"Multiple Saves"

The room was spinning. Swiftly. As Tammy opened her eyes, she felt as if someone had removed her brain, spun it around a few times, then plopped it back into her head sideways. "What happened?" she mumbled to herself.

"You had a bit too much to drink," a deep voice answered. "Trust me, a few weeks ago I knew the feeling."

She looked up and saw a pair of bright green eyes staring worriedly back at her. "You okay?" Lance asked, a frown emerging on his face.

"Sure," she mumbled sarcastically while struggling to sit up, "I'm just fine and dandy. Peachy." She glared at Lance and spat out, "What are you doing here? Not drinking again, I hope."

Lance shrugged and answered easily, pretending not to notice her rudeness. "We were looking for you. About two minutes ago, Joey and Chris found you in here, so they went to get coffee for you…"

"Like that cures hangovers," she scowled, still tired and slightly drunk.

"…while JC is off talking to Michelle," Lance finished, still ignoring her sour mood.

"Michelle?" Tammy murmured. "What's she doing here?"

"This morning she came to us worried to death," Lance answered. "She said that she had been trying to call you since last night, and never got an answer." He continued, sadly shaking his head, "We couldn't find you anywhere, and Justin and Isabella said…"

"Justin and Isabella?" Tammy scowled. At the mere mention of their names, the familiar feeling of dread settled over her entire frame. She instinctively reached under the table and lifted the bottle of Jack Daniels, swiftly bringing the bottle to her lips. "You can tell Isabella," she slurred, "that I said to go straight to hell. And as for Justin, you tell him that he's destined to go there regardless. That’s my word."

"What are you talking about?" Lance wanted to know, but before Tammy could answer, Chris, Joey, and JC walked up to her table.

"So here's our little drunkard," JC rolled his eyes. "I never thought I'd see you drunk, T."

"I'm not drunk," she mumbled, closing her eyes and resting her head on the table with a weary sigh.

"What in the world possessed you to drink yourself nearly into a coma?" Joey asked, the disbelief at the situation evident in his voice.

"Nothing," she glared at him. "What do y'all want?"

"Nothing," Chris shrugged. "It is time to leave, though. We don't want you as badly as you're friends do, though. So come on," he said, struggling to lift her to her feet, then surprised as she easily pushed him off of her. "What's your problem?" he asked as he bumped roughly into a nearby table.

"Everything," she spat out bitterly. "But you guys prance around so happy, so carefree in your world of money, fame, and entertainment, that you miss the big fuckin' picture. There's more to life than that, and if you don't keep your guard up, you'll wind up just like Justin and Isabella." With that, she started to walk off.

"What do you mean?" Lance called to her back. "What's wrong with Justin and Isabella?"

Tammy's response was to merely shrug and continue to walk away. As she walked out the door, a familiar lyric of one of DMX's songs came to her head, and she started to rap loudly as she stumbled drunkenly and tiredly out the door, "Shit ain't goin' too well, but that's my life… I know I'm goin' to Hell, but that's my life… Sometimes I think 'What will I do with my life?'… Kill Tammy, kill! This is my life!" That said, she disappeared around the corner.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" JC asked, thoroughly confused.

"It means that we don't know her as well as we think we do," Chris answered with a frown. Joey and Lance nodded their agreement.

Later that day, as the boys were walking out of the hotel to their bus, Joey asked where Tammy was. Lance answered with a shrug, "Dunno, but Michelle and all of them are gone, too."

"Not Isabella," JC said lowly, as he looked at Isabella, who was giggling as Justin nuzzled and kissed her neck. "Hey," JC called, the annoyance evident in his voice, "get a room, why don'tcha?"

"We just did," Justin sputtered with laughter.

"What if someone sees you?" Chris asked. "You know how you hate people being all in your business. Now you're giving them another reason to inquire about your love life."

"Love life?" Isabella laughed. "What love life?"

"Yeah," Justin giggled, now attempting to put his hand up her shirt, "sex life is more like it." He laughed loudly as Isabella slapped his hands away.

"Charming," Joey rolled his eyes with a grin as he got on the bus. After he placed his bag on his bunk, he looked at Lance. "Where we goin'?"

"California," Lance answered. "To be more specific, southern California, and to be even more specific…"

"I get it, Lance," Joey grinned. "Is Isabella coming too?"

Lance shrugged. "If Justin wants her on the bus, we can't very well kick her off. I just wish Tammy was here."

"Speaking of Tammy," JC called from his bunk, where he was trying to catch a few winks, "does she know where we're staying? I'd hate for her to lose us."

"I left a message on her voicemail, if that helps," Lance shrugged. "I told her to try to be there tonight, so I guess she will."

Little did they know that even though Tammy wasn't with them, she was watching their every move. From her perch on the spiritual plane, she was able to see everything that was going on, including Justin and Isabella's disgusting public displays of emotion. "Justin's gonna catch some heat after all this is over," she commented to Serena.

"I know," she sighed, brushing back her long blonde hair out of her eyes, "I just wonder how we're gonna free him from his addiction. I've never seen anything like it."

"Me either," Yasmine scowled. "This is getting ridiculous," she continued, "we keep getting sidetracked from our entire mission over the stupidest shit. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was all Rakshiki's doing."

"He ain't that creative," Michelle answered, still watching as Justin and Isabella continued necking in the back of the bus. She wrinkled her nose, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say Isabella fell under her own friggin' spell. She seems to crave Justin as much as he craves her."

"When this is all over," Tammy repeated, "they're gonna wanna commit suicide once they find out what they've been doing."

"So do we have a plan of action yet?" Michelle wanted to know.

"Nope," Yasmine shook her head ruefully. "We're gonna have to just see what Isabella does, then counter-attack."

"Yup," Serena nodded, "we're definitely playin' this one by ear. Everything is unplanned."

About fifteen hours later, Tammy woke up her dozing friends. "Wake up, y'all," she commanded. "They've just arrived at a hotel. And if that's not enough, they're only perhaps one hundred and fifty miles away from San Bernadino."

"Where the hell are they?" Serena yawned, looking at Tammy.

"Pasadena," she answered, climbing to her feet with a new found determination. As her friends slept, she used that time for thinking and quiet meditation, during which she realized that it was time to stop feeling sorry for herself and to stop complaining about all the problems they'd been having lately. "We just gotta go into this like soldiers and tackle each problem one by one. Swiftly and successfully," she told herself.

Five minutes later, the four girls were walking into the hotel just minutes after the boys did. "Excuse me," Tammy said to the desk clerk, "but do you have a key for Tammy Matthews?"

"Are you Tammy Matthews?" the desk clerk asked politely.

"If I ain't, then someone else is walkin' around with all my money," she grinned, pulling out her ID card. After the lady looked at it, she handed Tammy her keys and the four girls went up to her room.

"I must be rooming with JC," she commented as she walked in, noticing how neatly all the clothes and suitcases had been put away. She looked at the others and nodded to the main room, "They're probably in there. Let's go."

The four walked into the living room area of the suite and saw JC, Joey, and Lance lounged on the couch. "Hey," JC smiled, jumping to his feet as Tammy walked towards him. "Long time no see!" he said as he swooped her up into a bear hug.

"Same with y'all," Lance smiled, enveloping Serena and Michelle in a hug.

"Ditto," Yasmine laughed as Joey spun her around in a hug. "Y'all are like those people on that old show, 'Full House'. Always huggin' and shit."

"'Cause we missed y'all," Joey said in a baby voice.

Tammy looked around and noticed something. "Where's Chris?" she asked.

"Oh," Lance grinned, "he finally pried Justin away from Isabella's body long enough to go get some food. We thought that it would be impossible…"

"…and it damn near was," JC laughed. He continued, "Chris literally dragged Justin out of the hotel. It was too funny."

"So Isabella's here alone?" Tammy said in what she hoped was a nonchalant voice.

JC nodded. "She's in Justin's room. Atleast, she was last time I checked. You still mad at her?"

Tammy lied, "Nah… I just wanted to see if she got in alright. Be right back." With that, she walked towards the door on the east side of the living room that connected Justin's room to the main room.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Isabella asked nastily as Tammy closed the door behind her.

"Just making sure you got in safely," Tammy answered with a sickening sweet smile. She continued, her smile dropping rapidly off of her face, "You still plannin' on doin' what you gonna do?"

"You still plannin' on stoppin' me?" Isabella asked in a taunting voice.

"Yep," Tammy answered, taking a dangerous step towards her.

"How are ya gonna do that," Isabella laughed, "if you don't have the power to even lift this bed by yourself?"

In response, Tammy placed her middle finger under the frame of the bed and lifted it easily, much to the surprise of Isabella. "You stupid bitch," she spat out as she dropped the bed, "I have my powers back, and then some. What I couldn't do before, I can do now since my abilities came back three times as strong. What you can't do, I can."

"You're bluffing," Isabella snorted in disbelief.

"Am I?" she laughed. "Watch this. Remember how when it came time to manipulate matter, I had to have some sort of object in my hand? Not anymore." With a simple wave of her hand, the air seemed to wrinkle, then in a shimmer of light, a butcher knife appeared in Tammy's hand. With an evil smile on her face she continued, "I could kill you right now."

"How'd you do that?" Isabella gasped. "How'd you get the power to manipulate air into matter?"

"Air into matter?" Tammy laughed. "That's funny. I can't manipulate air into anything." She gestured around her. "All this stuff in the air is matter. Everything is matter… and now I can change it into anything I want. I can change you into a frog if I wanted to."

"But you wouldn't," Isabella grinned cockily.

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"'Cause I'm you're best friend."

"Is that all?" Tammy snorted. "I thought that even you could come up with something better than that."

In reply, Isabella began to laugh. "Yeah, that was lame, but how's this one for ya? You need me. If you kill off the Black Widow, then the child is doomed. The Elders didn't say nothin' about Four Deadly Venoms saving the child… You need to power of five."

After a long silence, Tammy glared straight into Isabella's eyes and said in a determined voice, "I won't let you violate the Absolution of Existence, Isabella. I'll kill you first."

Isabella's eyes widened comically, accompanied by a sarcastic gesture of shock. "Is that what this is all about? I thought it was something more important. Well," she narrowed her eyes at Tammy as her voice took on a steel note, "I'm not gonna let you fuck up my plans, so you go right on ahead and kill me. But you won't. I know you, just like you know me. That's why you're so afraid, 'cause you know that I'm gonna go ahead with my plans, whereas you're gonna stand by and watch."

"What's the point, Belle?" Tammy raised her voice. "What're you gonna gain? I'll tell you. Nothing! If you violate the Absolution of Existence, you'll die and your sister will return back to where she came. Oh wait, strike that. Because she allowed you to summon her back, she'll return to a fate worse than death. An eternity of oblivion… you want that for her?"

"She doesn't deserve to be dead!" Isabella yelled at her. "She was great! She was destined to be great! I'm giving her back what she was robbed of! Even if I have to sacrifice myself to do it!"

Tammy stepped back, astounded by what she heard. For a second, it didn't sound like the black widow talking, it sounded like… "Izzy?" she called softly. "Are you there?"

Isabella opened her mouth to answer, and the way she tilted her head reminded Tammy of the old Isabella, for that was the same gesture she did when she usually answered a question. Suddenly, her eyes became blank again and the black widow spoke once more. "Isabella is gone, Tammy," she chuckled. "For good. You blew it. Now, it's time for me to go."

As she started towards the door, Tammy called, "You'd force me to kill you? 'Cause I will, Belle. You know how I am when I'm backed against a wall, and you have me plastered against it."

"You had the opportunity to kill me several times, but you didn't." She turned and faced Tammy fully, a scowl on her face. "You want me dead, T!" she called. "Then kill me! Now! Do it, you cowardly bitch! No matter what you say, I'm gonna do this, and Catarina will rise tonight! Even if people close to you have to die, I will do what I've been sent back to do."

"This isn't what you were sent back to do, idiot!" Tammy yelled. "Haven't you been listening to anything I say? Don’t you know what'll happen when you bring back Catarina? You dumb ass! You're gonna die, and she's gonna be forced out of the heaven she once knew. Just leave her be, damn you!"

"I can't!" she yelled back. "And I won't! You're not dealing with Isabella anymore, you're dealing with someone who is very dangerous and will kill anyone to get what I want. Fuck the Absolution of Existence. The way I raise Catarina, she will have the same powers as me and more, and we will rule this world, and all others to come. No one will touch me. Not you, not the other venoms, not the child… hell, not even God will touch me. Now," she said in a somewhat calmer voice, "I must bid you adieu." As she opened the door, she called over her shoulder, "Try to stop me if you want, Tamara. I'll kill you right along with the other who must die. No strings attached." With that, she walked out of the door.

Tammy, who was enraged at Isabella's cockiness, picked up a vase from the corner table and winged it at her with all her might. The vase, which was travelling at a velocity that could've taken off any normal person's head, crashed into the door, which had shut just milliseconds ago.

From the main room, the others had heard shouting, but Michelle turned up the TV as to hide any incriminating statements that were being said. "Besides," she had commented lightly, "it's none of our business." However, once the loud crash resonated throughout the entire room, everyone got up and ran to the door.

"T!" Yasmine pounded worriedly on the door. "You okay in there? Answer me?" She turned to the others, "There's no answer. What now?"

"We need the key to get in there, and only Justin and Isabella have it," Lance shrugged.

"Fuck that," Serena scowled, "she could be hurt."

Meanwhile, Tammy decided to follow Isabella. She hurriedly exited the room and looked up and down the hall, only to see no signs of her nemesis. A quick glance at the elevator showed that no one had gotten on it recently. She decided that there was a chance Isabella was in her room, and might be trying to get the drop on her.

As she entered her and JC's room, she didn't feel any other presence, and a quick check around confirmed it. "Dammit!" she yelled, a dangerously high tide of pure anger rising inside of her. On a whim, she punched her fist through the wall, which got the attention of the others.

"When'd she go to our room?" JC wondered aloud. But more crashes and yells caused him to stop wondering about something so petty and to worry about the safety of his friend. "Is she still with Isabella?" he asked Yasmine.

"Nah, I doubt it," she shook her head in answer. "I think T's pissed, though."

Inside JC and Tammy's room, she continued to trash everything in sight. "That bitch!" she screamed as she punched the huge mirror on the dresser. "I'll kill her!" she shouted angrily as she ripped the comforters in two with her bare hands. "I am sooo tired of this shit!" she yelled as she took out all of the dressers and drove her knee through them, shattering them into nothing but wood splinters. "Nothing goes my way! Why can't I just be normal!" As she continued to scream and rant, she picked up one of the wooden headboards and kicked through it with so much force, it splintered into eight separate pieces. Still angered, she started to punch the wall repeatedly, causing dents and holes to form. Finally exhausted, she collapsed to the floor, tears streaming down her face.

"I'm goin' in," JC said to the others. "Just stay here." Seconds later, he walked into he and Tammy's room then stopped, shocked by the condition of the room. "Wow," he whistled, "I didn't know you had it in you, T." He glanced over to the corner and saw Tammy sitting on the floor with her head buried in her knees. "What's wrong, T?" he asked softly as he sat down beside her.

"Nothing," she choked out, still sobbing quietly.

"C'mon, T, please," he pleaded, putting his arms around her. "I gotta know. You've been hiding something from day one and it's eating you up inside. You want to tell me; you need to tell me."

"No, never," she swore, starting to cry again.

JC nodded in understanding. "That's cool. I just want you to know that I’m here for you. We all are. Even if you don't wanna tell me, I can be your shoulder to cry on. Cool?"

Tammy nodded, then burst into sobs again. "I can't take it, Joshua. I'm so tired…"

"Of what?" he whispered.

"The fight," she answered, her face still buried in her knees.

"You mean with Isabella?" he asked, his blue eyes filled with worry and compassion.

"No," she choked out, "I don’t care about that shit with Isabella. That's just a small part of everything. I'm tired of the whole fight."

"Fight with who?" JC wanted to know.

"The fight with life," she continued, finally raising her tear-streaked face to his. "I fight everyday, and I get so tired, so beaten-down, that sometimes I feel like I can't go forward anymore. I hate this, Josh, I really do."

"Whatever the fight is that you're dealing with, Tam, I'm sure you can handle it," JC whispered, gently wiping her tears away. "You're the strongest girl I've ever met. And I believe in you. Whatever this fight is all about, I know you'll come out victorious. You won't bow out like a punk, 'cause that's not what you do. That's not what you are. And no matter what happens, I'm right here waiting for you to come back and tell me that you whupped some ass."

Tammy smiled and chuckled softly. "Okay." As she looked up into his smiling clear eyes, she said, "Thanks. I always seem to draw strength from you. And I really appreciate it." With that, she climbed to her feet.

"How am I gonna explain this room?" JC looked around in wonderment.

At that, Tammy reached into her pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. "Tell them I'll pay whatever other expenses I owe," she said as she handed well over five thousand dollars to JC. "I got it like that." That said, she started to walk out of the room.

"So what's the big secret?" JC asked seriously.

Tammy froze, then slowly turned around, mentally debating whether or not she should tell him the truth. "I…" she stuttered. "That is, we… we're…"

"You're?" JC prompted, his blue eyes begging for an answer.

"We're… " Tammy repeated, ready to blurt out, "We're angels", but instead she said, "We're not like everyone else, J."

"How?" he wanted to know.

"We're…" she said, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. As she was about to tell him the truth, something inside her told her that he wasn't ready to hear the truth, and definitely not like this. "We're…" she started again, then quickly thought up a lie. "The truth is," she lied, "we're lesbians."

"Lesbians?" JC scrunched up his face in confusion. "You mean like, you're gay? You like girls?"

"Err, yeah," Tammy shrugged. "But I gotta go get Michelle and the others. We'll be back tomorrow morning, okay?"

Ten minutes later, Serena screamed at her on the spiritual plane, "You told him we were gay?"

"I couldn't think of anything else," she shrugged sheepishly.

"But now they think we're a bunch of dikes!" Michelle jumped in with a yell. "What in the hell made you say that?"

"I dunno," Tammy replied. She rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Calm down, y'all. It's not like it's true. Besides, I don't even think JC believed me."

"But what if he did?" Yasmine glared at her. "I swear T, I don't know what gets into you sometimes."

"Look," Michelle gestured downwards, "there's Isabella. She's driving out to San Bernadino."

"What the hell is that in the backseat?" Tammy wanted to know.

"It looks like a bag of laundry or something," Yasmine answered.

In response, Michelle smacked her upside the head. "Why the hell would she be carrying laundry if she's gonna raise her sister from the dead, Yazzy?"

"I dunno," Yasmine shrugged in annoyance, "maybe her sister is gonna need clothes."

"For the sake of all our sanity, don't even bother to reply to that," Tammy rolled her eyes. As she continued to look, she finally saw Isabella's car stop outside the cemetery where her sister was buried. To their immense shock, after Isabella opened the back door and yanked out the "bag of laundry", it started to walk. Also, she had someone else with her as she walked with the "bag".

"It's a person!" Michelle yelped. "She's gonna transfer her sister's spirit into someone else's body!"

"Get the fuck outta here," Serena whispered. "This is getting scarier by the second."

"Which is why we gotta break this shit up now," Tammy growled. "Let's go back, y'all."

When they reached the physical plane again, they noticed how dark and eerie everything looked. Not to mention the fact that the wind had picked up and lightning was flashing nearby. They all crept into the graveyard and saw two figures in the distance hovering around a huge bonfire of some sort. "Scary shit right here," Tammy whispered.

"So what do we do?" Yasmine whispered.

"I wanna know who that person is that they have tied to the gravestone," Tammy commented. "It's too dark to see their face."

Just then, a bright streak of lightning illuminated the sky, allowing the four girls to see who all the people were. "Good God," Michelle gasped, "the person tied to the gravestone is Lance!"

"And Justin is the one helping her!" Serena added.

"That's it," Tammy said, climbing to her feet, "let's go get 'em."

The four girls ran across the graveyard, the lightning still flashing behind them, and fog continuing to rising around their feet. Still, nothing slowed their pace, and within seconds, they were a mere ten feet away from Isabella.

"Come to join the party?" Isabella laughed. "I thought you'd be here earlier, but what the hell, you can still be down."

"Cut the crap, Isabella," Yasmine called fiercely. "We're not in the mood for games."

"Who's playing?" she replied innocently, stroking a petrified Lance's face.

"Guys," he called, his voice wavering, "what's going on? I'm scared."

"You should be," Yasmine mumbled under her breath. In a louder voice she called, "It's okay, Lance. This'll all be over in a minute."

"You're right," Isabella laughed. "All I have to do is rattle off a few incantations, and Catarina will have taken over Lance's body."

"So she has to live her life as a boy?" Tammy laughed harshly. "Seriously, Isabella. I thought even you would be more resourceful than that."

"Ha!" she barked back. "I'm one step ahead of you, T. You see, when Catarina comes back, she's gonna have the power to alter her form, so she can assume her own body. Not to mention the fact that I'm going to transfer all of y'all's powers to her, me, and Justin here."

"Oh please," Serena snorted. "You really think we'll sit by and let you take our powers?"

"Mm-hmm," Isabella purred. She immediately rattled off a phrase, causing the fire to flare up, after which they all realized that they couldn't move.

"What the hell?" Michelle complained, struggling to break free.

"We're frozen," Tammy gasped. "I can barely move my mouth."

"Damn right you can't," Isabella laughed. "Pretty soon, you won't even be able to live. This is too much fun."

"Why?" Serena gasped, her blue eyes struggling to blink.

"Why what?" Isabella grinned. "Why Justin? I dunno, I guess I've gotten attached to him. The sex is awesome, plus he listens to everything I say."

"Bullshit," Tammy spat out, her mouth starting to feel numb. "Your spell backfired and you're as addicted to him as he is to you."

Isabella shrugged. "Maybe, but you gotta admit, there's a lot to be addicted to. Have you seen him without his shirt on? And that tight ass of his…" She and Justin immediately started to laugh. Isabella continued, now serious, "Why Lance? Well, I needed a body. I was gonna use Justin, but I like him too much, so I figure, who would be the easiest to get out here? Our innocent little Lancey, that's who. Justin asked to talk to him in private, so the two went for a walk around the corner. Then, J knocked him out in an alley. And here we are. And finally, why all of this? Well, I crave power, sex, and my sister, and I'm about to have all three."

All the while, Tammy was rewinding and replaying the phrase Isabella recited to freeze them, trying desperately to decipher it. "La sreknoc etah…" she whispered to herself in confusion. Suddenly she realized something. "'Hate conquers all'," she muttered to herself. "She must have said that backwards." It made sense because she knew that a lot of black magic revolved around the recitation of phrases in reverse. Once again, Tammy remembered something the Elder told her. "Love conquers all," she muttered. The instant she said that, she felt her body warming up and she could move again. "Love conquers all!" she screamed at Isabella, delighted to find that she could finally move freely, as could her friends.

"How?" Isabella frowned. "Screw it." She waved her hand through the air, and this time a huge ring of fire surrounded the girls. As Michelle frantically tried to find a break in the flames, Tammy tried to reason with Isabella. "You'll gain nothing!" she called. "The road you hunger for is barren and reeks of evil. You won't have much power for long. If you take our powers, someone else will just come back stronger."

"Not a chance," Isabella laughed as she continued reciting her evil incantations. Yasmine could see the ground starting to crumble where Catarina's grave was, and decided to help out a little. "Fuck this," she snarled, punching the ground with her fist. Because her strength was nearly fifty times that of all the others' combined, she was able to send a huge wave through the ground, causing a lot of it to erode. As hundreds of coffins rose slowly to the surface, the fire sank beneath the ground, and the girls were able to charge towards Isabella again, who in turn snarled in anger and tossed a sword to Justin. "Kill them!" she commanded.

"That looks a lot like my sword," Tammy said with a frown.

"'Cause it is," Justin smirked, taking a swing at her neck. As she jumped backwards, he laughed, enjoying himself immensely. "Don't run, T," he laughed, "you just make it harder on yourself."

"I don’t wanna kill you, J," Tammy called, darting around old, decaying coffins, "but I will if I have to."

"She's lying," Isabella called, who was engaged in a fight with both Michelle and Serena, "she can't even kill me. Plus, she wouldn't kill the Justin Timberlake."

"I say take his head off, Tam," Yasmine said, as she and Tammy continued to dodge his precise swings of the long sword. "He's trying to kill us."

"I can't do that, Yaz," she rolled her eyes as she and Yasmine hid crouched next to the wall of a mausoleum.

"Why not?" she complained. "Would you really miss him?"

"Yasmine," she sighed, "I can't kill him. How would I explain that to JC and all of them? Plus, he's one fifth of one of the most popular groups in the world."

"Oh," Yasmine snorted with laughter, "I totally forgot he was a member of 'NSync. Isn't that ironic?" Just as the words flew out of her mouth, Justin swung his sword at her head. She barely missed getting her head chopped clean off by a couple of inches, for she ducked just in time. As a matter of fact, the sword slammed into the stone wall and took off a quarter of an inch of her long hair. "Shit!" she swore as she and Tammy ran off again.

"Forget it," Tammy said, turning around. "I'm tired of running. We're gonna deal with this."

"Good luck," Yasmine replied, hiding behind Tammy. As Justin swung his sword again, Yasmine erected a light-charged force field around her and Tammy. "You gonna listen to me, J?" Tammy asked.

"Maybe," he grunted as he continued to swing at the barricade with no luck of penetrating it.

"Look, J, I know why you're doing this, but we can beat it together. We're still friends, aren't we?"

"Friends?" he laughed. "I don't know if you remember, but I'm boning you're best friend. I don't think friends do that. If the situation was reversed, I'd hate you forever."

"But that's just it," she said anxiously, "hate just causes more problems. Love forgives. As long as I love you, there can be no anger between us. Just like my favorite scripture says, 'Hate stirreth up strife, love covereth all sins'… Remember, J?" As she said the phrase, Justin's eyes didn’t appear so blank, and she felt like she was getting through to him.

"Yaz!" Tammy said in excitement. "That's it! That's one of the phrases that the Elder told me."

"I don't get how it works, though," Yasmine shrugged in confusion.

"Because," she replied patiently, "words carry power as long as you have faith in them. These words we're saying have the power to break the spell over Justin. C'mon, recite with me." As she and Yasmine recited the scripture over and over, Justin's face became clear of all emptiness, and he dropped the sword.

"Tammy? Yasmine?" he called as he looked around in confusion. "Where am I?"

The two girls stepped out of the force field and hugged Justin tightly. "Stay calm, Justin," Yasmine advised. "You're safe now. But stay with us, alright? We gotta get Isabella."

"Are you still mad at her?" he asked as he trotted behind them like an obedient little boy.

"Kind of," Tammy answered gruffly. As they approached Catarina's grave, they saw no sign of Isabella, Michelle, or Serena. "Where the hell did they go?" Tammy scowled.

"Is that Lance?" Justin cried in alarm. "Oh my gosh! We gotta get him out of here!" As he reached to untie Lance, his friend drew back in fear.

"Get away from me!" Lance screamed. "Leave me alone, you bastard! Tammy, Yasmine, help! Get him away from me!"

"Lance," Justin called, "calm down! It's me… Justin. You know, from the group?"

"I know who the hell you are!" he screamed back. "Now get back!"

Justin backed up confusedly and Yasmine patted him on the back. "We'll explain later," she soothed as Tammy untied Lance.

"Lance," Tammy said to him, "I need you to stay calm--" She broke off abruptly as she took a closer look at his face. "Lance?" she looked at Yasmine and gestured for him to come closer. "Check this out, Yaz."

"What the--?" her friend gasped as she took in Lance's distorted facial features. Where his bright green eyes were supposed to be, there were dark brown ones, and rather than the thin pink lips they were used to seeing, there were thick brown ones. His skin was even taking on a brownish tinge, making him look more like…

"Catarina," Tammy spat out.

Lance's eyebrows hit his hairline. "What are you talking about? I'm Lance, remember?"

"Oh good," Yasmine sighed, "it's still Lance. Catarina hasn't completely taken over yet."

"Taken over?" Lance yelped. "What do you mean? C'mon, you guys gotta help me. I don't wanna be possessed!"

"You won't," Tammy calmed him. "Just relax." She looked at Yasmine, asking, "Any ideas?"

"More of those phrases that the Elder told you," she shrugged.

"Okay," Tammy sighed, "but which one?" Suddenly, one popped in her head, and she whispered it in Yasmine's ears. Laying their hands on Lance's head and heart, they recited over and over, "Love connects all souls…" When they finally opened their eyes, they were looking into Lance's clear green eyes. His face had also returned to it's natural pigment, as did his other facial features.

After they untied him, Tammy asked, "Now where did Isabella and the others go?"

"I don't know," Lance shrugged, genuinely confused. He still made sure not to get too close to Justin. "They disappeared in this big ball of light."

"You said a ball of light?" Yasmine repeated. She looked at Tammy and said, "They went fourth density."

"Fourth density?" Justin, who had been silent up to that point, asked.

"Uh-oh… too much info," Yasmine muttered.

"Serena's not here to erase their minds," Tammy whispered as the two continued to stare at them suspiciously.

"Then we'll do this the easy way," Yasmine shrugged, reaching up and banging Lance and Justin's heads together swiftly and forcefully. They immediately crumbled to the ground, unconscious.

"I hope they're not gonna be brain damaged," Tammy scowled at Yasmine.

She shrugged, "No more than they already are." She and Tammy immediately focused their energies and leapt into the fourth dimension, determined to bring this fight to an end once and for all. After they arrived, they instantly saw Michelle and Serena paired up against Isabella, who still had her cocky grin plastered on her face. Michelle and Serena however, looked weary and fearful.

"Stop!" Tammy commanded as she and Yasmine stepped towards their ex-friend. "I'm tired of fighting, Belle. I know you are, too."

Isabella arched an amused eyebrow. "Am I? T, you of all people can't be tired yet. The fight has just begun."

"One of us is gonna die, Isabella," Yasmine called, taking her battle stance next to Tammy. "I sure as hell don't want it to be you, but if that's how you want it, that's how you'll get it."

"Shut up, Yasmine," Isabella scowled, not hesitating to send a tightly compacted ball of water towards her. It slammed into Yasmine with so much force that it knocked her off of her feet and out of consciousness. Serena and Michelle immediately charged her, only to be encased in another ring of fire, this time without Yasmine there to get rid of it.

"So it's finally just me and you, Tam," Isabella said softly, a playful smile on her lips.

Tammy gulped, the tension of the situation finally affecting her. "So it is," she responded, her voice wavering. "I hate that it had to come to this."

"Me too," Isabella shrugged, well aware of Tammy's discomfort, "but whatcha gonna do? " She glanced around the gloomy gray landscape of the typical fourth density environment and shook her head. "Tsk, tsk," she rolled her eyes, "if we're gonna have mortal combat, we can't very well do it in a place looking like this. We have to have some type of atmosphere." With that, the ground transformed into a high mountain ravine with water crashing loudly below them. Then, the sky turned pure black with thunderclouds in the distance.

As the wind picked up, Tammy swept her hair behind her ears. "Is this what you want, Belle?"

"What do you know about what I want?" she taunted. "But I'll tell you. I want you to prove your power to me."

"I already did back at the hotel," Tammy narrowed her eyes. As she spoke, she balled up her fists, readying herself for an attack. In the far distance, Serena and Michelle were still encased in the ring of fire, and Yasmine was still unconscious.

"Not that power, silly," Isabella replied calmly. "I wanna know how strong you are emotionally."

"In other words," she answered for Isabella, "do I have the balls to kill you."

Isabella nodded cutely. "Yup. You see, I know that despite all the shit I've done, you still see Isabella, your best friend and partner in crime. I on the other hand, don't give a shit about you and would enjoy killing you."

"I don't believe that," Tammy shook her head. "If that was the case, you'd have killed me when I was handicapped. But you didn't, which proves that even though you as the black widow dominate most of Isabella's will, she's still in there, and she hasn't totally given up the fight yet. That's why I haven't killed you yet."

Isabella nodded. "So who's gonna die, T? You have the power to take me out in one blow based on what you showed me earlier today. Will you? If not, I'm gonna kill you and not think twice about it. Then, the others will kill me no doubt, and your life will have been wasted."

"Why would you do it?" Tammy looked her straight in the eyes. "Why? Don’t you care that you'll die as a result?"

"What do I have to lose?" Isabella laughed. "I've lost Catarina, 'cause I know y'all sent her back. I've lost Justin, since you broke the spell… now what?"

"Now what?" she repeated. "Now we break the spell over you. It's time for the venoms to come back together."

"That won't happen," Isabella sighed. Her gaze turned deadly serious again, and she continued bluntly, "I tire of all this talk. Make your choice now, Tamara. I've already made mine."

In response, Tammy waved her hand through the air, creating another sword. As she stared into the face that had become so familiar to her that it was almost like looking into a mirror, she called out, "I know you're still in there, Izzy, and if you have the strength please come back and save us. I believe in you and I believe in us. As a team, we can do anything. We can all be together again, Belle." Just then, the lyrics to a song popped in her head, letting her know what she would have to do to prove her emotional strength.

She knew what she had to do. She dropped the sword, giving Isabella the opportunity to kill her. As Isabella smiled knowingly and started to create, then condense, the element of fire into a ball much like she did with the water that knocked Yasmine unconscious, Tammy called seriously, "I don't have a reason to kill you. Love knows no reason. Do what you must."

Isabella started to condense the ball, then stopped as something came over her, or rather out of her. She shook her head, as if clearing it of cobwebs, then grinned the old Isabella grin. "The love is still there," Isabella said, the familiar twinkle evident in her eye. "I can't hold the black widow for long, 'cause she's a strong puta, but know that I love all you guys as much as I loved my sister. That's why I'm doing this." With that, she turned and jumped over the edge of the ravine. As she fell, the fire surrounding Michelle and Serena vanished, and Yasmine woke up. All four ran to the edge and saw their friend hit the water with a silent splash. After a few minutes, Serena cried frantically, "Why won't she come back up?"

Tammy shook her head. "The black widow wants to, but Isabella won't let her. She'd rather die than allow it to control her."

"But she will die," Michelle said quietly. "We have to do something."

"It's a double-edged sword, Shelle," Tammy sighed. "If we save her, Isabella will be gone and the widow will reign. If not, Isabella and the widow die." She shrugged helplessly, her eyes starting to water. "Either way, we lose Isabella."

"Fuck this!" Yasmine said loudly, "I'm gettin' her outta there." That said, she dove over the edge and plummeted towards the rushing water beneath it. After she hit the water, she morphed into the animal in which she had a tattoo of, a sting ray, and immediately began to swim around trying to find her friend. Fifteen minutes later, she saw a figure unconscious in the distance, it's foot caught under a rock. "Izzy," she thought, swimming furiously towards it. Upon approaching it, she immediately morphed back into her original form and pulled Isabella from under the rock and swam swiftly to the surface. Upon breaking the surface, she saw Tammy create a rope, then throw it down to her. By the strength of her three friends, Yasmine was back where they were five minutes later, a dripping Isabella on the ground next to them.

"Look at her," Yasmine shook her head, taking in Isabella's lifeless form. "There's no way she could have survived being under the water for that long."

"She looks like a personified drowned rat," Serena whispered, kneeling down and running her finger over Isabella's blue lips.

"Can we revive her?" Tammy asked, tears now falling freely from her eyes.

"Doubt it," Michelle whispered, her voice choked with tears.

"I guess we just gotta carry her back to third density and bury her," Yasmine said, starting to sob.

Serena nodded her agreement, her tear-filled eyes resembling sapphires. "Right where her sister is. She'd have wanted it that way."

"She was the bravest of us all," Tammy sniffled, collapsing to her knees and cradling her best friend's head in her lap. "She gave her life to save ours. Even after all this, she put us first. She came back strong when it mattered. A true soldier, and the most honorable person I know."

As the four girls rose to their feet, their tears still falling on the corpse's face, they saw a light flash in the distance. "It's the Elders," Tammy scowled.

"What the fuck do they want?" Yasmine snarled, the anger she felt reaching an all time high.

"Yeah," Serena scowled, "they're the ones that told us the only way to save Isabella was to kill her. Those bastards."

"Yeah," Isabella yawned from below them, opening her eyes and sitting up, "and they're the ones who brought me back to life. Those sons of bitches," she grinned, getting to her feet.

"Belle?" Tammy whispered, unable to believe her eyes.

"In the flesh," she grinned. "The living flesh, that is."

"What happened?" Yasmine asked as she enveloped her friend in a fierce hug.

"Well," she choked out, trying to pull out of Yasmine's grip, "I was meeting with the Elders and they had a long talk with me. While I was underwater, the widow died, and I was left with just the power she gives me as my talisman, ya know? She can't control me anymore. Once she saw how strong love can really be, she got checked… seriously. The Elders told me that one day I'll see my sister again, and until then, I should be happy with the second shot of life I've been given." She wrapped her arms around Tammy and Serena and added, "They also said that I'm blessed to have people who love me so much."

"Damn right," Michelle laughed, dropping a kiss on her cheek. "We put up with a lot when you were being controlled. You don't even wanna know the stuff you were doing."

"Like what?" Isabella frowned.

"Oh," she drawled, "you'll find out when we go back third density. Let's go."

The five reunited friends leapt back into the third dimension just seconds after Justin and Lance woke up. "What the hell?" Jusitn frowned. "What the hell was that?"

"Yeah," Lance drew back fearfully, "how'd you guys do that? Where'd you come from?"

"Is this the big secret y'all have been hiding?" Justin gasped. "You're witches? I bet you are, talkin' about all that fourth density stuff and making fire with your bare hands… I want some explanations. Now."

Three pairs of dark brown eyes and one pair of black eyes with flecks of green in them locked with the pair of blue eyes. "I get it," Serena grinned, rolling her eyes. Smiling mischievously she took a step towards Justin and Lance, who took a step back. "Relax, guys," she soothed, "I'll explain everything. Just look deep into my eyes…"