"'Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They certainly were not ashamed, And they did not know how to blush; Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down,' Says the LORD." -Jeramiah 8:12

It'd been quite some time since he'd felt like this.

Kenny's chest dully thudded with pain, eyes burning and unable to look anyone in the face for more than a few seconds at a time. He didn't understand this, didn't know what his family was being put through this time around. The options were staggering, and Damien had once more left him with an ambiguous promise to make sure Kenny regretted having people so close to him to care about.

His eyes narrowed, looking down at the glass table in front of him and forcing himself to take a long breath. Damien didn't mention a damn thing regarding him. Didn't tell him to do anything but stay out of his allowances. That left Kenny with only two options to consider: Either Damien was working the stealthy long con, was going to find a way to take him by surprise with his plot and render him immobile before Kenny could so much as blink… Or he wasn't even a factor. Damien hadn't come after him, only Kyle. But that just laid more confusion out before him. Was it pure revenge against Kyle that was driving him? Was it a question of mere power? Kenny was no fool, knew that Kyle's tangled soul propelled him far beyond himself in means of strength. He'd had to live learning to control them over the years, Kenny just had to keep his damn protective nature under wraps, no side effects to be seen.

"There's gotta be something he's looking for," Selaphiel commented, brow just as furrowed as Kenny's, the group of archangels staring downwards in heavy thought. "Maybe he's trying to take back Kyle's power for himself."

"No," Raphael shook his head. "Then he wouldn't have taken Kat. He would've just stripped Kyle of his abilities and been done with it."

Kenny shuddered, "And he doesn't want Ky dead. He can say otherwise all he fuckin' wants, but we all know he isn't letting Kyle off the hook so damn easily. Besides, this way he has Kyle to do his dirty work, whatever the fuck it may be." He groaned, moving to hop up and sit on the table, listlessly looking at the dried, caked blood still streaking across his wings. "Can we get a demon up here?"

Uriel glanced over, eyes narrowing. "What on Earth would you want to do that for?"

"Well, none of us can get down there to spy," he reminded him with a scowl. "Can't send no angel down there before they're fuckin' sent to goddamn purgatory. If we can convince a demon to get on our side, though, then we could have a spy that Damien wouldn't have ripped to shreds if they played their cards right."

He rolled his eyes, "Kenneth, what the hell are you going to tell a demon to get them on our side?"

Jegudiel shrugged from the other side of the table, "Perhaps tell them an exception could be made to grant them access to Heaven upon their mission completion?"

Gabriel shook his head, "How many demons would want that? Not very many, I assure you. Besides, we couldn't get there to grab one regardless."

Kenny scratched up awkwardly through his hair. "Well… maybe Ky could send one up…"

"Kyle banished most of them," Michael reminded them all. "They can't go further than Peter's Gate. We couldn't grant them divine powers without them being able to cross into Paradise. I'm positive that any capable of such a mission would have been part of the army."

"Well ain't that just a fuckin' kick in the teeth rule?" Ken rolled his eyes with a long groan, dragging his hands down over his face. "All right, I need honest goddamn opinions here from all of you," he dropped his palms, looking at them all watching him intensively to proceed. "There's no fuckin' doubt that Ky isn't safe, we all know that well enough by now. Question is… how safe do you think my kid is?"

They all looked at each other, shifting uncomfortably and crossing their arms in thought. They couldn't say for sure, knew that Damien would pull any damn card to get what he wanted, even with the life of a toddler being the string to snap. Kenny looked around the group, waiting for one of them to garner the balls to speak the fuck up. He was just as uncertain as they seemed to be, but he had an excuse. This was his daughter. He had enough panic attacks every morning dropping her off at preschool, running through all the awful things that could happen; he was always dreading that phone call that he and Kyle needed to rush to the hospital because she tripped on the playground and was unconscious, or some spoiled little brat hit her and broke her nose. Parenthood was nothing but worst-case scenarios always at the forefront of one's mind, and this was those fears coming to fruition tenfold.

God cleared His throat at long last, the angels looking towards Him in relief for taking hold of a side. He glanced up at Kenny and heaved a sigh, "I think that, should Kyle follow whatever he has in mind, Damien won't touch her. If he does, he knows that Kyle will see the holes in his story and exploit them and rebel since his compliance would be meaningless if he hurt Katlyn. If he keeps his distance as promised, then Kyle will hold onto that vow and do as told. None of us are stupid," He gestured around the room, "we all know what this is. It's a pure and simple power play. The only thing that Damien is good at."

Kenny sneered lightly, "Dunno 'bout that. He's pretty fuckin' great at pissin' me off, too."

"We're going to get them out, Kenneth," God swore.

He took a deep breath and looked at Him with distraught blue eyes. "God, no offense, but last time ya told me that, I ended up with a demonic fiancé who still can't look 'imself in the mirror most days. I think you can understand my skepticism here."

"Like He said," Raphael interjected, "Damien will not do the same to Kat. That much we can be certain of."

Kenny frowned, "Yeah. And you were all pretty goddamn certain that she would be protected, too. Now I got two dead in-laws, a kidnapped daughter, and a maimed hostage of a husband. I'm pretty not certain about anything you guys are tellin' me. For all we know, he wants to make her a little demon, too."

Michael shook his head, "Even if she could survive that, she's too young to have stability over any amount of power. She'd be too dangerous for Damien to get a hold on."

He wagged his finger, eyes widening in an escalating madness that had the rest of them cringing uneasily. "Unless that's why Ky is there! To teach her how t' fuckin' get a hold on it like he learned! Then Damien's got Ky's power and hers, and that's two people that I wouldn't fuckin' hurt so he has the advantage again."

Kenny flinched as Jesus came up beside him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You're really reaching there, Kenny," he said softly.

"With all the shit he's put me and Ky through, you think anything is outta his scope?" he looked at the group, rapidly scratching over his arms in a nerve-wracked frenzy. "I mean, he's desperate enough to use her as a fuckin' shield."

"Exactly," God said firmly. "He's using her out of desperation. Because he knows that without her, Kyle could incapacitate him without a second thought and get you or another to finish him off. He's making a grab for power, and he's struggling to find it without resorting to another hostage situation."

Kenny frowned, "I'm sure there was an alternate plan of some fuckin' sort. Kat was probably just his stroke of luck. I'm sure he spent all that fuckin' time recovering tryin' to think of a way to get me n' Ky back."

Gabriel nodded in agreement, "Probably. All he seems to be able to function on is revenge. But he can't kill you, and Kyle's more than likely stronger than he is at this point, or at least equal. He'd have to do serious damage to one of you if he didn't have Kat."

Michael shrugged, scratching at his hair, "Probably keep you imprisoned and Kyle injured at all times to keep you both under wraps."

He scoffed, crossing his arms and pouting, "He couldn't keep me goddamn imprisoned."

Uriel cocked his brow, "If he kept hurting Kyle, he could. Unable to kill or not, he can still hurt both of you. It's the only way he remains a credible threat, and he knows it."

Kenny groaned, beating the heels of his palms against his forehead. "Why couldn't he just stay down there?" he whimpered. "Fuck, why didn't I fuckin' kill 'im when I had the chance?!"

God sighed quietly, paws plodding along the shining surface of the table and placing a comforting touch against his arm. "You thought you did," He reminded him. "We all thought you did. And there's only one reason Damien came back."

"He's out of his fucking mind," Raphael finished, shaking his head.

He nodded in agreement, "Exactly. He got a sip of power once and he thinks he can increase it into gallons if he plays his cards right. And it's unfortunate that Kyle is his pawn for the past and whatever he hopes to do here, but you know better than any of us that Kyle will be working the entire time to dismantle whatever he has in mind."

Kenny looked down at the floor, shaking his head. "No. I don't know. It's one thing when you're the one getting hurt or whatever. It's another when it's someone else on the line, ya know?" he winced. "I mean, fuckin' Christ I was a fucking disaster with everything Damien did to Ky, and everything I thought could happen. Ky's just as paranoid as I am that Kat's gonna… fall down steps o-or Val will accidentally step on her and break her damn foot or something. And he knows better than anyone else in the goddamn universe what Damien can do and how much he can ruin your life, so that's not gonna help him keep a steady head."

The celestial figures fell quiet, looking at one another and letting his words sink in. He had a point, far more of one than any of them were truly willing to admit. This put them right back to square one from five years ago, and placed Kyle on a new tier entirely to work his way through.

Michael took a deep breath, nodding slowly. "You have a point. And first thing's first, we need to find out exactly what Damien has in mind. We can figure out what to do from there, otherwise we're just treading water and can't come up with a plan to get Katlyn out of his sights."

"Exactly," Ken agreed. "Ky told me he can handle Damien, he just needs the potential ammo against him out of the way." He glanced down to God still holding his arm and twisted his lips. "God, he said Pip is with Kat. Can you talk to him at all?"

He nodded, "I can. His soul belongs up here after all."

"Good, can you get me an update on Kat, please?"

He nodded, paws coming together and clasping in concentration, dark, beady eyes scanning the glimmering silver floor. He let His body feel pulled as He tried focusing on Hell, travelling through the separate realms and ignoring the chaotic messes within each as He passed. His tail flickered, Kenny wincing as it bopped against his arm time and again, God taking no notice as He searched for a heavenly spirit meshed in the billions of hellacious souls bounding around the deepest plane. 'Ah,' He thought, catching the airy weight of Pip's purified soul in the jumble and honing in on it, eyes scrunching as He flew towards him. He landed on Pip looking beyond concerned and sitting with Valefor, a restlessly napping Kat on his paws.

'Pip,' He thought, the angel jolting up.

'…God?'

'How is the child?'

Pip gulped, looking back at the toddler and taking a shaking breath. 'Well, quite terrified. I don't know where to start explaining this all to her!'

'One moment,' He ordered, looking up at Kenny's waiting expression. "He wants to know where to start explaining any of this to her."

Kenny blinked, looking off blankly in front of him. Oh boy. He had no fuckin' idea. She was gonna know about Kyle's predicament sooner or later, maybe even his own. He needed Kyle to make this damn call, he was never the one who structured her damn lesson plans. He just read whatever book was instructed and helped her practice whatever numbers Kyle put in front of them while he made dinner. This was a tad more complicated than showing her how to add on her damn fingers. "Tell him… as it comes along," he decided, hoping Kyle would agree with his methodology. If not, he could teach her as he wanted if he got to see her. "She asks a shit ton of questions, he can answer them as they come up. No matter what they are," he said, nodding more to himself than God, trying to convince himself that he was making the right call.

God watched his confliction, nodding slowly and turning His attention back to a waiting Pip. 'Kenneth requests you teach her what she wants to know. Any questions she asks, you need to answer. Truthfully,' He added. 'No benefit will come from lying to her.'

Pip nodded, biting on his knuckle and watching Kat curling in her sleep, Val moving to rest his head close enough for her to grasp onto. 'Even about Kyle?'

God took a deep breath, glancing back at Kenny. "What of Kyle?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Do you want Pip to tell her what he is if her questions lead down that route? Or do you think that'd be better for him to explain to her?"

Kenny frowned, rubbing his temple. He had a feeling Kyle wasn't going to have much time to explain anything to her, if he got any time at all outside of Damien's plans. "Kyle needs to," he decided regardless. "Or at least… Kyle has to be the one to tell Pip it's okay for him to tell her. I-I can't make that call for him. He can tell her about me all he wants, but Ky has to be the one to okay stuff about him."

God nodded in agreement. Made sense; made a lot of sense. It was the one thing Kyle was steadfastly determined to keep his child from knowing, he had to be the one to figure out how to approach the inevitable. 'Leave that be. Let Kyle make that decision. Everything else is open-aired, just keep her calm and safe. And keep an eye out for breeches in their imprisonment,' he added. 'If you can find a place to get her where one of the men can get her out of harm's way, that would make this ordeal much simpler.'

Pip winced, but nodded, 'I-I'll do my best. Though, with how tightly he has Kyle locked into this mess, I can't say such a place would even exist, Sir.'

'It's the effort that counts here, Philip,' He affirmed. 'Your job is merely to keep her from breaking. She's young, she can withstand a good deal, but she needs help figuring her way through this. Do you understand?'

'Yes,' he promised. 'Please, tell Kenny I'll do everything I can for her. And will keep him updated in some way.'

God let out a long sigh of relief, 'Just call for me when needed, and I'll pass on the message. Thank you, Philip.' He allowed Pip to say his farewell before looking back at Kenny's waiting expression and returning all focus back onto the congregation room. "He'll do what he can," He informed him. "And he'll keep you updated and looking for ways to get her out."

Kenny sighed, nodding in approval. "Best I can hope for right now I guess," he muttered, running a hand up through his hair. "Okay. I'm just gonna… go on the assumption that you guys are right, and that Kat's A-Okay if Ky… does what Damien wants," he worked out through a throatful of nervous bile. "Otherwise I'm gonna fuckin' have another full-scale freak out and I don't think any of us wanna deal with that, right?" he looked around, getting a resounding agreement from the rest of the group. He looked back at God's pitying expression and sighed. "You can get to Pip, can you get to Ky, too?"

God nodded, "What do you need to ask him?"

"I just… need to know what the hell he's going through," he frowned, eyes glazing over in distress. "Last time I kept… missing things happening and I can't let that happen again. If we see, maybe we can help him prevent something, ya know? He's gonna need all the damn help he can get right now."

"Absolutely," he concurred, letting himself settle back in Hell's plane, eyes narrowing as He tried to pick up Kyle's unique soul nestled among the others. It snapped up from the Eastern side, God sighing in relief and following it along the realm, landing on a very nervous looking Kyle being led along the charcoal ground, Damien hissing into his ear and full of nothing but malicious, spiteful smirks. 'Kyle,' God tried, blinking at no reaction. 'Kyle, it's God. Answer me, Damien won't hear you.'

Another bout of silence came and went, Kyle not seeming to register his communication in the slightest as he was forcefully led forward.

"He can't hear me," God said blankly.

Jesus looked down at Him and cocked his head. "What are you talking about? His soul belongs up here, he should be able to."

"Not if Damien is blocking it," He murmured in thought. "He wants to keep me out, leave Kyle to his own devices."

Kenny stared at him in shock, "How the fuck is he blocking you?!"

He shrugged, a rare expression of frustration crossing over his gray face. "With as many spells as he knows, I can't say I'm shocked he came across something so simple as a mental block."

"Can you show me what's happening?!" he demanded, standing up off the table and feeling his heart pounding. Damien was doing this for a reason, he wanted to keep God, Kenny, or any other heavenly force from influencing Kyle's decisions. Just leave it up to him going on blind faith that Kat was still safe, that everything still rested on him cooperating. God straightened, closing his eyes with a long, steady breath, keeping focus on Kyle's location and flicking a paw upwards. The group watched that sickeningly familiar portal splash before them, the stark red of Hell disturbingly contrasted against their holy domain. They all moved to get a better view and watch with clenched hearts and fists as they observed a still-bleeding Kyle being pushed further and further into a barren field.

"What is he doing?" Raphael asked in a worried murmur.

Kenny's jaw shook, a dry gulp rushing down his throat at the anger, fear, and confusion spelled on his husband's exhausted face. Kyle didn't seem to know either, he was being led blindfolded to the next step of his personal destruction without a clue of what was waiting for him.

Kyle stumbled in dizziness, Damien ripping him back upright and tutting his tongue. "Keep on moving, little one."

Kyle sneered, half-heartedly bashing back against him, just too fucking dizzy to keep up his rebellion. "It's your fuckin' fault," he rasped, yelping at a pointed kick to the back of his leg sending him crumpling forward in a curled heap. He gasped, eyes scrunching at a clawed hand finding its way around his neck, lifting his torso off the ground and tilting his head up.

Damien shook him, "Look at me," he demanded. Pained green eyes creaked back open, Kenny's heart lurching at the anger that Kyle had to keep locked into expression alone. Damien grinned slyly, stroking back a lock of bangs and Kyle jerking from the familiar touch before being forced back into place. "I'd suggest you move when I say you move, otherwise you hold the fuck still and let me touch what I want," he hissed, grabbing a fistful of his bangs and ripping him forward, Kyle folding his lips in to conceal a cry. "Now. Are you gonna get up and walk? Or am I taking you there piece by piece?"

Kyle's face twitched, Kenny knowing that look of pure fury better than anyone. He wanted to scream, wanted to attack. His heart fell with Kyle instead giving a simple mutter, verbal admittance of being backed straight into a corner: "I'll walk."

"Good boy," Damien cooed, grinning madly at the hate flooding his eyes as he brought him back onto his feet and going straight back to leading him down the way.

Michael shook his head, "Disgusting."

"That's putting it mildly," Uriel murmured. "He's already wearing him down."

"Again, mild," Kenny said shakily, putting a hand over his mouth and trying to control himself as Kyle continued to be taken off and away to an unknown destination. He let his eyes slip closed for a moment, hearing nothing but spatters of Damien's cruel words and Kyle's labored breathing and pained whines. 'Just keep strong, Ky,' he prayed, tears dotting his lashes. 'We'll figure this out…' He glanced back up, body tensing in ferocity at Damien leaning so close to his ear, Kyle looking beyond uncomfortable and nervous of what was to come. A tremor roared down Kenny's spine, that expression one that still haunted his dreams, still lingered as a horrific truth of a time long passed. But here it was again, just as dreadful as he remembered it, feeling just as fucking helpless as he was before. A devious chuckle echoed from the portal, both Kenny and Kyle shutting their eyes and forcing themselves to breathe, praying for the other; one to come to his rescue, the other to tell him how to rescue him.

Kenny shook his head, sniffling at another glance at his compromised husband. No matter what was coming, one truth rang perfectly clear in the silence surrounding him: They couldn't figure this out soon enough.