"Chaos and Corruption aren't back yet? Where the hell'd you send them, again?"
Sam was standing not to far from the horsemens' couch, looking at Strife who had his arms folded behind his head as he laid back in peace at the near silence. "To go retrieve something. They haven't learned the whole portal opening techniques yet, so they'll be a long time. Thank god."
It's been a few days since Sam went against Strife and his brother, War. "But I thought we were all going to have a meeting about the End Times? We know it's soon."
"Yes, Sam is correct. It's better to talk of it now than when there is but two months left. We should all have periodic conversations regarding it." Fury was walking down the stairs off to the side of the room, putting a hand on her hip as she reached the bottom.
"We don't even know any specific details, the fuck is the point in talking till we know something." Strife groaned, losing all peace in the now dense room.
"Wrong, brother." Scourge was now on her way down, stopping alongside Fury. "We have acquired much more information, thanks to Malthael."
"Sweet guy." Sam shoved her hands in her jean pockets. "Where did we plan to have such a meeting?"
"Your tree provides comfort. How about there?"
"It's alwaysss the tree. Death in his room?"
"Yes. As War is in his own."
"I'll go get them." With that, Sam jogged herself up the stairs, barely missing the three she had left, conversation.
She made her way through the long hallway, stopping for a moment to fix a chair that had been knocked over, as well as the small table beside it. Finding Deaths' door, she lightly knocked on it. After a few moments, she did again, much louder. "Death? You there?" There was loud shuffling noises, followed by a disheveled looking horseman in a mask opening the door.
"Yes, Sam?"
"Everybody's meeting at the tree, to talk about the End Times."
His eyes widened, barely noticeable due to his mask. "Alright. I'll get Wa-"
"I got it. You go. I need to talk to him anyway." She softly patted his arm as he stepped out of his room, and he gave her a small nod before he left on his way downstairs. "Death?" She spoke out, just before he was out of sight. He turned to her, waiting for the sentence to follow. "I, uh. Nevermind, they're probably waiting for you." She gave him a small smile, as he nodded again and left.
The demon stood and watched for a moment, before slowly making her way to Wars' room. He really like to log around and sleep, so it was no wonder to her why his room was much farther back in the manor.
She eventually got there, and hesitated slightly before knocking rather loudly on his door. She heard the bed creak, and the sheets ruffle. But then silence. She knocked again, even louder. This time nothing. So, she knocked again, no, it was more like she pounded on the door.
The rustling and creaking happened quickly this time, and the door was sung open. "WHAT, Dea-"On the other side of Sam was now a mostly naked, large man, with his pearly white hair and eyes. There was the large gash on his chest, bandaged and such from the days before.
Sam opened her mouth to say something as the door opened, but she stopped upon seeing him, as they both stared at eachother for a good minute before Sam decided to speak. "I see you're not used to Death no longer being the only one with enough balls to wake you up, willingly."
War grunted, slamming the door. She stood there and listened for a moment, about to speak again when she heard the sound of him putting on his armour. She couldn't help but question to herself as to why he didn't have casual clothing, she remembered treating armour as normal clothing and it was annoying as anything.
A few minutes passed before the door opened again, War now clothed and with his hood over his head. "What do you want, hellspawn."
"What happened to using my name?" She disregarded the small opening he left between the doorframe and himself, and easily managed to weave herself past him and into his room. She didn't look around, and just walked over to his bed to sit down, watching him. "I just need to talk to you is all."
"I do not think Death would be pleased to find you in my bed.. Or perhaps my room in general."
"He knows I'm here. I said I want to talk, not screw around." Her expression turned slightly harsh, and it for whatever reason seemed to confuse War.
"Of course you of all would go against your nature."
"You know me so well." The demon crossed her arms, and then the horseman did to.
"What is it, that you wish to speak of."
"You. Whatcha hidin' from?"
"I don't hide."
"No, but you do keep to yourself unless bothered, and then you're always in that hood."
"I could say the same to you, yo-"
"I got over it." She shrugged, standing and shoving her hands back into her hoodie pockets. "I don't wear my hood often anymore unless I just don't want to talk to people. I'm not hiding from myself anymore. I got over that part of my problems. And you don't have to hide whatever part of you you're unhappy with."
War stared at her for a few moments, before letting out a low chuckle. The demon was visibly confused until he provided her an explanation. "I see why Death ever had such interest in you."
"I don't"
"Do not play dumb."
"I'm not. What makes you think I am? Do you not remember the scared little girl I was when I met you four?"
"No, unlike you, our memories don't go back throughout many of the millennium we all have lived. You're wiser than you think, I do remember you two bonding quite a lot. You most likely said things to him that haunted his mind."
Sam pondered for a while, thinking on what he said. "Doesn't really help, that I refuse to believe any positive comments towards myself."
"You should, you're a marvellous being."
"I digress. I apologize for kicking your ass the other day. How's the wound doing?"
War was visibly taken aback, she often feels sorrow for small actions but he did ask for the blow to the chest. It didn't seem like something that required an apology to him. "It is fine. Is that all you wanted to speak of?"
"Nah. End Times conversation by the tree, everybody should be there by now. I came to get you and thought it was a good time to apologize." She began to walk to him, as he was still by the door. "Let's get going, they're probably waiting."
War stepped aside, allowing her to leave first. He closed the door behind them, and followed her outside. The others had indeed wondered to the tree, each one looking to their own extent, stressed and worried. The chatter that was going on ceased once Sam and War arrived, the demon moving to be beside Death and the horseman to stand beside Strife.
"So. Somebody wanna fill me in on that information Scrogue was talking about?" Sam removed her hands from her pockets to stretch, disregarding the uneasy looks of the others who were already aware.
"Samantha, you're aware of the humans invading hell. And you're aware, whichever side wins, will be the only realm left. Correct?" Fury was speaking quietly, as if Sam would go off like a bomb if spoken to harshly.
"So, if the demons win, only hell will exist?"
"Correct."
"And I'm guessing all demons whom are still alive will be there to keep hell thriving?"
"Correct."
"Fun." Death sighed, running a hand through his hair. Sam leaned on him slightly, hoping it would calm him. "So, we better not let that happen. Right? There isn't many demons left anyway, am I wrong?"
"No, you're right. And they're continuing to vanish due to the humans."
"There is only around a hundred thousand left." Death spoke, who hadn't seemed to calm down.
"Out of the few hundred million there were." Sam smiled slightly, but it faded almost as soon as it was there.
Everybody looked around, one to another. Nobody said anything for a while, and Sam was busy focusing on watching a fallen leaf. Her tree rarely lost a leaf, so she was puzzled by it.
"Sam." Strife spoke now, and he was nearly feeding off of Death's current state of being. "We need you to do something."
"Oh?"
Strife looked at Death, who sighed quietly. "Sam, the demons are trying harder than ever to recover their land. One of the first priorities was they made schooling buildings to teach and train as many as possible. Even the rogue, and insane demons are behaving enough for it. You have pent up energy, enough to give the Angels and us the leverage we need."
Sam's expression didn't change, she was sure on what she was going to be asked. It was something they probably didn't understand as to why she couldn't.
"We want you to do the first blow on the battlefield."
There it was.
"No."
"Sam, we are aware of how you feel about demons, this should be no pr-" Death was shoved away by Sam, which caught everybody off guard.
"So that makes it okay to start what will wipe out the only world I ever KNEW? The only place I've ever felt COMFORTABLE in? Where all my memories lay? To start what'll wipe out my RACE? I get it, YOU had to do that, but I'm NOT as strong as you, how many times do I have to fucking tell you that?" Her eyes were glowing red once again, she was growling and her hands remained balled into fists. This was the first time the others had seen her like this, and a few decided they needed to step back. Fury was right, she was a bomb. "I'm NOT going to start that. I don't even want to be IN it, I don't give two shits on who WINS, but I'm not STARTING it."
Death stared at her, now calm and collected. The others were tedious and worried, watching the demon just stand and breath. Almost as soon as she had gotten angry, she calmed down. She took a quick deep breath, the growling stopped, her eyes went gray. "I have business to attend to. Catch me up on anything later. Dunno when I'll be back." With that, she was engulfed in a quick flate of dark smoke, just for it to fade and herself be gone.
Everybody looked at one another, puzzled and concerned, before Strife decided to open his big mouth. "She learned that trick awful quickly."
Sam walked down to the one place she knew he would be hiding. The cave's opening seemed small, until you dug into it. She knew it would reform, so she didn't hesitate on knocking open the hole, to expose the large tunnel within.
The small demon walked, not really caring if it was noticed she had entered. She wanted to be known right now, because that was why she was here. The cave was wet, and dark. The only light came from the now closing opening she entered, and the long ways ahead of her. There was a rotten smell coming from everywhere, like eggs or roadkill. Or perhaps worse. "The things you learn from humans." She chuckled to herself at the thought.
Eventually making it to the end of the tunnel, she was greeted by several other demons who were much bigger than her, but scrawny and weak looking. Their armour told her she was definitely in the right place. They each had some sort of weapon pointed to her neck, one from every angle around her.
"I am here to talk to Samuel. We have business. It's about the End Times."