You know that noise alligators make? That creaky hissing thing? That's how I feel right now.
I'm putting another better author's note at the end of this chapter. I actually do have something to say.
WARNING for the usual violence expected in Darksiders /mention of blood that sort of thing.
"Are you done?" War asks, watching you fold up the rest of your clothes. After confirming Death has yet to respond to your latest correspondence (what a jerk) you decided that a quick sponge bath was in order and then scrubbed your clothes as clean as you could.
"Arguably." You press your lips together and swing the backpack on. "I can't believe Death is going to make me wait until we're in the Cathedral to answer." Grabbing your halberd, you motion for him to lead the way.
His eyes narrow, "You have him running errands."
"Only one, and it's for the betterment of humanity." You hmph, crossing your arms over your chest (which is significantly harder to do without stabbing yourself now. Not that you don't adore your halberd).
War stops midstep, nearly causing you to run into him. You raise an eyebrow, "War?"
"I cannot believe Strife has never used that before." He says slowly, appearing honestly perplexed.
Awww. You smile proudly. "What? To the betterment of the nephilim? Mine's got a little bit more bite, don't'cha think?"
War shakes his head and starts walking again. You grin and launch into another tale of your time with Strife. It seems appropriate and the silence bothers you. When you're quiet you can hear the Wicked's voices, the hoarse almost human noises they make, and the sound of the buildings crumbling.
It's easier to just blabber on than be reminded you're actually the last human. Yes, it's fun to think jokingly, but... Still.
You decide not to think about it, instead pointing the hotel out to War and reminding him, "That way. We've gotta get up there." You nod towards the highway. Or the remains of a highway, more appropriately.
War makes quick work of the few demons within while you head upstairs. It's easier to stay on pace with him when you've got a head start, as odd as that sounds. You entertain yourself by trying to open the chest off to the right of the staircase, although even hitting it as hard as you dare with your palm doesn't move the mechanism. You don't even try to punch it like War does knowing without a doubt that it would break your hand. Just punching a person could break your hand in fact.
Sighing, you move to the exit.
"Chest." You say as War clambers up the stairs (you don't think he could be quiet if he tried). He raises an eyebrow and you point it out. "I'm like eighty percent sure I bruised my hand and I have a new respect for you punching them open."
You swear you see his mouth twitch before he turns away. Nice, you think happily. You're busy mentally bragging to Strife when he returns to your side and scoops you up princess style. You have to admit you'd rather be on his back where he can't see your blush, but those wings will not allow it.
He sets you down as soon as he lands though, which you're thankful for. "There's another chest over there. It's a shard of something or another." Your voice is higher than usual. Ugh.
You purposely avoid looking at War and instead shoot down the first of the bats. Once it's on the ground it's very easy for you to take care of.
The screeching noise it makes you a shudder though. You allow War to take care of the other two after you shoot them down and dance around the Wicked until he can also kill that.
You wait on the edge for him get back from picking up the shard, mentally going over how to survive the twilight cathedral. It's going to be so damn hot, you moan. You wonder if you'd brush her lava off as easy as you did the Council's.
You're probably frowning as War plucks you off the ground.
It's must've been pretty obvious that you're anxious too, because War asks, "Something wrong?"
You press your lips together. "Nothing. It's just..." You're interrupted by a loud crash. Oh fuck. You scramble to look over War's shoulder, forcing him to grab the back of your knees to keep you in his grip. "Oh."
"What?" War sounds beyond irritated.
"Biggie is givin chase. I forgot about this one. I think it's called a claw demon or something equally unoriginal." You answer slowly. "It's picking up a car."
"Demons aren't the most clever." War says, stopping at the last large section of highway before the second big structure and setting you down. "Stay here and do not injure yourself further."
He spits the last word, making you flinch a bit. There's the War I know. You tighten your grip on your halberd pole, pressing the flat edge against the side of your face. He's so cute.
War slashes off one of the demons Freddy esque hands as you think this, making you skitter back to avoid bloodshed.
Oh god, I should not think that's cute.
You silently wish that Strife were here to shove you out of your affectionate haze while War finishes off the big guy.
You try very hard not to make a face as War picks you back up. "You're bloody." You whine when he sends you a confused glance.
He snorts, shaking his head.
"What?" You narrow your eyes.
"You've spent the last half a year with three of the Horseman and you complain of blood?" He asks. You think that's the longest sentence you've ever heard from him.
"In my defense I mostly trained with those ghouls Death can summon and no one else was actively murdering." You hum.
He makes a face, and you notice his canines are unusually pointy. Huh. Must be a nephilim thing. "They weren't fighting?"
"Not enough to draw blood." You answer slowly, remembering his siblings literally slashed his arm off. Oh. "Did... Do they usually get into fights?" The thought makes you extremely uncomfortable, although you can't pin point why. They're Horsemen for goodness sake, you should've expected this.
"Mostly Strife, and Death asserting his leadership." War shrugs.
"Hmph." You respond lightly, deciding you'll interrogate Strife on the subject when you're reunited. You should start making a list really. The first of which will probably be "throw my arms around him."
A couple of Wicked greet you within the last structure and War sets you down to take care of them. You stretch out while he does so, trying to reason that it won't take too long to kill Tiamat. Then you'll take a nice long nap.
You find yourself fantasizing of curling into the blanket that still smells like the Horsemen's realm and melting into that hazy not quite asleep but warm and content phase. A soft bed underneath you... comfy blankets hiding you from the outside...
You catch yourself before you can start thinking about your previous home (it just makes your chest ache), focusing in on following War through the building. Does he get homesick too? you wonder. He must miss his siblings, at the very least. "Hey, War?"
He glances over his shoulder curiously, and you figure that's as close to a response as you'll get.
You chicken out at the last second, instead inquiring, "What's your favorite color?"
You're less than surprised when he scowls and returns to searching for the beholder's key without answering.
"I can't pick a favorite, to be perfectly honest. Although I'm partial to (f/c)." You go on conversationally while trailing him up the last flight of stairs. "And silver, of course," Grabbing your halberd off your back, you prepare for a fight. It glitters in response.
"Speaking-" You shove the nearest demon back, flinching only a tiny bit when it falls through the gaping hole in the floor. "Of which..." You swear you can hear it hit the ground several stories below you, although that's probably just your imagination.
You hook the other (who by the looks of it, was trying to sneak up on War) by the neck and yank as hard as you can manage. Not pretty by any means, but the demon is definitely dead. "You deserve a name." You finish. The halberd hums beneath your palms, apparently agreeing with you.
"Most nephilim weapons have given names." War says, moving you out of the way so he can smash the chest open. You're almost too distracted by how carefully he shoved you to respond. Could be just because he knows you're injured, but hey.
"New partner, new name?" You venture.
The Horseman shrugs. You make a face when he inspects the beholder key, having forgot how creepy those damn things are. "Something wrong, advisor?"
You silently seethe in response to your 'title', answering, "No. Get ready though. You've got some sick maneuvers to pull off."
"What of you?" He stomps back towards the staircase, not waiting this time.
"I was sorta hoping I could hitch a ride with you, but I mean, Uriel might be persuaded to help me. She seems pretty cool aside from the whole 'put for your head' thing." You catch up with little effort, reaching of to grab his pauldron. You stop yourself at the last second, wondering when the hell this particular habit developed.
War makes one of his grunting noises and you roll your eyes. Typical.
You allow him silence just this one time, mutely retracing your steps through the building to the spooky beholder door. You're careful to remain in War's shadow when he plunges the key into it, and said Horseman seems awfully smug when you get splattered with blood anyway.
You pout irritably and brush past him. War follows silently, his eyes narrowed in concentration. Damn nephilim and their super-senses. "Angels." He quietly answers your silent question.
You strain to hear them, completely forgetting you're supposed to hide. Thankfully War has no problem with yanking you undercover when they fly by. Your eyes go wide when you get your first glimpse of an actual freaking angel.
"I know what I saw." One of them says.
"He's right." A new, very familiar voice says.
War is startlingly quick to throw you over his shoulder in place of ChaosEater and slink out of sight as the second angel greets, "Uriel."
"Where?" He hisses, almost too quiet for you.
"Down. They've got a mount." You're pleased to note he's actually asking for your guidance now. He would've figured it out anyway, but its the thought that counts.
War is off like a shot, only pausing to entrust you with ChaosEater before leaping across the gap. It's an awkward angle and jesus is it heavy but you manage to keep ahold of it without your free hand (the other is clutching onto War for dear life). Your own weapon is strapped across your back and relatively out of the way.
Neither of the angel's see it coming. War takes out the first with a single slash (just yank my fucking arm out of socket why don't you?) and throws the other off with a surprisingly graceful tackle slide. He snags the second's weapon too.
You can hardly keep up with his movements, and you're dizzy by the time he steadies the mount. War only worsens this by yanking you in front of him, one arm gripping the reigns and nearly wrapped around you and the other wielding the angel's steampunk spear thing. You tilt your head back to glare at him, but that overly confident smirk is enough to make you blush.
Ugh god. The more rational part of you groans.
His eyes are brighter than usual, the lovesick side responds cheerfully. How cute is that?
"Hellguard! To arms!" Uriel orders.
This is enough to bring you back to the present and groan, "Hellguard, chill the fuck out."
Uriel visibly pauses, her eyes flickering down to the apparently rather unintrusive human perched in front of War. "A human." She says, clearly taken aback. Her golden eyes seem to look deeper than your blood smudged face, and it makes you extremely uncomfortable.
You defensively press closer to War's chest. Don't look at me like that.
He uses her momentary slip in attention to get a head start, flying past the first few angels without any offense. You snicker, "Sneaky."
You feel War's rumbly reply, but you can't quite make out the words. You appreciate the fact he's answering anyway, mentally applauding yourself on your "befriending War" progress.
Maybe you can make this whole mess work.
Okay! I've already got most of the next chapter finished and I considered just lumping it in with this one but then it would be way too long and hey, who doesn't want an update?
So this won't go into effect until at least the chapter after the next, but I want to have a little contest! We (me and you/protag I suppose) mentioned naming the halberd and I decided it would be really cool for you guys to actually name it!
So if you've got a name, either leave it within a review or PM me! Once I get a few I'll put a poll up on my profile and you guys can vote.
And if you put it in a review I will love you twice as much but it won't effect the voting in anyway. I want to keep it fair and square, you know?
Thanks! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and your day/night/week!
Also URIEL.
I LOVE HER.