Angels and Demons

So, they knew each other, and all his dancing had been for naught. He sighed through his teeth. That entire spectacle and it was completely pointless.

He frowned a little, looking over at Dean. "Ow, that stings. I didn't even try to kill you, if you don't recall. In fact, I actively tried to get you out of the combat, you dug that hole for yourself. You can hardly blame me."

"Of course." Rose said. She looked over in the direction of the building. The bad feeling had not gone away. It was growing stronger. She absently started rubbing her brand, her mind racing. Every. Single. Thing. About this was unnatural.

Someone Had done this to them. Had it been a real angel? A real demon? A god from someone's realm/world? She was sure that it wasn't any of the gods from her world. And whoever it was, Why had they taken so many different people?

She shook her head to clear it of all of these questions. Only time could answer them.

As they made camp and settled down in the forest, James kept himself busy. They would have to account for food, shelter, and warmth. Regardless of the fact that they were all angels or demons, they would still need the necessities.

Rose was being generous with the number of apples she had on her, but they would have to get ready for nightfall. He was hesitant to leave the group, but he doubted there would be an opportunity for Boris to speak with him in private if he didn't create one.

He walked over to Maahes, and caught Boris's attention with a wave of his hand. "Boris. Come with me. Maahes, I'm leaving you in charge for the time being. Everyone, feel free to contribute to setting up camp however you see fit, but remain close. Keep an eye out for each other, and don't make too much noise. We may be a good distance from the hunters but we don't want to risk drawing attention to ourselves. Boris and I will be back very shortly after we fetch some firewood. Keep your wits about yourselves," he said with a sharp nod, before heading off into the forest. His tail flicked and his coat fluttered behind him. He expected Boris to follow.

"If you don't recall," Dean hissed right back, "you imprisoned someone who was trying to help you out, and then caught my brother right afterwards. He's still having nightmares, by the way. So I think I'm more than a little justified in saying that we're not friends."

He turned his attention back to Gabriel. The demon was looking thoroughly amused with their bickering, though he didn't miss the look that momentarily popped into his eyes at the mention of Lucifer being caught. He knew that Gabriel felt no loyalty to him thanks to his demonic heritage; Luci was just a good and sweet guy. Anyone who knew him would be offended about what had happened with that trip to the alternate reality.

"His name is Cornyx," Dean said. "Cornyx Blackthorne. He's from an alternate reality, and currently rules Hell there."

Gabriel went back to swirling his straw around in his cup of holy water. "I'm guessing you think he's not doing a good job."

"You know me well," Dean said, taking a large gulp of his drink. He glanced over at Cornyx, making sure to keep his voice low so none of the other hunters would overhear the conversation. "This is Gabriel Eberhardt. He's a demon, and part of a trio of hunters that my brother and I are friends with."

"You know quite well I didn't intend to get your brother and what went on with Mikael is really none of your concern," he said, before addressing the most current matter. He extended his hand to Gabriel. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Eberhardt."

Damascus had been tailing the group distractedly when he noticed that they had started branching off and dividing for various reasons. He bumbled around, looking for anything he could do to help set up camp.

Oh- James was giving instruction again. He stopped what he was doing (which wasn't much), and listened in. Right, James was probably using the firewood collecting as a chance to talk to Boris alone. That made him relieved.

James had also left Maahes in charge- the same Maahes who he had been introduced to during the events of the masquerade and who seemed to be a good friend of James.

Only.

Only now, a new connection occurred to him- one that he should have recognized before. He had known a Maahes, once upon a time ago. A young god who he had fallen into the company of mischief with during times he didn't much like to recall.

His luck seemed to be just awful these days. What were the odds? Two dreaded run-ins with figures of his past that he had thought- no, preferred to have forgotten.

Though he was very skeptical, he still did not want to absolutely ignore the fact that this might be a different Maahes. He certainly looked different, though Damascus of all people knew that that was an entirely null point.

During all of these internal ponderings, he had been openly staring at Maahes, stricken.

"Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have been able to tell the difference," God hissed right back, watching as Gabriel briefly shook the extended hand. Then the demon leaned back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling as one of the resturant's staff came over and asked for their orders. God and Gabriel both put in for a Coke and a simple order of a burger and fries - he refrained from giving one for Cornyx. A prisoner woudn't be treated so nicely among hunters, and it was also just a little bit fun to be so spiteful.

It didn't take long for the food to come. Once the waiter was gone and they had both started digging in to their respective meals - they always had been on similar wavelengths - they got to the crux of the matter.

"We're not the only ones who got...changed," God said. He took a large bite out of his burger. "There's a lot of us. Cornyx here is the only one that I recognize, but I do have my suspicions on what some of the others present are. We've all become something that we're not; we're either demons or angels now. But it's more the cartoonish type than anything else when it comes to demons, and you saw what happened with Cornyx."

Gabriel thought for a moment. "Was it the angels?"

"I doubt it," God replied. "I thought it could be at first, thanks to the fact that whoever it was made me look like this, but I don't know if they have that level of magic. We could be dealing with another god, but I don't know who or why they'd do something like this in the first place."


As they waited for people to return to the group and sat beside Rose, Zephyrus tried to make his best guesses on the group present. It was hard. Aquarius had mentioned that incident in the mansion to him, and this was definitely like that. Which meant that his knowledge on how the universe worked was going to be chucked out the window. He wasn't just dealing with gods, players and mobs. There were all sorts of people and things lurking in this forest, and how was he supposed to make a good assessment on them when he didn't even know the extent of their power?

Worse, he was stuck looking like this, so he couldn't even do a decent job of looking intimidating. His form was refusing to change, and the only thing he now had going for him was that he looked and sounded like he was an adult. Hopefully no one would figure out the truth about his and Aquarius's real ages - something told me the group wouldn't be as open to listening to two teenagers as they would two powerful godly adults.

Zephyrus sighed and rested his head in his hands.


Despite being left in charge by James, there really wasn't much for Maahes to do. The firewood and more research on how to get back to normal was being taken care of, and none of the people present were (thankfully) causing problems. The only things left for him to possibly do were further experiment with his strange new body, or keep looking at the other people present to see if any trouble was brewing.

He didn't want to risk accidentally harming himself with the first option, so he settled for the second. It was while looking around that he caught Damascus's gaze, and realized with a growing sense of dread that he was the focus of the other man's attention. He shifted uncomfortably. There was panic on his face. Did he know the truth? He was restricted to looking like this, but maybe Damascus could see what he looked like on higher planes when his body was normal? Was that even possible?

He took a deep, unsteady breath. He couldn't panic about this, not when he had to be a leader. He'd just have to talk to Damascus. He was almost certainly overreacting, and Damascus would be quick to ease his concerns.

At least, he hoped he would.

He walked over to Damascus, coming to a stop a few feet in front of him. He struggled to find the right words to say; he didn't even know the reason for the look, so what was he supposed to do?


Grim couldn't have been more grateful about Dean and Cornyx both leaving. He really hadn't liked the looks that the newcomer had been giving him, and hadn't liked how powerful the man felt. He might have claimed to be a human hunter, but Grim had a feeling in his gut that he wasn't. He couldn't figure out what he would be.

He could have been an angel, given what he ha become. But he didn't seem to like angels, and the angels that rebelled were angels that fell and became demons. If Dean had been one of those angels, he would have shown up as an angel and not a demon. It was frustrating and more than a little terrifying about not being able to tell what he was-

"Hey, Griffith?" a voice suddenly said from behind him. He spun around to see both Schadel and Edward standing nearby, Edward looking downright intimidating with his demonic ensemble as he stood behind her. "Could we talk for a bit?"

He froze. "Ab-About what?"

"Souls," she quietly said. "I know you can see mine. You've been staring at my heart ever since I showed up. I can see yours too, and it's not a human's. It's like Dean's."

He glanced wildly in the direction of the building. Their souls were alike? But that was impossible! He was the only Grim Reaper. There couldn't possibly be another of him. He would have kept staring in the direction that Dean had gone if Edward hadn't cleared his throat.

"We're not going to harm you," Edward reassured him.

Schadel gave him a warm smile. "I didn't really get a chance to introduce myself - I'm Schadel H. Kueper, owner of Schadel's Necromancy Agency. Edward's my assistant. We deal a little bit with the supernatural, but we mainly focus on the paranormal side to the world."

His eyes widened in horror, and he stumbled back into the nearest tree. "You br-bring people back from the dead?" This was bad. This was really, really bad. They didn't know who they were dealing with. If they knew he was the Grim Reaper, then they would want him out of the way the moment his identity was revealed - he would only cause trouble for them in their minds.

Edward gave Schadel a look. "I told you people would misinterpret what we do," he said.

Schadel's face turned red. "It was a thing I came up with when I was a kid!"

"Just like your middle name?"

Her blush deepened. "...We don't talk about my middle name."

"Sure, Schadel Holmes Kueper," he said, grinning mischievously at her before turning back to Grim with a more serious look on his face. "We don't bring the dead back. We just talk to ghosts who still remain here, and help them move on."

Schadel and Edward glanced at each other.

"I'm a grim reaper," Schadel said. "I only really take care of ghosts these days, and I promise I won't take your soul right now..." She kept on talking to him and trying to reassure him that she wasn't going to cause any harm, but all that Grim could focus on was what she claimed to be.

"You can't be!" he exclaimed. "I'm the Grim Reaper!"

It was only after he spoke that he realized his protest might have been louder than expected.

"There's only one being I know of powerful to do this, but it...doesn't seem her style," Cornyx said, leaning back and glancing at Dean's food. A part of him felt rather tempted to drop the temperature in an isolated area under or around it sheerly out of spite but he decided the better of it.

"Though, I've heard that this isn't the first time such instances have occurred. The main names I heard were ones of supposed deities - Kartiel and Rendra. Of course, there's numerous possibilities, and we don't really have much evidence pointing towards anything, much less the involvement of particular individuals of whom many of us are unfamiliar with. I don't know how things work in other worlds but I'd guess that the fact that we're from differing realities narrows it down considerably. There can't be that many beings from this one with those kinds of abilities." There was, of course, the option that the being wasn't from this reality or universe and merely stepped onto this one to play this little game, but it was one that Cornyx preferred not to entertain. It was already looking for a needle in a haystack.

Rose glanced at Zephryus as he rested his head in his hands. "Doing okay?" She asked him, as she watched everyone mill around and help set up the camp. They were going to need shelter, and that part she could help with. She was very good at building shelters and had done it a lot. She looked around and spotted some young saplings. Perfect. She thought about Jame's mood though and decided on asking before doing anything.

"Does anyone want me to start on shelters?" She asked in general. Maahes had been left in charge, but he was busy talking to two of his friends, so she just called out the question.

Damascus startled a bit as Maahes came over, realizing that he had probably been staring too hard. In a split moment decision, he came to the conclusion that he should just come clean. Maahes, if it was the same Maahes that he knew before, had changed, as far as he could tell. What would be the harm?

"Ah, would you..." he paused, and lowered his voice, starting over. As much of a resolve as he had gained, a nervous sweat still broke out on his neck.

"Maahes, we know each other, don't we?" he asked quietly, seemingly pained. "I look different, probably, and I've changed, at least IhopeIhave."

He took a deep breath. "Do you remember me?"

"You do have a point," God admitted, mulling over what he had suggested. There had to be a limited amount of people who could pull something like that off. But just knowing that fact wasn't exactly helpful - they needed to know who those people could be. Gods were seeming like more and more likely candidates, but who had enough magical expertise? The only names that came to mind were Lucifer and Hecate, but his brother wouldn't have done something like this and Hecate likely wouldn't have, either.

Gabriel studied Cornyx. "So who's these Rendra and Kartiel people?" he asked.


A short distance away, a hooded figure observed the exchange between the two familiar people and the stranger with a growing level of interest.


"I'm okay," Zephyrus said. He leaned back and stretched, throwing his arm around his brother's shoulder. "I'm just a little...antsy, that's all."

Aquarius glanced over at him. "They'll be back soon," he quietly said.

"I hope so," Zephyrus replied, glancing up at the canopy of trees and the darkening sky above them.


"Shelters are a good idea," Maahes absentmindedly replied, gaze failing to leave Damascus's face.

The question left deep knot in his essence. They had met here and at the masquerade. Those had been the only two times. He was sure of it! But the way that Damascus worded it made it sound like something else was being referenced - he made it sound like there had been a third time. And something about that terrified Maahes. Maybe it was the implications that Damascus had shown up in his past - maybe he had been one of the Goa'uld he had encountered. Damascus sounded Greek, didn't it? There wasn't a Greek god named Damascus, but maybe he had never made it big.

"I remember you from the masquerade," he said, trying to push back his growing levels of panic. He was human now. He didn't have a single magical thing at his disposal, and he didn't even have a weapon to defend himself with if things turned nasty. James had left with Boris; his friend wasn't there to come to his defense anymore. Kratzer was dealing with the ramifications of Boomslang learning who he knew. He was helpless, and Damascus probably knew it.

Why else would he chose now to speak with him?

"Some individuals mentioned by the German man. Boris was his name, I believe." He went on to explain what he'd been told about the Atlantis incident as well as both deities.

Damascus chewed his lip helplessly. Now Maahes was starting to look scared, and he didn't want that. He would try one more time, he decided, and if Maahes still didn't know who he was, he would reassure him that it was a misunderstanding.

"Right," he started softly. "And I thought that that was the first place we'd met, but..."

He sighed, and cast a sheepish glance somewhere toward his shoes. "Does the name Aagares mean anything to you?" he got out with difficulty.

God and Gabriel both listened carefully to what Cornyx described. Those two gods were unfamiliar to both - neither Kartiel or Rendra had come from any of the mythology they had heard of in the past. It was possible that they had managed to escape God's notice, but he was beginning to suspect that they weren't even from his world to begin with.

God rested his head in his hands.

"I know this probably won't make much sense to either one of you," he said, "but I'll rule out this being something that Kartiel is involved in. The souls look right."

"What do you mean?"

God thought for a moment. "Someone's soul is like a key, and their body is like a lock," he said. "You can sometimes manage to pick the lock, but the body doesn't look right afterwards - it wasn't the real one. Obviously it's not to the same scale of damage, but the souls I've looked at matched the bodies they were in."


He froze.

He remembered that name. It had been at roughly the same time the incident with James and the grangor had happened. He had been Ra's loyal servant at the time, doing everything his master ordered him to do. The memories of his face and the actions he had committed still made an anger from long ago rise up from the depths of his heart. Aagares had been a demon in a reality not unlike his own; he had been a tormentor, and Maahes had been terrified of him even then. Aagares had reminded him too much of himself, and too much of how he was slowly becoming the summoner he abhorred.

And now he was looking at him again, nearly ten thousand years later.

"It does," he said, a little bit of the Scarlet Lord's coldness creeping into his voice. This was really bad. He remembered what Aagares had been like back then, and to compare him to Damascus - which wasn't his name, now that Maahes thought about it - now made shivers run up and down his spine.

Rose walked over to the sapling grove and put her hands on the saplings. Instantly, there was a rustling, and the saplings bent towards each other and began to intertwine. She kept an eye on Damascus and Maahes out of the corner of her eye. Pretty soon, the saplings were finished and there was a thick, strong roof over a shelter big enough for them all.

"This should be big enough for all of us." She said, walking around, picking up some sticks and discarding others as she wove them into the gaps.