Will You Stay With Me?

When Damien finally woke up, the group had dispersed and only Annakhin, Azuril and Zykan, who was up on the ceiling and seemed to be brooding, remained.

"What's with him?" was the first thing Damien said, Azuril answered, Annakhin was too busy giggling at a moody Zykan.

"Annakhin had him running some errands, then she asked that he stay here until you woke up." she said,

"and now that you're up, I'm leaving. See ya." Zykan said, still sounding irked, then he dropped down off of the ceiling, grabbed his scythe, which had been leaning against the wall near the door to the hall, and exited the room, Annakhin still giggling. For a second he stayed perfectly still, trying to pass out again, he was tired now, then his eyes widened and he sat up,

"The ball!" he cried, "where'd it go? Did it get away?"

"What?" Annakhin asked, looking completely lost. Azuril held up the ball.

"No, it didn't get away, I have it right here." she said, then she passed it back to him. Again he gave her a curious look.

"That's another opportunity to be gone and out of here. But, again, you passed it up. Did you really mean it when you said you'd stay?" he said, watching her carefully for a reaction of some kind.

"I wasn't going to leave until I knew that I hadn't seriously hurt you. It would only add on to the many things than I blame myself for." she said, "I still care nothing for you, I only care for the people you resemble. That is the only reason I acted as I did earlier. Nothing more." then she left the room.

"Did she mean that?" Annakhin said, "that she doesn't care about us?"she looked at Damien, who was looking at the ball on the palm of his hand.

"She's pretty hell-bent on it. If she keeps it up, I'm gonna have no choice but to let her go." he said, Annakhin lowering her gaze,

"I was so sure that at least some of what I've seen from her was for us. But, it really does seem to be only for the people we used to be to her." she said sadly. Damien nodded in agreement,

"seemingly so." he said, they sat in silence, dwelling on that fact.

Azuril was walking out of the house, through the back door, and looking up at the stars,

"it's so much easier to see them now..." she muttered, meaning the stars. Her stargazing was interrupted by a loud crash, then a female voice letting off a long string of curses. She followed the noise around to the side of the house, Bobby was there, crouched on the ground, picking up the tools she'd accidently bumped and knocked all over the place. Azuril stood and watched for a while, once Bobby was done picking things up, she turned on some music, it was playing on a stereo that, sort of, resembled something that was about to come out in her time period. how the hell did a really, really new CD player survive one thousand years of technology advancement? she thought to herself, then she jumped when Ghost of You by My Chemical Romance came blaring out, Bobby swearing again as she turned the volume down quick, better question, how the hell did that music survive one thousand years of music advancement? she watched Bobby work for a little bit, muttering something, she couldn't tell what it was, and listening to one of her favorite songs by Chemical Romance, then she decided to go sit down on a stool near the stereo, she couldn't help it. Her brain had gone into autopilot and wanted to be by her cousin, sitting by her and watching, or following as she used to. Bobby was too much like her cousin for her sub-conscious to tell the difference between the two. As far as her brain was concerned, she was sitting next to Jessi, watching her doing her usual thing and listening to music, music that must, by now, be considered 'oldies'. She was also muttering about the fact that everyone in the group teased her at some point about her taste in music, and the fact that she could work an ancient piece of equipment like a stereo. She didn't notice she had an audience until she turned around to change the song on her CD player, once she noticed, she sky rocketed.

"Whoa! What the hell! What are you doing here!" she yelped, Azuril's brain was in autopilot again,

"what song were you going to listen to?" she asked, Bobby froze, blinking rapidly in confusion.

"What?" she said in a quick snap, Azuril just pointed to the CD player,

"were you going to play a specific song? If not, then may I choose one?" she asked. Bobby stared openly for a second, then nodded,

"you can pick." she said, "if you know how to work that thing, that is." she added. Azuril waved it off, then pushed the 'back arrow' several times, stopping at the first song, Helena. "How did you know how to do that?"

"These were in my time period originally. My cousin, the girl you resemble, enjoyed listening to, what I called, 'oldies' music. But she used records and a turntable. I don't expect you to know what those things are, she also liked this band." she said, "and, though Helena and I'm Not Ok are two of my personal favorites, Ghost of You is probably my true favorite." she added. Then she fell silent, listening to Helena and watching Bobby.

"Well, whoa. Ok." she said, then she went back to work on the hover-board Zykan had accidently re-demolished.

Later, Damien came outside, Looking for Azuril, to make sure she hadn't run off. When he found her, he stared openly for a second, then relaxed and smiled, walking over to where Bobby was working, and Azuril was watching.

"So, you don't care about us, huh?" he said, both girls looked at him, Ghost of You was playing on the stereo again and Bobby stopped in the middle of handing Azuril a wrench, Azuril was holding a screw-driver like tool, ready to hand it to Bobby, a tool box set on her lap.

"Who doesn't care?" Bobby asked, looking lost.

"Miss Toolbox over there." Damien said, pointing at Azuril, who just stared at him, "so, you don't care, and yet you're sitting there, helping Bobby, and listening to music, just like one of the group. Interesting way of not caring." he said.

"It was reflex. She looks like my cousin. And my cousin enjoyed listening to music while she toyed with mechanical, or electrical, or flammable items...most pyro mechanical. She enjoyed the sight of fire. I used to sit and watch her tinkering with things, on any necessary occasion, I would also assist in her little escapades. But mostly, I enjoyed just being there with her. As an added fact, she also enjoyed listening to 'oldies' music, using older technology to do so, and she enjoyed listening to this particular band as well." Azuril said, Bobby was blinking and staring at her.

"And you kissed your mother with that mouth?" she said sarcastically.

"So, this situation was basically the past calling out to you?" Damien said, Azuril nodded.

"Exactly so, yes." she paused, then looked at Bobby, "to both of you." Bobby sputtered a bit, then went back to work quickly.

"So," Damien said, walking over to sit next to Azuril, "it's not because you wanted to help Bobby, your brain went into auto-pilot, or something, and you only saw and wanted to help, your cousin?" he asked, looking up at her from where he sat on the ground. She nodded.

"Yes." she said, Bobby made an agitated noise,

"well, thanks." she said in a slightly irritated tone, "screw driver." she said, holding out her hand, Azuril handed off said item, having taken the wrench she been given.

"How long have you been out here?" Damien asked, both girls answered,

"about two hours." Bobby said,

"about half an hour." Azuril said. Damien shrugged,

"either way, anyone have any special requests for dinner?" he asked, Azuril shook her head, Bobby gave the same answer Jessi would have.

"As long as it's something edible, I don't really care. But you know my list of 'I don't eat that' foods, so be careful." she said, "ok, I need the wrench again."

"I'll leave you two to it then." Damien said, wondering if he could somehow use the rest of the group to get Azuril to stay. If Bobby got her to sit still and participate in something willingly, just by being there, then the others were bound to have some effect on her for sure...then again, Bobby looked like a relative, so she had the best chance at getting Azuril to stick around. He started walking towards the front of the house when he heard the door open and close. Then he nearly jumped out of his skin when something he couldn't quite make out went speeding past him. "What the hell was that?" he said to himself, then he went inside, finding an extremely confused Annakhin, Miko and Skayr waiting for him, not really for that reason but they were all in the front room. "What's up?" he asked, looking around the trio of girls, "where's Zykan?"

"We were hoping you could tell us." Skayr said, "he did say he was going to find you."

"Well, I never saw him out there." Damien said, "I did see something go by here shit fast though."

"Could that have been him?" Miko said, Damien shook his head,

"no, Zykan's fast, but not like that thing. Oh well, unless he gets shot, he'll come back. He always does."

About and hour later, after everyone had finished eating, Bobby eating Zykan's share in his absence, they heard the front door open and close.

"Someone's here." Damien said, getting up and walking away from the table. He bumped straight into Zykan as he headed for the front room, "welcome back. Bobby ate your dinner. Where were you?" Damien asked.

"Yeah, hi. Bitch. And NOYDB(None Of Your Damn Business), pal." Zykan said simply, then he walked away, of course carrying his scythe with him.

"He's really weird." Miko said, Bobby nodded.

"He's an odd one alright. And I am not a bitch."

"We know, Bobby. He's just mad at you for eating his food." Annakhin said. Skayr looked up from picking her teeth with the tip of her knife,

"he never eats dinner, why is he still getting upset about it?" she said, then she resumed picking her teeth. Bobby took the knife from her.

"That's nasty don't do it at the table." she said, putting the knife down next to her plate.

"He is strange," Azuril spoke up, everyone looked at her, "but, if he is the most like my old friend, then there is much more to him than simply 'strange'. I have an odd feeling we have only seen the tip of what he can do." she said, standing up and leaving the table, going down the hall, stopping at the room she'd been in before, standing there, seemingly deep in thought, then she walked into the room and closed the door behind her.

"And we have to keep her?" Miko said, glaring at Damien, who stared her down,

"yes. She may not care about us, but I'd like to know if any of you can be cold enough to toss her out into a world she knows nothing about, in the condition she's in, mentally, and then walk away with only the thought if 'well at least that burden's off my shoulders'? I know I can't do that and go on feeling completely happy she's gone."

"I never would do that." Annakhin said.

"We expected as much from you, though." Miko said, then she looked back at Damien, "I see what you're getting at. But, still..."

"I couldn't do it either." Bobby said, Miko gave her a look, Skayr made a miffed noise.

"If it meant leaving knowing I'd killed someone who'd been in the same hell I'd been in, I wouldn't. Besides, I don't care either." she said. "You don't need to care about someone just because they have the same goals you do."

"So, not even Skayr could throw her out. I think she'd have shot herself by now if she was dependant on Zykan, so we'll exclude him." Damien said, then he looked at Miko, "still wanna throw her out?" he asked, she hesitated for a while, then shook her head.

"No, I can't throw her out. Skayr had a bit of a point, you don't need to care about someone just because they have the same goals as you do." then she started to put the dishes in the sink. Damien smiled, he knew she cared. Then he went to sit down on the couch, and play with the little black ball, still trying to think of a way to get Azuril to stay with them without having to trick her, or hold her with them because he had something she wanted back. He wanted her to stay because she wanted to, not because something was making her.

"What are you thinking about?" Annakhin asked, walking into the room and taking a seat on the couch next to Damien.

"Azuril, how to get her to stay here, with all of us, without having to trick her in some way." He said, still absently rolling the ball around between his palms. Annakhin smiled knowingly.

"You really want her here that badly? Skayr wanted nothing more than to walk away and leave us from the beginning and you weren't this persistent." she said, Damien shook his head,

"no, I wasn't this persistent. But, that's because when we found her, she'd been returning to Bobby's house, the two lived together, remember?" Annakhin nodded,

"I do. And you're trying to say that it's because of Bobby that Skayr stayed, she wanted to stick with her friend? Is that it?" she said, smile never fading, Damien nodded a bit,

"I guess so. And it's because of you that Zykan's still here, that and he does seem to enjoy the entire this, it's enough excitement to make him happy. Miko's the only one that stays here because she wants to get this done. Bobby, and the group objective, are the only reasons Skayr is still here, otherwise she'd never have come. You, for some weird reason, and the excitement of it all, are what's keeping Zykan here. You said earlier that the fact that this all sounded kind of fun was what made you join in, the same thing with Bobby. Miko, Skayr and I are the only ones that have a real cause for all of this. And all of us keep each other together in a group. But, the only attachment Azuril might have is she wants Angela dead. Nothing else is keeping her here. If anything, I think she's got more reasons to leave than she does to stay." Annakhin looked confused at that,

"what reasons to leave would she have?" she asked, Damien looked at her,

"just seeing us kills more and more of her every second we're visible to her. We forced her awake, into this world that she knows nothing about. She really hasn't done or received anything while she's been here that might make her stay. And she's got nothing more to lose in her opinion, why risk gaining something that might end out being taken from her right after she finally gets it? We've given her more reasons to leave by just existing than we have for her to stay." he said, "she has every right to leave, she's been given the opportunity several times, but she didn't take it. She didn't leave. I don't know why, but she didn't, the fact that she doesn't know a thing about almost anything she'll find around her is probably the only reason she's still here." he lowered his gaze away from the girl next to him, "it doesn't make sense for her to leave." Annakhin knew exactly what was going on inside his head right away once she'd heard him speak. She kept up her smile,

"if you want her to stay, why don't you ask her." she said, Damien stared at her for a moment, then gave up,

"you're right on that, if I want her to stay, and willingly so, then I should probably ask her to." he said, then he got up and headed for the hall.

"Oh, Damien!" Annakhin said, "don't get too nervous about it. It's just a question." she said, he gave her a look and left.

"He's going to give himself away?" Skayr said as she and Bobby entered the room. Annakhin shook her head,

"if he does it's going to be an accident. He just really wants her to stay with us." she said.

"The kid's setting himself up for a soap opera style scene in there." Bobby said, watching Damien enter Azuril's room. "She won't listen, he'll lose hope, we'll have to dig him out of a pit of depression."

"No," Annakhin said thoughtfully, "I think it'll be ok." Skayr scoffed,

"yes, I'm sure." she said sarcastically. Miko and Zykan joined them,

"what'd we miss? Where's he off to?" Zykan asked, pointing down the hall, indicating he meant Damien.

"Damien's going to further ruin his life." Skayr said, Bobby nodded. Annakhin gave a frustrated sigh,

"he's not going to ruin his life. He's going to talk to Azuril. Nothing more." she said.

"Oh. He still wants her to stay, then?" Zykan said. Annakhin nodded. Miko looked down the hall, frowning, staying silent. The rest of the group just looked at her for a second, then at each other, no secret about that stance, Miko never could keep a secret.

"He isn't going to ask her to marry him, Miko." Bobby said, the girl looked at her wide eyed, "he just wants to ask her to stay. Don't worry."

"Worry? Why would I? He can do what he wants. I don't care." she said, then she walked towards her own room.

"That girl is a shit liar." Zykan said, the trio of girls with him nodded.

"Azuril?" Damien said as he entered the girl's room, she was sitting on her bed, cleaning her gun. "Can I talk to you?"

"You may. I am listening." she said, stopping her cleaning to give him her full attention.

"I wanted to ask you to stay permanently. Whether you care or not, it's up to you. But, I want you to stay with us. Please." he said, his stomach knotted, then relaxed as he managed to calm down his nervousness. She stared at him unblinkingly for a while, then went back to cleaning her gun,

"I will consider it." she said, he stayed in the room watching her for a moment, then left the room.

Several days went by, each day brought more confusion as to how Azuril managed to heal so quickly, each days also brought a new tense spot, several small arguments between Miko and Damien about Azuril arose, several missed opportunities to escape by Azuril, and finally, the group was ready to leave. They thanked the woman and her son for letting them stay, Azuril was apologized to several more times, then they departed. Azuril still not answering Damien on whether she would stay permanently or not. A fair amount of time was spent wandering, following tips from people about where the odd creatures wandering around seemed to be coming from. During several fights with said creatures, Azuril would either fight hard enough to end it as fast as possible, or dive to the back, not moving to attack at all, just hiding from the fight. She wasn't up for finding out whether or not she could transform like Vincent could. Finally, her odd techniques got to some of the group members.

"What's with you?" Miko snapped at the girl after a fight that Azuril had hid through, "you're either up front fighting like you actually want to do so, or you're gone at the first hint of danger. What is your problem!" she glared angrily at the stoic girl, who only looked back at her with a reserved expression on her face,

"I have my reasons. You don't need to know them." she said, then she walked away from the girl, who just stared after her in some shock.

"That girl's a basket-case." Zykan said from behind Miko a ways, he was allowing Annakhin to bandage up a large cut on his fore arm as he spoke. She looked up from her task for a second,

"I'm sure she has her reasons, just like she said." she said before going back to work bandaging Zykan's arm. Skayr glared at Azuril, who was standing farthest away from all of them, watching the rest of the group silently.

"She's useless. Damien, why is she still here? She knows enough to survive. Let her go." she said, miffed, to say the least. Damien shook his head,

"she's not going anywhere. She still won't be able to make it out there by herself. I'm not letting her go, or making her go." he said, Skayr and Miko glared, they didn't like Azuril hanging around, both for their own reasons, both also tired of her odd behavior in battle. Bobby looked seriously at Damien,

"sooner or later those guys'll get mad enough to do something about that girl themselves. I think it's safer for her if you just leave her at the next town." she said, "it really does seem like the safest bet." she said, looking at Azuril, who was watching them tentatively, "you want her to stay safe, don't you?" she added. He sighed loudly,

"I know they don't seem to like her. And I know I probably should leave her somewhere if I'm ever going to keep this team together. But I can't do it. She's not leaving. She just isn't and they'll have to get used to that." he said, Miko glared at him, hands on hips,

"but, she doesn't even like us. She's says so every time we start to try talking to her." she said, annoyed with him, she didn't like Azuril hanging around and swallowing up all of the attention Damien could give.

"Miko, I'm really sorry, but I can't let her go. I won't let her go." hr said. Zykan pointed behind them, where Azuril was supposed to be.

"Tell her that-ow! Fuck!" he said, glaring at Annakhin for pulling the bandage around his arm too tight. Damien spun around to look for the girl, not finding her anywhere.

"Fuck!" he hissed, "and I still have that damn ball, she must not have cared about that anymore." he said spazticly, searching around frantically for the gun-wielding girl,

"well, after hearing all that shit, I guess she got tired of the whole 'stay' idea.." Zykan said. Miko and Skayr looked at each other for a second, not sure whether or not they should be happy or angry with themselves. Damien stopped running around and looked at his friends,

"Let's go look for her. And if no one comes with me, I'm going alone." he said, Bobby huffed, standing up,

"I'll go, if not for the sole purpose of rescuing your ass at some point." she said, Annakhin nodded, standing up,

"Zykan and I will help too." she said, the green eyed boy's eyes widened slightly in shock, then he looked at Annakhin,

"we will?" he said, but he was ignored. The four of them headed off in two different directions, Zykan and Annakhin went to the left, Bobby and Damien went to the right, towards a large forest, Annakhin and Zykan were heading towards a field of grass that was taller than Annakhin, that set Zykan mumbling irritably about possibly needing to play the roll of a lawn mower. Miko looked at Skayr,

"well, what do we do?" she asked the blond, who shrugged,

"aid in the search. You go with Annakhin and Zykan, I'm going after Bobby and Damien." she said, before Miko could protest, she was off running after the pair.

"Where do you think she went?" Annakhin asked, watching Zykan slice a path for her so he could actually see where she was as opposed to digging in the grass for her continually.

"Hell, if I knew, I wouldn't be looking for her. That girl's a problem, if you ask me." he said, then he stopped what he was doing, turning around, "someone's coming." he jumped over Annakhin, landing behind her, she turned around to see what was following them,

"Oh!" she said, "it's Miko."

"So I can't kill it?" Zykan said sarcastically, Miko glared at him,

"shut up. I'm here to help look for Vampire Girl." she said, Zykan shrugged, jumping back over Annakhin and continuing his assault on the grass, mumbling angrily about being a lawn mower, again, Annakhin smiled,

"we're glad to have the extra help." she said.

"Extra help my ass. If she wanted to help she'd have come with a machete to help me with this weed garden." Zykan snapped. Miko glared,

"if I'd come with a machete, you wouldn't be around to ask for help." she said,

"Come one, you two, we're trying to find Azuril, not argue amongst ourselves, please, stop." Annakhin said, Zykan growled angrily at that, but kept quiet otherwise. Miko gave a derisive snort, but stayed quiet as well. "Thank you."

"Azuril! Where are you! Come on, those two idiots didn't mean it!" Bobby called, Damien was up in a tree, looking around as much as the forest would allow.

"Hey, you think I should just let her go?" he called down to Bobby, who turned to look up the tree at him,

"Damien, you came this far with her here, are you really gonna let all of that go just because she ran off once? We'll find her. Then you can put her on a leash or knock her out and drag her or something if you don't want her gone." she said, Damien turned slightly pink,

"put her on a leash! Where the hell do you get these things from! And you're the one that would have to provide the leash, I don't do bondage!" he cried, Bobby burst out laughing,

"easy, kid, it was a joke!" she said, laughing more when he glared at her, then went back to looking around. that kid's as easy to read as an open book. When we find her, she's in for it from him...I give it a half an hour screaming fit from him...I should be selling tickets, not hunting for a gunner. she thought, grinning as she swung her boomerang out in front of her, hacking away a group of small trees so she could see farther into the forest. "Hey, Damien, what if we don't find her?"

"Then we look til we do." he said simply, Bobby gave a ragged sigh.

"Y'know, I could live for a thousand billion years, and never fully understand men..." she muttered, swinging her boomerang again.

"You may want to be careful with that thing, if she is near here, you might hit her on accident." came a familiar voice from behind the pair. They looked around for a second, then found Skayr sitting calmly in a tree, "I checked off to the right a ways, she's not over there, she'll most likely be off to the left a bit, how far away from us she is, I don't know."

"So, you decided to come and help. Thanks." Damien said, then he jumped carefully to the next tree.

The search went on for hours, fruitless in every way. Skayr could find no traces of a path the girl might have taken, Bobby could throw her boomerang as much as she wanted, but the chopped down trees would reveal nothing. Damien could find nothing as well.

"Well, this is ridiculous." he said. Hanging upside down on a branch above Skayr and Bobby, who were sitting next to the tree he was in, Bobby leaning against the trunk lazily.

"Well, this was the place closest to her after that last battle before she vanished, she had to have gone in here." Bobby said, Skayr looked up at the other girl from where she lay, curled up like a cat, next to her.

"After she entered the forest, then, I suppose she turned her arms into wings and flew away, singing merrily, into the trees." she said flatly, Damien and Bobby gave her odd looks.

"Can I buy pot from you?" Bobby said sarcastically. Damien looked completely lost, looking from one girl to the other, then repeating the action several times over.

"I'm the one with the blood rushing to my head, and you're the one acting like I should be by now. Nice suggestion, but I highly doubt it." he said, Bobby looked up at him,

"well, with how strange, and unsuccessful, our search has been, I'm starting to think, maybe, Skayr has something going there." she said, Damien gave her an odd look,

"can I buy pot from you?" he said, mimicking her earlier comment, making her glare at him. The crash of a tree falling down ahead of them made the trio focus on their surroundings again, Damien righting himself on the branch he was on, Bobby jumping to her feet, readying herself to throw her boomerang if necessary, Skayr crouched down on the ground, cracking her knuckles, ready to dive at who or whatever was coming their way.

Zykan froze up in the middle of a swing at the grass, straightening himself up and looking around,

"Something's coming this way." he said, "fast." he backed up, stopping about two feet away from Annakhin, the fact that someone like him was so loyally and somewhat overly protective of someone like Annakhin still amazed Miko, the odd way he acted around Annakhin was no exception either. She backed up as well, facing the opposite direction as Zykan, fists raised, ready to kick the shit out of whatever was headed their way. Annakhin looked behind her cautiously, looking to the front a second later, then back behind her, not wanting something to sneak up on her. When she looked to her front again, she shrieked in fear, a large beetle-looking creature was crawling out of the grass, when she heard the grass rustling behind her, she turned to look, screaming again when she found another beetles coming into view.

"Wha-wha-wha-what's going on here!" Miko shrieked, also freaked out, bugs were bad enough in her opinion, big ass bugs were in a completely new catagory of icky in her mind. Zykan moved in front of Annakhin, Miko moved behind her, the smaller girl had no weapons of any king and didn't like using her magic unless it was absolutely necessary.

"We must have stumbled into their territory." Zykan said, "damn, that means we're probably surrounded, if we attack, they'll just come after us and trample us." he said in a slightly irritated tone, "I should have sensed them sooner, what the hell was blocking it?" Miko looked over her shoulder at the boy for a second,

"maybe you were concentrating too much on killing the local plant life." she suggested, he shook his head,

"that wouldn't have impeded it. What the hell are these things that they could sneak up on us like that?" he said tensely, mentally berating himself for being as clueless as he had been.

"It's not your fault, Zykan. We don't blame you." Annakhin said,

"for once, I agree, we can't blame you here. These things are to blame. You're cool on this one." Miko said.

"Thanks." Zykan said, then he seemed to spaz, "look out, Miko!" he cried, turning around and reaching past Annakhin, yanking Miko backwards, giving Annakhin a quick apology for the fact that he'd just yanked Miko on top of her. The beetle that had been standing in front of Miko had charged, snapping its pincers closed where she'd been standing.

"Whoa!" Miko yelped, catching her balance, then bending down to help Annakhin up.

"As strong as you are, that would have snapped you in half like a wishbone." he said, she only gave a small nod in thanks.

"So, you're pretty well the only one here that can successfully get rid of these things?" Miko said, "you're the one with the weapon."

"I think so, yeah." he said, then he started motioning for them to back up down the path they made in the grass, "but there's a whole shit load of them around us now, and I don't think I can take em all." he added, "so, I think we can figure out our best, and pretty well only, option."

"Yup." Miko said.

"Running?" Annakhin said, Zykan and Miko nodded, then Zykan grabbed Annakhin by the wrist and bolted, Miko not far behind.

"Do you think they'll leave us alone once we get out of this field?" Miko cried as she ran, Zykan shook his head a bit,

"no idea, I'm not very well versed in insect politics." he said,

"well, we won't be in their territory anymore, they'll have no reason to come after us once we're out of this field, right?" Annakhin said.

"Again, I have no clue." Zykan said, still gripping Annakhin's wrist, "and, I know you're small, but can't you speed it up a bit?"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Annakhin said. Then she bumped into Zykan when he skidded to a stop, Miko stopping as well,

"what the hell are you doing! there's a stampede of bugs chasing us! Why are you stopping!" She cried, then she blinked a bit when he grabbed Annakhin up around the waist, then started running again,

"making this go faster, she was running too slow." he said, Miko rolled her eyes as she continued running from an army of very large insects. Once the end of the grass was in sight, the trio stopped again, again because of Zykan skidding to an abrupt halt,

"what now!" Miko snapped, Zykan half dropped Annakhin and held tighter onto his scythe, pointing ahead of them. A group of bugs was blocking the path. "Oh, god damn it! This is fucking ridiculous!" Miko cried, ready to start ripping at her hair.

"It may be ridiculous, but stay focused, or you'll end up literal worm food." Zykan said.

"That's not funny, Zykan." Miko said, half agitated half knowing he was telling the truth. He glared at her,

"Would you rather I put it like this; stay focused or you'll be killed in grotesque and strange ways by one or more of millions of bugzillas?"

"I like the 'worm food' one better." Miko said, pale in the face.

"I thought you might. Now, keep yourself focused, I have enough to worry about without you getting your ass in trouble." Zykan said, taking a step back when more bugs came into view, then he turned around to face the bugs behind them. I really didn't wanna have to do this in front of someone besides Missy, but if I don't... he thought nervously, then he raised his scythe like an executioner would his axe, both girls watching as it started to glow, grackles of black energy coming from it every now and then,

"what the hell is he doing!" Miko cried, Annakhin just looked nervous. Both girls jumped when he looked over his shoulder, his eyes were completely black, "what the-"

"get down." he said suddenly, when they hesitated he snapped at them, "get down now, dammit! And cover your heads, I ain't gonna resurrect you or anything!" the girls were crouched over on the ground with their arms covering their heads not even a second after he finished talking. He looked back to the front, bring his scythe down, sending a wave of black and red energy of some kind straight ahead of him, wiping out the entire field, not to mention all of the bugs in front of him, then he swung around so he was standing facing Annakhin and Miko, swing his scythe around in front of him, sending another wave of energy out, wiping out the bugs, any of the grass left in front of him and a small part of the forest that Damien, Bobby and, no doubt, Skayr had gone into, said forest being quite a ways away from them. The energy died down, Zykan relaxed and his eyes retained their usual greenish color, slitted pupils focusing themselves so he could see properly, then he fell over in a dead faint from some exhaustion.

"What the hell was that!" Miko screamed, jumping to her feet, looking around at the completely demolished and empty area where a field and an absurdly large amount of freakishly huge bugs had been. Then she swung around, pointing at Zykan, "what the hell is he!" she shrieked, Annakhin crawled over to him, checking his pulse, then putting a hand on his forehead when she noted his breathing was coming in short gasps.

"He's sick." she said, Miko shook her head,

"I didn't ask about his condition, I asked about his species! Or what planet he's from, or whatever!" she cried. Annakhin shook her head as she tended to Zykan as best as she could,

"I can't really tell you all of it. All that I can really say now is that I found the bracelet I'm wearing in a secret room, very deep within a shrine for a great wizard. The bracelet had a lot of powerful seals and wards around it and when I touched it, it spoke, saying I should put it on. When I did, Zykan appeared." she said, Miko looked lost,

"what? He came from a bracelet?" she said skeptically, looking at Zykan, who was starting to look feverish like Annakhin had mentioned, "why do I not believe you?"

"It's true, Miko. I'll tell you the whole thing later. But, we need to get him help first." Annakhin said, Miko rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Here help me with him..."

Once the sounds got close enough, Bobby wound up and threw her boomerang as hard as she could, sending it crashing through trees and brush, when it swung around out of sight on its return trip, they heard something hit, Damien jumped down out of the tree he'd been in, Skayr took his place, finding it easier to see when she should dive on whatever was making the noise, and coming towards them, when she had visual confirmation. A large, explosion esque sound came from behind them (Zykan wiping out the entire area in the field) making them turn away to look for the source, Bobby's boomerang came back, slicing the top of the tree Skayr was in clean off, Skayr pressing herself against what little trunk there was left on the tree as the top fell, Bobby snagging her runaway boomerang and running away from the falling tree top, Damien doing the same, in the opposite direction as Bobby. Skayr jumped up onto the flat surface the boomerang had left when it had cut through the tree,

"what did it hit?" Damien said, Skayr looked around carefully, taking in as much as she could. Then her eye focused on something.

"That way!" she said, pointing ahead of her, Damien and Bobby bolted in the specified direction, Skayr jumped to the next tree, jumping stealthily from tree to tree, slightly faster than her two friends were running.

"What did you see over there, Skayr?" Bobby called up to her friend, who spared her a quick glance before watching ahead of her again,

"I'm not quite sure. But, it was something." she said, "hopefully that problematic rag doll isn't over there." she added, referring to Azuril.

"I may not like your choice in words, Skayr, but I agree." Damien said as he ducked a low branch.

The trio stood in a row, staring flatly at what Bobby had hit, she'd beamed a bear in the head, knocking it out cold.

"Well, ok." Bobby said sarcastically, "I can hunt apparently."

"Accidentally so, yes." Skayr said, Damien looked around for a second, then shrugged,

"Let's keep going from here. This is the direction we were going to go in earlier anyway." he said, leading the two girls on, away from the bear.

"Are you positive she'll be in here somewhere?" Bobby asked, Damien nodded,

"Zykan would have tracked us down if they'd found her. She had to have gone this way." he said, Skayr grabbed his arm, then she put her other arm out to halt Bobby, she seemed to be listening to something. Finally she looked at Damien,

"get in a tree. Now, you too, Bobby." she ordered, the pair, though confused, followed her orders. Several minutes after the trio had settled on branches in three different trees, a large snake slid by under them, Damien holding back a scream, he hated snakes. Bobby and Skayr were making frantic motions for him to not scream, finally, the snake's tail bumped the tree Damien was in, the girls covered their ears when he let out a scream and scrambled higher up the tree. The snake turning itself around, heading back around by them,

"Dammit, Damien! You couldn't keep yourself quiet until it was gone!" Bobby yelled angrily, also crawling higher up in the tree she was in, Skayr jumped up a few branches in her tree too.

"I'm sorry if my worst nightmare managed to make me scream! You'd scream too if you were me!" Damien snapped defensively.

"Doubtful." Skayr said, Damien just glared at her, then cried out again when the snake half head-butted the tree he was in.

"Dammit!" Bobby snapped, throwing her boomerang, teetering on the branch she was standing on, then gripping the branch for dear life once she managed to sit down again. Her boomerang hit the ground between the snake and Damien's tree, making the snake turn to find whoever stopped his meal run. "Shit. I meant to hit the snake not the ground!" Bobby snapped, then she paled as the snake headed her way, "oh, sweet Jesus! Help!"

"What do you want me to do! I'm weaponless, the snake could possibly swallow two people at one with how big it is, and who knows if it's venomous or not!" Skayr snapped, Damien was petrified on the spot, especially now after hearing what Skayr had just said.

"Well, think of something and-fuck!" Bobby yelled, hanging on tighter when her tree was head-butted. Skayr jumped around until she was perched next to Damien, who looked at her for about half a second, then went back to being terrified into a state of paralysis.

"Damien, give me you sword." he didn't move, Skayr wasn't a patient person, so she helped herself to Damien's katana, then she threw it like a javelin, it skewered the snake's tail, but otherwise pissed it off. "Shit." she hissed as the snake turned on them again, pushing Bobby's boomerang aside with its nose, then it beamed the tree again. Skayr and Damien teetered and swayed a bit, but managed to grab hold of the tree well enough to keep themselves on the branch. Finally, the snake got bored with head-butting the tree and reared up so it was in line with the pair on the branch.

"Damien! Skayr!" Bobby cried, then she nearly fell off the branch when something dark dove down past her, "what the fuck!" she looked down and found nothing but the snake, "I reiterate, 'what the fuck'?" apparently, the snake caught the sound of Bobby's confused voice, turning on her again, but its attack paused, then it went after something on the ground and off in the brush somewhere.

"What the hell?" Damien said, calming down.

"I haven't the slightest clue." Bobby said, jumping down out of the tree, wandering over to pick up her boomerang, "should we leave?"

"It still has my sword." Damien whimpered, Skayr looked around distractedly, feigning ignorance.

"Let's go get it back." Bobby said, starting towards the brush where the snake had disappeared in.

"Bobby, look out!" Skayr cried, her friend looked up at her for a second, then back to the front when she heard something, half a second later, she was hit by the snake's tail, sending her flying into a tree.

"Bobby!" Damien cried, getting ready to jump down and get to his friend, Skayr held him back.

"If you go to her now, you'll most likely join her in pain." she said.

"So, then, we leave her?" Damien snapped, "not a chance. I may hate snakes, but I'm not gonna let my friend get eaten by one!" he shoved Skayr's hands away and jumped out of the tree, running over to Bobby. Skayr jumped from tree to tree until she was right above her friends,

"it's coming around again." she said, "this time head first. Damien, get her up here! You'll be eaten!"

"I can't move her! A few of her ribs are broken, I'll just hurt her worse!" he said, looking up at Skayr.

"Oh, and getting eaten won't be painful?"she said sarcastically, "get up here!" before the argument could progress, the snake barreled through the brush, early missing Damien and Bobby, Damien grabbing his sword as it went by. "Why don't I just try to lob its head off?" he suggested, "cut the head off, kill the snake." he suggested.

"Sounds logical enough." Skayr said. "Don't get eaten." she added, that made him pale slightly.

"You had to freak me out, didn't you?" he said, watching the snake turn, and head for them again. Fear taking over again, Damien froze up, dropping his katana absently, the only thing he could properly focus on was the pair of fangs in the large, gaping mouth headed straight for him.

"Damien!" Skayr cried, "Damien, snap out of it and move, you'll be killed! Damien!" a tiny noise was the only response she got. She growled angrily, jumping down out of the tree, the branches on a tall sapling snapping off to her left caught her attention for a second, then she landed and carefully picked Bobby up, "Damien! Snap out of it!" she snapped, backing away fast, setting Bobby down, then bolting back towards Damien, the snake would have him in under a second. Everyone, snake and all, froze when there was a loud, low growl from off in the direction Skayr heard branches breaking in earlier, then the plants and trees cracked and flew off to the side of a purplish beast, only slightly taller than an average person, it let out another low growl before charging the snake, and doing away with it quite quickly. Skayr readied herself to fight and Damien, now composed, snagged his katana up off the ground, holding it at the ready, but the beast shocked both of them by giving a loud howl, slowly changing shape, the howl slowly changing tone as well, until finally it was a human girl's scream. The scream died down and the girl that the beast had originally been staggered forward a bit, then dropped to her knees, sitting on her feet and breathing deeply and quickly, trying to calm herself down, and keep herself conscious at the same time.

"A-A-Azuril!" Damien cried, katana hitting the ground again, Skayr staring dumbstruck next to him. The girl on the ground looked up slowly at the sound of her name, her usual expression on her face. "What was that!"

"Proof that I...I am no longer human..." she managed, then she fell over, out cold.

"Shit!" Damien hissed, running over to her, "Azuril, Azuril!" he snapped, trying to wake her,

"Let her rest." Skayr said, carrying Bobby over to where Damien sat, then laying her sown on the ground, "that must be exhausting. She deserves sleep." Damien looked at her for a second, then back at Azuril,

"I guess you have a point." he said, "what do you think that was?"

"More proof that Angela is extremely twisted." Skayr said, "she said she wasn't human anymore earlier, before all this. She must have meant that thing she turned into. That might also be why she either kills viciously, or runs in battle. Something there must cause her to change."

"I hope that's a good enough reason for you to want her with us, you go by power and usefulness, don't you?" Damien said, Skayr seemed to think about it for a second, then nodded,

"yes. That is enough for me to want her to stay with us." she said finally.

"I hope Miko agrees." Damien said quietly, Skayr tilted her head to the side a bit,

"Worry about her later. Help me with Bobby. Now that we've found her, we can leave." She said, picking Bobby up again, praying she wasn't hurting her friend more, or at least not a lot more. Damien followed Skayr, carrying Azuril.

When the two conscious members of the four leaving the forest got a good look around the area where there had once been tall grass and actual plant life of any kind, they nearly dropped their two friends.

"What the hell happened out here!" Damien said, looking around, nothing was there, no plants, no animals, no nothing.

"Zykan happened here." came Miko's voice from off to their right somewhere. The pair turned to find Annakhin and Miko walking towards them, Miko carrying Zykan on her back, his breathing still coming in quick gasps.

"What happened to them!" Annakhin cried, running over to where Damien and Skayr stood, "you found her! Is she alright? What happened? What's wrong with Bobby?" Damien stopped her,

"slow down, Bobby took a hit from a giant snake, I'm pretty sure she broke a few ribs, and, Azuril...well, I'll explain later. What's up with Zykan? And what do you mean he 'happened'?" he said.

"Long story. Let's find a doctor first. This freak's sick and if Bobby has broken ribs she needs a doctor too." Miko said, hoisting Zykan up a bit more, "can we hurry with it, though? He's heavier than he looks." she whined.

"Right. Let's go." Skayr said, shrugging her shoulder to fix the strap on Bobby's boomerang to keep it on her better, "damn! This thing's heavy! How does she just carry it around like it's nothing?" she said, shrugging again.

"I dunno. Ask her when she wakes up. I'm just glad Azuril's weapon is small and I don't have to worry about carrying it separately from her." Damien said, "I have my own weapon to drag around." he added.

"Ok, ok, less talk, more walk. This thing's heavy and I want to get away from him as soon as possible." Miko said, kicking at Damien, who glared at her and started walking.

"So, what did you mean earlier when you said 'Zykan happened'?" Damien asked Miko, who was sitting across from him at a small table in the waiting room of the hospital they gotten to. It was a little nicer, and bigger, than the one they'd gone to for Azuril's shoulder and it was also slightly more expensive.

"He's a goddam freak. That's what I meant." Miko said bluntly. "He wiped out an entire field, along with a bunch of monster bugs and part of the forest you guys were in, with two swings of that scythe of his, one swing to get rid of everything in front of him, and another to get rid of everything behind him. Then he passed out, and now, apparently, he's sick." she, Annakhin had a slightly irritated look on her face.

"He's not a freak. I told you the whole thing before, Miko. And besides, he's not a danger to us unless someone comes after him and needs to get through us." she said, Miko rolled her eyes.

"You only say that because he'll listen to you." she said.

"No, it's true. He's not a danger to us. He won't hurt us, the only way we could be hurt and it would have anything to do with him is if we tried to stop someone who happened to be going after him." she insisted.

"Ok, ok, you two, I think I get it. He wiped out the entire general area around him, then passed out, and got himself sick somehow. And, even though he's a danger to everyone else, including himself, he's no threat to us, he can't hurt us." Damien said, Annakhin nodded. Miko huffed,

"tell them why." she said, Annakhin shook her head,

"not until Bobby and Azuril are up."

"Azuril won't care. Remember?" Miko said.

"I don't know about that, Miko. You weren't there in the woods with us when she appeared. She saved our asses, even though she did something she probably didn't want to happen, ever, to do so." Damien said.

"Like what?" Miko said, Damien shook his head,

"Not until Bobby's awake." he said. Skayr looked at him,

"it was truly amazing though." she said, he nodded.

"Though, I don't think we'll ever get to see it again." he said, Skayr shrugged,

"at least now we know her reasoning, right?" she said, Damien nodded,

"yes." was all he said, then he looked at the two girls sitting across the table from him, he and Skayr said on one side of the table and Annakhin and Miko sat on the other, "we'll wait until Bobby and Azuril are awake, the explain everything, if Azuril wants us to." he said, the two girls nodded their consent.

"How are you feeling?" Annakhin asked Bobby when the group walked into her room, she smirked,

"like shit. And you?" she said.

"Damned confused." Miko said, "thank you for asking." she added, playing along with Bobby's joke.

"You missed one hell of a fiasco." Damien said, "once Azuril and Zykan wake up and get their asses in here, we'll tell you about it." Bobby pouted,

"but I wanna know now." she said, Damien shook his head,

"we need to ask Azuril's permission for part of it." he said.

"We found her?" Bobby said, "she popped up after I passed out?"

"Uh..." Damien and Skayr looked at each other for a second, then they looked back at Bobby and nodded.

"Oh. Cool. How many ribs did I break?" she said, Damien held up four fingers, "not too bad. Coulda been worse. What about Azuril? You're making it sound like this is the second time she's been hospitalized since joining our group."

"She's just really tired. She out cold in the room next to this one." Damien said, "Zykan's bedridden too, he's on the other side of us. Somehow he went and got himself sick enough to pass out in under a second."

"That sounds like Zykan." Bobby said, Skayr nodded, walking over to stand next to the bed, a door opening and closing outside the room made them look at the door, which was soon opened, Azuril walking into the room, closing the door behind her.

" 'morning, Sleeping Beauty." Bobby said, Azuril only gave her a small glare, then she walked over to Damien,

"you didn't get hurt did you? That snake almost had you." she said, he blinked a bit, surprised that she could remember that after turning into a monster, then passing out for several hours.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks to you, Bobby and Skayr and I are fine." he said, she dropped her gaze, leaning against the wall next to him.

"I'm glad that I was of some use to you, Damien. Even in that state..." she said quietly,

"Some use? I was petrified I was so scared of that thing. I would have died. You were the hero there. No matter how you wanna put it. I owe you my life." he said, surprised that she was so upset about having saved him.

"You owe me nothing. I did it out of instinct. Nothing more." she said, he just grinned,

"whatever you say, Azuril. Whatever you say."

"So, what's this big secret about her rescuing you guys that's got her so wound up?" Miko said, Damien sighed,

"is it alright if I tell them?" he asked, Skayr was listening as well, Azuril had saved her life, she would respect the girl's wishes about this thing.

"No. No one else is it know. Not even Bobby, though she was there." Azuril said, Damien and Skayr nodded their consent,

"I won't tell them then." Damien said.

"Nor will I." Skayr said. Azuril thanked them with a curt nod. Then a nurse came in, she looked slightly frightened,

"your friend next-door is up. I'm going to be sending in a doctor in a minute." then she was gone.

"What do you think he did to her?" Damien said,

"she probably just found out he isn't human." Miko said, Bobby looked lost. "We'll tell you later." she said, then she followed the rest of the group out of the room.

"Hey, man, how's it going?" Damien said as he walked into Zykan's room, Zykan gave him a flat look,

"wonderful. Absolutely perfect." he said sarcastically, the robe he normally wore to cover his tattoos was nowhere in sight, and they'd let his hair down, that irked him, Miko tended to tease him about looking like a girl whenever he had his hair down, normally that was a forced action from Annakhin. Damien shrugged,

"just curious." he said as he leaned against the wall next to the bed, Annakhin sat on a chair next to the bed, Zykan involuntarily twitched. Then the girl next to him frowned slightly and lowered her gaze, ready to be yelled at,

"I told Miko...about the bracelet." she said, Zykan's eyes widened considerably, then he snapped his head around to look at Annakhin,

"you what! Why!" he cried, the girl looked away a little more,

"she wanted to know how you were able to attack like you did. So, I told her." Annakhin said. Zykan whined pathetically. "I'm sorry, I needed to tell her something. I couldn't very well lie to her, now, could I?"

"Yes!" he said, "why me?" he moaned, covering his face with his hands, "I suppose now everyone else is curious."

"Yes, they are." Annakhin said,

"and I suppose that, if you don't tell them, Miko will." he whined.

"Yes, I will." the girl said. Zykan glared coldly at her,

"why are you such a bitch?" he snapped, Miko was about to snap back at him, but the nurse from earlier walked into the room, a doctor following her.

"If you all could please clear out now." The nurse said, motioning towards the door. Damien paused, noticing a suspicious look on Azuril's face.

"What is it?" he asked, she shook her head,

"nothing." she said, but she stopped next to the doctor and nurse on her way out, "hurt him, and I will prove to you how inhuman I am as well." she threatened, leaving both of them watching her leave, pale faced.

"What was that about?" Damien said, watching Azuril close the door to Zykan's room, then lean against the wall next to it so she could hear what was going on inside the room.

"They are not in there for just a quick check up. Zykan is under orders not to hurt anyone, he cannot fight back because of that rule. They will try to hurt him. They are human, they fear what they do not understand until they understand it. In order to understand another living being fully, they believe they must know it inside and out. They believe they need to see the differences to confirm they exist. They have seen the outside, now, if not monitored, they will see the insides." she said, "a living being on a lab table, waiting to be cut and changed, that is something I won't allow. Even if I need to cross over a new level of sins." she added, resting her hand on her gun. Damien's eyes widened, she was willing to kill to rescue Zykan, if her theory proved correct. If it did prove correct, then that meant Zykan was as good as gutted behind that door.

"We should get him out of there and leave, before those guys figure too much out about him." he said, following Azuril completely, she was right, if they were curious, they'd try to figure it out, that would mean poking around inside a still living being. Not happen.

"What about Bobby?" Annakhin said, "we can't leave her, and we can't move her, that'll just hurt her worse."

"Maybe one of us should go in there and keep and eye on the doctor and nurse, make sure Zykan lives to se tomorrow." Miko said, she may not get along with Zykan, but she didn't want him turned into a science experiment.

"I'll go." Annakhin said, "I can tell him whether it's ok to fight back or not." then she went into the room. Half an hour went by, everyone tense and watching the door. Azuril not moving from her spot. Still resting her hand on her gun, paranoid style ready, just incase. Skayr had gone in by Bobby and Damien and Miko were watching the door fixedly. Suddenly, there was a loud crash inside the room, Azuril dove away from the door right before it swung open and Zykan bolted out of the room, Annakhin running out after him,

"Zykan, it's alright, it's just a blood test." she said calmly, Zykan peeked out from behind Damien,

"no way in hell! I let them prod at me enough!" he said frantically, he still sounded exhausted, and Damien could hear his breathing, labored slightly and coming out in short fast gasps.

"Zykan, maybe you should go back in there and let them do the blood test." he said, Zykan shook his head,

"No! That is a damned big needle, and there is no way I am willingly getting stabbed by it." he said, then he was up on the ceiling, staring fearfully down at the needle that he was so freaked out by. "Even from up here it looks huge! Not a chance in hell, man!" the doctor dropped the syringe, staring in shock at the fact that Zykan was now up on the ceiling, the nurse was in a similar state.

"What is he!" the nurse cried,

"That's a very good question, when I come up with an answer, I'll tell you." Damien said, Azuril nodded. As if to say 'I told you so', directed at Damien, did his best to not notice her.

"She was odd enough, but this!" the doctor cried, looking from Azuril to Zykan, who crawled down the wall a bit, snagged his scythe from an unsuspecting Miko, and skittered back up onto the ceiling.

"Zykan, he dropped the needle, get your ass down here." Damien said sternly,

"not on your life!" Zykan snapped, "the needle's still down there! I am not coming down until it's gone."

"We could always us a tranqu gun." Miko said, Damien gave her an odd look.

"If that involves needles, no, you can't!" Zykan snapped, "and, I am yay close to heading for the roof, I'll have you know!" everyone watched as Azuril picked up the needle, walking towards the center of the room, messing around with her gun, finally, she aimed at him,

"come down by the needle, or I send it up by you. Which do you prefer?" she said. He just stared,

"you're crazy." he said bluntly.

"And I'm giving you ten seconds to chose-more needles." She said, looking over her shoulder for a second, then back at Zykan, shooting at him, he yelped and skittered away from where the needle hit,

"you said ten seconds! That was only, like, two!" he cried,

"I never was good with math." she said, loading another needle, "next time won't be a warning shot, chose before I shoot you."

"She's a very direct and to the point person, isn't she?" Damien said,

"yeah, looks that way." Miko said, then she looked at Annakhin, "why don't you just tell him he has to come down?"

"Because I don't want to force him to do something that he thinks will hurt him. That's just not right." she said. Azuril fired again, this time Zykan fell off the ceiling, landing on a couch near the door, swearing the entire time.

"Your blood sample." Azuril said, gesturing to Zykan, who was ripping the needle out of his arm, cursing in several languages none of them understood, he then threw the needle at the doctor.

"I am never co-operating with managed health care again! Never, dammit!" he spat, glaring daggers at Azuril, "and stop shooting at me!" he snapped, then he had a gun in his face.

"Try to give me orders one more time, I dare you." she said, Zykan shook his head,

"no, I'm good." he said, Azuril put her gun away.

"Sorry about that spazoid. Did you get enough or does he need to be shot again?" Damien said, giving the doctor and nurse an apologetic look.

"No, this should be fine. You can leave if you want to." the doctor said shakily.

"We aren't going anywhere until Bobby can come with us." Skayr said, standing in the doorway to Bobby's room, "you will need to adjust." Damien snickered a bit at the horrified look on the doctor's face, the nurse was well on her way out of the room, the blood sample acting as her excuse for escape. Miko then spoke up,

"Yeah, those three-" she gestured to Skayr, Zykan and Azuril, "-may look, or act scary, but they're harmless unless pissed off. Even then, the ones with the weapons won't use them, they're under strict orders not to." Zykan flipped her off behind her back.

"Nevertheless, I'm not sure they're safe to have in here...especially the ones with weapons, I'll have to ask them to leave, for fear of them scaring any patients." the doctor said. Skayr growled angrily,

"a friend of mine is in one of your rooms here and now suddenly I am not allowed to visit her? I suggest you think that over again." she said, then she promptly walked back into Bobby's room.

"Now you have nothing to worry about from her. Even with broken ribs, Bobby would beat the shit out of her if she did something remotely stupid. Like a reverse bodyguard." Damien assured him. All the doctor did was nod slowly, then point to Zykan, who was sitting on the couch he'd landed on earlier, his scythe leaning against the wall next to him.

"Don't worry. He's the least harmful of them all. He's not allowed to touch that thing until he has to pick it up while he's walking out of the hospital. You have no idea how short a leash he's on." Miko said, again, she was flipped off.

"Choke chain style short." Zykan muttered, brooding on that fact.

"I'm sorry, but the gun..." the doctor started, pointing to Azuril. Damien gave a loud sigh, then turned to Azuril.

"Azuril, gimme your gun until we leave the hospital." he said, holding out his hand. She hesitated, looked at the doctor for a long second, in Damien's opinion, it looked like she was judging him with her eyes alone, then she walked towards Damien, taking the gun, holster and all, off of her, unfortunately for her, that meant she needed to use both hands, her left arm still frightened the doctor, she walked away from Damien, standing next to the door, Zykan grabbing his scythe and laid it down on the floor at his feet. Damien looked at the doctor, who was a whole new shade of white as he looked at the pair by the door, some inhuman being, who still lacked his robe, thus making him very uneasy, and a girl that had a left arm made mostly of metal, the wardrobe did nothing to save her either. "She's perfectly safe. You don't need to worry. She hates even showing that thing, even if it's necessary at times, and don't ask me to hang onto it while we're in the hospital, I don't know how she'll react to that. She's probably slightly pissed with me for taking her gun. But she's safe. She's too cautious to be a danger to anyone." he assured the pallid doctor, who nodded slowly, backing away from the group, once he was near the door to the lab the nurse had gone into earlier, Zykan smirked,

"boo!" he said, falling off the couch laughing when the doctor turned tail and ran for it.

"Zykan! Dude, you are sick!" Damien said, trying to sound unamused, though he wanted to laugh too.

"Thanks." Zykan said as he sat up on the ground, "so, what now?"

"Now you sit stone still and exercise the phrase 'silent as the dead', or you could let me bash your head in for being such a little prick!" Miko snapped, for the third time since they'd entered the waiting room, she was flipped off,

"I'll do what I please, thank you." he said, then he jumped straight up and rested on the ceiling.

"Geddown, moron! Someone will see you!" Damien hissed.

"Who the hell looks at the ceiling when they walk into a room? Besides you guys, that is." he said flatly, the group, save Azuril, who didn't really care in any respect, looked amongst themselves,

"he has a point." Annakhin said, "if it weren't for the fact that I already know someone who can walk on the ceiling, I don't think I'd look up to try to find someone walking up there."

"She has point." Damien said, "if I didn't know him, I wouldn't walk around staring at the ceiling. Miko, I know you wouldn't either. So, as long as he stays clear any doors or windows, I think he's fine, screw what I said earlier."

"Thank you." Zykan said in a fake overjoyed voice, Damien grinned and flipped him off, the gesture was returned and the pair broke down laughing.

"Boys are weird." Annakhin said, watching the pair of boys laugh, Miko nodded,

"I second that. And I've know one of them for a pretty long time, what's that tell ya about him?"

"He has a very strong sense of endurance?" Azuril said, still stoic, Miko glared,

"who said you could talk?" she said, Annakhin started giggling at the pair's similarities to Damien and Zykan. Suddenly, Bobby could be heard from her room, setting everyone straight-faced with her tone,

"shut up! I'm trying to sleep, and, Zykan, get off the damn ceiling already!" she yelled, obviously annoyed. They could hear Skayr laughing from Bobby's room.

"Why did you let her stay again?" Zykan said as he landed next to Damien, walking back over to the couch then sitting down.

"I wonder that myself." Damien said, flopping down next to Zykan, Miko and Annakhin occupied another, smaller, couch and Azuril kept her spot, standing by the door. Then Miko spoke up,

"how long will we be waiting here? I mean broken bones take a long time to heal. We can't sit here this entire time. We'll need to find someplace to stay, long tern, for now." she said, the rest of the group looked thoughtful

"I saw an inn on the way through here." Annakhin said,

"that would be a good place to start." Damien said, Zykan nodding his head in agreement.

"Well, Bobby's the one with all of the money. Let's go discuss things with her." Miko said, then she paused and looked at Azuril and Zykan, "then we can hear some stories." she said, the pair looked each other, knowing what she meant,

"may I shoot her?" Azuril said, looking at Damien, who still had her gun.

"No. And, somehow I doubt one shot would do it." he said as they walked into Bobby's room,

"who said anything about one?" Azuril muttered, Damien gave her a look.

"Well, the circus is back in town. Hi, guys." Bobby said, Zykan kept up his earlier antics and flipped her off. "No thanks, I'm waiting for a human man."

"What! You-" Damien put a hand over Zykan's mouth, then pointed to Bobby,

"don't provoke him, we're in a hospital." he let his hand drop away from Zykan's mouth, Zykan then ended his earlier interrupted statement,

"bitch." he was then smacked upside the head by Damien,

"shut up, now." he hissed, Zykan decided against arguing and opted for glaring at Damien.

"Do we have to tell my life's story? Because I know that's what you're gonna do-whoa..." Zykan swayed a bit, looking dizzy, "can I sit down and not get stepped on?" he said, apparently still ill.

"There's a chair over here, Zykan." Bobby said, pointing to a chair next to her bed. The next thing they knew, Zykan was in said chair looking exhausted.

"How did you-" Miko started, Annakhin overlapped her, scolding Zykan,

"you know if you're sick you shouldn't use too many tricks. Especially not teleporting or anything near that sort of thing, if you pass out in the middle of the trip who knows what would happen." Zykan rolled his eyes,

"I'm fine, I'm just tired. I'll be back to tormenting you people in no time." he said, Damien looked at him curiously,

"Zykan, if you're tired why don't you go back to your room from earlier and lay down." he suggested, Zykan shook his head

"no. I'm ok. Just tired. I don't need to lay down." he insisted.

"Let him be." Azuril said, everyone was looking at her now, she almost never spoke, and when she did it was always very short-lived, she also was defending someone, none of them had any idea whether the world had ended, or hell had frozen over, they couldn't pick.

"What?" Damien said in some disbelief, he was dumbstruck as well as the rest of the group, he'd heard her talk, held conversations with her at best, but now she was defending someone, something he never expected to hear.

"Let him be. If he is tired, let him be tired, if he is still ill then he will need help. Wait to see which it is. Let it be for a while, Damien." she said, she'd said more than one sentence in front of people she didn't even really know or, according to her, give a damn about. Damien nodded slowly,

"alright. We'll move on." he said, Zykan was staring stupidly at Damien, then Azuril, then back to Damien,

"she talked." he said, Damien nodded,

"she does that now and then." he said, then he looked at Miko, "you said something about these two telling us stories. What the hell was that about?"

"Well, our resident weirdo over there has quite the interesting life behind him." she said, pointing to Zykan, who glared at Annakhin,

"I hate you." he stated bluntly, knowing she told Miko all while he was out cold.

"I'm sorry, but she wanted to know how you did what you did." Annakhin said, "I couldn't very well lie to her, now, could I?" Zykan gave a raged sigh, putting a hand to his forehead, as though he was checking his temperature,

"didn't those two say that earlier?" Miko whispered to Damien, who shrugged,

"oh, well. Let her talk." he said, waiting for Annakhin to speak. He looked at Zykan for a second, he gave raged sigh, then waved his hand dismissively,

"no, go ahead. Do your thing ro whatever. I'm on the wrong end of the leash when it comes to giving commands." he said tiredly, letting his hand drop away from his face, then he paused for a second, thinking on something, then he looked at Damien, " come here, I need to double check something." he said, once Damien was at his side he stood up and tried the same thing he had before, this time with a little help from some one who wasn't him. He looked thoughtful again, then grabbed one of Damien's wrists and put his hand against his forehead (you followed that all, right?) Damien jumped back, pulling back away from Zykan,

"Dammit! Now I'm dragging your ass back to your damn room! I think you burned me!" he snapped, grabbing Zykan by the arm and dragging him out of the room.

"Oh, dear." Annakhin said, sounding worried, "do you think he'll be alright?"

"Who? Damien or Zykan?" Bobby said, Skayr and Miko snickering at that.

"Zykan. He's still sick, what do you thing it is?" Annakhin said.

"Most likely a virus. It'll pass." Bobby said, waving her hand dismissively. Damien walked back into the room,

"Ok, I got him to sit still-"

"with what? Did you bash him over the head with something?" Miko said, all, save Annakhin and Azuril, snickered a bit.

"Don't joke. It's not nice to do that." Annakhin said, sounding like a mother scolding her child.

"No, Miko, no physical trauma was involved, the illness saved me from hitting him. He passed out mid argument." Damien said, "now, what was he babbling about earlier? And what was it you were saying, Miko? The two topics seemed vaguely linked." he said, the end of it being half sarcasm

"he's an even bigger hazard to himself and others, mostly others, than we originally thought! We should worship Annakhin for being here!" Miko started to yell, she was hit with Bobby's boomerang. "Ow! What the-?"

"Thank you, Skayr." Bobby said, the fiery-eyed girl only gave a nod, then leaned the weapon against the wall where she'd gotten it from.

"That reminds me, should we go grab the lunatic's scythe?" Damien said, Azuril left the room, only to come back in several seconds later, carrying Zykan's scythe, which she leaned against the wall near Bobby's boomerang. "Ok, problem solved." he said, sounding a little surprised.

"Well, now that that's all done and over with, what were we talking about? I never did properly catch the topic." Bobby said, Damien sighed and looked at Azuril,

"are you sure you don't want them to know?" he said, she nodded, "ok. I'll just be remotely sketchy, Skayr and I got into some trouble and Azuril saved us. There's the story, leave it be." he said, looking at Miko, then at Bobby when he specified that the topic was to be killed right here and now.

"Ok, ok!" Miko said, waving her hands in mock defeat, "geez."

"Ok, and, Skayr, double checking your silence." Damien said, looking at Skayr, who nodded,

"I will keep my word and vow of silence for her." she said, then she looked at Bobby, "your life was saved as well, by Azuril."

"I thought as much. Well, I'm killing the topic and, just to be safe on it all, I give you my vow of silence for whatever it is they're shutting up about." Bobby said, Azuril gave a nod of recognition,

"that is much appreciated." she said, Bobby gave a thumbs up,

"no problem. Anything for the person that saved my ass." she said, then she turned to Damien, "now, what were we talking about?"

"Well, we got our story out of the way, Miko, Annakhin, your turn." Damien said, turning to look at the two girls.

"Annakhin, you tell it. All I know is that he's got a powerful swing." Miko said, Annakhin sighed, then started talking.

"Well, back near the time when magic was finally being used in an organized sense, sorcerers were being born from magic and humans, but, with light comes dark, and, as the strength concentration of light magic grew, the strength and concentration of dark magic grew just as steadily. Finally, so much light magic was born that it needed to pull itself into one physical being, so it created one. A wizard made of pure white magic. But, like I said a second ago, too much light meant too much dark and the dark magic found itself in the same predicament the light magic had been in. It mimicked the light magic, pulling itself together into one physical being made purely of black magic and, since there were no dark sorcerers strong enough to withstand its pull, they were added to the mix of dark magic as well, most of the dark sorcerers were absorbed into the darkness, the ones that weren't were very careful not to make any mistakes with their magic while the dark magic was manifesting its physical form."

"Wait, a person made of pure magic, no human flesh and blood at all?" Damien said, Annakhin nodded,

"why did it take so long for the dark magic to figure itself out?" Miko asked, she hadn't heard this part before.

"Because its supply increased by the day. More and more sorcerers were switching sides, not intentionally, mind you. They decided to pull back from using their magic at all, thinking that, now that the wizard made of light magic was around, they wouldn't need to do anything magic related anymore, so they used magic at times to placate themselves, the stereotype making pots and pans wash themselves and make their meals for them and things of that sort. That improper use of their magic gave the dark magic a sliver of selfishness and narcissistic thoughts to slip through, turning the magic the sorcerer possessed slowly darker, until it was tainted enough for it to be absorbed. once it had slimmed out the entire magic supply on both the light and dark sides, it began to turn itself into a solid being, just like the light magic had. And it became stronger and stronger with people's growing ill-will towards others and other darker thoughts."

"Made by more sorcerers I'm guessing, right?" Damien said, tilting his head to the side a bit in confusion when she shook her head,

"it had gotten to the point where it was so strong it could feed off of any type of human aura, magic or not, it's still able to do so, even today.. The wizard made of light magic tried to destroy, or at least subdue, the large source of black magic before it could attain a true physical body, but he was the seconds too late. Just as he launched his attack on the mass of dark magic, it pulled itself together into one physical being, still absently feeding on the darker part of the human mind and aura, the dark magic fought back, the wizard tried with everything he had to nullify the daemon made of black magic, but you can't have light without dark, that balance is impossible to break. All the wizard managed to do was slow the darkness' pace a little bit. Knowing that light must always have a dark side and vise-versa, he used every last bit of magic he had, sacrifice all of himself, to seal the darkness, knowing that the dark, when hit by the light, has to balance itself, when the seal was made the light and dark were still waging a war to balance themselves, but the darkness couldn't grow anymore, surrounded by light that it had to keep in tune with, growing more would probably destroy both of the beings inside the seal." she paused for questions,

"so the light magic turned into a physical being, and the dark magic turned itself into a physical being, but the darkness could continue to grow because it fed off of dark magic and the darkness inside humans in general?" Miko said, Annakhin nodded,

"and, to stop the darkness from growing anymore, the light turned itself into a seal to put a lid on the darkness, and the darkness couldn't break the seal because if it overbalanced the scale at all it would destroy both itself and the light?" Bobby said, Annakhin nodded again,

"why would it destroy both itself and the light if it tipped the scale?" Skayr asked, but Azuril surprised them by answering,

"because if it tipped the scales too much there wouldn't be enough light magic to balance it out right away. If they are uneven, the balance, the key to their true existence, would be destroyed, therefore they too would fall without anything to hold them together." she said, Annakhin nodded,

"exactly."

"So, the seal stuck for how long?" Bobby asked,

"the seal stuck for thousands of years. The sorcerers that used light magic built a shrine and temple for the seal, and the shrine was a memorial of the light magic trapped inside the seal. Magic users go to the temple to pray and give offerings, just like going to a synagogue. They say that, if you use magic, then your powers with grow slightly while you pray at the temple." Annakhin said, "but, they hid the seal far too well for treasure hunters to find it, if someone with selfish intent found it and broke the seal, the darkness would be able to escape, slipping through the dark thoughts of the person who released it. Then the original form it took all those centuries ago would return and the seal and the person who broke it, with dark intent, a true heart will keep the balance, would be useless and would have no power over the darkness, setting it free and, without a true and large source of light magic, possibly twice the size of the wizard who cast the seal, there would be nothing but darkness and devastation everywhere the dark magic went."

"But someone with a good heart can control it?" Bobby said, Annakhin nodded,

"the light would balance the darkness, the light magic from the seal and the pureness of the person who broke it would balance out the darkness in its weakened state from all that time being sealed up."

"So, what's that have to do with anything? It was an awesome piece of info, but, what relevance does it have to our conversation?" Damien said, he was sitting in the chair Zykan had been in, he'd pulled it away from the bed, turned it around so the back was in the front and flopped down on it, Azuril standing at his side, watching the entire thing. Annakhin, who was seated on the foot of the bed sighed, then started talking again.

"What I said before, about the place where the seal was being hidden and it being a shrine to the wizard that sealed the darkness, and, about the myth about a sorcerer or anyone wielding magic' power grown slightly if they were to pray in the temple, I went to see the shrine that I'd heard about from my mother. When I got there, no one else was around. I wondered if this was a holy day of some kind and the temple was off limits. But something told me to keep going. I went inside the temple and found a door was opened on the opposite side of the alter from me so I went to close it, but I noticed several other doors were opened after that one, like a hallway with doors blocking it in many places, but they were all opened. I really was slightly frightened by it, but, I don't know why, a gut feeling of some kind, maybe, something made me keep walking down the hall, there were twists and turns and so many doors everywhere. Finally I saw a, literal, light at the end of the tunnel, and it was a beautiful room made with some kind of pure white stone with a fountain made from the same white stone as the room was, all of it looked so new, so beautiful. There was a small alter in the middle of the room, when I got closer to it, I could see carvings in the stone the alter was made of, they were spells written in a language I didn't know, and there were carvings of strange creatures, which, now I can only assume, had to have been of demons and creatures from the dark magic in the myths I'd heard. The alter had a bracelet on it, more writing encircled the bracelet, stronger spells, I guess. I couldn't help myself, I had to see the bracelet better, I picked it up and gave it a closer inspection. Again, I think some of you in her can sympathize with me here, I couldn't help it, I wanted to try it on, but something wasn't right about the bracelet, it seemed colder, in a way, evil. But, when I put I back on the alter, the words from the spells lit up like a flame, and the bracelet wouldn't stay down on the alter, no matter how hard I tried to get it to stay, it just wouldn't. So I held onto it while I started running away from the alter. Before I could get to the door, it closed, then someone said something..."

(My fave, flashback)

"hey! And just where is it you think you're going?" came a boy's voice out of nowhere,

"what? Who said that? Where are you?" Annakhin cried, looking around, no one was there, the alter was still glowing, and now it was getting brighter, there was a blinding flash of light and a scythe was suspended in the air above the alter, "what the-!"

"Hey, you're telling me! Now put the damned bracelet on!" the voice snapped,

"why? Who are you?"

"Because I said so, and that's none of your damn business!" was the only response made.

"But-" she looked up when the carvings of the strange creatures started leaking a strange mist that spiraled around the scythe calmly, "what's going on?"

"I'm getting pissed, that's what. I'm not saying it again. Put. The damn. Bracelet. On. And. Get. Me. Out. Of here. Next time I'm seeing if I can somehow crack the code and strangle you for being so damned slow!"

"Why's this happening? Tell me, and then I'll put the bracelet on! I promise!" Annakhin cried, holding the bracelet at arm's length away from her.

"Fine! If I'm not loose yet you must be an honest individual, ok, it's because you looked with your hands and not with your eyes. Now you're in the middle of doing something, and you'd better damn well finish it!" the voice said, clearly extremely pissed off.

"Ok!" Annakhin clasped the bracelet around her wrist, then flew backward from the shove of an unseen force, the room when black and she feared she'd somehow been blinded by the bracelet's doings. After a moment, the darkness cleared, disappearing like smoke. She stood up, brushing herself off a bit, then she looked at the bracelet, "what now?"

"Now, we have a chat." the voice from earlier said, but it sounded different this time, closer. She looked up to find a boy of seemingly her age, he was wearing black boots, a black tunic that went down to his knees, and a black robe that was left open that looked slightly too big for him, some abnormalities caught Annakhin's eye though, someone dressed as though they were from a different time was wearing a fingerless glove on his left hand, holding onto the scythe that had been suspended in the air earlier, it was standing straight up off the floor now, a long leather band around his neck that tied tightly around his neck like a choker and had a strange symbol that looked vaguely familiar hanging down as a charm of some kind hung off of it and several thick belts, two tightened, two hanging looser around his waist, an earring on his left ear, shaped like another familiar symbol and several rings on his left hand, all engraved with different symbols, all looked somehow familiar were the man made oddities, long, unbound blond hair (dirty blond) hung down his back, stopping at the bottom of the alter, which he was sitting on, was something that might contradict the time period his clothing, the robes that is, suggested he came from. The scythe and extra adornments mixed her up on time periods and any possible place he may be from. The one thing that stuck out the most was the boy's eyes, they were an unidentifiable shade of green and had slitted pupils. He cocked his head to the side, revealing several symbols tattooed on the side of his throat, they too looked familiar. "What? What'd I do?" he asked, confused, she snapped out of her daze and finally eyed up the scythe, he looked at it, made a small amused noise and laid the scythe across his lap, "there, now I'm hoping it doesn't look like I might kill you." she paled slightly, "don't worry. I can't lay a finger on you if you don't want me to. Lucky you." now she was confused.

"What? What do you mean? Where did you come from? Who are you? what are you? Why are you here-?" she started babbling, finally the boy put his hands over his ears,

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Missy! Too many question, too short a gap between them. Cool it. Take it slower, I ain't goin' anywhere." he said frantically, then he relaxed and straightened up, " ok, I'm good."

"What did you mean when you said you can't if I don't want you to come near me? Wouldn't it be you 'won't'?"

"Oh, you're a grammar freak, joy..." the boy muttered under his breath, "I mean, unless you say it's ok, I can't do jack-shit. But, you have to tell me I'm allowed to. Or you could just never tell me to do anything and see how long I last, but I'd prefer you not do that, if that's fine by you."

"So I have to tell you whether or not it's ok for you to do something?" he nodded, "why?"

"I think this'll answer a few more questions from your storm of questions earlier. Because, sorry to put it weird sounding, but, you own me now." he smacked his forehead in frustration when she only looked more lost. "Ok...let's try this again. You asked what I meant when I said I can't do something if you don't say it's ok, as well as why I'm here. Because you're the one wearing the bling, I need to do what you say. Things don't go well for me if I disagree with you or don't do what I'm told. The bracelet is like the 'shock' button for a shock collar. If you need it put simpler than that, you own me, like a servant or a pet...ouch. That hurt to say that."

"What about who you are, and you didn't really answer why you're here. Where you just appeared from. As well as what just happened here and what you are." Annakhin said

"why I'm here, where I just popped up from, who I am and what I am all connect with each other. Sort of anyway. Why I'm here; you let me loose, Missy. I'm here because you opened my cell door. Where I just popped up from; one word, 'bracelet'. That's where I was trapped in until you put it on and broke the seal, thus allowing me to breath fresh air once again. Thanks for that, by the way." now it wasn't confusion, it was shock, she backed up away from him until the wall stopped her, he watched her silently for a moment, then gave a Cheshire Cat grin, revealing fangs, like what she figured a vampire might have, "you also wanted to know what and who I am, right? Well, the name's Zykan, where I truly came from is hundreds of years worth of packed in black magic, thousands of years ago, here, where I was finally sealed away by that damn wizard, and what I am has pretty well been answered for you, I'm pure black magic and human wickedness and malice. Why I'm here, I was sealed in that bracelet, like I mentioned a second ago, and locked away in wherever here is." he gestured around the room, "after thousands of years imprisonment in a fucking piece of jewelry, I'm out again, but, you're obviously pure of heart, otherwise I'd have eaten your soul and figured out some way to dispose of the body somehow a while ago. And since you're pure of heart, no matter how powerful I am, or might get, and no matter how much I may want to do something, or just get my ass the hell out of here right now, I can't because you control me. You have the other half of the seal and, unless you want me gone and either seal me back up or break the seal completely, I need to follow you, I'm still connected to that thing." he paused for a second, "you can faint now, if that's what you're hoping you could get to." he started playing with the charm on the band tied around his neck as Annakhin fell over in a dead faint

she woke up sputtering and coughing a bit when cold water was poured on her face.

"Knew that fountain might just have a purpose." she heard Zykan say to himself as she sat up and rubbed her eyes to get the water away from them. "You were lying there for, like, an hour, at best, and I got bored. Sorry." he said, then he dropped his outer robe on her head, "there, now you won't have to worry about wet hair, dry of if ya want." she moved the robe off of her head so it was resting on her shoulders and looked up at him, another oddity, the tunic he wore under the robe that seemed too big for him had no sleeves, just a bit of fabric thick enough to make it at least a tank top sort of thing, she also took notice of the symbols tattooed on his upper arm on both arms, all of them familiar but from where she couldn't remember. He rolled his eyes and gave her a slightly annoyed look, "are you just gonna sit and stare all day? Cuz I could just find a corner to sleep in until you're done."

"Oh, no. I'm sorry. It's just...you were made thousands of years ago and you're talking and acting like someone from the here and now might. And you're dressed far differently than everyone else must ha back when you were created." she said, he folded his arms over his chest, keeping his annoyed look,

"I was waiting for that. Talk and walk." he said, pointing to the door, it was open and she could finally leave the strange catacomb like tunnels of the temple. "Keep that until your hair's dry, it's kind of cold out there and you might catch a cold or something. However it works with you people." she stared at him in shock,

"how did you know that it-"

"I'm not stupid. I could feel it even down here. It's fall, right? Damn, I missed summer. But, in any case, let's continue, shall we? Now, what was it you were asking about? My clothes? No, most of this stuff doesn't go with the time period. The robe's the only thing from thousands of years ago that's stayed in tact."

"But, then, what about everything else? How did you get all of this stuff if you were trapped in that seal for so long?" she stopped walking and pointed to one of his tattoos, "and what are all of these? I've seen them before, but I can't remember-"

"back into my hell-hole." he said, leading her back into the room the bracelet had been in. He pointed to the alter with his scythe, "the tattoos and the rest of the symbols all over me are carved on that thing. Over time, people got in here, different monks and priests from different religions, and I guess the seal started to weaken or something, I dunno, I was probably asleep. So, to keep me sealed up in that thing, they added more containment spells and symbols, the strongest ones didn't just leave their mark on the stone, they left it on me too., the rings and all this stuff, I dunno where it came from, again, I was asleep, I probably was set free without even knowing it, then whoever set me free must have freaked, put some kind of freak whatever on me and locked me up, probably thinking their little magic charm would help keep me locked up. But, as I stated a second ago, I dunno for sure, I think it looks kinda neat. But that's just me. Now, can we leave? No more questions, please." he gave her a pathetic look, she nodded,

"we can go now." she said, her turn to lead the way, she pulled the robe up so that it cover the top of her head, hair still being wet.

When they left the tunnels and were back on the surface floor, they were met by several priests, Annakhin was the only one out of the pair that even noticed the priests, Zykan was too busy looking around,

"things have changed. A lot." he muttered,

"what were you doing back in those tunnels? It's dangerous down there, they're also off limits to the public." one of the priests said, Annakhin was nodded frantically,

"yes, yes, I figured they were, so I was going to close that door and-" she started, but jumped back when one of the priests interrupted,

"the door wasn't open when we came here last, no one's ever found that door. You didn't go inside, did you?" Zykan was yawning lazily, watching Annakhin try to bail them out of this one.

"Hey, Missy, why don't you just tell them about the damned bracelet?" he said, not realizing he'd said it out loud until it was heard by all, "shit."

"Bracelet?" one of the priests said, sounding even more frantic and worried, "what does he mean? What bracelet did you find? Where did you find it?"

"I-uh-I-" she sputtered, not knowing what to say, she'd have to tell them the truth Eventually, then, again, Zykan spoke up,

"my bracelet. I guess it was here this entire time, sorry bout that." he said, that almost did it, but one of the priests caught a hole in that statement.

"How did it get in that tunnel, then?" he asked, Zykan faltered, then pulled himself together,

"I haven't a clue. I guess someone put it there. Don't ask me to fathom the way people think." he said, trying to be careful. Another glitch,

"where is it now?"

"uh...we left it down there, it was in too tight a spot when we found it." he attempted quickly, then the questions that sent him running to hide behind Annakhin were asked,

"where did you get that scythe from? I'm sure no one let you in here with such a weapon."

"Uh-oh..." he squeaked, inching towards Annakhin,

"what are those strange marking and charms for?"

"Yeep!" he hid behind Annakhin, "sorry, dumping it off on you. I'm in a worse spot than you." there was a pause and then, "can I run?"

"No. You have to stay here." Annakhin said, Zykan whined, "I said you're staying, I'm not changing my mind. So, please, don't make this any harder than it already is." she said, he whined again, but followed orders, straightening up and trying not to beg for her to let him run. One of the priests walked over to him and snagged him by the arm, looking at one of his tattoos, then the earring, then the charm on his neck, he motioned for the others to look, "oh, no, I'm sorry I-"

"can I run!" he cried frantically, before she could say yes, one of the priests jumped away from Zykan, staring in horrified realization,

"it's-that's-" he stammered, Zykan pulled a face at him,

"ah, bite me, ya mostly bald old fart." he said, flipping the petrified priest off. "Quit ogling, I'm not a piece of meat." he snapped, pissed already, "is everyone I come across gonna be this weird?" he asked, turning to Annakhin, who was much more nervous and frightened as she probably should have been,

"only if they recognize all of those spells." she said, abandoning cautiousness for the time being, "but, you said you can't hurt anyone, right?"

"Do you want me to?"

"No."

"Then no. I can't. you tell me I can, and I probably will. you tell me I can't and I sit and sulk." he said, she gave a nod of understanding, "how fast can you run?"

"Um..." before that could turn into coherent speech, they were interrupted yet again by mortified priests,

"idiot girl! Do you have any idea what you've done! You have unleashed death and evil incarnate! Fool!"

"I like that title." Zykan said, then he looked at Annakhin, "can I keep it?"

"No, stick with 'Zykan', it's your real name, after all."

"Spoil-sport."

"Where is the seal! We need to seal it up again!"

"'It'! Hey, I resent that! Please tell me I can hurt him."

"Absolutely not."

"You really are just a 'no fun' person, aren't you?"

"Talk to us, girl, where is the seal!"

"I-I-I-I have the bracelet I found. Is that what you mean?" Annakhin stammered, now even more frightened. Both the priests and Annakhin jump back a bit when a scythe suddenly appeared between them,

"Shut up, ya whack job. Let her alone. If you're gonna bug out at someone, make it me. I'm the one that this is all centered around, am I not?" Zykan hissed, "well?" he walked between Annakhin and the priests so he was blocking her from view, "anyone wanna issue their complaints? I'm waiting." no one spoke, "damn, that's odd...you were full of live a second ago while you were picking on a girl. But, now, suddenly you're not so noisy? tch. Not surprised, that's sad that you're called priests. I thought that term meant something useful when you people use it." then he turned to Annakhin, "can we please go now?"

"Yes. We can go now." Annakhin said, "thank you."

"It was nothing, right. You are my contract-bound master after all. It's the least I can do." he said, hefting his scythe up onto his shoulder and following Annakhin out of the temple, leaving the priests too stunned to move.

(End Flashback)

"you mean Zykan's..." Bobby started, but she couldn't figure out anything past that.

"So, this entire time, we've been traveling with the strongest and most terrifying evil this world has ever known?" Skayr asked, stunned,

"yes, I guess that's what I'm saying." Annakhin said, looking down at her hands, folded in her lap. Miko turned to the smaller girl, confused on something,

"if he's so powerful, how come something that must have taken about as much energy as dropping a pin wear him down so much?" she asked, Annakhin shrugged,

"I never let him use any magic that could really hurt people, I always had him keep it low, like teleporting or small little tricks like what you've seen him do this entire time. Maybe this is part of what happens if he goes against what I told him was his limit. I never wanted to see what he was capable, I was afraid I'd just let him do what he wanted all the time for fear of him somehow hurting me. But now he might be sick because of me." she said sadly.

"Nah, it isn't your fault. Everyone gets sick, even the physical manifestation of all of the evil and darkness this world has to offer." Bobby said, but, Damien rained on that parade,

"I dunno, he did get dizzier and feverish when you were chiding him earlier. Maybe there is a connection. Why don't you loosen the reins a bit and see how he does." Annakhin smiled and nodded,

"alright. That sounds reasonable." she said, suddenly, the evil in question, slammed the door to the room open,

"Help me!" he cried, running into the room and diving behind Annakhin, "they're trying to kill me!"

"Zykan, if you're freaking out about another blood test-"

"No, Damien, he isn't. I can smell it, did they cut you at all?" Skayr said, Zykan nodded slightly, then licked at a cut on his forearm. "I thought so. I smelled it a while ago, but I ignored it. My apologies." Zykan shrugged,

"s'ok, now you can save my life." he said, Zykan's outfit and choice in adornments hadn't been altered since he was freed, he'd cut a decent portion of his hair off, though, now it ended at the end of his shoulder blades, when the robe he wore was taken off, the sleeveless tunic showed off all of the seals tattooed onto his upper arms and back, some near his collarbone, the charm around his neck hadn't been removed, nor had the earring or the rings. After he'd been awakened, frantic priests were quick to send word to other temples about him, some of the symbols that could be found on him were hung in certain places like wanted posters. Obviously the hospital staff either saw the posters or went to church, they'd found the manifestation of all evil in mankind's history. A doctor and two orderlies stood in the doorway now, Annakhin and Miko stopped Zykan's frantic attempt to grab his scythe,

"Annakhin has you under orders not to hurt people, imagine how sick you'll get if you kill someone, you moron!" Miko snapped, holding him back, Skayr went after Bobby's boomerang,

"Don't." Bobby said, "it's too big. You might either hit someone you didn't mean to, or do some really serious damage. And I know what you're thinking, don't move from that chair." she ordered, then she winced and relaxed to the best of her abilities.

"This is where I sorely regret leaving my sword in the waiting room." Damien said, inching back, away from the door, Azuril, on the other hand, was moving forward, she grabbed Damien by the collar of his shirt,

"give. Me. My gun." she seethed, he held up said item, she grabbed it and had it aimed at the doorway in a second, "I am positive you don't wish to see me truly angry-" she started, that statement made Skayr and Damien look at each other with terror stricken looks on their faces, they'd seen her mad, it didn't end well for the surrounding wild life, and it was just damned terrifying, "-so I would suggest you abandon any intent to harm him and walk away before I shoot all three of you without hesitation." she said, walking forward, now she was blocking the group from the three men in the doorway, who had their hands up, "walk away." she said calmly, taking several steps forward, they moved with her, "you must think of him as evil if you are trying to kill him."

"He is, idiot, don't you pay any attention to anything that's going on-?" one of the orderlies started, but a warning shot silenced him.

"I pay attention to what is truly worth seeing. He is no more evil than anyone else in that room. I ignored it all, for quite some time, actually. But what I have heard and seen while with them has made me think about a great many things, what evil really is, how it can be classified when speaking about someone, most importantly if I follow what makes someone evil, and find much of those traits in myself, am I evil?" they were in the center of the waiting room now, the first thing Azuril did was kick Damien's katana under one of the couches, no surprises. "If Zykan is evil, then I am truly doomed to the darkest pits of hell." she lowered her gun, "I can't shoot you, not while I've made a promise not to kill unnecessarily, but if Damien had not held me to that, I would have shot you by now. Leave them alone. Not one more attempt to harm any one of them. Am I understood?" they trio of men nodded, pale in the face. "Good." she then turned and started towards the room Damien and company were in, of course, no grown man will allow a woman to just walk away after insulting him and scaring him into submission, one of the orderlies raised a hand to hit her from behind.

"Azuril-!" Damien started, but stopped abruptly when the girl swung around fast, grabbing the man's arm tightly when he brought it down, using her left hand to hold him in place,

"I said 'not one more attempt'. I meant myself as well. Do you want to test my temper's limits?" she said threateningly, eyes flashing, he shook his head, "good." she let go of him, straightening up and glaring the men down, "because I didn't want to have to kill you and break a promise...to a friend." Damien smiled, Bobby and Skayr gave each other knowing looks, Annakhin just smiled as well, Zykan shuddered, he'd figured out Damien right away, he hated that kind of stuff, it made him nauseous, Miko was the only one who looked miffed, but she was ignored.

All of that needless to say they weren't at that town too long after that, they needed to leave before word spread that the Devil and his Advocate were nearby. Their progress was slow, though, Bobby still being injured.

"This bites, we've been walking around for almost two days and we've found nothing." Zykan said, he'd been complaining since the sun had come up that morning. Damien groaned, he was about to kill the annoying Evil,

"Well, there has to be a town around here somewhere. We'll find it. Hopefully before I strangle you with your own hair." he said, Zykan paled slightly, shaking his head, he didn't feel like being strangled, especially not if his own hair was being used to do it.

"I've always wanted to see that done..." Skayr said, thinking out loud, Bobby and Damien gave her disturbed looks, Annakhin just sighed in exasperation, this would defiantly be ten times as difficult as it had been before the group knew about Zykan.

"You're the reason we needed to leave in the first place." Miko said, he glared at her,

"if it were my fault that I'm despised world wide, you would have either abandoned me there or killed me yourself a while back." he said,

"I had no idea I was traveling with evil incarnate." Miko defended herself with that,

"ignorance was blissful." Zykan muttered, "I just hope I don't piss any of you off enough that you hand me over to the nearest church official."

"If they do, I will side with you. We are alike in too many ways for me to just abandon you." Azuril said, nearly everyone stumbling from shock,

"What did you..." Miko started, but her question was overlapped by Damien.

"And you're going to be either uncaring or leaving at some point soon? How will you protect him from us if you aren't here? And how will I know you'll keep your word and not kill anyone if you aren't here to prove it? Better yet why do you care about what happens to Zykan, or any of us in any way? And why keep a promise to someone you don't care about?" he said, waiting for her answer,

"...if you're fishing for more promises or deals, Damien, then, I'm sorry to disappoint you, you'll need to search for them in someone else. I promise nothing. Especially not to people that wound me in an already damaged place every time I look at them." she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, he looked truly hurt, she sighed, "however, I never could break a promise to my friends in my own time, so why start now with them in this time? Damien, I will stay with you, and keep my promises."

"Thank you." Damien said with a grin, Azuril only closed her eyes briefly, the opened them and continued on to complete her mission, the one instance where she would break her promise to Damien and do what she stayed awake to do.

"Crowded streets all cleared away
One by One
Hollow heroes separate
As they run

You're so cold
Keep your hand in mine
Wise men wonder while
Starved men die

Show me how we end this alright
Show me how defenseless you really are
Satisfy an empty inside
That's alright, let's give this another try

If you find your family, don't you cry
In this land of make-believe, dead and dry
You're so cold, but you feel alive
Lay your hands on me one last time

Show me how we end this alright
Show me how defenseless you really are
Satisfy an empty inside
That's alright, let's give this another try

Show me how we end this alright
Show me how defenseless you really are
Satisfy an empty inside
That's alright, let's give this another try

It's alright
It's alright

It's alright

It's alright

It's alright

It's alright

It's alright

It's alright

It's alright

It's alright"

---

Breaking Benjamin; So Cold; TBA