Angels and Demons

I followed behind, and until we were safely out of earshot, spoke only of firewood, in what direction it might be found, how we might light it.

It was not long before James and I were safely away. I told him of what had occurred with Cornyx, and all that I had learned from him, to the full extent of my memory.

"I'd have passed it on to Engel myself, but it's safer for everyone if he hears it from someone already known to be a friend of his.

Tell Engel what I told you, at the soonest safe opportunity. If he informs you of any plans, tell me nothing of them unless he instructs you otherwise. If all goes well, our brother may taste freedom yet."

I gave James a long moment of silence, that he may further take in the information, as I knew he'd want to plan his next move carefully. It was for this reason, among others, that I felt very grateful he was here.

"Oh look, here's a good place. Lots of dead branches hanging- simple to break off, dry from the sun. We're awfully lucky, all things considered." I commented, offhand.

"Oh." Damascus swallowed hard, his last hopes of this being a misunderstanding extinguished. He paled and studied Maahes' reaction, hoping that his honesty hadn't just destroyed the potential of being on good terms with James' friend.

"I'm very sorry that you met me then." he finally said, his voice soft. "I can't even begin to recount how much I regret from that period, but there- there isn't any reason to be afraid of me now, I should hope, and..."

He sighed deeply and cut his rambling short, seeing the unfairness in the assumption he was expecting Maahes to make.

"I hope that, in time, I can prove myself to you to have better character." he finished simply, his voice strangled.

Rose went inside, examining the shelter for anything she might have missed. She gritted her teeth as a shot went up her arm. She pulled back her sleeve. The brand was now halfway up her arm. She stiffened and tried to ignore the pain, weaving a stick into a gap in the roof. The saplings rustled at her, they were happy. She sat down, her wings hitting the wall and sighed. Everything was so wrong! Her arm was shot with pain again and this time she clamped her teeth shut and still couldn't keep a muted scream from coming between them. She'd lost track of Maahes and Damascus. All she could feel was the pain.

James wouldn't have called it luck, but it was convenient, at least. He broke off a large branch with a forceful yank, releasing a fraction of his nervous energy through the movement.

He didn't know what to do with that information, apart from giving it to Engel.

The truth was, Engel deserved to know, but if their previous interaction - with bullets and all - was telling of what would come next, he wasn't sure he wanted to divulge such information. He didn't know how Boomslang's servants (or comrades, the hell did he know?) would react. Would they be glad? Would they also eagerly take advantage of Boomslang's weakness? Would they turn on Engel? Would the fragile balance of 'peace' among their group be irreparably broken and they would split off? Would anyone miss those that left? He knew he had no personal attachment to Boomslang's posse but he knew one of them was Engel's son.

He ripped off another branch with ease. His claws, strangely enough, aided in the chore.

"I'll let Engel know when the opportunity arises," he said quietly as he tucked the branches under his arm. "I may not be able to pull the 'let's get firewood' stunt again when it's something that would make more sense to delegate if there's tension amongst the group. We still don't know why we're here yet or who or what brought us here, and we don't know how long we'll have to wait before our questions are answered. I don't know if Boomslang is needed in the equation or not, as much as we despise her presence. There was one instance - another one of these events where I was pulled out of my life into another reality - where each person served a role. A purpose. This doesn't feel like that, but I don't even know enough to know what we can afford to risk. So..."

He let his sentence hang in the air, somewhat regretting the fact that he'd just thought most of that aloud.

"I'll wait for an open door. We'll see. But thank you for letting me know. Now," he said, ripping off more branches and adding them to his pile. "Let's hurry back."

Aquarius had wanted to thank Rose for making the shelter, but, before he could, what sounded like a scream of pain left her. He sent a nervous glance in his brother's direction before rushing over to where she was. "Rose," he asked, his voice quiet and anxious, "are you okay? What's wrong?"

Zephyrus followed in his footsteps, eying the confrontation between Maahes and Damascus before looking solely at Rose.


He listened carefully to what the demon had to say. It was difficult to mask his fear for the beginning of the conversation, but that challenge quickly was tackled by the time Damascus had finished speaking. His shoulders relaxed, and he took in a deep breath of air - Damascus was no threat. He wasn't an enemy in the slightest. Though their definition of demon may have been different, Damascus and him were incredibly similar.

"I've changed a lot since then, too," Maahes said, giving him a small smile. "I was...I was working for a horrible person when we last met, and I was trying to do my best to get through that by fitting in with his kind and what he expected of me. But that was a very long time ago, and I've changed a lot since then. So if you're asking for a second chance, could I have one, too?"


Schadel stared at the man in front of her, trying her best to wrap her head around what he had just protested. He looked both mortified and confused now that the exclamation had left his lips. The latter of which did a fairly decent job of mirroring the look that was probably on her face. "But the Grim Reaper doesn't exist," Schadel slowly said. "Are you sure you're not...No, your soul doesn't match a grim reaper's soul..."

"I do exist," Griffith weakly protested.

Schadel crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. It wasn't supposed to be intimidating, but Griffith looked more than a little nervous when he saw the change in posture and facial expression. "The Grim Reaper is just a story that humans made," she said. "They thought...They thought we were one thing, and someone decided to stylize it as a giant skeleton. That's what the Grim Reaper is. It's just a story."

Griffith shook his head. "I've been around since the 14th century," he whispered. "There was the plague going on. They-They were terrified of me. They screamed and they ran and some even tried to kill me."

Edward stared. "But you don't even look like the Grim Reaper."

His wings enveloped him. "I don't normally look like this...I'm just a skeleton..." He glanced over in the direction of Aquarius and Zephyrus, and then over at Sevy. "They've seen me how I really am before, if you don't believe me."

"This doesn't make any sense," Schadel said, resting her hand on her chin. She would ask them, but she was sure Griffith was telling the truth. He didn't seem like he was lying. When she briefly turned to look at Edward, he seemed to be having the same train of thought. "The Grim Reaper shouldn't exist, but you do..."

Having amassed a respectable pile of firewood myself, I too made haste for the camp.

"Don't worry about it, too much." I said. "Engel is cautious. I have faith that he won't do anything rash. But, tell him of your concerns, if you will. He'll listen to you."

Damascus smiled, immensely relieved, and quickly nodded. He held out a hand to Maahes. "But of course you can. I could already tell you've changed."

Rose rolled her eyes up as Aquarius's voice reached her through the haze. She gritted her teeth and stiffened again, another cry escaping. Some of the branches were cradling her and she managed to pull up her sleeve. The brand was now all the away around her arm and literally burning.

"They're...unhappy..." She gasped out, not caring if she didn't make any sense.

Maahes grabbed onto the extended hand and gave it a shake. "I'm glad," he said. "Not many...Not many people have met me then and know me now. The only other person here is James, and it's not something that really comes up in conversation..."


Aquarius and Zephyrus hurriedly glanced at each other, then at the mark on her arm. "What is that!?" Zephyrus exclaimed. Gone was any hope of remaining calm throughout this experience; he was far too concerned by the fact that Rose's arm was literally burning.

"Rose said it was a mark left by the gods when they cursed her," Aquarius replied. He was looking over the mark that had now spread up Rose's arm with a combination of concern and thoughtfulness on his face. He suddenly spun around to look at his brother. "Earlier I helped her arm feel better by putting water around the mark," he said. "Maybe-Maybe if we use a combination of our magic, that can help?"

Zephyrus nodded. "It sounds like the best idea we have, so let's go for it."

He let the magic come to him. It was a little harder than usual, but he was used to pushing his magical abilities. Ice began to form tendrils on Rose's arms, curling up in a growing spiral. Aquarius filled in the places not touched by ice with water. It was hard to focus on keeping both parts constant, but they did their best.

"Oh?" Damascus' eyebrows shot up preemptively. "I didn't realize James was-" he paused for a moment, and then smiled sheepishly. "Right. Time period inconsistencies."

Looking around dejectedly for a moment, he had the sudden urge to be useful, which was stronger now than ever.

"Now, Maahes, James left you in charge, so you'd know... please do enlist me for help in setting up camp. With anything at all. I'm afraid I've just been blundering around."

Rose went limp as the ice and water formed up her arm. The pain had seared her to the bone and she could still feel it, but it was a little more bearable and the flames were out. That was the main thing. She sat there, her wings fluttered and breathing deeply.

"Thank you." She managed to get out.

James only nodded to Boris before grabbing a few more sticks of wood and marching back to the group with the stack in his arms. He came back to witness the shelter made entirely out of trees - presumably Rose's doing.

He scanned over the others and their ongoing conversations before stopping on Maahes and Damascus. He gave Maahes a nod of his head as que that he was free from his brief duties of watching over everyone.

He walked over to Zephyrus, and Aquarius who were looking after Rose's burn.

"Thank you for making shelter," he said softly. "And thank you for caring for Rose."

"You're welcome," the brothers said, both to Rose and to James. Zephyrus then let out a tired sigh and flung himself back down beside Rose; he had already known that this was going to be a long experience, but he hadn't anticipated how wild it would already be.

Aquarius gave him a worried look.

(Then again, he was dressed like this.)


Maahes let out a sigh of relief when James returned. There hadn't been much for him to do as the impromptu leader of the group, but it was still nice not currently being the one in charge. He glanced over at Damascus. "I'm sure James is going to be surprised by the two of us suddenly knowing each other," he commented, giving his old friend - if it wasn't too soon to call Damascus that - a smile.


Dean had noticed the figure out of the corner of his eye, but hadn't thought much of it. They had just seemed like another hunter, if the sheathed knife on the table next to them was anything to go off of. But now they were in the middle of slipping the sheath back onto their belt, and a pair of dark brown eyes peeked out from underneath the hood to their purple hoodie.

They got to their feet and casually walked over to the trio.

"This is probably a bad idea," they quietly said - more to themselves than anyone else. Their voice marked them as young and female, and Dean immediately tensed when he recognized it. He couldn't remember who it had belonged to without seeing her face, but he knew she had been involved in the incident with Cornyx.

She slipped into the seat next to Gabriel, the latter giving her a wary look as she pulled her chair into the table. "Hi," she said. "I know I'm not really on good terms with anyone here - except the...hunter next to me - but I overheard what you were talking about and want to help."

She pushed back her hood to reveal a face as young as he had expected, and a face that he recognized as belonging to the demon who had helped capture his brother back in Cornyx's reality. (And later helped free him, but Dean had never been able to really understand the change in heart.)

"Hi, Cornyx," Darunia Vain awkwardly said. "And, hi, Dean."

James nodded, and then departed went over to Maahes and Damascus. "Everything alright?" he asked.

Rose shot a worried glance at Zephryus. He looked [i]tired.[i] She cautiously stood up, and fell into the wall. She tried again. She was a little unsteady. "We're going to need food. Some of the older trees have acorns. I'll see if they will share." Keeping against the wall, she slowly made her way out of the shelter. There was an old tree a few steps away from the shelter. She made her way to and collapsed, panting. That burning had taken a lot out of her. She looked up at the tree and laid a hand on it's trunk. Several acorns fell down.