"MAX! BROTHER!" The girls cried out, running all over the place in the living room and between all the furniture. They were small and nimble enough to do it.
All three sisters threw as much as they could to deter their pursuer and Chris grabbed the gun hidden in the dining room, the next room over. The six-year-old pointed it at the attacker as her siblings rushed to her side, Cade grabbing a knife on the table and Cat arming herself with a wine bottle which she broke over the edge of the table despite being half full and pointed the jagged remains.
"Come here, I won't hurt you," the figure blatantly lied.
"And I don't want to hurt you," Chris snarled. "But touch one of my sisters and I won't hesitate bitch!"
Her squeaky voice made the threat less intimidating but the figure knew she was dead serious. "And if you shoot me, she dies. I don't think she will appreciate that you shot her dead."
"Then get out of her damn body, Zera!"
Alistor approached them with a smirk but her irises were glowing Energon blue, pupils contracted to tiny dots. "I'm afraid I can't do that, need someone to operate to hurt you physically. I will take you if I can't take Max."
Cat scowled, "You should really learn how to speak in the world of the living because that sounds so wrong. Just say 'drag our souls to the Well', you pedophile creep!"
"What's a 'pedophile'?" Alistor's facial expression turned confusion.
"Have you been sleeping on your job?! Child molester, you daft motherfu-!"
"Cat!" Chris interrupted. "As my sister meant to say, we aren't going anywhere!"
The triplets backed away as Zera moved Alistor's body towards them. "Oh? And who's going to save you?"
Before Zera could do anything, a black form quickly struck him through Alistor, fleeing like a blur, and he grunted as he felt his energy twist in agony. He placed Alistor's hands on her head as a mimicry of his stability inside her trying to break apart but he managed to gain control again. He pinpointed the culprit with brows furrowed in anger.
Kia perched on the table above the girls in a feral pose with her spine erect and baring her sharp teeth that were hidden in the hole that was her mouth normally used to suck souls out of living things.
Dementors may have fed on energy but they were predatory, and their teeth were mainly for defense though they weren't above blood feeding if necessary to survive. It was extremely rare for anybody to see a dementor's retractable teeth buried inside the flesh of their mouth but when seen, it was a warning sign and often a lethal one at that. Those teeth were designed to shred through muscle and, as some speculated, they could break bone in a minute or two and that was one dementor alone. An entire swarm of peeved dementors though...
Zera grunted in distain but held his ground. Kia wasn't about to shred her friend into oblivion to get him out. She was too soft. A real wild dementor wouldn't hesitate regardless of relationship with the victim.
"Well girls, I commend you for standing up to me for this long. Too bad it was for nothing. I'll be sure to let Max know how you are doing in the afterlife, my gift to him," Zera laughed.
A click of a gun behind him made the possessor pause. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
The demonic entity inwardly groaned and turned to find a gun almost pressed against Alistor's forehead and the pirate himself staring him down on the other end. He was ready to call Max out on the bluff but he could see in the man's eyes he was ready to pull the trigger without a second thought despite Alistor being his apprentice. That scared even Zera.
"You wouldn't." The demon snarled, eyes flaring bright.
Max merely cocked his head, "Alistor knows the risk of this job and what I might have to do in the end. I can ask Tigressa's younger brother, Ghost, to revive her easy, raincheck, but can you survive outside the Well of Allsparks without a body for over fifteen minutes?"
Zera growled before he burst from Alistor and bluish white energy surged throughout the room, escaping through the window of Max's mansion. The girls had ducked with Kia close in front to protect them and Max ran backwards to avoid the energy accidentally latching onto him and messing with his mind as Zera had a tendency to do. Alistor's body collapsed on the floor. When the room was clear, Max put his gun away and quickly went to the window to try and look for Zera.
"You girls okay?" he asked, still on the lookout.
Cat, Chris, and Cade all were exhausted but one of them gave a thumbs up with a side smirk. "We'll live."
"How did Zera get here? I thought Primus sealed him in the Pits of Unicron after our last encounter?"
Cat scoffed, "I'm upset Primus didn't destroy him when they had the chance. Screw imprisonment in the realm of the damned. Some Guard of the Well he was. What went wrong with him?"
Max sighed, "Cybertronian Demons, being Primus' Guards of the Well, are designed to prevent souls from wandering and if one escapes, they retrieve that soul. If the soul possesses a living person, the Demons are only supposed to possess another person to encounter the lost soul and collect them then leave the body they possess completely intact."
"Sounds like Zera didn't get that memo," Chris laughed.
"No, he chose to stray from Primus' demand of the Demons and went his own route. His unethical approaches in his job have ended up separating living souls from their bodies and pushing them beyond the brink of recovery so when he leaves, the person he possessed won't function because they have no soul anymore. It can't reconnect with its body. Ghost was pissed every time he was called to retrieve a stray soul because of Zera, I remember that."
Cade frowned and pointed at Alistor, "Ssooo, should we be worried about her or what?"
Max turned away from the window and crouched to gather Alistor into his arms and lifted her off the ground. He walked into the living room and placed her on the couch. Feeling her heart beat by placing a hand on her chest and watching her reaction to subtle movements like pokes around her collar bone with his gauntlet claws, he could confirm her soul was returning by the strengthened expression of discomfort. A body without a soul would barely react like a lifeless zombie, but Zera wasn't in Alistor's body for long so any damage between body and soul was not permanent. She just needed to rest to regain the energy lost.
"Alistor's fine, just shaken. Kia, I want you to watch her and report anything that may be strange. In very rare cases, the soul might not take back to being in a body well due to trauma. If that's the case, get in contact with Ghost and he'll set the soul back properly. Don't wait for my approval. Time is very cruel with out-of-body experiences, especially forced."
Kia nodded and perched on top of the couch to peer down at Alistor. Max cracked his knuckles as he turned to his triplet little sisters.
"Alright Catherine, Christina, Cadence, you three are my overseers. Keep to the rooftops as I scout for Zera. Watch my six and don't hesitate to shoot anything he may possess. I'll try to contact the Allspark and see if I can get it to teleport over here and take Zera back to the Pits," he said.
"Wait, does that mean we get to shoot things?! Woohoo!" Cat exclaimed and raised her hands up as her sisters stared at her.
Max sighed, "Yes, go nuts. The population of hippogriffs, deer, and other common fauna needs to be cut down anyway. Way too overpopulated. I planned on going hunting sometime this month but this is a good opportunity. Kill anything that he possesses, we'll deal with the remains later. I'll get over any unfortunate deaths of my favorite hippogriffs if absolutely necessary."
Chris raised a hand in question. "How will we know what he is?"
"You'll know when you see it. Now, hustle girls. We have a demon to hunt."
"Why can't we just exorcise Zera like a normal demon?" Cade asked in a whisper.
Cat sneered, "Since when has anything we've dealt with been normal? This isn't a goddamn movie, you know."
The triplets took their positions on the rooftop of the mansion through the attic space while Max walked out on ground level to the front yard where there were seldom trees and most vegetation was kept trim, mainly for aesthetic purposes but also helped keep an eye on any creatures wandering through without the risk of being attacked at the front door. Hippogriffs weren't the only things mythical around.
Taking out a sniper rifle, the girls set it up and Cat sat on the shoulders of Chris to be eye level with the scope. Cade was sitting on the edge with binoculars, occasionally switching between them and her normal sight.
A screech was heard to their right among the grassland below. A flock of hippogriffs seemed irate and some reared in anger. Why they were angry was hard to place until Cat spotted one swan-like hippogriff with unusual blue eyes being the center of the dispute.
"Spotted Zera I think! Hippogriff herd, right far corner of the grassy field near the ponds."
Cade nodded and relayed the information to Max who wandered towards that direction.
The pirate activated a separate comm channel, "Allspark, if you can hear this, meet me at my home in the far forest just beyond the Hemingford Grey Meadow, Cambridgeshire. Zera is back and I need assistance in getting him to the Pits again. I repeat, come immediately. Zera is free."
Max ran to the fields where various colored hippogriffs snarled and pranced away from him annoyed for barging into their herd. But at least they were acquainted enough to know he wouldn't hurt them. Various breeds of hippogriff he had found over the world were gathered here as freelance pets, hawk-design hippogriffs (stripe-tailed and Gulliver's golden-eye hippogriffs) were the most common type as well as cardinal (molten) and blue jay (Marauder's). But swan (frosted, charcoal), parrot (rainbow, green sickle, gold-crested), pheasant (grim wing, golden razor) and peacock (flushed, shimmering) types were exclusive to only specific regions on the planet.
He waved off a Marauder's hippogriff and a green sickle hippogriff hissed at him. "Easy, Crystal, good girl. Pompeii, don't rear at me. I will kick your ass."
Through the flock, he wasn't seeing which hippogriff Zera was hiding among, the poor creature.
"Girls, give me some insight. Which one?"
Cat scoped out the one with abnormally blue eyes and smirked, "He doesn't blend as good as he thinks. The frosted swan next to the blue shimmering hippogriff is it."
"The frosted hippogriff? Lonna? If he possessed Lonna and we have to kill her to get him out, I'm going to be so pissed! Goddamn it all! I raised Lonna since she was a chick," Max angrily scowled.
He pushed past Marigold, his molten, and Guinevere, his stripe-tailed, as he came up to Lonna, who was riled up from the others' aggravation towards her. He was about to approach when she reared and swiped her talons over his upper arm. Blood soaked through the fabric and Max growled back. Lonna twirled around and was about to kick him with her rear hooves when a shot pierced her side into her lung and she collapsed.
Max glanced at the rooftops and saw Cade shaking her head, and Cat cocking the sniper rifle and caught the bullet shell, blowing into it as a bragging gesture but even she looked saddened. Lonna collapsed after a loud whine of pain and he could hear her struggling to breathe. With one last huff, her head sank forward over her arms and her wings slid down lifelessly. The other hippogriffs were spooked and quickly fled, taking off into the air and away from the fields.
"Lonna, you were a great steed, I'm so sorry," Max whispered to himself.
A sudden whirl of energy from the dead hippogriff's body morphed into a large celestial being with a Cybertronian-like structure. Glowing blue, Zera stretched his angelic wings, though he was far from an angel, and roared angrily at his displacement and being out in the open began to invoke some panic. He needed a body, something to keep him grounded. Without one, his energy would become a ticking time bomb as it wasn't malleable in the realm of the living. It would ultimately destroy him.
"You forced us to kill one of our most trusted pets, you almost killed Alistor by trying to push her soul from her body, and you won't stay in the Pits where you deserve to rot for what you did to the living people you stole bodies from. Primus should have eradicated you. They're a fool for not taking their chance," Max said, anger seeping through his calm façade.
"And that just leaves you, Max," Zera laughed. "Can your sisters, friends and pets live with me as you?"
Max immediately knew what Zera was planning and he backed away. Fighting something possessed by a spiritual being was one thing, fighting the actual spirit as itself was completely different and he didn't have the means to do it. Not even a Patronus did much against other energies, only physical forms.
In a panic, he motioned a fist upward and parts of the ground lifted to create a shield but Zera was pure energy manifested so all that did was buy a second before he fazed through it with a laugh.
"Poor Max, alone and unable to defend himself. After years of stroking your own ego by taking on various creatures and winning, you finally have an opponent you can't touch and you're scared. You're like a lost child looking for your mother. Do you want to see your mother again, Max? She's been dying to see you, over two hundred and fifty years to be exact."
Max quickly used any power he could summon, gifted to him by his employer, Zeliria, to try and do something against Zera. Water summoned from the ponds he bent to jettison right into Zera did nothing but hit the ground with a splash. Rocks and other ground materials just went through him. As a last-ditch effort, Max transformed himself into a European red and black dragon. He blew fire straight at the Cybertronian Demon, consuming the latter. He grinned sharp teeth but it dropped when Zera emerged now peeved.
Using the dragon form cost him a lot of energy and he rarely could use it because of that. It was always the final defense and even that didn't work. Dissuaded, his form lost composure and he transformed back, stumbling to the ground as Zera hovered over him.
"You lose, Max. I win this time."
A bullet shot through Zera's arm and out his side. It tickled but he still growled at the point of origin. Max's sisters were booing him and another shot fell through. They probably knew as much as Max the weapon was useless but he had to give them some credit for bravery even to the end. Like baby sisters, like older brother.
"Brats," Zera muttered.
Without hesitating any longer, he lunged at the human and embedded his energy throughout the body to Max's horror. Max could feel his energy being stripped from him and his soul felt heavier. The last he felt was of his hands grasping his head when he lost the connection to his own body. It was painful being ripped from the comfort of a body but when he was no longer in control, he found himself staring not through his own eyes but kind of the side. He wasn't seeing the world like it should be on the outside either. Everything was faded and darkened, like he was in a separate realm or something.
"W-what did you do?! Give me my body back, Zera!"
He heard laughter in his own voice but it sounded separate as well, not like it was coming from him directly. His own body didn't seem to acknowledge his presence. Zera was him now. He breathed and made a gesture of relaxation with an ever-creepy smile Max never knew his face could do. His eyes were bright blue indicating Zera's presence.
"Now, that's so much better. Nice and sturdy, a perfect body for now," Zera said. It still was freaking Max out to hear his own voice talking back. "How does it feel to watch me control you? Don't worry, I promise I'll be gentle with you, not that you'll ever be back. The longer you spend outside your body, the more energy you lose which I will take and, in an hour or two, you'll be nothing but a memory, too weak to ever rebind with your body even if I leave it. Your soul will be lost forever."
"If I can't come back, I will wait until you leave and kick your ass in the spirit world!"
Zera scoffed, "Oh? You forget, I'm a Guardian of the Well. Even if we end up in the same spiritual plane of existence, I have power over simple souls like you."
"I'll find a way, I always do!"
"In the meantime, why don't you sit back and relax as I take your body out for a test drive? Let's see, what can I do? How about I kill everyone? Your sisters, your Cybertronian friends, maybe Kia but I'm a little iffy on that? Not sure if dementors can die."
"Leave them alone!"
"Or you'll what? And Alistor? What to do with her? I heard you humans like playing with your reproductive organs. I wonder if I can have a little fun in other ways than just killing. Of course, from her perspective, all she'll see is you so I get to have fun and ruin your reputation. You better hope your sisters are as valiant as you and try to kill you or else...goodbye nobility, hello monstrosity."
Max stiffened and shook his head with disgust and fear. "Y-you wouldn't-!"
Zera cracked his shoulders and began walking towards the mansion. "No, I wouldn't...but you will. Let's go say hi, shall we?"
The triplets all watched, terrified as Zera entered their brother's body. Max was clutching his head in what appeared to be pain until it stopped. Then he went still for a brief second before he held his own wrists in odd child-like wonder.
"Oh crap, what do we do?!" Cade exclaimed.
Cat shrugged, "I guess we...shoot him?"
"What?! No! We can't shoot Max! That's our brother!" Chris shrieked.
"But if we don't and Zera is in control of him-"
"Then we deal with it!" Chris spoke, gripping the roof tile hard. "Look, I don't want to lose our brother. There has to be another way!"
Cat and Cade frowned when the latter said, "Maybe but if we don't, Zera will kill others and the only thing those people will know is Max killed them, not Zera. We know what's going on but they don't and if word gets out, there's no telling what will happen to you, the dementor species across the globe because of Kia's association with Max, or the monsters we protect Earth from."
"Well, you two need to come up with a clear decision soon because I think Zera's coming towards us," Cat whimpered.
The other two looked back at Max's position only to find the pirate stalking towards the mansion. He bared his teeth into a very deluded smile and brought out his automatic pistol aiming at them.
"Aw, that's so not good!"
They ducked as a shot flew past their heads and screamed. Cat barely lifted her head to see how close he was getting when another shot nicked some tiles above her on a higher roof. Zera obviously wasn't the best shot having little to no experience with guns, but it wasn't like any of them were going to take the chance of standing up to try to fire back and risk getting shot for their troubles.
Cat and Chris carefully climbed on the roof to ledge they could hide behind, but noticing Cade was too afraid to move, Chris immediately sprang into action and climbed back. She grabbed her sister's arm and dragged her back to the ledge, throwing her onto the other side as she ducked another bullet. All three heard the remaining shots fired at them, some chunks of the ledge breaking near their heads before it stopped and a muffled curse was heard. Zera had run out of bullets and probably didn't know how to reload. That gave them time and they slipped into the mansion and booked it down the stairs to Kia and Alistor, the latter of whom was moving slightly but still somewhat out.
"Kia, Max is possessed by Zera and he's going to kill us! What do we do?!"
The dementor was startled by the news and rushed to the window to see for herself but right as she looked outside, a fist broke through the glass and narrowly missed her head. With a yelp, Kia scrambled back as Max's body jumped through the glass. She placed herself between him and the girls, urging them to flee as she floated to her full height, cloak ruffling in warning.
Zera walked slowly towards her with a grin and a cocky stance. "Kia, Kia, Kia, you wouldn't harm your old pal Max, would you?"
She rumbled in a low growl and gestured with her claws.
"I would have thought you would have better manners towards your friend. Maybe we should fix that," Zera suddenly frowned.
"Please Zera, don't do this! They act on my orders! They aren't your enemies!"
Ignoring Max's pleas, he tried to grab part of Kia's cloak but a sudden jerk from the dementor too fast to register towards him made him reel back in slight discomfort. He felt something warm trickling down his cheek and saw blood when he wiped it off with the clawed gauntlets Max wore. She had struck him and he barely knew.
"Clever," he said, still examining the blood and licking his lips. "Such animalistic behavior. Maybe if I can't get to you, perhaps someone else?"
Zera peered at Alistor's sleeping form beside him on the couch. In their scuffle, Kia moved back away from her and Zera had moved forward without realizing the young adult was still there. Zera smirked and sat near her feet covered by a blanket. When Kia tried to move to them, he placed his claws on Alistor's neck threatening to slit her throat.
"Ah ah, let's not do something rash now."
Kia lowered to the floor staring him down as he looked over Alistor for a moment to strike. She was young but not a child. She looked so peaceful resting. He drummed his claws over her chest in thought. A wonder, indeed, what humans did for fun and she was perfectly sedated for him to do whatever he pleased.
"No! Don't you touch her! She's barely eighteen and my apprentice! You sick fuck! I'll rip you to fucking pieces!"
"Sorry Max, innocence is a copout of the mind, and you're going to prove that today. Besides, if I'm going to be staying, I need something to do."
"Kia, kill me! Stop him!"
As a soul, Kia couldn't hear him and Zera could only give an evil chuckle at his attempt. Right as Zera was straddling her unconscious form, a pull of energy prevented his arm from reaching her face like it was frozen yet he was shaking. At first, he thought Max had somehow gained control but then a sharp jab in his arm made it twist away. He held his wrist in confusion. Suddenly, Zera's energy was flipping out inside Max's body and he cried out, removing himself from Alistor.
Bluish white light suddenly warped around him but it wasn't his energy Zera came to realize. The windows all lit up white with unusual light and ghostly voices haunted every corner of the mansion. Kia and the girls kept close as the mansion shook, the candles with their orange flames lit throughout turned to massive blue blazes and swirled in rage. Even the electric lights that were shut off abruptly surged from the energy. Zera gave the girls a look of pause before he was launched backwards through the same window he came in.
Kia and the triplets ran out the door to the front where Zera had been forcefully pulled and saw bending light throw the body onto the field where he hit the ground rough leaving patches of impact marks before settling after three bounces. Zera was in a state of shock as were the girls but they all looked to the culprit who hovered towards Max.
With three different sized rings rotating adorned with Cybertronian symbols around a giant orb of bluish white energy, they all found themselves in the presence of the Allspark. Energy ruptured from the orb like sun flares and the ghostly whispers in all ranges spoke loud in fury. What they were saying was gibberish but it was abundantly clear, the Allspark wasn't pleased. It dwarfed Max's body with ease, still floating over even as Zera tried crawling backwards in fear.
"N-now, see here, I-I'm just a humble servant of the Well. I was just checking on Alistor a-and the sisters and-and the girl! She was fine! Everything's okay!"
"SILENCE!" A booming mixture of feminine and masculine voices said, shaking even the ground with its power.
Zera flinched and held his head, Max's body curling into a fetal position on the ground. He may have been a powerful demon but even he feared the Allspark. He could see Kia and the triplets weren't daring to move towards him at this time.
"How dare you risk the lives of living beings! Zera of the Well, you are not welcome here!" The Allspark roared.
Zera raised a finger in defense, "Tech-technically, they aren't alive having died then getting saved by Zelir-"
"SILENCE! For your crimes against Earth, its citizens, and endangerment of all living beings, you will be stripped of your cosmic powers and cast from your pedestal in the Well among your former fellow demons! You are hereby banished to the Forbidden Realm for all eternity and this time, you will never see the light of the stars of the galaxy ever again!"
The Allspark's rings slowed in their rotation until they were aligned vertically with their symbols on the flat surface visible to Zera. He gazed at the rings as they lit up and its energy convulsed.
"No, no, no!"
Max laughed at him and he could only glance around scared of the voice with an overwhelmed expression. "You're right, I'm no match for you. But I think ahead and always have a plan. You lose, Zera. I win this time."
A concentrated beam of light shot forward from the Allspark and all Zera could do was open his eyes as wide as physically possible. The light engulfed him and Zera screamed as his spirit was torn from the body, a ghostly shadow could be visible behind Max's silhouette trying to keep ahold of it before slipping. His form was vaporized, his voice excelled from a normal tone to a demonic dark baritone before cutting to silence.
The entire field lit up to where even Kia had to shield the outline of her eyes beneath her cloak and the girls were already turned away to keep from being blinded. When the light died, the beam dissipated and the girls carefully looked where Max's body and the Allspark resided. For a second, Max stood but didn't move. Instantly, the body sank to his knees and collapsed face first into the ground.
"Ooh, that's got to hurt," Cade said, wincing afterwards when she received a punch in the shoulder.
In a panic, the triplets and Kia ran over to Max and rolled him onto his back. The Allspark got closer as well with its energy still spiking from the power it exerted.
"Max! Wake up, big brother!" Cat tearfully spoke as she shook his shoulders.
Max wasn't responding and Kia looked up at the Allspark to do something.
"He may not wake up for some time depending on how long his soul has been out of his body, but he is alive and his soul has been returned," the Allspark reassured.
"Thank you, Allspark, for saving our brother," Chris smiled.
"Don't...thank her yet...I'm still pretty dead inside."
All attention turned to Max who breathed deep and blinked his eyes a few times before closing them again in discomfort. He sat up but was quickly shoved down by the immediate dog pile from his sisters. Letting out a groan, he could only let the unauthorized assault continue.
"MAX!" The triplets shouted in unison.
"Ow, ow, okay, alright, I'm alive. Kia, help!"
The dementor joined the group just as Max managed to lift himself up again and was flattened once more. He could hear the Allspark laughing in the background as he forced himself upward to stand on wobbly legs. He brushed off the dirt and rubbed his head which was currently under a different form of attack called a migraine.
The Allspark shook. "Had I not gotten here when I did, Zera would have done much damage to your family. I appreciate the call, Max, and I am always ready to help you."
Max bent over to grasp his knees and panted with a snarl. "Yeah, I really appreciate it too. Thank you so much. I couldn't imagine living with myself had Zera gone through with what he planned to do. Is he really gone?"
"Yes, he will not harm you ever again. And I have a gift for you for your troubles."
The girls crowded around Max as the latter peered up at the Allspark in confusion. "Gift? You don't need to give me a gift. It's fine."
"Oh, but this gift is a special repayment for a sacrifice you instigated in your pursuit of Zera."
Before Max could ask what that was, a flare of energy shot out from the Allspark and circled above it until it merged into a blob. The shape crafted into what appeared to be some type of animal and in a small explosion, a frosted hippogriff emerged with a call.
"Lonna?! By the gods, you're alive!" Max cheered despite the soreness.
The hippogriff did a fancy dive and landed beside him which he happily approached and petted. Lonna whinnied and raised her wings in equal glee.
"I can't tell you how thankful I am," he said.
The Allspark laughed, "I know you are. I'll see you in the future, Max."
It did a spin in the air and in a burst of light, it disappeared, most likely back to its tower in Detroit. That left Max with the girls and he couldn't be prouder of their resilience against the demon, Zera. He gave Cat, Chris, and Cade a hug and nuzzled his nose against Kia's in comfort.
"Girls, please don't mention any of this to Alistor, especially the...uh...you know."
The triplets nodded.
"Nope."
"Never."
"We are silent as the grave."
Max looked at them suspiciously, "I get the feeling you're going to say something, aren't you?"
The most faux-innocent smiles he thinks he ever saw came from them and all he could do was sigh. There was no getting over it, and there was no living with them.
AN: I figured the Allspark had links to the Well and that there had to be some sort of guardians or something in it, kind of like angels but they are called demons for their abnormal power to possess whoever they wish. Zera is one dastardly fallen demon.