Chapter 15:

Everyone was now sitting in the lounge, Stoic had Rachel on his lap as the little girl was sitting happily with the demon and playing with his fingers.

"Okay, okay," Santana started.

"Don't start the pacing thing," Quinn said as Santana shot her an annoyed look.

"Rewind and start again, you're Mr Tibbs?"

"Yes," Stoic said.

"As in her bunny rabbit Mr Tibbs?"

"Yeah,"

"And you're a demon?"

"Yes,"

"Who got trapped in that doll,"

Stoic just looked at her.

"Right, okay, I'm just a little confused here, so, she said that you lied, what was the lie?" Santana asked.

"Mr Tibbs doesn't need to bind with you," Rachel said, "And if he did, he wouldn't take away your life, well, not really,"

"Not really?" Santana wondered.

"I mean, he will be annoying,"

"I'm not annoying," Stoic said as he paused Rachel's game and looked at her.

"Yes you are," Rachel giggled.

"I'm not,"

"Are,"

"Not,"

"Are,"

"Not,"

Rachel just laughed, "Mr Tibbs you're funny, but you're my annoying funny demon," she said as she cuddled into him, "My Mr Tibbs,"

Stoic melted at that as he held Rachel closer; making Quinn feel quite jealous of their interaction.

"Okay Mr Mushy, recap, you did what to me now?" Santana asked.

"I lied about taking your life away if we bonded, it was a test," Stoic said.

"For what?" Santana asked in annoyance.

"What do you think?"

"You were seeing where her heart was, you wanted to know if she was willing to make a sacrifice to help save people," Maribel said as she unconsciously touched her missing arm.

"You do realise the flaw in that? She could have just done it to save her mother," Judy said.

"Actually I asked him after everything had sort of calmed down," Santana said with a shrug.

"And I'd know if someone was insincere, I've been alive long enough," Stoic said as the mothers sighed but agreed with that.

"Okay, right, so tell us, how exactly are you Mr Tibbs?" Santana asked as everyone looked curiously at him.

"When Rachel was born I was wondering through the hospital helping those I could, being a demon I can show myself if I wanted to so I normally pose as a doctor; anyway, when she was born I could feel her power, her presence, it was something I had not seen or felt in a long time and I could see things honing in on her; it was that moment that I made a choice to protect her at all costs, why? I do not truly know, call it instinct if you wish, but I could not, and would not, allow her to be harmed,"

Everyone was looking at him as Rachel looked up at him as he began to regale the tale of how he ended up as the bunny rabbit Mr Tibbs...

Flashback:

Cataracta was walking through the hospital on his usual daily routine. Most of the time he didn't have to do much, as a mostly water based demon he had the power of healing water and would use it to the best of his ability, unless of course it was a person's time to go; then he knew that he couldn't help no matter how much he wanted to.
Life was as boring as usual for him, although he supposed that this was his penance for falling and trying to destroy mankind along with the others.

The year was 1994 and it was now close to Christmas time; people were putting up decorations for a holiday that Cataracta himself found odd. If they truly followed Christ surely they'd know that his birth, and therefore the true Christmas time, should be around March or April, he could never remember which as times tended to shift, he favoured April; but that was only because when Easter would fall close to April 1st he'd have a fun time seeing the irony of having such a prestigious time coincide with a fools holiday.

As he walked down the corridors of the many rooms keeping an eye on those who were suffering around him, he felt a power draw him closer. He made himself disappear so that he could take his true form and stay hidden as he went closer to the power. Inside a room he saw two men and a woman talking.

"Can't I just hold her?" the woman begged.

"No, you know what the contract says," Hiram said, "I'm grateful to you, thankful, but you can't Shelby,"

"I didn't know how this would feel, please, just this once let me hold her, I didn't even get to hold her,"

"No," Hiram said.

Cataracta thought that to be unusually cruel of two seemingly nice men to do to a young mother, but then again humanity hasn't had a great history when it came to being humane so he just shrugged at that.

Shelby cried on her bed as she looked up at LeRoy, "Then please, I beg you, take this doll," she begged as she handed LeRoy a brown fur rabbit doll wearing a suit, "This was a gift from my mother and I meant to pass it on to my daughter, so please, please, please, let Rachel have it,"

LeRoy just nodded his head.

Cataracta shook his head as he headed off into the next room where he saw a baby crying. He stared curiously at it as he moved closer. This was the source of that energy, that power.

The child sensed his presence and stopped crying as he put his nose closer to her face. On instinct the baby touched his nose with a soft touch.

"So you are little Rachel," Cataracta said, "The one who's giving off this sense of great power,"

He paused as he heard some men talking harshly and entering the room.

"LeRoy you cannot consider letting her see Rachel," Hiram said as he entered the room.

"She is her mother," LeRoy said as he held the doll.

"And you can't give Rachel that, that thing,"

"I can and I will, I promised Shelby that at least,"

Hiram sighed as he looked at Rachel, "She stopped crying, I wonder what made her stop?"

"I don't know, but that's good right?" LeRoy answered.

"Yeah,"

As the two men looked at their daughter and LeRoy put the bunny into the cot next to her; Cataracta made a decision, something about this child was different, something about her demanded that he protect her at all cost; even at his own life, so he jumped into the bunny and had it be his host.

Her own guardian fallen angel slash demon, he supposed.

As the child grew before his very eyes, Cataracta made sure he was there to protect her from the demons and spirits that wished to harm her. He could hear them in the ether talking about her; about how her power could be theirs and one of the voices stood out from the rest.

His brother's voice. His brother was the first to follow Lucifer in the fall, and he was also the oldest and the strongest. That sent shivers down his spine, if his brother could get a hold of a power like Rachel's, there's no telling what kind of damage he'd do to the physical world.

So he watched, he waited, he battled the lower beings when he had to. But he knew that they were there mainly to test the strength of the guardian of the girl for their master. But he didn't care. Sure at times he'd creep out the Berry men because the bangs and thumps could be heard all around the house, but the satisfaction he got was being able to watch the child sleep peacefully with a care in the world. Or laugh quietly at her fathers face when they looked scared and perplexed at things that fell over (mainly because he accidentally crashed into it - his tail sometimes had a mind of its' own in his true form) but Rachel wasn't phased at all by most of the sounds.

Rachel was about three years old the first time she consciously talked to him. He was walking around her house unseen and happened to walk passed her bedroom.

"Hello," the little girl had said making him pause, "I see you,"

"Hi," Cataracta had said as he walked in to her room.

"Who are you?"

"Um, I'm, um,"

"You came with my bunny,"

"I did, how'd you know?"

"I don't know,"

"Huh?"

"You came with Mr Tibbs,"

"Yes, I did,"

"Are you Mr Tibbs when he's human?"

"Uh, sure, I live in the bunny because he's my house, yes, that, he's my house,"

"Oooo, okay, so you're Mr Tibbs?"

"Yes,"

"Do you want to play with me Mr Tibbs?"

"Yes, what are we playing?"

"Tea House,"

"Ah,"

The little girl gave him a cup of tea and he pretended to drink it.

"Is it good?" she asked.

"Yes, hmmmm, yummy," he said.

And since then he would play with her when she felt all alone and her fathers were downstairs working.

And this carried on for the next three years. It was the first time he had actually been happy in the presence of a human being who wasn't terrified of him.

However, as life goes on, things sometimes get harder and as Rachel got older, the more the supernatural began to follow her.
Almost every night at about three a.m., Cataracta would be fighting them away from her, because he knew that they were trying to pave a way for his brother to get closer. The noises that were created didn't go unnoticed. Hiram and LeRoy began to consult psychics on how to stop the danger. Eventually it started to get very bad as the spirits began entering and lingering around the house causing a ruckus.

There were shadow people, one of them wore a black bridal dress, her eyes black as night and every where she went she had black thin veil of smoke that would follow her. Rachel was scared of her, but not as much as she was scared of the demon with the claws that looked like the creature called The Rake. Or as Cataracta knew him, his older brother the Hikage Karite - a shadow reaper - it was a position that made his brother proud and happy; to be a demon of such power and strength and Cataracta often was left wondering if perhaps this was why his brother truly rebelled was because he couldn't stand the goodness that was ask of the heavenly beings.

Sometimes he'd fight his own brother, and many times he got wounded.

One day he got careless, while he was recovering he was playing with Rachel again, the girl had just turned six and her powers had recently been bound by four women. Not that Cataracta paid attention to them, all he cared about was keeping Rachel safe from danger so he didn't mind that her powers were being bound; for now. He was laughing at her and he finally heard someone gasp behind him.

"Who the hell are you? How'd you get here?" Hiram asked in shock and angrily as he tried to rush towards Rachel and grab her.

"I'm a friend," Cataracta said.

"He's Mr Tibbs, Daddy, and he's really nice, he helped me against the monsters," Rachel said matter of factly as her Daddy managed to get her.

"How does he know about them?" Hiram demanded.

"He's a demon," Rachel shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"You stay the hell away from my daughter demon,"

"He's a good demon daddy,"

"I will never leave Rachel, there is too much evil in this house for me to leave," Cataracta said strongly.

Hiram didn't know what to do so he turned and went to find the next available person to help him. Had Cataracta been more cautious, had he not been distracted, fate would not have cast on him what it did.

An elderly woman who was an old psychic and saw all demons and spirits as bad, cast a spell so strong it repelled all the supernatural from the house and nearly him included. Instead Rachel somehow trapped him inside her bunny rabbit with a promise that she'd remember him and set him free. Too bad for him that the old woman made Rachel forget; and as time went by Cataracta could do nothing but watch and listen the lonely young girl grow up in a world she just didn't understand.

Many times he just wanted to be able to jump out of the bunny, but he was trapped. The only consolation he got was that for now his brother would be banned from the house...until Rachel's father Hiram decided he'd play with the Ouija board because Rachel's powers were getting too strong for the amulet she wore to contain, and she was starting to remember things.

Flashback end.

"I thought you said her powers were bound at four?" Santana asked.

"They were, and if you're going to ask me how she managed to trap me in the bunny at age six then I don't have an answer because I don't know," Stoic said.

"So you were trapped as the bunny because Rachel trapped you there? And the damn thing chasing her is your BROTHER?" Santana asked in shock.

"Yeah," Stoic said.

"How'd Rachel remember you? I mean, how?"

"I don't know, perhaps her sixteen year old self managed to undo the spell cast on herself when her powers came back, I truly don't know, I'm just happy that I can walk around again,"

"I made sure you could come back with the chant big me taught Santana," Rachel said as she looked at Stoic, "I'm glad she remembered because I missed you Mr Tibbs,"

"Me too,"

"So how come you and your brother don't look alike?" Santana asked.

"Not all siblings look the same or pursue the same thing do they?" Stoic asked rhetorically.

"True, so why couldn't you go into the other world and bring Rachel back?"

"I'm not as strong as I was and being trapped I couldn't keep myself trained and prepared, if I went into that sandbox world that my brother created, he'd have destroyed me and Rachel would have been harmed, he only kept her as a taunt to you guys and luckily for Rachel and bad for him, you are incredibly fast, minus the last part,"

"About that, how'd you make that fire to burn the spirit who tried to take my body?" Santana asked, "You're a water demon aren't you?"

"Well, water demon is my usual element but I do have power with all five," Stoic said with a shrug.

"Five?"

"Metal, air, water, earth, and fire; although metal is debatable depending on your belief system, but yeah, I'm mostly water based,"

"So..."

"The fire is hard for me to make because I am water based, but it can be done when and if necessary, the only reason I use it is because it's the only way to sanctify a body and get rid of a spirit that doesn't belong there,"

"A-ha,"

"So you're like Godzilla with the atomic breath? Like, you can use it sometimes but not all the time and it takes a while for your body to charge?" Brittany asked.

"Uh, we'll go with something like that," Stoic said, "Though perhaps you can view it more as holy water that burns all that is evil,"

"You getting any of this?" Santana asked Quinn in a whisper as the blonde shook her head.

"Nope, not at all," Quinn said.

"Mr Tibbs," Rachel started.

"Yes," Stoic said.

"What's your brother's name?"

"Oh right, shit, I forgot about that," Santana said as Maribel whacked her over the head for swearing, "Ow,"

"His true name, as Tina found out, is Tenebris, in Latin it means darkness, and that's what he is, darkness," Stoic answered.

"How do we stop him?" Quinn asked.

"Rachel," Stoic answered again.

"What? No, we're not sending a child into a fight against a full grown demon,"

"We may not have a choice, Rachel is the only one powerful enough to face him,"

"But you're the demon, you're supposed to be strong enough,"

"Well I'm not,"

"You're just afraid you'll die,"

"That's not true,"

"It is, how can you send her to battle? She's a child, you're just, you're just, a COWARD," Quinn yelled angrily as Stoic roared angrily as he placed Rachel on the ground and changed to his true form and glared angrily at Quinn, his face not far from hers, "I'm not afraid of you, to protect Rachel I'd do anything,"

"You know nothing of love and sacrifice, you'd just sacrifice those around you for your own gain, I have heard Rachel cry far too many times because of YOU," Stoic growled angrily.

"Mr Tibbs no, don't hurt Quinn, that's bad, stop Mr Tibbs," Rachel said as she walked up to him, "MR TIBBS STOP IT,"

The demon turned to look at her, the bones that was his armour clinking together as he shifted.

"Mr Tibbs please don't be mad," Rachel said as she looked at him with her doe eyes.

The demon sighed as he stopped looking at Quinn and moved a bit back so he could draw Rachel in his arms...legs.

"None of you have ever loved Rachel like I have," Stoic said as he put his front legs around Rachel, trapping the little girl under his chin.

"Oh Mr Tibbs don't be mad and jealous," Rachel said as she scratched underneath his chin, "You shouldn't wear your armour all the time, you should let your fur run free and let people see your face,"

"No," Stoic said as he rested his head on hers.

"Mr Tibbs, your head is too fat, get off,"

"No,"

"Mr Tibbs,"

"Okay, okay, okay,"

"Mr Tibbs, you have to help Mike," Rachel said as she stood up and looked at the demon seriously, "Please, he's going to teach me to do the pop and lock,"

Stoic stood up and looked at the women, "I don't suppose any of you happen to own a copy of the Book of the Dead would you?" he asked them.

"Yes," Jenny said as she gave it to him, "Can you help him?"

"Thank you, surprising and yes I can try," Stoic said as he changed back to human form and was now just in his pajama pants and nothing else.

"Pajama party, yay," Rachel said, "After we help Mike,"

As the crew were recounting what happened to Mike, Stoic was thumbing through the pages of the book to find the incantation he needed.

"Here we go," Stoic said, "This spell will bring a part of him back, but at a price,"

"Abuela did say that," Santana said, "What is the price?"

"He will only be half human, and to survive he will need to drink blood,"

"Why?"

"Blood is a part of the life force, in order to gain what life he can he must consume blood, luckily for him there are such things as blood suppliers and blood banks, however, in order to even live the semblance he must work in the darkness with whoever brings him back,"

"What does that mean?" Quinn asked.

"Mike is dead, and he's supposed to be, to bring him back will defy the natural order of life and death," Stoic said.

"But he was killed unfairly because of this, surly God understands,"

"Since when is any death fair?"

"When bad people get it," Santana suggested.

"I'm not opening that can of worms," Stoic said, "Look, main point is he will rarely get to be out in the sunlight because he'll burn faster, he must drink blood in order to survive, he must sacrifice being human in order to even be alive; he must fight against the evil in this world, there are many streams and not all of us who wish to fight for the good can be there at once, he will never be able to have a real life, not really,"

"So he'll be like that last vampire girl from that movie right?" Brittany asked, "Like he'll get a sword and stuff to fight with,"

"Something like that,"

"Then we leave that option for him," Maribel said, "We should go, his body is still locked in my basement,"

Stoic nodded his head as everyone got began heading off to Maribel and Santana's house.

-page break-

When there, Stoic took in a deep breath as he entered the basement with the others.

Rachel was made to stay in the living room with Brittany, Quinn, and Santana; and no amount of pouting would change the demon's mind about it.

"Are you okay?" Maribel asked.

"Yeah, I just, I have an odd feeling I know who I'm going to deal with," Stoic said.

"Oh?"

"You'll see,"

As the four entered the room, the mothers just behind him, Stoic sighed.

"Well, well, well, dear son, how nice it is of you to join me," Demon Mike said.

"Hello father, I'm here to kill you," Stoic said as the door behind him slammed shut.

AN: Okay, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, sorry it took a bit, I got busy and I kept re-editing bits because I didn't like how it went.
I hope you liked Stoic/Cataracta's back story.
Next chapter will be about getting Mike back and see if I can squeeze in some baby Rachel with Quinn time; because I know a few people have requested it. Lol. Until next time team, 'Stay Frosty'.