fall down. “I really didn’t want to kill you, but seeing as the wedding is off, I have no other choice.”

With his free hand, he wound back and delivered a powerful blow to the side of her face, causing her to fall over altogether, landing on her stomach against the moist grass with a soft thud and a loud grunt.

“Oh Christopher,” came Wuya’s voice from some direction Brooke couldn’t determine, “No need to mangle her corpse. The least you could do for your beloved is to let her die unmarred.”

Brooke was barely registering their conversation, though, as she was lost almost completely in thought. When had she become so weak? When did she, known for all her smug back-talk, suddenly lose the ability to back it up? When had she become so utterly helpless? Why was she allowing this traitor to so easily beat her.

“Get up, Brooke.”

Brooke’s eyes snapped open and she looked towards the source of the command.

Chris forcefully shoved a foot in her side causing her eyes to instantaneously close again from pain.

“Get up Brooke!” Chase ordered with more urgency.

“Can’t you see, Chasey?” Chris said, twisting his foot in Brooke’s side, causing her to release a pained whimper. “Brooke here is a lot weaker than she let any of us believe. She finds out I’m a traitor and instead of becoming enraged she gets depressed.”

“Will you really allow yourself to be defeated so easily?” Chase continued.

Would she?

Chase’s P.O.V.

Chase’s bloodlust was at an all time high as he watched Chris attack Brooke relentlessly. Never had his urge to rip an appendage from a man been so great.

Brooke seemed to be unresponsive to what he was saying and she laid there for the longest, unmoving as Chris continued his bludgeoning.

“For too long I have been repressed by you, Chase,” Wuya’s voice came from behind him, “This revenge is long overdue.”

“You take joy in attacking a defenseless being?” Chase spat angrily.

Wuya chuckled.

“You and I both know that is not the reason I’m taking joy in her pain,” she said smugly.

If looks could kill, Wuya would be six feet under with the way Chase was staring at her.

“Ah cheer up, Chase,” Wuya consoled mockingly, leaning up against the Sphere of Yun, “She was scheduled to die today anyway, right? In just ten minutes. You were going to lose her any way it went.”

She smiled brightly.

“Well time is running short, Brooke,” Chris said, looking towards the soon-to-set sun. “And I need your powers before they are trapped within your family for another generation.” His hands began to glow even brighter than before as he pointed his hand directly at her head.

Chase’s heart started skipping beats until it stopped beating altogether at the realization of what Chris was about to do. Instinctively he reached out to her but his hands pressed flat against the glass of the Sphere of Yun. He inwardly curse that hag for imprisoning him in here -this was the second time he’d been in this damned contraption.

“Bye hon,” Chris said, and shot a streak of shocking blue light straight towards Brooke’s head.

Chase watched it, bracing himself for the impact, nerves on end, and felt a relief like he’d never experienced it before when Brooke evasively rolled out of the way just in time to avoid Chris’ fatal attack.

Chris, caught off guard by the turn of events, could only block as Brooke sent her foot flying towards his face. Even through his defense, Chris stumbled a few feet backwards as Brooke hurriedly got to her feet.

She looked a mess, with blood trickling down her mouth, bangs hanging over her eyes, clutching her pained side- in a wedding dress. She wiped the blood from her chin and ran her fingers through her hair to pull it back.

“Sorry Chase,” she said, feebly trying to smile, “looks like you were right.” She then turned to Chris, who had regained his calm countenance. “And I’m not going to be the pawn you use that leads to my family’s demise. You think I’m all talk? Bring your ass over here and let’s find out.” Brooke smirked as she took her stance. “I’m running a little short on time though, so we’re gonna hafta make this quick.”

Brooke quickly leapt at Chris and the two engaged in a heated battle, and though it was obvious the Brooke’s martial arts was far superior to Chris’. Even the fact that he had magic on his side didn’t seem to be any real threat to her.

Chase watched a little astonished at how Brooke was performing in the battle. Either adrenaline had increased her skill, or Chris was simply incompetent. Either way, he was soon overpowered, and Chase found himself a little to satisfied with that.

Wuya sighed and left her position near Chase and intervened just as Brooke was about to deliver the final blow to Chris.

Chris was on the floor, behind Wuya as she caught the foot Brooke was just about to slam in his face.

“Honestly,” Wuya sighed, hurdling Brooke across the field by the leg, “to think you’d be so incompetent you couldn’t even take down a girl.”

Brooke’s P.O.V.

Brooke was momentarily caught off guard as she flew over the battling crowd and multi-colored attacks. She caught herself in a little deserted corner of lawn and was about to head back over to Wuya when she felt a foreboding presence behind her. Brooke fearfully looked behind her to see Wuya there, ready to strike.

And she did.

Brooke was sent hurdling back to where she just came from in the middle of the isle, among the fighting crowd. Brooke was barely able to catch herself as she collided against the giant orb Chase was trapped in. She looked up in time to see Wuya landing just feet away from her.

Had she always been so strong?! Brooke wondered awestruck. Her strength and speed seemed to rival Chase’s. Brooke looked back at Chase, caught in the giant ball. She was wondering how she could free him when her eyes found his, and even in the heat of battle, she blushed and looked away at the intensity of their gaze.

“H-how can I get you out of here?” Brooke asked the grass, when she suddenly sensed another attack coming on, and acrobatically hopped on top of the sphere to dodge it.

“You have to get the shen gong wu she has in her hand,” Chase responded in his usual calmness as Wuya‘s fist collided with the sphere. “And call out its name - The Sphere of Yun.”

“Chris,” Wuya snapped to the man doubled over on the ground, “Your time is running short. The sun will set in five minutes, if you do not claim her powers I will.”

“Brooke,” Chase said quietly, so that, from atop the sphere, only she could hear him. “I’m going to use my last favor now.”

Brooke furrowed her eyebrows and Wuya began to bicker with Chris as she hopped off the sphere and looked at Chase.

At a time like this??

“What is it?” Brooke asked.

The look Chase was giving her almost made her knees buckle as she leaned against he sphere for support.

“I need you to fight back,” he said, looking her dead in the eye.

Brooke scowled.

“What are you talking about?” she snapped, “I am fighting. I’m already fighting because of yo-”

“No,” Chase said, cutting over her. “Fight to the fullest of your abilities.”

Brooke looked at Chase blankly for a while.

“You mean you want me to…”

“Use your magic.”

Brooke froze and tried to wrap her head around the request Chase had just made. He wanted to use his last favor to make her use her magic…now? So close to the end?

“Chase, I-”

“Brooke,” he said, cutting over her again, “You gave your word, are you going to go back on it now?”

“You’re asking an impossible thing.”

“It’s quite possible,” he retorted, “you’re simply being stubborn.”

“Stubborn?!” Brooke hissed angrily.

“What repulses you so much about the thought of immortality?” Chase inquired, “It’s not the worst of fates-”

“That’s debatable,” Brooke said, “I’m not evil, Chase, I have people I love that I don’t wanna see hurt. I did not willingly opt to be forever young. I don’t want to conquer the world. I don’t need an endless amount of time. I‘ve never feared death- I don’t fear it now. Why should-”

“Fear of death is not the only factor,” Chase muttered, clearly frustrated. “Nor is being evil. Have you thought of all the… good… you could accomplish with ‘an endless amount of time’?” He’d choked over the word “good” as it came out. “And all this aside, you would really die with your last act being that of breaking a promise?”

Brooke looked from Chase, to the setting sun, then to where Wuya and Chris were, still disputing. She tried to find her brother in the crowd of chaos, but was unsuccessful. Perhaps he was taking his family to safety before he came back.

Two minutes.

Maybe less.

Brooke had to think quickly. Chase had a valid point. Just as he had chosen immortality to commit unthinkable evils, she could use hers to accomplish a mountain of goods. But still, she would eventually have to watch everyone around her age, while she stayed young, and die, while she remained alive.

Was it really worth it.

She thought about Chase. Would he still be in her life once this whole mess was over, if she chose immortality? Would they become bitter rivals?

Her heart almost broke at the very thought.

One thing was quite clear, however, she did make Chase a promise. She gave him her word. Whatever he asked, she was obligated to fulfill. And though what he was asking for was unreasonable…

Brooke turned away from Chase and looked at the sky as all traces of light began to fade from it.

Her time was up.

Chase’s P.O.V.

Chase wasn’t sure if anything he had just said had gotten through that thick skull of hers. He knew he’d made an unfair use of his last favor, but he really couldn’t care less. He wanted Brooke to live. He was going to disregard her opinions at the moment and act only for himself. He needed her to live.

Chase looked at the sun as it began to sink even lower past the horizon, the top of it barely visible now. She didn’t have long.

Chase turned back to the battle scene, which was even more illuminated now with the constant loss of sunlight.

“Brooke,” Chase called, but was met with silence. He wished more than ever he had the Mind Reader Conch on hand. He needed to know if she was thinking about using her powers, or if she had simply given up altogether.

Chase closed his eyes and sat down in his meditative position.

If she was going to die, he was certainly not going to bear witness to it. Chase tried to drown out all of the noise and battle cries to find his inner arena of nothingness. To try and be away from where he was right now.

There were but seconds left to Brooke’s demise.

Just as Chase was about to find his center, he heard a high pitched shriek.

“NOOO!!!” The wailing voice called.

“SPHERE OF YUN!”

Chase suddenly felt the mass around him disappear as he quickly opened his eyes (and landed on his feet) to see Brooke, standing at the altar, body ignited in a white bask of light, carrying the Sphere of Yun.

Everyone in the area stilled as her glow illuminated the dark scene. Her eyes were closed and in a burst of white flames, the Sphere of Yun combusted into tiny debris.

There weren’t quite words to describe how Brooke looked then. The closest Chase could find, was radiant. She looked like something celestial. When her eyes flew open, however, she looked like a fate worse than Hell.

“Caliph,” she spoke, and in an instant and a burst of black light, her brother was by her side, glowing all over in his own hue.

“Shit,” Chris said, “MOVE OUT!”

Immediately, there were dozens explosions of multi-colored lights as every Stonewell fled the area, and Wuya with them.

“Well that was hardly a fight,” Caliph scoffed, folding his arms and de-illuminating himself. Then suddenly his eyes widened as he looked behind him and saw, standing deathly still amongst the ruins of the altar, was the priest they had hired for the ceremony. “Sorry about this, Father. We’ll be sure to clean the place up.”

He made no response, but simply fainted at the end of Caliph’s sentence.

Chairs were tossed over, destroyed, incinerated, crumpled and everybody looked a mess.

“Alright!” Caliph’s voice boomed, clapping his hands, “let’s clean this place up and go home!”

The clean up took all of five seconds and the departures took even less. (the perks of being magical). The only ones left were Caliph, Chase, and Brooke, and the unconscious priest.

Chase stared up at Brooke, who had finally stopped glowing now. It was now completely nightfall. And Brooke was still alive. Caliph said something to Brooke that Chase couldn’t catch from his distance, but in the next instant, was gone like the rest of his family.

“Chase,” Brooke called out to him, from all the way down the isle.

“Yes?”

“How did you feel at first?” She inquired.

She was referencing to the immortality.

“The same as always.” Chase replied. “You wont feel any significant change until later- much later.”

She walked towards him slowly- ever so slowly, and finally stopped about a foot’s distance in front of him.

“So my debt is repaid,” she began, “Your task is fulfilled. We can part our separate ways now. I go back to my antique shop- you go back to your evil-doing; the world will be at peace again.”

“It’s not really the world’s peace I’m concerned about,” Chase spoke before he could stop himself.

Brooke looked up at him, with tear-filled eyes and threw her arms around him burying her head in his armored chest. He, with some effort, resisted the urge to reciprocate the action and instead pulled her away from him by her hands and, holding onto them as he looked down at her.

“I‘m sorry, Brooke.” Chase said, gazing intently at the girl.

It had been he, after all, who told her to use her magic knowing that she was fully prepared to live. He, in his selfish desire to have her remain accessible to him, commanded that she use her magic. And that she would now be able to live as long as he…

He didn’t like the confliction Brooke had never failed to deliver to him. He couldn’t stand it. Simply admitting to himself that he did love her didn’t seem to take away the pathetic feeling he had whenever he listened to himself think about her.

He’d destroyed major cities, wreaked havoc among villages, betrayed his best friends, and never felt as guilty about it as he was feeling now about forcing her to act against her will. He’d done that one too, thousands of times before.

Taking both her hands into one of his, he wiped her tears away with his freed gloved appendage.

“A warrior never shows weakness,” Chase chided.

“I guess I’m just not cut out for this warrior business huh?” Brooke chuckled sadly. “I seem to show nothing but weakness.” She tried to break out of Chase’s grasp to wipe her own tears away but Chase held her firmly in place, as his hand rested on her cheek.

Brooke looked up through tear-speckled eyes in confusion.

Brooke’s P.O.V.

Her cheeks flushed crimson as she felt humiliated for letting herself cry in front of Chase, much less seek comfort in him.

She tried to pull her hands from his grasp and take his hand off her face but was met with resistance.

She looked up bewilderedly and saw Chase staring at her and she suddenly become painstakingly aware of how alone they were.

“Chase-”

Her words were cut off by his lips capturing her own, gently but firmly. She’d stiffened initially, but soon relaxed into the kiss and began kissing him back. The hand that wasn’t on her face found its way to her waist and pressed her flush against his own body.

Millions of thoughts and emotions were flying around within Brooke, and she couldn’t bring herself to focus on just one.

She realized she didn’t have to. She had an eternity to think now. She had an eternity to feel. An eternity to live.

And, she wondered fleetingly, an eternity with Chase?

She couldn’t just go off with him, though, and leave all her family behind. She was half of her family’s ultimate strength. She couldn’t abandon them. Her knees, which had been threatening to cave for a while now, finally followed through and she found herself being supported completely by Chase.

Chase lifted his head away, ending the kiss, and stared at Brooke solemnly, before standing her back up on her own. Brooke felt a deep sense of loss at the sudden lack of contact and stared at Chase, waiting for an explanation.

This wasn’t the first time they had shared a kiss, no, but the sensation never seemed to dull in the least. And every time she found herself a little confused. Chase had never openly admitted to having feelings for her - but she figured it would be a cold day in hell before Chase ever talked about his feelings.

“Why did you come back?” Brooke suddenly inquired, folding her arms, “A month ago, when you appeared in my bedroom, you never told me.”

Chase looked at her contemplatively, deciding on what answer he should give.

“I’d heard you were dying,” he finally said, “And wanted to verify if the story was true.”

“And what had you planned on doing once you had?” Brooke said coolly.

Chase was silent.

“I hadn’t thought so far ahead.” He finally admitted, “Honestly I didn’t think the source to be all that credible.”

“Why did you care?” Brooke finally asked, tired of all the bush beating.

Chase fell silent once again before suddenly pulling her back against him and pressing his lips to hers again. The kiss was rougher this time and Brooke, caught off guard, gasped at its suddenness. Chase lost no time in using the opportunity to deepen the kiss by slipping his tongue into Brooke’s open mouth.

After the shock faded a bit, Brooke began to participate and all too soon, Chase pulled away again.

“That’s why,” he breathed, holding on to Brooke by her hips. “Immortality is more than just a curse, Brooke. It’s can be a gift if you let it be. He let her go again. “You have obligations, connections, love ones that you don’t want to lose. I understand that. But they, you, were destined to end one day anyway. But that’s changed now, for you at least.

“ So spend the time they have with them, as you would have. Spend their lifetime with them as you would have prior to this curse, and don’t take any second with them for granted.”

He paused.

“And when you find that all of them have gone and all that remains is you… Seek me out. I will be waiting for you.”

Brooke struggled to keep the tears from falling as she smiled.

“Is that a promise?” she asked softly.

“You have my word.”

Brooke looked up at the moon. The moon she hadn’t thought she’d live to see.

“I’ll hold you to it,” she said looking back at Chase some two feet away, figuring this was as close as she was going to get to an “I love you”.

“Goodbye then,” Chase said, about to turn, when Brooke suddenly hooked him by his elbow and turned him around, placing a chaste kiss on his cheek.

“It’s more like a ‘see you later’,” she mused, before disappearing with a burst of white light from the deserted lawn.

Chase’s P.O.V.

He stared at the spot where Brooke had just stood less than a second ago.

Later… He thought bemusedly, still feeling the warmth of her lips against his cheek. Chase suddenly found that, for his timeless years that would ensue, he suddenly had something to look forward to.

FIN!!!!! God there was a time when I never thought this day would come. I remember sitting near the astronomy building nearly a year ago with my friend, before physics class, talking about how I’d decided not to continue “About That Favor.” Its taken me WAY longer than I would have EVER hoped and taught me a valuable lesson in the way of fic writing - Only do one shots from now on. Well, this is 4057 words long excluding authors notes, the LONGEST chapter I’ve EVER written in my history of writing, mind you, and I’m so glad to finally have this burden off of my chest. I regret that I’ve lost so many of my readers but I really could expect nothing more. I finished this more for me than anyone. And this is probably the last fic I will write for this fandom. Sasha, over and out.