Kay hummed to herself as she took the trash out, taking note of how the weather was and refreshing the breeze was on her skin. She never realised how much she missed smelling the sea air of Seattle from where Sam lived, until now.

Sam looked between the two of them and rose an eyebrow. "nothing. I guess having her around brought back an old habit to ask her to do a chore. I know she's in safe hands with you both" Sam replied back, noting how the two of them suddenly suspicious that she had altefior motives for asking Kay to do something. Though, as she thought about it, she could see why they would think that.

"But I have to admit...how bad was her life before you found it? Between her leaving me and you finding her I mean.. She hasn't said anything to me but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice how wolfs down her meals like the food will be stolen from her if she doesn't" Sam added, deciding to take the moment to ask as she can. "and please don't sugarcoat it. I need to know" she added.

Kay found the bins a d lifted the heavy lid, throwing the bag in as she minded her own business. She figured Sam was possibly drilling Serena and John about her in some way, so she didn't make a point of being fast in her actions. Minding her own business, she didn't even hear the rustling in the bushes on the other side of the fence as she took this moment to snap some photos of Sam's garden for memory sake.

John sighed and said “she was on the streets Sam…for a long time. But we did handle the doctor who did a lot of damage…well Serena did…” Serena blushed a little and said “I don’t handle bullies well…”

What John said made Sam pause what she was doing and take in what she was told. Her sister chose to live on the streets alone, whilst being hunted instead of staying with her and hopefully being safe? It was a lot to accept and she couldn't imagine just how hard that life must have been. Yet it also made her respect John and Serena so much more as they literally took her in, and now it made sense to her why Kay told her that John saved her life.

Not only was Kay living on the streets a surprise to her, but sow as the news that the doctor from her childhood still being in work. "you know... I was the only one who truly believed her for the longest time that that guy was bad news. I'm glad he's been dealt with" she replied to them both honestly. "and now I know the truth about her, she never should have been sent there anyway. I always felt bad that it took me so long to convince our folks to get her away from there anyway" she added. "as for the streets thing? I'm shocked she chose that over staying with me, even if she has told me why she left. The idea of her spending all this time homeless.... I..." she began talking of the other matter discussed, but her voice broke off, unable to finish her sentence.

"I'm glad you two found her, thank you for saving her. I've never seen her attach to outside people like she has with you both. She loves you both dearly" she said, deciding to put a positive spin on her feelings.

Before Kay could put her phone away, she felt a massive hit on the back of her head, making her drop her phone on the ground and pass out into mysterious arms, that then swung her limp body over their shoulder and proceeded to disappear through a portal.

Suddenly Serena jumped up and ran for the door, John feeling the hit and following her. They kicked the door open just as they saw the portal starting to close. John said “oh no you don’t!” He held he hand out to stop the portal just as Serena sent her shadows out to wrap around it. The pair then ran and jumped thru the portal without missing a beat.

Sam wondered what was going on and ran behind them but stopped dead in her tracks as she saw a portal in her backyard with John and Serena holding it open long enough to jump through without hesitation and disappearing into thin air. "what the actual hell??" she asked to herself, running her hand through her hair in disbelief that she just saw her guests and sister vanish from sight.

Kay laid limp over the shoulder of her attacker as they emerged on the other side of the portal. On the other side was a derelict tunnel that weaved and wove in all directions, becoming clear to anyone native in Seattle that these were the old underground tunnels that is not for general access for the most part. Weaving through, carefully treading their heavy boots on the rubble ground and finally reaching an old brittle wooden ladder going down another level, they carefully climbed down with Kay still in grip.

Reaching the lower level they hoisted Kay back down off their shoulder, placing her down on the ground whilst they grabbed the nearby dirty thick rope to which they used to wrap round Kay's wrists and then threw the other end up and over a beam. Grabbing the rope once again, they pulled hard on it, hoisting her up, making her dangle by her wrists, feet a good 4feet above the ground where they then tied the rope on a pillar as complex as possible.

Kay soon groaned as she started to come round slightly, her vision blurry as she computed what had happened. "w-what's..going on?" she mumbled. "oh, you're awake" the disguised figure said, walking up to her and looking up. "thought you'd be out longer than that, guess it's true that phoenix's don't remain unconscious for long" they said.

With her throbbing headache, she could barely focus on who took her and was struggling to even stay awake. She just hoped John and Serena would notice her absence. "t-they'll come...for m-me..." she stammered, "oh I'm hoping they will" they replied with a smirk. "y-you'll r--" she tried to say before passing back out again, her whole environment swimming and swaying, as if she was paraletically drunk as she did so.

John and Serena landed in the tunnel and John growled. “I’m killing whoever took her…” Serena nodded and her eyes glowed. “Leave it to me…” she waved her hand shadows jumped up and flowed in all directions. Then she ran and followed the ones that signaled the right way. John ran after her, fire already in his hands.

The shrouded figure began chanting quietly to themselves as they faced Kay's unconscious body. Having a phoenix in their grasp finally was something they just knew they had to make the most of. They planned on either using her as bait to draw the others out or just outright sending Kay into hell, but feeling the power and aura eminating from her human form was just too much of a temptation, they needed a taste of that power for themselves. If they could get a taste and become more powerful, then he wouldn't need to drag the mage that got bested by Bane and Fee out of Hell to complete their task.

They held their arms out toward Kay and with a few more words spoken, a bright golden light began flowing out of Kay and flow toward them, wrapping and warping round their arms toward their chest. They could almost taste the power already and it was exhilarating! The power hungry laugh couldn't be kept within them for long. As Kay's aura escaped her more, she began to stir awake from the pain and started screaming.

Suddenly a shadow blasted him from behind. Serena rounded the corner and said “Shadows of night! Banish my foe!” The shadows wrapped around the mage and another around the aura from Kay. The shadows returned the aura back to Kay’s chest.

John came right behind and slugged the guy hard. “Get your hands off my girl!” He hit him again as shadows held him in place. Serena was on Kay, cutting the rope free with her blade. When she was free Serena caught her and said “John we need to go now…” John wad beating the guy still, slamming him into the ground and hitting him as blood went flying.

Serena said “John! Enough!”

The mage thrashed against the shadows, his hood now revealing it to be a man, having not calculated that Kay's loved ones would come in all guns blazing so to speak. He expected a much more stealth attack, which he now realised was a foolish notion to have had. He couldn't even get to Serena now because of the onslaught that went down. "no!! My power!!" he called dout as he tried to grasp for Kay's aura, but John came out of nowhere and punvhed him so hard he fell to the ground.

He tried fighting his way back up onto his feet, but it was useless. The shadows and John's fists kept him down. With her aura restored, Kay passed out once more as Serena managed to cut her down, her body just dropping like a sack of potatoes, her hands still tied together by her wrists.

"you don't...deserve...her power...she doesn't...deserve it!" the mage coughed out between John's punches and slams, seeing the raw anger in John's eyes, he could see straight away that the infamous John Constantine actually felt something for Kay. "I won't be...the last to...get her J-John" he stammered and coughed up blood, as he looked him in the eyes through a very now cut up and swollen eye.

John slammed him into the wall and yelled “not from you she won’t. I’m blowing you to bloody kingdom come!” He slugged him across the face again and was going in again but a shadow stopped him.

Serena stood there, her hand out and holding Kay against her shoulder. “Take Kay and get back to Sam’s…I mean it John. Leave this guy to me…” John stood there panting and bloody. He sighed and dropped the mage and moved, Serena cutting the rope on her wrists and John carried her back the way they came.

Serena was alone with the mage and turned to look at him; her eyes glowing. “Now…how should you meet your fate?”

Even though he knew he was greatly losing this fight, the mage found himself smirking as blood dropped down from his mouth and he looked up at John. "who woulda thought... John Constantine found another to actually love" he said between coughs. "the downworld will have her... She's an abomination John, Eve and The First will have her, mark my words" he said once more as Serena managed to get John to stop and he dropped to his knees on the floor.

As he watched John carry Kay out of the underground tunnel room, he looked up at Serena. "why do you stand with them? Those...flawed imbeciles. You can and should...be so much more" he told her.

Kay remained unconscious in John's arms as he carried her out and up. Once outside he'd find they were far from Sam's House, on the outskirts. The landscape was bare and clearly mostly ruins, making it clear why a portal was earlier used.

Serena’s eyes glowed and grabbed him, slamming him against the wall once more. “Now what do you mean about that? The other mage died yelling crazy words while my guardian and the flame bird protected me…now if you want to walk out of here alive…tell me what this is really about? Why was I the target?”

John cursed and pulled his phone out, luckily having gotten Sams number the night before. He put his ear to the phone and waited till she answered “Sam? It’s John. I got Kay, but I have no bloody idea where we are…we are still in Seattle that’s about all I can tell”

The mage gritted his teeth as he got slammed back into the wall before chuckling as he knew he was a dead man walking either way. "if you can't figure that out for yourself then there is no hope for you" he said bsck to her. "your guardian as you put it no doubt knows more than he's letting on, look closer to home missy" he continued.

As Sam hesrd her home begin to ring, she rushed over to it seeing John's name come up on the screen, answering it quickly. She listened to what John was saying, "describe where you are. Where was she? I can try and help if I get an idea of where you are." Sam replied, having a feeling that if John was calling her asking for help then Kay couldn't be awake which panicked her.

"wait..better yet, does your phone have a locator on it? Or Kay's? I can track your location through your phone if it does and get to you" she quickly said again after getting the idea in her head. "is Kay okay?" she then asked.

She growled and the shadows moved around them as she said “fine…the painful way it is…where your soul knows no rest for all time…locked away in the darkness…never to be free again…is that what you want?”

John put her on speaker and said “hold on love, let me turn on the tracker. I forgot Chas had me get this on here…” he turned it on and then sent her the information. Then he said “she’s alright now…out cold but she will be okay. Serena and I handled the bloody git who tried to take her. Serena is dealing with him now”

"question is, do you have the conscious to condem someone to the darkness void?" the mage asked, coughing more and wincing, convinced John had managed break a rib or worse to him. He could see she was capable of many things but condemning someone to the void was a big action in the realm of magic, very few people lived with their actions of doing such an action as it was so difficult to reverse the action. Yet he also knew it was where demons or downworld ers liked trapping souls for that reason also, Hell's, he was tempted to trap Kay there after taking her power.

Sam waited on the other end of the phone as John requested of her to do so, just glad that he did have the function on his phone at all. With the information linking to her phone, she heard it beep in her ear, making her put her own phone on speaker so she could look at it. "I know exactly where you are. You're a good half hour to 45minutes away by car. I'll get moving now to pick you up. Just stay somewhere safe, keep her safe John" she asked, her grabbing her car keys easily being heard over the phone.

Serena got close to him and her eyes changed to silver as she said softly “I am the guardian of the Phoenix…and you attacked her without remorse…so your soul means little to me unless you make up for this sun by telling me something I can use to protect her…I will only ask once more…because I’ve already driven a human to madness for her sake…I’ve swallowed monsters and fiends for her wellbeing…don’t think I’ll pause to do the same to you…”

John sighed and said “she’s safe with me Sam…hopefully she doesn’t wake till I clean up…” he looked at his hands which were covered in blood. He looked down at Kay and said “I’ll protect you Kay…no matter the cost”

The mage listened to her and as her eyes glowed, he knew she wasn't joking. He saw in that moment that Serena was not someone he thought could be that strong or powerful. He had underestimated this group massively and knew he was going to die a damned man. "the downworld and Hell...they're closing in on her. My failure will be their gain and they won't stop until they get her. This is just the beginning. They'll tear through anything and anyone...to make her vulnerable and obtainable" he said.

Sam nodded to herself, knowing John couldn't see it, "I'll be there as soon as I can" she replied again before hanging up and grabbing her jacket. She scribbled a note down to Lara that she would be back soon and not to worry, then raced outdoors and into her car where she used the the information John sent her to get the route on her satnav.

Kay's eyes moved under her eyelids to show she was with him but not about to wake up. Her body was healing itself inside, healing Fee.

Serena growled and hit him again and yelled “why did they go for me! What was that crap about bringing back Nyx! Was it all crap or was there something to it!?” She was starting to lose her cool now, her eyes changing as well as her form.

John sat down with Kay in his arms, wondering where Serena was. “Come on girl…I can’t carry you both out of there…”

The mage winced as he felt more and more pain surge through his body as she hit him again. "there's truth to it alright, and there's some out there that want Nyx and the Phoenix to be at war with each other. Some believe with the two of them together, they'll succeed in bringing the phoenix race back... Yet others believe if the phoenix remains with the hellblazer, they'll start a new race..." he coughed out. "that's all I know, so if you're gonna end me... Just do it already" he added.

Sam drove as fast as she could, but it felt like every turning or traffic light she came across she got stuck at a red light or traffic. Her fingers tapped rapidly on the steering wheel, just wanting to get to her sister, along with John and Serena.

Serena glared at him and then said “your right…your not worth the trouble…” she stepped back and said “have fun with my friends…” she turned to leave, the shadows jumped up and took forms of creatures to moved towards him. Serena walked out of the tunnel to screams and her eyes grew dark.