Here we go Mephiles is going to deal with an old enemy. Also caution this chapter contains a moderate amount of strong language
Disclamer: I own nothing in this
The Dark Among Us Episode 1 Jade Chapter 1
Fighting an Old Enemy
We come to Mephiles who reaches the top of the stairs and looks around, he looks to his right to see the lone room on that side, that was Qrow's room, and he could hear the banging coming from it
"…You're gonna know who the heck I am, you hear me? Hey! Look at me!" Qrow was heard in a drunken slurr"
"Just stop! Okay! You're drunk!" A woman's voice said "Let go!
Mephiles approaches and notices a matchbook on the floor, it still had a lot of matches in it, so he pockets it. He then hears constant beeping and sees the wall public phone off the hook. He goes and puts it back on the hook.
"Take a look! Take a good look! Know who I am now? Hey! Look at me!" Qrow is heard saying
"Get off of me!" The woman said and Qrow is heard screaming
Mephiles decided to get in before it gets worse, he knocks on the door, then knocks harder when everything went silent. He then opens the door and he sees two people in the room
The first was a rugged black hair man in a white shirt and jacket and black pants, this was Qrow Branwen, known as the Bad Luck Scythe and an old enemy of Mephiles' Qrow in Mephiles' mind had it rough, he was always a bit of a drunk but there on the violent level till after the exodus. He also wore a special wrist bracelet that cancelling his bad luck sembalence to avoid unnecessary damage to the mundies.
The other one was a brown skinned black hair in a revealing green outfit, Mephiles didn't know who she actually was but given the bruises she was on the brunt end of Qrows drunkiness. She also had a black ribbon around her neck
"Goddamn you!" Qrow said in a drunk anger and slaps the girl
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey! HEY!" Mephiles said runs in and slams Qrow into a wall to keep him from hurting the girl more
"You got something on your face" The woman said approaching them
"What the hell are you talking about you stupid…" Qrow said in anger and the girl spits blood on his face. This did little to calm Qrow down who said "I'll kill you. You demon" He said the last bit to Mephiles
"Okay, everyone just c…" Mephiles said but was cut off as Qrow headbutts him causing the hedgehog to stubble back to recover and freeing Qrow from his grip
"What are you going to do? Huh?" Qrow said to Mephiles in drunken anger "Get the hell out of the way, or do you want the scythe again."
Mephiles hated that scythe of Qrows, even before it's special enchantment on it, it did a lot of damage to him, causing him to fall into a volcano, luckily him being part fire god let him survive the burning tempertures of the lava for many weeks as he tried to get out
"Qrow, you're drunk alright? Please think this through." Mephiles told his old enemy "If you keep on like this, I will have no choice, but you put you down."
"Put ME down?" Qrow said in confusion "You have a lousy memory there Dark. That's not how it went last time."
"Well surprise, this isn't last time" Mephiles said in a glare, he hated how Qrow always brought it up as something to be proud of, especially since he was trying to change
With that Qrow attempts to move in with a swing to punch, luckily Mephiles timed his punch catches it and puts it around his back, again Qrow head butts him but Mephiles holds on. So long as that charm stays on, he can fight him close quarters
"You gonna calm down?" Mephiles asked squeezing his arm and hold it in place he sees three areas he can shove him to, the couch, sink and a table. Mephiles shoves Qrow to the couch and he falls down the back knocking it down. He approaches it and asks "Had enough?"
Qrow respons with kicking the couch down knocking Mephiles back. He gets up wiping his jaw and shoves the couch away saying "At least make this a challenge" He then goes and picks Mephiles up by his chest fur.
Mephiles struggles and grips Qrows head pushing it back a bit exposing his throat and punches it causing Qrow to gag a bit and let Mephiles go as he stumbles. He then grabs Qrow again she had to choose between the mattress-less bed or the bookshelf
Mephiles chose the bed and shoves him onto it. He then runs and holds Qrow down with a knee and proceeds to beat Qrow in the face giving him black eyes and a bruised nose. He picks him back up. He shoves him to the counter and holds him down. He picks him up an threatens to smash him in the head unless he calms down
"Go to hell!" Qrow said and grabs the toaster and slams it into Mephiles.
Mephiles recovers and ducks to avoid the thrown toaster and grabs Qrow again and throws him into the bookcase
"Back off jerk!" Jade said stepping away
Qrow grabs a nearby lamp and uses it as a weapon swinging it as Mephiles who ducks to avoid it and uses the opening to stamp on his leg, making Qrow fall and cry in pain. Mephiles grabs and slams him into the bookshelf and hurles him to the side
Qrow stumbles but decides now to bring his ace, his weapon Harbinger a sword that can turn into a a scythe. He swings it at Mephiles but he dodges it. Mephiles then grabs it and struggles to get it away from Qrow, he then slams it into Qrows stomach making him let go. Mephiles then smacks Qrow in the face with the blunt end of the blade knocking him down
Mephiles sighs and pants as he was a bit bruised as well, fictions could take a lot of abuse and recover quickly, but it still hurts, though he was a lot better then Qrow is. He tosses Harbinger aside and looks at the woman "You…. should probably get out of here."
"Listen, I'm not leaving till I get what's mine" The woman said
"Yer, nod geddig shid, bidch" Qrow said though the smack broke his jaw probably because it was hard to fully understand him "Aisle fuhged puhd yew in de ground….Yew hear me?" The woman was unafraid of him at this moment not like she was before.
"Hey! If you can't be nice Qrow, I'm gonna make you wait outside." Mephiles told him and goes to talk to the woman
"Fughed….shid…." Qrow said trying to fix his jaw "Yew bogue buy jaw, yew badturd"
"And yet you continue to talk" Mephiles said sighing though was happy to get one on his old nemesis.
"Fug gyoo" Qrow just said
Mephiles looks at the woman who was using a hand mirror to check her bruises. She said "Dammit"
"What the heck is going on? What happened?" Mephiles asked wanting to know what started this
"It was just a misunderstanding that turned into a cluster fire. Relax through, you saw all the best bits" The woman told him
"Der's moar where dad cameb frumb, gurlie" Qrow said to her
"Knock it off!" Mephiles told Qrow getting tired of his drunken insults and threats
The woman puts her mirror away and said "Look, this is just the start of a lousy night for me. I just need the money he owes me, then I can go."
"Are you alright?" Mephiles asked concerned
"I'm hunky dory, thanks for asking" The woman said to him
"Seriously, I need to know if you are okay" Mephiles asked again to be sure
She sighs and then said "He asked me if I recognized him…knew who he was…. I said I didn't. He started beating me. Then you showed up, started beating on him." She then looks to Qrow "That about cover it, Hon?"
"I'b Qrow Branwen, the Bad Luck Scythe, yoo hoaar" Qrow said with venom "…aye saved Soleanna frum this…monster…I sliced dis arm off…used my bab luck to cause the ground to…uh…break" He fully fixes his jaw and continued "AND SENT HIM FALLING INTO THE VOLCANO. That's who the hell I am you stupid whore!"
Mephiles was at his limit and he warned him, He looks to the girl and said "Would you excuse me a moment?"
"By all means" The woman said shrugging
The next thing to happen was Mephiles charging at Qrow and both go flying out the window. Mephiles hits a lamppost and lands on top of a car parked outside the building
A while later Mephiles comes too. He looks around and sits a bit up to look and see Qrow a distance away unconscious "Dammit…" He lies back down and notices Bowser standing looking at the car in shock "Hey Bowser."
"My…. car…" Bowser said in shock
"Yeah, gimme a sec" Mephiles said as he was still recovering
"Oh no, by all means" Bowser said sarcastically "Take your time, maybe make yourself comfortable. Can I get you anything? A pillow maybe"
"Sorry about the car…we ended up going out the window. Couldn't be avoided sadly" Mephiles told him
"I can't be mad at you…I called you…and you come to help….I can't be mad…But even when you help….things end up more messed up then they started." Bowser told him
Those words cut deep into Mephiles, he tried to do good, but the problem was he always had a bit of a temper and when he loses it, he winds up making situations worse, it didn't help that Qrow knew how to trigger him
Bowser looks and sees someone walk up but he knew who it was and said cross "Well, at least you ain't dead." Mephiles sits up to see and it is revealed to be Qrow who recovered from the fall
Qrow grabs Mephiles and pulls him off the car and slams him into a bus stop station and begins choking him. Mephiles grabs Qrow's neck with one had to push him off and then grabs his face to keep shocking "Quit messing around!" Qrow said and bites Mephiles thumb causing him to pull back
"I know you're in there" Qrow said to him as she chokes him harder "Come on out you Demonic god, I'll put you out of your misery once and for all. You stupid beast….you ignorant being…" He slams him into the station as he chokes and Mephiles eyes turn red where the white would be as he begins to lose control.
Qrow grins but then a slaming stab is heard and he stubles revealing the woman had stabbed Harbinger into Qrow's head and he falls onto the ground. The woman looks at Mephiles who pants to calm down and his eyes go back to normal
The man looks see Qrow crawling a bit before collapsing onto the ground. The woman goes and begins rumminging through his pockets
"Thanks." Mephiles said sighing a bit
"Don't mention it" The woman said smiling "I'm just getting what he owes me. You okay back there, I mean your eyes, I think I saw claws forming in your hands too….you're not really supposed to do that, are you?"
"Not if I can avoid it" Mephiles said sighing, he can transform but it mostly is linked to his emotional state, mainly anger but also if survivability it needed
The woman finds some coins in Qrow's pocket and sighs annoyed "Great" She tosses them away and stands up and proceeds to kick him
"The guy has a sword scythe in his brain, he won't be feeling that" Mephiles said
"It's more for me. He'll be fine" The woman said
"Aislle kill yew, Yew fuckin bidch" Qrow slurs a bit in groaning
"Let me help you with that" The woman said and stomps on Harbinger making it go a bit deeper
Mephiles however stops her, he may not fully like the guy, but he knows it is bad to kick a man while he's down "He's had enough"
"He's a Fiction… the jerk can take plenty!" The woman said. She then goes to get her purse
Mephiles decides to help his drunken enemy and grabs Harbinger and attempts to pull it out, otherwise Qrow won't probably heal like most Fictions can. He sees the woman walking away and pulls the sword out and discards it on the path and goes to catch her
The woman walks and puts a cigarette in her mouth and tries to light it but it won't work "Dammit…come on….just…"
Seeing her struggle Mephiles remembers the matchbook he picked up and said "Here" He hands it too her
"Thanks" The woman said smiling and uses it to light her cigarette.
"Who do you work for, really?" Mephiles asked her
"These lips are sealed…sorry" The woman said sighing she then smiles and motions to her ribbon and asked "Hey, do you like my ribbon?"
"Beautiful…" Mephiles said nodding through he found it weird she was changing the subject
"Thank you." The woman said nodding
"I feel like, we've met before…" Mephiles said trying to pin her, he knew she was likely a Fiction given what she said about Qrow could take plenty.
The woman nods "We probably have. We all sort of knew each other at one point or another…but things change I suppose."
"I suppose so" Mephiles said with a nod. He then looks back and sees that Qrow is now gone leaving a small pool of his blood and goes to it "God dammit…" He goes to try and catch up to him but the woman stops him
"Stop. We don't have to make any more of a thing out of it then it already it." The woman told him simply
"Are you sure?" Mephiles asked her
"Eh…. he's had enough" The woman said shrugging "For tonight at least, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a scythe to grind though." Mephiles gives her a look and said said "That was meant to be semi-intentional…. sorry." She then lets go of his arm
Mephiles thinks and asked, "How much was it he owed you?"
"A hundred…." She told him
Mephiles nods and asked "….and I'm guessing it'd be bad for you to show up empty handed?"
The woman smiles looking at him and said "I'll be fine"
Mephiles had some money but it wasn't a lot, despite being the sheriff he didn't get a big paycheck, mostly cause a lot was deducted to pay for any damages he caused. But he wanted to do one right thing tonight. "Let's see I've got…" He pulls out his money "Twenty, forty….seven-eight. 58. It's all I've got…this will help right? Take it" He hands her the money
"It's okay, I'll be fine. You've done enough already. Really" She said smiling at him
"Just…take the money, okay?" Mephiles asked her.
The woman nods and takes the money "You got me out of a really bad situation back there…thanks." She said to him
"I will still need a statement" Mephiles said to her
"I have to go drop off…what I have" She told him
"Well then meet me back at my office then" Mephiles said to her nodding
"It's a little late for an office visit, sheriff. I'll swing by your apartment" She said smiling
"Wait…how do you know where I…" Mephiles was about to ask
"You live in the smallest apartment in The Emeralds. Everyone knows that" She told him
It was true, other then constant mistrust and meager pay Mephiles slept in a small apartment, just another to pile on why this job was though. He sighs and said "Good to know."
"You should get cleaned up, you look terrible, and I usually would use harsher terms then that" The woman told him and caresses his cheek "Some of these, look pretty bad"
"Wow…now I want to know what you really think" Mephiles said to lighten the mood a bit
She smiles a bit and says "Hey…I need to tell you something"
"What is it?" Mephiles asked her
She gets close and whispers into his ear. "You not as bad as everyone says you are" She then kisses his cheek and begins walking away "I'll see you around…. Dark"
Mephiles watches her walk away, he still doesn't know who she is, but he can find that out later, he looks around he was alone in the street.
He pulls out another of his cigarettes and lights it, time for him to head home.
Well that was a tough fight, but Mephiles did alright, time to get some rest
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