Chapter Two: Jealousy Is An Ugly Word

Malice's POV

I walked down the hill and walked to Black Night's lair. I was walking in silence, alone with my thoughts. I kept trying to figure out who might want this to happen. That's when it hit me. Not it as in the answer, it as in something I had not seen. And it hit hard.

"You assholes again?" I was incredulous. I had been attacked somewhere close to 29 times, and it was getting ridiculus. The thing swung at my head with a claymore, but missed completely as I used the shadows to supplement my speed. My red eyes were alive. They had to be to tell me his weakpoints.

"Why won't you," He grunted with the effort of swinging the claymore, "die!" And the worst part is, that stopped me. I had no good one-liner, so I just put him in a Doom Hold, something I invented. Gruesome, but effective at gathering information.

"Why are you... whatever-the-hell-you-are's still attacking and ambushing me?" I asked, now thoroughly ticked off.

"Because the master wishes your head on a silver platter." The thing answered.

"And he is?" I was surprised this thing submitted so willingly, but I needed more answers.

"You may know him by Mishiaxzhi. But that is not his true name."

"His true name?"

"Miikjuhhruzzxzih"

"Interesting." I let go of the Doom Hold, and the creature clutched its throat, gasping. One more question flickered through my brain. "What the hell are you?"

The thing smiled and answered: "We are known in your launguage as the Jerudar. Our true name being-"

"I don't want to know." I interrupted. I turned to walk away, but the Jerudar stopped me.

"Well? Give me an honorable death. That is the least you could do." This surprised me too. Mishiaxzhi must not look very kindly on cowards.

"Fine." I pulled Soul Eater out from the shadows, the blade flashed, and the Jerudar's head rolled off, its mouth open, exposing many rows of teeth, its eyes blank. Curious, that it had so many rows of teeth, no tongue, but was able to speak perfectly English, albiet in a very gravelly rough voice.

Pondering this as I walked back to the Sanctuary, home of Black Night, I was once more interrupted but this time by Starfire. Doing her shopping I presumed, taking into account her many grocery bags.

"I did not expect to see you here. Killing more innocent people?"

"No. Just glad I don't have to eat your food."

"Have you come here to insult me?"

"No, I'm going home. And tell Raven that they're the Jerudar." I walked on, leaving Starfire bewildered. I walked without interruption to the Sanctuary. I simply bypassed the door and walked in. I startled Hatred.

"Nice to see ya boss. I trust they didn't give you too much trouble?" He asked, casually.

"No, and found out that they're the Jerudar."

"Excellent. We'll cross-reference that. And by the way, Despair's pissed. Something about you and Raven hugging?"

"Ah jeez, not again... doesn't she have anything better to do than be my shadow? No pun intended."

"Apparently not. Fear tried to calm her down, but she couldn't. I'd be careful if I was you." He finished with a wary grin. Then he nodded and resumed duty as doorkeep.

I sighed, knowing Despair would go into her tirade again. Which is pretty bad, considering that's again. I sighed to myself and walked into the room we shared. She sat there, her dark eyes glowing with anger and, what seemed, emptyness.

"So you and Raven are...?" She began.

"No. We're friends. Nothing more, nothing less. Why do I have to keep explaining this to you?"

"If you two are just friends, how come you two spend more time together than us?"

"Because you're so jealous and overprotective! Once again you've made an assumption, a wrong one I might add, that just adds to your jealousy. Once again, you've made a fool of yourself, and me, by your childish games. Once again, you've proved to me that I can't trustt you or have friends. Once again-" Despair cut me off at this point.

"All right, all right," she said, holding her hands up for me to stop. "I get it. I'm a very jealous person. But I can't help it. You and Black Night are the best things to happen to me. Everytime I see you with another female, even a friend, my jealous side just... takes over. It's a result of what happened to me before..." she trailed off and looked away.

"And that would be...?"

"My first love cheated on me all the time, only I was too blind to see it. I didn't want it to happen this time." She seemed absolutely devastated.

"Damn... I'm sorry for going off on you like that, but... it was just too much for me."

"I know... well, I can understand. We both agree that I shouldn't be as jealous right?" She asked. I nodded in consent. "But you could be spending more time with me."

"True. Well, it's something to work on now isn't it?" She nodded. I felt as if a big weight had been lifted from me. Not that I couldn't have lifted it myself, just kept forgetting.

"So what was so important that you two had to have a moment?"

"Michael. Through death... new life. But not all bad news, Hatred is gonna cross-reference the Jerudar. Apparently we do know the name of what we're up against."

"Well... we can worry about that tomorrow." With a kiss, we let the world slip away into darkness.