I DO NOT own Darksiders or Secret by OneRepublic. That's it. No arguments. No discussion. No cake…

War

War waited by the entrance of Briar's cave. He had already been inside to look for the she demon, and retrieve his cloak, but found that she was gone. So he waited. Again. Lucky for him, it had stopped raining.

Night fell and still no sign of the demon. That is, until she literally came falling out of the sky. She crashed to the ground and rolled to a stop only a few feet from the surprised Horseman. Lying face down in the grass as she was, War feared the worst until he heard a weak groan come from the fallen demon.

The Horseman rushed to Briar's side and flipped her over onto her back. The first thing he noticed was the blood. She was covered in it, along with multiple wounds.

She slowly opened her eyes to look at War, "I knew I shouldn't have flown…"

He carefully picked her up and carried her inside the cave, "What happened to you?"

"I got into a few little fights. Don't worry, most of this blood isn't mine. Put me down, I can walk."

War doubted this but set her on her feet anyway. As soon as the she demon stood, she fell. War caught her before she hit the ground for a second time and resumed carrying her.

"Hm, I guess I'm more tired than I thought…"

"Where did you go? You said I could find you here."

"I was here… but then I left. I went to Hell. Fought about six rounds in the arena. Kicked some ass. Took some names. You know, the usual."

War carried her deeper into the cave but seeing no bed on which to lay her on, he sat against a wall with her in his lap. He had to admit, he did like holding the smaller demon, especially when she wasn't fighting him.

"You could have set me on a pile of clothes." She yawned.

"You're covered in blood."

"And you're covered in armor. At least the blood comes off."

"My armor comes off."

"Yeah, I know." She said, remembering the morning she woke up beside him. "So, given the fact that you're here now, I assume you found the other War?"

"Yes, I did." He answered, still not quite understanding what she meant.

Briar snuggled closer to him, "Good, I missed him."

The Horseman took this moment to study the she demon. Her head was resting against his chest, eyes closed, and lips slightly parted. Despite being covered in blood, War still thought her beautiful. He also thought her asleep until she spoke.

"War, you never told me what you wanted for winning hide-n-seek." Her voice was quite, barely above a whisper.

Again, he didn't even have to think about it, "Stay."

"Here?"

"With me."

She gave him a small smile, all that she could manage in her three quarters asleep state.

War took it as an "I can do that".

Soon, Briar really was asleep and the Rider followed her not too long after, still holding his demon.

WAKE UP! It's morning! Rooster sounds!

War woke up the next morning to Briar trying to sneak out of his arms unsuccessfully.

"Hey War," she whispered, "are you awake?"

The Horseman kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep.

"Good, don't wake up for a few minutes."

The she demon tip-toed away and he cracked his eyes open to see what she was up to. She was at the other side of the cave, wiping, what she could of, the blood away and stripping off her clothes and throwing them into what seemed like a random pile while singing softly to herself.

"I need another story, Something to get off my chest, My life gets kinda boring, Need something that I can confess. 'Til all my sleeves are stained red, From all the truth that I've said, Come by it honestly I swear, Thought you saw me wink, no, I've been on the brink, so…"

The only things she had left on now were her undergarments and War did look away while she changed those.

"Tell me what you want to hear, Something that will light those ears, Sick of all the insincere, So I'm gonna give all my secrets away. This time don't need another perfect lie, Don't care if critics ever jump in line, I'm gonna give all my secrets away."

When he looked back, she was done and had also replaced the ribbons in her hair, going from gold to purple.

"My God, amazing how we got this far, It's like we're chasing all those stars, Who's driving shiny big black cars, And every day I see the news, All the problems that we could solve, And when a situation rises, Just write in into an album, Send it straight to gold, But I don't really like my flow, no, so…"

She grabbed a shirt here, a pair of shorts there, identical set of gauntlets somewhere.

"Tell me what you want to hear, Something that will light those ears, Sick of all the insincere, So I'm gonna give all my secrets away. This time, don't need another perfect lie, Don't care if critics ever jump in line, I'm gonna give all my secrets away."

The Horseman never thought about it before, but he had never seen the she demon without something covering her hands. Now he knew why.

"Oh, got no reason, got no shame, Got no family I can blame, Just don't let me disappear, I'ma tell you everything."

Her hands were so covered in scars that it amazed the Horseman that they still worked. Deep gashes were slashed into her palms while thin lines crisscrossed and ran down her fingers.

"What happened to your hands?" he asked, forgetting he was supposed to be asleep.

Briar looked back at him as she slipped the only pieces of armor she wore on, "So you were awake… Thought so."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Heh, let's just say that whoever said that a little torture never hurt anybody was obviously more than wrong."

War got up and went to her. He took off her gauntlets back off so that he could study the scars. They were made with a practiced hand used to doing such things. "You were tortured?"

"You could say that, yeah."

"Why?"

"Brother and I have a knack for getting into trouble. When we do, someone has to protect him."

"Tell me what happened."

"It's a long and boring story…"

"We have time."

"…Fine, I'll tell you everything. But if you start to regret this, don't blame it on me."

Yay! Flashback/backstory time! Also first-person POV!

I lived in this realm with my family, some of us demons have those ya know. Families, not realms. Though some demons have those too. It was just Mom, Dad, brother, and myself in our little hidden cabin in the woods. This was a safe place. No one ever found us here. No one ever would. Or… so we thought.

Brother and I were running through the woods. We had just been swimming in a lake near the house and were racing back. I remember it was I who challenged him. Then the Blood Prince himself showed up.

He knocked us out and took us back to the Black Throne. I'm not entirely sure what happened but apparently he threatened our parents to come work for him or he would kill us… or worse. Every day they stalled, he would torture us. Or have one of his lackeys do it for him.

I couldn't let them hurt my brother. He was always the weaker one, he wouldn't be able to take it. He almost never stopped crying since we were kidnapped, excuse me, demonnapped, and would do so even harder when one of the guards yelled at him to shut up. So I volunteered. They started with my hands. That's as far as they got though. Oddly it was a Shadowcaster doing the torturing. Pretty weird given the fact that they're blind as bats.

You see, not all of us demons are as bad as most would have you believe. Our parents were kind and caring souls who loved me and brother and would do anything to protect us. Even work for Samael. So they gave themselves up, were given his mark, and sent us home. What makes everything worse is that he didn't even need their powers, he just wanted them. I guess he was just going through a lazy phase.

*Sigh* I might as well keep going.

One day, Mom and Dad were lucky enough to escape. Stupidly caring, they came for brother and myself. We ran from our once safe home, determined to find one that even Samael couldn't find. Which is impossible. And even if we did, it wouldn't have mattered, he had complete control over our parents.

Anyway, as our luck would have it, angels found us as we were trying to run. The angels don't even know of this world, they found it completely by accident. Seeing Samael's mark on our parents, they killed them. No hesitation, no explanation, only confrontation. They left us alive, thanks to Nathaniel who arrived late to the party.

That also doesn't matter, brother swore revenge on Samael and the angels. Which is why he is currently working for the Council, not that it's doing much good.

And that's my story.

Aaaand we're back to third-person. Hope you enjoyed the flashback/backstory.

By the time Briar had finished, they had made it outside and were relaxing under a tree. Well, War was under the tree, the she demon was somewhere up in the branches.

"Your hands…" was the first thing the Horseman said.

She hung upside down from a lower branch to look at him, "Eh, they still work so they're fine. Besides, it could have been a lot worse. I heard they were going to do my feet next, then I'd have to wear shoes." she giggled, climbing back up.

"How can you jest about such a thing?"

"Because the past is in the past. Nothing we can do about it now."

"Your brother wants revenge, why don't you?"

"Is it simply not demon nature to be greedy and angel nature to kill demons?"

"And you accept this?"

"Sure, why no- ah…"

War heard a branch snap above him and looked up to see Briar falling. She landed perfectly in his outstretched arms and looked up at him with a smile, "My hero."

"You planned this." He accused her.

She pretended to study her nails through her gauntlets, "Did I also mention that demons are cunning?"

"No, no you did not."

The she demon wrapped her arms around War's neck, flipping his hood back as she did so, "Well we are. Most of us anyway."

That's when he appeared, "Heh heh heh, how touching."

They both looked at the newcomer in surprise.

"Aw shit." Briar said while War was thinking What is he doing here?