Days were short soon after that. Short and fun. Sasuke slept in late most days and stayed up late with Shax, keeping each other busy and far from bored. The time didn't last long as Sasuke got over the high of the Incubus and turned back towards his original goal: to get revenge on his dear brother.

Shax lay in bed, head propped up by his hand from his elbow on the bed. "Sounds intense, babe. Suits you to a T." He laid his tail across his torso as he watched Sasuke dress.

Sasuke pulled on his leather gloves, speaking maliciously. "I don't care if it sounds like me or not. All I care about is getting it done and laying my family to proper rest." He glared intensely into the mirror.

Shax smiled cooly at Sasuke. "Sure. I can help, you know." He was sure he'd be able to do anything he wanted to Sasuke if he helped him get this.

But Sasuke had already thought of that. "No. I don't need you for this. I already have a demon in mind, one much more powerful than you." He said snidely, smirking and watching Shax over his shoulder.

Raising a sarcastic eyebrow, Shax inquired, "And.. who is that?" His posture remained relaxed and confident.

Sasuke returned his gaze to the mirror, staring into his own eyes. "His name… is Dantanian." He clenched his hand into a fist to demonstrate the power it made him feel.

Shax's face lit up in comic enthusiasm. "Aww, Danny! I know him!" Shax sat up now, exaggerating his excitement.

The teenager turned abruptly to face Shax. He widened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows in a mixture of shock and confusion and looked at Shax. He then narrowed his eyes and said almost disgustedly, "...What does that mean?"

In response, the incubus shrugged playfully. "It means he hates me, but we totally go way back!" He gestured as if he was throwing something to imply 'way back'.

Sasuke's face turned back to one of shock and confusion, but this time, it centred on angry shock. "Stay out of it. It's none of your business, Shax." His tone was mostly stern and intimidating yet made slightly hard to take serious due to his accent causing 'Shax' to be pronounced as 'Shaksu'.

Shax's expression remained playful, yet now with an undertone of seriousness. "It is my business. I'm going to talk to him for you." He remained motionless for just an instant for effect.

Sasuke started. "No-!"

But Shax had already dissipated in a cloud of black smoke and vapor by the time the noise escaped Sasuke's lips.

"Gah..!" Sasuke groaned out frustratedly. He crossed his arms and thought about what to do- and the first thing he ruled out was calling Shax back. He knew Shax wouldn't come back even if he begged.

There are four planes of existence. Each one is known as Heaven, Earth, Hell, and Hell 2.0. Heaven, of course, is where God and his Angels reside, looking over the Earth. Earth belongs to the God-made plants, animals, and humans. Hell is where Satan and his obedient demons reside. These demons receive much more contact with Earth than those in Hell 2.0. Hell 2.0 exists in the same area as Earth, but on a spiritual level; this is where the Non-Goetic demons reside. When people see or 'feel' ghosts, they are actually seeing and 'feeling' demons. Normally, humans and Non-Goetic demons can't make contact; information about these demons is very rare and often only heard from Satan himself.

Shax found himself in the grey plane of Hell 2.0, where he himself belonged when he wasn't with Sasuke. Intent on actually doing what he told Sasuke he was going to do, he quickly tuned himself to dear Danny's presence, easily dematerialising and then materialsing exactly in front of the aforementioned demon, halting him in his tracks.

In this realm, Dantanian had no reason to look attractive or appealing, and so he did not. His skin was black and grey, cracked and wrinkled, his bones visible through his grotesquely nasty, blood-and-dirt caked skin. Shax didn't hesitate to address him, "Dantanian~"

An already present look of displeasure on Dantanian's face deepened into disgust. He scowled deeply and forced out a growl in response. Shax laughed and then promptly decided to get to the point.

"I need a favour."

"No," came a swift reply, one that Danny didn't even try to think about, along with a deepening scowl. Shax wasn't discouraged, so he kept on with his request, "My latest 'client' has this idea in his head that he's gonna commit murder." He shifted his weight onto his left foot, his tail swishing playfully, his tongue set happily in his cheek as he spoke to the other demon. "But he's got a problem, you know how humans are about the death of their own kind."

Dantanian's face hadn't moved from it's blatant hatred for the demon before him. He showed no reaction to the information he was being fed, as if he didn't care.

Not so surprisingly, he didn't.

"The trifling governance of the human's and your pathetic client arouse no interest in me. Leave."

Shax clicked his tongue. "No, no… I didn't really think it did. But you'll be interested to see just who my client is."

The hard features of Dantanian's aggressive scowl slimmed into suspicion. A universal truth that rang and would ring forever true across the realms of reality is that a demon's promise is never worthy of full trust, even amongst other demons. Danny's status was far superior to Shax's own- he knew that Shax had a trick up his sleeve to even think he had a chance to make this work. But the confidence the inferior demon had in approaching the alleged superior was concerning. Of what knowledge could this demon, this lowlife even by demonic standards, have come across that would make him this confident? Whatever it may be, Danny had no intention to allow Shax to keep it, to hold it over his head as some sort of method of power.

After reaching his conclusion, Dantanian raised his chin and eased his gaze. In return, Shax raised his own chin, along with his eyebrows, before lowering it again in an approving nod.

"Yeeeeaaahhh…." Bingo. "You're interested now, aren't you?"

"So long as this client of yours maintains my piqued interest. If I'm not pleased, the only thing he will receive from me is the same bestowal he intends to grant himself."

Shax considered that sentence to be extremely long-winded and hilariously cosmetic, but he didn't say anything about it. Better to let the pompous fool think he has the upper hand for now.

"Yeah. Come back to his place with me. When you see who it is, you'll regret you even doubted the offer."

On Sasuke's end, the wait wasn't very long. Technically speaking, his wait took just as long as it was for Shax and Dantanian to speak about the subject. Sasuke just had no idea what was going on and, since he thought about it obsessively over the span of time it took for the ordeal to take place, the time seemed thrice as long as it really was. He made himself take as long as possible in getting dressed to waste time, but of course, that quickly became useless. He tasked himself with the mundane activity of pacing around the house, checking the various clocks as he walked by them. Inefficiently, he readied the house for a ritual, as he had planned to do before Shax interjected himself into his affairs. For better or for worse, Sasuke trusted Shax to make his life easier. Sasuke believed that Shax was in love with him and planned to use that to his advantage. What could be a more convenient mode of power than a lovesick demon wrapped around one's finger?

Interrupting his thoughts was a cacophony of sounds denoting a tear between two realms; better known as the arrival of a demon. Sasuke became still, turning to look behind him slightly to find the source of the disturbance.

"Sasuke, come here for a second." Shax's voice resounded softly from Sasuke's bedroom.

Slow was the speed that Sasuke progressed back to his bedroom, soft footsteps barely audible against the floor. His heart was racing, his thoughts no longer words but only images of what could be waiting for him in there. He carefully pushed the door open (it was only slightly ajar) and stepped inside.

Nothing spectacular was inside, unless you counted the blond incubus as spectacular.

"Shax?" Sasuke was annoyed, angry even, at Shax for making him wait so long for, seemingly, nothing.

Unbeknownst to the fledgling, his thoughts were anything but his own. All of Sasuke's intentions, his innermost feelings, were plain to Shax like the colour of his skin. A small smirk crept up onto Shax's face, his tail flicking aggressively against the bed.

"Relax, baby. Close the blinds. There's a man in the mirror with a message for you."

Did he just make a reference to Michael Jackson? Whatever.

Sasuke obeyed, closing the blinds and otherwise ensuring darkness in the room. When the room was almost completely black, Sasuke reached onto the bed to reach Shax, but to no avail. His form was not on the bed nor could Sasuke feel his presence in the room. He must have left.

"Don't feel too lonely, boy, you're not alone."

Sasuke could see the breath leave his body as the ambience in the room drastically changed. The darkness in the room was pervaded by a sudden distortion in his sight, warping his room, briefly, into an unrecognisable coalescence of shades of black and grey. He almost believed it never happened, it was over so soon. The only thing remaining in the room was a thick feeling, a haze of darkness that was not the lack of light in the room. It was familiar. Comforting to the malevolent boy. The familiarity in the feeling allowed Sasuke to quickly regain his confidence. He turned to the mirror and saw clearly, as if the light were only sucked into the mirror instead of eliminated, the image of a demon standing in his bedroom, in place of his reflection.

Dantanian, presenting himself to a human, provided himself a much more sophisticated skin, one that superficially introduced himself as appearing decently amicable and even somewhat handsome; a drastic change from his previous form, though unknown to Sasuke. The previously loathsome demon was now pleasant on the eyes, appearing of a man of darker skin (indicative of an Asian rather than African descent), with dark hair and intense eyes.

"Shax must've made an arrangement with you."

"Yes."

"What's your offer?"

"What's yours?"

"What do you want?"

Dantanian growled angrily and Sasuke suddenly found himself faceplanted onto the floor, a sudden spike of pain flowing up into his skull from his nose. The pain was hot and quickly accompanied by a fluid equal in temperature. Though he could feel the blood dripping from his nostrils, he could not hear them as they pattered onto the ground; he realised he couldn't hear anything aside from the demon's voice, which now came excruciatingly loud and angry:

"Do not fool yourself, ignorant Adamspawn, you have no power here. Your whore of a companion is weak in his obligation to you. I, however, have brought myself to you at his whim in order to fulfill you. Do not forget that you are here to beg for my help."

Sasuke grit his teeth and pounded the floor with his fist, once. The all too familiar feeling of helplessness washed over him, almost choking him. For now, he swallowed the pain with his pride and, staying bent over on the floor, managed to choke out a pitiful, "Forgive me." and then, stronger this time, "What is your name?"

Dantanian lifted his chin, pleased. "Dantanian."

"Dantanian…" Sasuke began to rise, speaking as he did so. "Dantanian, I need the power to be able to kill a man. I need to be able to commit this murder in the fashion that I desire while remaining under the radar of the police."

"I know what you seek. I'll give you nothing for free."

"What do you want?"

"Make me an offer, Sasuke."

Hearing his name on the demon's tongue was appalling, but he ignored it for the sake of making the deal.

"The only unearthly thing I have is my soul. To be able to torture my brother as he deserves, I will gladly hand it over to you."

Stillness and silence followed. Sasuke waited, but soon turned his gaze upwards and at the demon.

"Sasuke Uchiha, for the damnation of your soul, I will ensure your quiet victory over your brother. Sign your name in blood on the mirror before you."

So Sasuke did with the blood from his nose. As he wrote the last curve in his name, the mirror suddenly lost it's reflection and four words rang deafeningly loud in Sasuke's mind:

It's written in blood.