Liz

I feel a bit irritated as I follow David down the corridor. I mean, I can barely hold all this stuff by myself, and he's walking pretty fast, like he wants to get away from us or something. I half expect him to take me back into the living room we saw the night before, but he walks right past it and down another corridor.

It's covered with more portraits and photos. I try and look at them as we past, but it's nearly impossible since they're all so grainy and high up. Every now and then I turn to make sure Patty's following me, and she is, pushing Jasdero along and chattering to him excitedly.

He just looks a bit bemused.

David shoves a door open and waits for me to go in. I do, carefully, since I don't want to drop any eggs.

I like this room a lot more. It's smaller and cosier, with a soft rose-patterned carpet and floral wallpaper. A big golden chandelier dominates the ceiling, and a handful of plush armchairs are scattered around the fireplace. A big mirror's hanging over it, facing the door, and I can see myself in it.

I blink. There's a big smudge of soot on my cheek. I wonder why no one told me.

To my surprise, the fire's already lit. Must have been that strange maid who did it. I don't like the staff I've seen in this house. They've got such blank faces, some have no eyes, and they've all got this weird star tattooed on their foreheads. It reminds me of cattle, and people branding them.

Jasdero appears at my side and points. "Fire."

"Okay, thank you."

He and David both watch me intently as I put all the food down by the hearthrug and start looking for something to cook with. Hanging directly below the mantelpiece there's a bunch of metal tools - tongs, a few lethal-looking pokers and a couple of frying pans with long handles. I unhook one and behind me Jasdero makes a questioning sound, head tilted to the right.

David shrugs.

I'm getting better at recognising this mind-reading thing.

The fire's conveniently got a metal grate set over it, perfect for balancing the frying pan on. It occurs to me that it's probably made to do this, but no one's ever used it in this way before. Patty crouches next to me and starts peeling slices of bacon apart and lying them onto the pan.

She helps me a lot at home.

I'm usually helping Kidd.

I've never been a crack hand at cooking, but I got to admit that Kidd does know his stuff. By watching and helping him, I think I've started to get the hang of it. At least, I can do breakfasts now, and even manage pasta and rice, but I can't do baking.

Next to me, Patty's clutching the handle of the pan, eyes fixed on the bacon that's now sizzling amongst the flames. It smells good. I'm suddenly reminded of how hungry I am.

Jasdero slides off his chair and shuffles towards us on his knees. I move away a little bit, because he's looking hungry too, and it makes him look more than a little bit scary.

He squats next to Patty and copies her, staring at the bacon as it curls and drips in the heat.

Happy to leave the pair of them in charge of the bacon, I start counting the eggs in the basket I've got, thinking how weird it is that they're not in a normal cardboard carton like we buy them in Death City.

I turn to David, meaning to ask him how many eggs he wants, but before I can even open my mouth he jumps off the chair and stalks over to the other side of the room.

I stare after him, slightly hurt. Does he really hate me that much?

But he's walked over to a big wooden cupboard, all mahogany and crystal. As I watch, he opens the bottom door and bends down, and I hear the clink of china. A second later, he turns around and slouches back to the fireplace, and thrusts a pile of plates at me.

I blink and smile at him. "Thank you, David."

He doesn't say anything, but slumps back in the chair and starts sulkily sucking the jam spoon.

I put the plates on the floor, and Jasdero looks at them. "But Debi, they're Road's plates!"

"She's not here, is she?"

"Who's Road?" says Patty curiously. I bend over her quickly and yank the frying pan out of the flames, saving the bacon just in time. Jasdero leans close, and tries to pick a piece off, so I slap his hand away and shake my head. "It's hot, Jasdero. You'll burn yourself."

He laughs at that, and I frown at him, because it's not like I said anything funny. Carefully I slide all the slices of bacon onto one of the plates.

"Who's Road?" asks Patty again, more insistently and staring hard at David.

"She's no one," he says indifferently, scraping out the inside of the jam jar.

"She's our friend," says Jasdero, but he frowns as he says this, like he's not quite sure of that. "No she's not, she's our sister."

"Really?" I say in surprise.

"Not really," mutters David. "Like a…step-sister."

"Bigger, or smaller?" asks Patty.

"Both," says Jasdero. I think he might be slightly wrong in the head and he doesn't really know what he's saying, so I ignore this last comment. Instead, I start counting eggs again.

Patty's watching. "I want three, Liz!"

"Okay."

"I want four," says Jasdero.

David doesn't say anything. It's starting to annoy me. I wonder if he's just being difficult on purpose.

Jasdero looks at him, and then at me. "Debitto says he wants four too, Liz."

I glance sideways at him, but he's staring at the jam again. I shrug, whatever. "Okay then."

Something occurs to me as I crack the eggs and listen to them hiss and sizzle. "Hey, Jasdero, David,"

"What?" they both say, at exactly the same time.

"Why don't you have a fridge in this house?" I ask, watching the eggs wobble amongst the flames.

David stares at me like I've spoken in another language. "A what?"

I stare back. "You know. A fridge."

He looks at Jasdero, and Jasdero shrugs. And, what the hell? A smile slowly starts to build up on David's lips. "So what's that, like some kind of animal or something?" He sniggers as he says this.

Are they messing with me? "No," I snap. "You must know what a fridge is, honestly."

"Nope," he says, biting down on the spoon. "What is it?"

I look at Jasdero, in case they really are having me on. He gazes back expectantly. Patty giggles. "They've never seen a fridge, sis!" She pushes me out of the way and sits down next to Jasdero, David in his chair on her other side. I guess she likes being the smarter one for a change.

"A fridge," says Patty, in a funny serious voice that doesn't really suit her. "Is a magic box."

After a silence, David glances at me, looking for some kind of further explanation. I duck down quickly so he can't see my smile, and start dividing the bacon between four plates.

"Why's it magic?" demands Jasdero.

"Because it's always full of food," says Patty. She stretches her arms wide, above her head. "It's thiiiis big and it's white and has two doors and when you open it a little light comes on and it makes a humming sound."

David and Jasdero look fascinated. "Why?"

"Because," says Patty firmly. "And it's also magic because it's cold inside, even when it's really hot outside and it keeps things like ice cream and yoghurt and cheese cold."

Jasdero looks amazed. "Really?"

"Yeah!"

But David is slightly less convinced. "How come it's always full of food?"

"Because it's magic, silly," says Patty impatiently.

I start to tell her that actually, it's because me and Kidd go to the shops every weekend, but I stop myself. Why spoil her fun?

Suddenly I notice the eggs are ready. Carefully, so I don't break any of them, I pull the frying pan out of the fire and start poking them onto plates.

Patty watches closely, counting them. "Hey, there's two missing."

"No there's not," I say, passing Jasdero his plate. He looks delighted.

"Yeah," says Patty, and starts counting on her fingers. "Three for me, and four for him and four for - " here she stops because she runs out of fingers. "And only one for you."

"I'm okay with one," I tell her and she looks indignant. "But you'll get hungry, sis!"

"I won't," I say firmly, and start passing the bread around. I want somewhere to sit down, and after some hesitation I take the armchair next to David's. Jasdero stays on the floor with Patty, dipping his fingers in the egg yolk and licking them.

God, who raised these two?

***

David

I hate to admit it, but this food is good. I can't remember the last time me and Jas had a proper hot breakfast. Liz offers me the bread and I snatch it off her, and start tearing bits off 'cuz we don't have a bread knife.

Jasdero starts picking his bacon apart with his fingers so he can fit it in his mouth, and Liz makes a sick face, like he's being disgusting. She's such a fusspot.

Patty slurps a bit of egg off her bread and gazes at me, her eyes are really big and really blue. "Have you really never seen a fridge?"

Can't she drop that? "So what?" I say, and I lick my fingers because I've gotten grease all over them and it tastes really nice.

"What about a car?" she says.

"A what?" I ask before I can stop myself.

Liz and Patty exchange glances.

"It's like a metal thing with wheels," says Liz.

"We've got one of them," says Jasdero. "Only ours is made of wood and I pull it along."

"The Boss has one too, and he sometimes uses horses," I explain. Liz's face lights up. "Oh, you mean a cart."

"Isn't that the same thing?" I say, and I'm trying to work out how to eat this last egg without getting yolk all over my hands like I did with the last three.

"No," says Liz. "A car doesn't need a horse - "

"Or a Dero!" interrupts Jasdero.

" - or a Jasdero, to pull it along. It goes all by itself. Vroom." She makes a sweeping motion with her arm to demonstrate. I frown. That makes no bloody sense. How the hell can it move if there's nothing pulling it? But I don't say this, because otherwise they'll both stare at me, and I don't like that 'cuz it makes me feel like I'm stupid.

"Have you got exorcists in your world?" asks Jasdero, licking his plate clean.

"I…don't think so," says Liz slowly, and I feel much happier at that, see, there are things she doesn't know, we're not the stupid ones here.

"Or Innocence?" I ask.

She frowns. "I'm guessing you're not meaning the normal, everyday type."

"I dunno."

Jasdero wipes his mouth on his arm. "Exorcists are bad people."

"We've got witches," says Liz doubtfully. "Do exorcists have magic?"

"Sort of," I explain, and although I don't really like her very much I do like being smarter than her for a change. "They've got Innocence which makes them stronger and so they can fight us."

"And the akuma," says Jas.

"What're they?" asks Patty hugging her knees and rocking back and forth like Jasdero does sometimes.

"The Boss makes them, and they fight for us," says Jasdero. "And it means we can kill exorcists, hee!"

"Which is fun," I add. Because it is.

"You…like killing?" says Liz all quiet, and I don't look at her because I know she'll be scared again, and that pisses me off.

"Yeah!" says Jasdero.

"We kill Kishin, sis," says Patty. I wonder what a kishin is.

"But that's not for fun, Patty," says Liz, and she's stopped eating, and I wonder, does she really want that last bit of bacon 'cuz I'm still hungry and it does look good. "We kill them because they're bad."

This conversation is starting to confuse me. And Jasdero. "But we're allowed to kill exorcists, the Boss says so," he whines.

"We kill kishin because they're evil," says Liz firmly, like that's all there is to it, and to my disappointment she wolfs down the bacon. A though strikes me.

"What do the kishin want?" I ask.

Liz wipes her mouth and shrugs. "You know, the usual bad-guy stuff. Ruling the world and so on."

I fall silent.

"That's what the Boss wants," says Jasdero kind of quietly, because he's thinking hard at the same time, and thinking and talking together is hard for him. "He says, we've got to kill all exorcists so that we can destroy the Innocence, and then we'll be able to own the world."

I sit up, 'cuz I've just got it. "We're the bad guys."

"We're not," says Liz firmly, indicating her and Patty.

"How d'you know?" I demand, 'cuz how does she really, how does anyone know if they're right or wrong?

"Because we save people," snaps Liz, all cranky.

"Death Gods," says Jasdero suddenly.

We all stare at him.

He shrugs and points at Liz. "You said, yesterday, something about them."

God, how does he remember stuff like that?

Liz looks kind of startled too. "Uh, yeah, I did."

"Kiddy-kun is a Shinigami," giggles Patty, sticking her finger up her nose.

"Shinigami aren't real," I sneer, 'cuz they aren't, they're stories, aren't they?

"They are in our world," sniffs Liz all snootily. "So there."

"But if he's a Death God," insists Jasdero, and I can see he's looking all proud because he thinks he's found a loophole in Liz's good-guy-bad-guy argument. "Then he must be a bad guy."

"Be quiet," snaps Liz, and she stands up real suddenly, snatching up the basket of eggs. "I'm going to put these away."

We all watch her storm out of the room, and she's refusing to look at any of us, and that's probably because she knows that Jasdero's right sort of. That feels good. We've proved her wrong.

"Know what, Jas?" I say, watching her go.

"What, Debi?"

I grin at him. "I like being the bad guy."

Patty throws an eggshell into the fire. "You've reeeaallly done it now!"

"How come?"

"You called Kidd bad," she chuckles - why does she find every bloody thing funny? - and starts plaiting Jasdero's hair. "Liz will hate you forever and ever now."

"Forever and ever," echoes Jasdero, and goes quiet while she twists his hair into a long braid. I wonder why he's letting her. He usually hates it when Road tries to play with his hair. This one time she chased him all over the house with a hairbrush and I ended up having to rescue him.

He wore a hat for two weeks after that.

Patty half-hums a tune to herself, and suddenly starts giggling at something.

What is up with her?

***

Liz

I kick the pantry door open a lot harder than I intended, and it bashes the wall hard, making the jars rattle in their shelves. I'm okay, I'm okay…

Carefully I put the eggs down, and they jump about a bit and I realise that I've slammed the basket down a bit too hard. Sheesh…I've got to get a grip. I put my hands on the wall and press my forehead against the cool brickwork; I can feel my shoulders shaking.

'He must be a bad guy.'

I don't know what rules they follow here, in this crazy other world, but where I come from, Shinigami are good. They're good people. They do what's right.

But as I think that, I remember Shinigami, and his murky past. All those hours Kidd wasted by himself, just to figure out what his father was up to. What kind of person would hide secrets from his own son? What kind of secrets was he hiding?

I thump my fists against the wall. Would Kidd grow up like that? Was I doomed to watch as he descended into the hierarchy of lies and secrets his father had established around himself?

'Death God…'

I hate that. I hate it when people call him that. It sounds so…bad, labelling him and making it sound like he's…he's a bringer of Death.

The Grim Reaper.

"Oi, Liz." That's David's voice, isn't it? I hear him move about outside in the corridor, and then the pantry door flies open, and he's standing there with one foot in the air, scowling at me.

I glare back. "What?"

"Patty's asking where you are," he snaps, and I can tell he's kind of pissed that she made him come find me. Patty…She's never bothered by anything.

"Dammit!" Again I bang my fists on the wall, and I don't care that David's watching, or that I look slightly insane, standing there in the dark and staring at a stupid brick wall.

"Huh." Just like that he turns and saunters off with his hands in his pockets, and I get angry because he just doesn't care, does he?

"You stupid - !" I run after him and yank him back by one shoulder really hard, because I'm pissed off. He jerks out of my reach and smacks my hand away. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I want to go home!" I shout, and I stab my finger desperately into my chest. "This isn't where I'm supposed to be! I want to go home, I want to see Kidd!"

"Like I can do anything about it," he snarls back, rubbing his shoulder. "It's your own fault! You must have done something wrong to end up in the wrong fucking universe!"

Stupid, stupid, stuuupid! I grab the front of his oversized coat and lift him bodily off the floor, and even he looks a little shocked. "I never did anything wrong!" I scream right into his face. "I don't care if I'm supposed to be here, or I was brought here or anything! I don't give a damn about what's right, I just want my old life back!"

"…David?" We both look around quickly and see Jasdero and Patty leaning out of the sitting room, both looking at us wide-eyed. David rolls his eyes at Jasdero. "Nothing, Jas. She's just being bitchy."

He just doesn't get it! I throw him onto the floor and storm over to Patty, dragging her away from Jasdero. "You get away from him, Patty." She stares at me. I hold her tight - I'm not letting anyone touch her, I may have lost Kidd but goddammit I'm not losing her - and try to stop shaking. "I'm going to get us home Patty, I am."

"Standing around shouting is really going to help, isn't - " David's cut off by an enormous boom from outside. We all jump about a foot in the air, and Jasdero swings around to the living room window. "What was that, Debi?"

David doesn't reply, but dashes over to the window and rips the curtains down. We all stare at a chaotic scene of smoke and dust and fiery skies. The tops of the trees blaze, spewing thick black smog into the already cloudy sky. Patty struggles out of my slackened grip and follows Jasdero to the windowsill, staring out in amazement. "Sis, sis! Look, a kishin!"

"What?" I run over, just in case…what if we're somehow…home?

Angrily David slaps her out of the way - I forget to get angry at him - and pulls his gun out of his pocket. "Shut it, idiot. That's an akuma."

"David, David! What if the Earl's coming home?" shouts Jasdero, jumping and down, whether from excitement or fear I can't tell.

"I don't know," David yells back over another explosion, and the windowpanes tremble in their frames. I see the akuma rise over the trees, and another follows it, and they look like overgrown flying pineapples or something, only covered with cannons. They angle them all downwards and there's another rain of explosions and fire.

"C'mon, Jas," says David, and wrenches the window open. Together they struggle through and I watch the brothers sprint across the soot-stained lawn, guns flashing red under the explosion-ridden sky.

I stare at the sky, and see another figure appear in the sky - is it an akuma? It looks nothing like the others…the closest thing I've ever seen to it is the Pharaoh Kidd, Patty and I fought once, all that time ago. The…thing soars high - how the hell can it fly? - suddenly dives downwards, disappearing into a cloud of smoke that billows from the trees.

Patty's pulling urgently at my elbow. "Liz!"

"What?" I shake my head to clear it and meet her eyes.

"Those explosions," she says, pointing out the open window. "What if they can get us home?"

"Don't be silly Patty, that's - " My words are cut off by another explosion, and an akuma rises above the trees. To my amazement, a blur of white light follows it, and with an ear-splitting shriek the akuma splits neatly in two and…explodes into nothingness.

"What the hell was that?" I gasp.

Suddenly there's a burst of flame, and I can hear David shouting faintly from the trees.

"Yah! Take that, exorcist!"

Someone screams, the fire rears up and twists like a dragon - and disappears.

I shiver and draw back from the window, because I don't want to get dragged into that battle, no way.

"Argh!" There's an explosion, and I see a tiny doll-like figure fly up into the air, blonde hair flying and - it's Jasdero.

He disappears quickly into the trees once more, and Patty squeals at the window, hands pressed to her mouth. "Liz! Liz, we gotta go out there!"

"We can't!" I cry, and I start shaking my hands about because we can't, I can't, I don't want to die! I don't want to die here, away from home, and - away from Kidd.

Patty leaps down from the windowsill and takes my hands, and she's pulling me over, and her face is really determined, it's breaking my heart.

"What if they're hurt, sis?" she asks, all serious.

"They aren't," and I don't think I quite believe myself.

"They helped us, sis!" Patty shouts at me. She's shouting at me! It shakes me up.

I hang my head. I feel terrible. "I know, Patty." I wrap my arms around myself, partly because the room's getting cold from the open window, and partly because I'm shaking like a freakin' baby. "But can't you see what's going on out there? We'd be killed!"

Patty stares at me, and then her face softens into that wonderful smile I love so much. She holds her hand out to me, and I'm staring at it like a dumbass. Very slowly I put my fingers in her palm. I know it so well; she clings to me all the time.

I cling to her hand.

"What if I do all the dangerous stuff?" she asks simply.

"I can't let you do that."

There's another explosion. Patty shuts her eyes. "Please, sis."

This isn't a decision I can make lightly, so I take a big breath before I do. "Okay, Patty."

I transform for her, she snatches me up and together we head out into the battle.