Chapter 13: Cruelty and Arrogance Never Helped Anyone
Disclaimer/Warnings: Same as in the first chapter.
Once the bond had settled, showing up as a slow swirling strand of green linking the two of them with her second sight, Not-Loki clapped his hands and stood quickly.
"Now then my dear, we have much mischief to cause and eternity to do it." Cerberus looked at him askance, thinking that perhaps she liked the more serious version of him better. Realizing something she looked up at him in curiosity,
"Why is Loki himself in a small town dog shelter in southern Nebraska?" she asked. If possible his grin became even scarier,
"Doesn't matter where you are Cerberus!" He said, arms extending out as if to prove his point, "Everywhere there is someone who thinks that they're on the same level as God himself, and they just need a slight push down a few pegs!" She snorted slightly in disbelief,
"And who here needs knocked down a few pegs?" she asked, the words practically dripping with scorn. He stopped and turned around to face her, the people in the hall walking by them and taking no notice of the conversation,
"Hey Fido, you're the one who wanted to stay with me, not the other way around. Did all your years down under make you forget the concept of fun?" He snapped, eyes glittering with something dangerous. Rather than snap back the ugly reply that had risen up, she kept her mouth shut at the realization that he was partially right. She'd been a right bitch since she'd left Elizabeth and her family behind; she was still bitter over the fact that she couldn't be happy, even though she had chosen to leave. She was a creature of the supernatural though, she became one and accepted the role long ago. Supernatural creatures as a rule were supposed to consider themselves above humans, even though about half of them had been human once. It was a stupid rule, even though she had never quite fit in with the human race when she was one of them, what made supernatural beings any better? Sure they were stronger, faster, but the humans she had met had shown more compassion than any creature she had ever met, even her predecessor was not altogether kind, just weary. It was she who had decided to follow this—this whatever he was, around. That meant accepting the parts of him that weren't all that nice, and besides Tricksters weren't exactly nice but they did have a twisted sense of justice and morals that was a lot better than many of the other supernatural beings that she had met.
The rest of the walk was spent in silence as if the Trickster had sensed her contemplative mood and he had decided to let her be. They reached the door that lead to the kennels that she had been in previously, the area around it deserted now as most of the staff had left for the day. Pained yelps could faintly be heard through the door and as she let loose an angry growl the Trickster quickly silenced her. As he concentrated on what was happening on the other side of the door, she took the chance to look at his aura again. While they listened to the pained whines and muffled cursing that came from behind the door the aura swirled slightly in a pattern she had come to recognize as an instinctive compassion that some people or creatures just had. A swirling sky blue it seemed to bring the light of that something-else closer to the surface and the first association she had with it was that of Castiel's grace flaring around him when he had healed her in the depths of Hell. She turned off her second sight in surprise, an angel turned Trickster? It couldn't be that simple, there was more to this story and she was determined to sniff out what it was. He looked down at her for the first time since they had reached the door, he motioned to the door in a "see what I mean" sort of way. She gave him the dog version of a raised eyebrow,
"Not all of us have super Trickster-Angel powers ya know." She muttered,
He looked down at her sharply,
"Figured out that much already?" he asked, "Well then this shouldn't matter much," and grabbed a pencil of the nearby desk changing it into a dog collar though one that was nice enough to pass off as a slightly eccentric choker necklace in her human form. All blue silk with a silver tag on it, slightly larger than your average dog tag with wings delicately engraved across the front, he slipped it over her head. She looked down at it and was almost blinded as a white light shot out momentarily from the silver disk. Though she hadn't had a lot of experience with it, she recognized it for what it was, Grace. He had given her a piece of his grace, not a lot admittedly, but for any angel to give away a source of their power in such a way that was far more permanent than the healing Castiel had done for her….she didn't know what to say.
Perhaps it was better that she hadn't said anything though because when she looked up again she saw the usefulness of it immediately. When she concentrated on the yelps turned whines that now echoed out from the kennels she was able to see through the door, well at least partially, she could still technically see the door, but she could also see through it. No matter how useful this was, she knew she likely wouldn't be using it often as she could already feel a headache building behind her eyes that threatened to become a migraine. She was finally able to see the scene unfolding in the kennels. One of the workers, a younger teenager who was supposedly in charge of feeding the dogs judging by the dingy bucket sitting next to him full of brown round lumps that passed for dog food these days. He was currently making a hungry looking Jack Russell beg for its food, or was attempting to make it beg, the dog was stubborn and after a minute when it refused to do what he wanted, he aimed a vicious kick its way, the Jack Russell was nimble enough to dodge but the intent of the boy was clear. Memories of past kicks hitting their mark on top of already dark bruises had her growling and advancing as the Trickster-Angel opened the door. The boy looked up at the growl and he put on a fake smile,
"Oh hey Steve, didn't realize anyone else was still here, just finishing up giving the dogs their dinner."
Cerberus twitched, paws itching to dash forward and teach this insolent cruel child a lesson. The Trickster put a restraining hand between her shoulder blades the other holding a strawberry flavored lollipop he'd pulled out of thin air,
"Now now Cerb, he needs to be taught a lesson that's for sure but there's no need to go tearing his throat out." Loki looked the boy up and down before letting out a sadistic grin,
"There's no need to kill every person we teach a lesson, in fact sometimes it's far better to serve a longer lasting sort of Justice." With that the boy turned into a dog, and for a second Cerberus thought she was looking in a mirror. The long pointed ears sticking up out of the black dogs head and the pitch black long coat complete with scars hidden underneath was an exact image of herself except that this dog was male and was a human just a few short seconds ago. Loki looked down at her smugly,
"What do you think? All the information is changed in the records to show that it was a male brought in, plus he's bound from telling anyone about his true origins, he's cursed to live a life of the very animal which he despised and mistreated." Cerberus looked on as the Trickster forced the boy turned dog into a cell and closed the door. The once arrogant boys' eyes shining with terror but also spitting a righteous angry fire at the two of them. Cerberus supposed it was justice enough, the boy wasn't dead, and with the rumor of a Tricksters usual methods of serving justice, the child should count himself lucky. It looks like the Angel side of this Trickster sometimes decided to make an appearance. Though, if the boy had been any older she had no doubt that the outcome would have been different.
Once the boy was safely locked away with an updated information sheet attached to the clipboard hanging from his gate Loki turned to the bucket of dog food, he grabbed a handful of the stuff and held it out to her,
"What about you? Hungry?" he asked, eyes dancing with amusement. She growled at him playfully and knocked the food out of his hand, it scattered across the tiled flooring bouncing in all directions. She glanced down at the bucket of food and then having had an idea she lifted her head loftily and with an air of supposed arrogance asked,
"What a big bad Angel like you can't afford enough mojo to at least give these down on their luck dogs some decent food?!" she dared. He blinked at her before smirking and with a snap of his fingers all of the bowls in the room had a cut of prime steak in the middle of them. The dogs stared at it in momentary surprise but the room was soon filled with the sounds of happy dogs wolfing down good meat.
"Don't say I never did anything for the world." He boasted as they walked out of the kennels and then out of the door to the dog shelter. Cerberus felt a tugging sensation from the collar around her neck and wondered if maybe she shouldn't have asked more about what exactly it could do as she and she assumed Loki were whisked off to some other location.
AN:/ So I discovered that when I put the chapters into docx that fanfiction messes up my format such as the headers for each chapter, I'll try and work on fixing that in the next week or so over break. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks to The-BlackFireWolf for looking it over and helping me past some writers block.