Episode 12: The plan has begun.
Arc: "Devil's Deal"
Opening: Shiver – Gazette.

. . .

Asaph ran as fast as his legs allowed him to, until he tripped and fell face-first on the floor. Then, he heard laughs.

"Oh. My. Gosh!" Said a feminine voice from behind the trees around the forest, as Asaph tried to stand up; he winced at the pain at first, but then recomposed quickly, not wanting to look weak to whoever was there, though he knew who was there. "Seriously, that was the funniest thing ever." And then, in a blink, Danna was at his side, carrying a white and navy-blue backpack in her left arm, hanging in her forearm. Something about her smirk made Asaph very uncomfortable with the situation he was in.

Asaph narrowed his eyes at the orange-haired girl, silently threatening her. She either ignored his warning, or didn't notice it. It was probably the first one, since Danna was usually smarter than she seemed. Seeing as the girl didn't stop grinning, Asaph decided to tell her the truth:

"I am not amused." However, upon hearing this, Danna's grin widened.

"But I am. Now get up." She extended her right hand to him, since she was already holding her heavy backpack with the left forearm. The raven-haired boy in front of her hesitantly grabbed her hand as she helped him get up. After this, two seconds passed before the red-haired found out there was something wrong. "Dan?" Danna called, and then rolled her eyes when she was met with the absolute and calm silence. She didn't seem to worry about the fact that he could be in danger; he could take care of himself in that case. And it's not like she'd save him during any monster's attack either.

"Don't tell me you got lost again…" She murmured to herself, face-palming, until something tugged her shirt. Since she barely saw who and what was tugging her, Danna panicked completely and lost her cool rather quickly. "AH! A MONSTER IS KIDNAPPING ME! AS, DO SOMETHING! MOM, HELP ME!" Before Asaph could extend his hand to help her, the red-haired was pulled to the bushes behind her, and everything went silent. All Asaph heard was a blood-piercing scream peeking through his ears before something came out of the bushes from where Danna had been pulled before.

It was just Daniel – neither a monster nor any creature –, being followed by a very pissed off Danna – who was trying to hit his head with a baseball bat that had come from God knows where. This cat-and-rat chasing had been going on for a few seconds, until Danna gave up on chasing her twin and decided to aim the baseball bat at him instead; surprisingly, it worked. The baseball bat flew through the clearing until it hit Daniel in the back of the head, catching him off guard.

With the impact of the bat, Daniel fell forward and hit his head on a tree ahead of him. The younger twin fell to the floor, his head throbbing and everything around him spinning. Trying to find something else to lean against – other than the tree –, but failing to do so, he gave up and then simply sat on the floor, the world suddenly fading and being replaced with stars and galaxies instead. Did he just die or something?

"Augh, what was that for?" Daniel asked, clutching his head, trying to make everything stop spinning around. His attempts to soothe the pain were in vain, as his head kept throbbing with the bat's hit. His sister was mad, and he knew that.

"Don't scare me again, moron!" Danna shouted, still panting due to the fatigue – but mainly because she was trying to stabilize her breath, since she had just had a heart attack thinking a monster had tried to kidnap her. Thankfully, she found her brother and no monster. And she dared to call herself a prank master – what Daniel just did was simple yet amusingly incredible. "You almost gave me a heart attack. Also, I've always wanted to hit someone with a baseball bat. You were my first victim, but not the last." She smirked. Her words made absolutely no sense to Asaph and Daniel.

"You're insane." Her brother pointed out, narrowing his nut-brown eyes. He knew this insult would do nothing to his sister, not even bother her. In fact, he wasn't surprised when Danna gave her answer:

"Aw, thank you." She took it as a compliment. I could fix her problems with a baseball bat as well, Daniel thought – then he started to wonder where she had gotten that baseball bat. It didn't fit that backpack she was carrying, especially because it was full of food and water. And lots of things for pranks – as if there was someone to prank IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST, thought Daniel again.

"Guys, listen!" Asaph said annoyed, interrupting their conversation which was amusing, but worthless. If he didn't tell them what he wanted to say quickly, Asaph had a probable, though low, chance of forgetting what he was going to say. And he didn't want that, because it was very urgent; he needed their help. Dipper wouldn't accept it anyway, but he could rely on the twins. He knew it. "I called you here for one reason." Danna and Daniel turned to him and listened with interest. Something told the twins this was an important matter, due to the worried glint in Asaph's eyes. However, when the raven-haired boy let out the next phrase, something inside the siblings broke; their patience, apparently.

"It's about Bill's son." Daniel groaned when his friend said these four words. He knew this meant trouble, though his friend didn't seem to care. Asaph had always been a worrywart, but Daniel noticed he was barely interested in the consequences of his act – or even his ideas.

"Is that why you called us in the middle of the day?" He asked, throwing his hands in the air, showing how disappointed and frustrated he was (it's not like he had something else to do, though). "It's getting dark already." For everyone's surprise, Asaph knew this would be his partner's reaction. "Our mentors have already dismissed us because of that! You don't want to cause problems, do you?" Danna watched their argument with interest. Something told her to get some popcorn. She opened her backpack, got a pack of popcorn (somehow) and started to eat, watching everything with a smirk on her face. I wish I had brought some coke along. It's a shame that my backpack was already full when I had that idea, she thought a little disappointed inside, but bringing the popcorn was a good idea, though. Knew it would be useful, ha ha.

"This is important!" Asaph argued, stepping forward and to his friend. Daniel noticed a spark of determination in Asaph's eyes, something he had never seen since he knew the raven-haired boy. He had always been happy, or at least looked happy; Daniel knew that no one could be fully happy. He just knew it. "If it wasn't, then they wouldn't have dismissed us." Daniel sighed. He hated to admit it, but his colleague had a point. A very good one: they could've continued their classes normally if the four of them hadn't decided to talk about it. Apparently, Keehnesi and Beatrice wanted to prevent further problems with the subject. "I had a flashback. But it was different: it was about Bill and our mentors before my deal…"

Danna and Daniel exchanged confused glances before Asaph continued. "Bill said something about his son being killed in front of him. This is strange since mentor Keehnesi said that he supposedly 'escaped' from somewhere."

"That's weird… Bill has a dead son… but why do you think this is important?" Daniel asked. Asaph closed his eyes for a moment – as if thinking in an answer – before opening them and staring his friend in the eye.

A gush of wind blew behind Danna; she looked back – all she saw was a silhouette disappearing within the trees. She shuddered; the feeling of someone eavesdropping on them, or even watching every move of them, was disturbing and wrong in many ways. Needless to say, Danna pretended nothing had happened and turned to her friends, noticing she had let the popcorn fall from her hands. Sighing, she crouched down to get it. What do you fight for? Danna quickly stood up and spun on her heels so quickly that she almost got dizzy. She had heard someone (a woman) whisper behind her, but when she turned, all that was there were pine trees and birds.

Something wasn't right, and she knew it. Why do I suddenly feel like I'm being watched, or even followed? Danna asked herself as she tried to forget this feeling. Luckily, Asaph's next quote managed to distract her for a little bit.

"Pay attention to the details." The raven-haired boy narrowed his turquoise eyes. "If he escaped from somewhere, then he has never been dead to begin with. And Mentor Bill thinks he is dead, doesn't he?" Daniel nodded, while Danna raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Well, then maybe he was fooled to think his son was dead. I'm not really sure why, how and who would do it, though." The male twin found this concept rather interesting, but Asaph was forgetting one thing:

"Isn't Bill all-seeing and all-knowing?" He asked. "He would've known if his son was still alive, wouldn't he?" Asaph shook his head. For this, he had a clever explanation:

"Remember when Dipper's eyes turned yellow in his animal form?" Daniel and Danna nodded – she was still confused, but tried to follow. "Mentor Bill said he didn't know why, because he was all-seeing about our world, not the demon world. So maybe his son was 'killed' in the demon world without Bill knowing."

Danna raised her hand, asking permission to talk. She wanted to ask a hellish lot of questions since they had come here, but couldn't because of the feeling of her being watched by something. It couldn't be her mentors; whenever they watched her, they were always very discreet and would never give her any of these feelings. But whatever was watching her didn't bother being discreet at all, and was even whispering things to her.

Asaph nodded at her, allowing her to speak for once. And when the words came, the two boys face palmed:

"I'm confused."

"Are you even listening?" Daniel shot a harsh glare at his sister. "Well, after all, you space out a lot." Danna growled in anger and was about to reply when Asaph cut their little chat; gladly, he interrupted before they could start another fight. Whenever they started an argument, they would never stop until one of the twins admits he/she was wrong. And that only happened once, when Danna was forced to do it.

"Don't start arguing; just don't do it." He said through gritted teeth. "Alright, Danna, just listen carefully. I called you here because we need clues. According to what I've read in the book Myths and facts: The door to the unknown, this forest has been a haven to fallen angels before they were extinguished completely; according to what they know, these creatures were running away from angels and demons who wanted to kill them because they were considered too powerful and, therefore, a threat to any living thing." Asaph shook his head in disappointment. "Whenever they went, to heaven or hell, the fallen angels were treated as outcasts. This is why they used to hide their true identities, no matter the cost. Of course, they would be found anyway."

Danna raised her hand again. "Yes?" Asaph asked, sighing in defeat; he had a feeling that they'd stay there forever. And it wasn't just for experience.

"What are fallen angels?" She asked. Well, this one isn't nearly as bad as I thought, the boy thought before he tried to think of an answer. The book said absolutely nothing about fallen angels, indeed. That confused him a lot, since he was reading about a creature he barely knew about. However, the story was so captivating that Asaph couldn't stop reading it from the beginning to the end. Knowing this story was real and that the book had been written by a demon was something extraordinary and scary at the same time. Asaph didn't know they had this kind of book at home. Were those from his parents? Then, he remembers something important:

"The book had a page about it, but someone ripped it off… I think fallen angels are banished angels… Maybe they've committed some crime against God's laws… But I'm not that sure…" Asaph murmured, lost in thought. The concept of fallen angels was deep, and the name probably meant they were angels previously, but what did the 'fallen' mean? That was something new and he had to discover more about it, but not now. He had to focus on what really mattered: their new task.

"As, what do you intend to do by bringing us here?" Daniel's voice snapped the boy out of his thoughts. Asaph cleared his throat.

"Well, since this place has been – supposedly – a haven for fallen angels…" Whatever they are, Asaph thought bitterly. "…I thought we could find a clue about the whole incident with Bill's son right here." He finished, biting his lower lip. Maybe that was a dumb idea. Maybe that could be considered suicide. Maybe that was so stupid that not even the stupidest person in the world would accept it. But his friends were interested, and no matter how dangerous, suicidal or stupid that sounded, they accepted the task. The twins looked clearly interested, especially the girl.

"Really?" Danna said, a smile tugging the corner of her lips. "Great! Finally I'll be able to use my detective skills!" Daniel face palmed.

"What detective skills?" He deadpanned.

"Oi!" Danna protested, spinning on her heels and narrowing her eyes at the orange-haired preteen standing at her side. "I've watched 450 episodes of Case Closed and CSI! There's no way I can't solve a case after that!" She pointed out, smirking at him, as if she had said something really smart – which she hadn't. Daniel knew his sister's quirks, and watching mystery novels was one of them. Something he really hated was when she pretended she was some kind of great detective and then tried to solve a mystery that didn't exist at all. That makes him furious.

"Ok, ok." Daniel muttered, waving his hand at her dismissively.

"Guys, please…" Asaph murmured in defeat. They're like wild lions; hard to tame, he thought.

He kept explaining: "According to my book, when going somewhere to get food and fresh water, the fallen angels used to leave their own feathers behind so they wouldn't get lost the way back, and they usually left them in pairs, a black one and a white one, since their feathers were black-and-white-colored. They wouldn't misunderstand them for a dove or crow's feather considering none of them would put two feathers together like this. And these feathers are what we are looking for." He explained. He didn't know if that was 100% true, since it was a demon who wrote it, and they aren't very trustworthy – though Asaph had to give it a shot. They didn't have anything better to do, anyway.

"But…" Daniel started. "If they left a trail of feathers behind, wouldn't this make it easier for the angels and demons to find them?" Asaph smiled.

"No. This is because the feathers had a special liquid covering them. Only fallen angels could see them; for demons and angels, these feathers were invisible. However, since we are half-demons, AKA half-humans, in theory we can see them."

A few seconds later, Asaph's smile turned into a serious face. "But watch out; if you happen to find one, never touch the vane. And I'm not kidding: they are covered in Adehnias' venom. One touch and you're dead." Daniel shuddered at the memories, while his sister was jumping up and down in excitement. She had already forgotten the time when she almost died because of that flower – because she went to pick one. Luckily the bird decided to show her what that flower was capable of. Well, luckily for them, not for the bird.

"That's really clever!" Danna grinned. "Maybe one day I'll ask the fallen angels myself to borrow some of this liquid that makes things invisible. I have a few pranks in mind."

"You can't and you won't." Asaph shook his head in sadness. "They're all dead. And you are standing under their blood." Danna let out a sound between a gasp and a gulp, but refused to look down; or move. The thought of standing under somebody's blood makes a person's heart skip a beat. Danna's heart skipped ten beats. Something about that made her think of a massacre, and she hated wars. She liked fights, of course, but when they were minor. She didn't like reading about the world's first big war, and nor the second big war. She liked kid fights, like the fights she had with her brother, for stupid things. That was ridiculous.

"Wait a sec!" Daniel interrupted. "Bill's son and fallen angels; what do they have to do with each other?" He asked. Asaph closed his eyes, not wanting to see his friends' reactions. Something told him they wouldn't be good.

"I'm not really sure about this, but… according to my book…" Asaph didn't want to say that, but he forced himself to. "…It was him who killed all the fallen angels."

A/N: HERE I AM! BACK WITH ANOTHER CHAPTER!

I tried very hard to do bigger chapters but then I'd have to give up the details of the story. And we don't want that, do we? Good. Well, I had my first portuguese review from Anahhzp, and she pointed out one good thing: "Author, will there be more scenes of Mabel interacting with Dipper?" Yes, there will, actually! I'm not really sure when, as the story is very slow, but it'll be soon, don't worry about it, guys! As I said to her/him, Mabel will be a big part of the story.

Now, about this chapter, I don't know what to say, but I wanted to update as fast as I could, since I'm leaking creativity and ideas, and, gosh, my floor is a mess. Poor mom. Now, back with the questions, YAY!

(1) Why would Bill's son SUPPOSEDLY kill the fallen angels?

(2) Why does Danna feel like she's being followed? And by who?

(3) Why does Danna has a baseball bat? Where did it come from?

Also, I'm thinking that every character should have its own theme song, so why not? Ok, let's start slowly: what should Bill's theme song be? Maybe I'll think of something later! I don't know if you noticed, but 30% of the story is A/N! XD Thanks for reading, bye!

Awakened Niwana, off.