Now, as his father would do, as any good king would do, he held his man in order to hold him up.

The light gleaming out of the hole stopped.

And they again stood in a day that was night.

“You would have defeated him,” Faunus said dully.

They would have.

Mars didn’t verbally confirm.

And he did not, for they would have, but it was without a doubt Faunus would have been lost to the fight.

And his Teddy knew this.

So, he took his place.

“Fucking Teddy, he always has to be the gods-damned hero,” Faunus bit.

Mars had nothing to say to that either.

But from what he knew of the man, this seemed to be his bent.

They were attacked from the side by a brunette.

Only then did Mars let go, for Faunus now had someone to hold up.

She grasped his man’s arms as she peered over the mouth and screamed, “Teddy!”

“Moira,” Faunus murmured.

“Teddy!” she shrieked.

Pain for another shredded Mars’s insides.

Fortunately, as this occurred, Mars felt Silence slide her arms about his middle.

He guided one of his around her shoulders and held her close.

Saturn approached them and sandwiched the woman between the two warriors, his eyes cast down into the mouth.

Mars felt his friends gather at his and Silence’s sides.

“T-Teddy,” she sobbed and then collapsed to her knees.

Faunus and Saturn went down with her.

The rays of the sun pierced through the night as another angmostros appeared over the side of the cliff.

Atop one of the heads was a stunning, redheaded woman with a mermaid’s tail glittering brilliantly in the increasing daylight.

“He was always one to make the most of an entrance,” she called.

Right before something shot out of the hole.

It darted into the air, then speeded down like a javelin, before it twisted, arse aiming down, and landed on the head of the other angmostros, which dipped slightly on impact, but mostly held strong.

And there sat a man who looked a lot like Aramus, except he had a head of short, tight, curly black hair and a much longer black beard.

Not to mention, the lengthy, winding tail of a Mer king.

“It is done!” he pronounced grandly.

“You took love!” Aramus shouted in fury.

“I did not take it, Sea King, it is love!” the mermale shouted back. “It gave itself!”

“You’re a sirens-damned son of a bitch!” Aramus raged.

“And I made your many-greats grandfather king so I could get to you,” the mermale returned.

Aramus had no retort to that.

The redhead smiled benevolently down at them through all of this.

The mermale tugged on a spike of the head of the beast he sat atop, and it swung toward her.

The instant they got close, he reached for her and took her into a hearty embrace.

“Erm, am I watching Triton and Medusa have a snog?” Silence asked.