•Section 13•
Shendu sat in the pitch black darkness of the room, his red eyes flashing for a moment before they went dark, the color fading from them but not returning as his astral form left what he could call his physical form, floating out into the room, letting out a satisfied hiss as he did so.
It wasn't the true freedom he had been craving for the past nine hundred plus years, but it was a start at the very least.
The demon floated out through the vault door, heading down the hallway and entering into the main room, which was bare of life, minus himself and what looked like someone at the far end of the room.
Curiosity rose in the demon's mind as it floated across the room, closer to whoever was there, but once he was close enough, he recognized it to be Alex, and he seemed to be talking to someone.
"..Yea i'm ok, Ma, i've just been pretty busy with the University and all."
Shendu took notice of the man's mannerism's, how he rubbed his arm with his hand, the look on his face that showed mild annoyance but at the same time a sense of relief, likely from speaking to this "Ma".
The demon figured that this person was someone important to the man, as he tuned back into their conversation.
"..How's dad and the others? I know Sarah's just graduated high school a couple days ago, and i'm sorry that i couldn't make it..-"
Even though he was listening closely, Shendu couldn't make out what the person was saying, but the sorcerer could now make a good guess to say that this person was likely the mortal's mother, the one who brought him into this world.
"..i know ma, but i still feel bad about not being there for them, ya know?" The man said as he leaned against the nearby concrete wall, a silent yawn coming from him.
"I know, they understand that i'm busy and all, but.."
The man let out a sigh of exasperation, apparently from what Shendu could tell was being cut off mid sentence.
"Ma, i know, i just..yea, i love you too."
The demon took another note of how Alex's demeanor changed, his posture going from stiff to relaxed, almost slouching against the wall, and the expression changing to one of what seemed like contentment.
"I'll be around for thanksgiving, ma, don't worry..ok, i'll talk to you again soon, night.."
The dragon said nothing, not that they could hear him anyhow, as the mortal put what he likely used to speak to his birther, remembering said mortal calling it a 'mobile phone', into his pocket and stepped over to the elevator, pressing the call button and stood, waiting for it.
After a minute or two, it arrived and Shendu saw alex step into it, and slid through the doors as they were closing.
The demon floated off to the side, keeping about a foot of distance between himself and Alex, as the man pressed the up button on the elevator panel and after a few moments, they started to move in that direction with a groaning lurch upwards.
It was quiet, given the fact that the mortal had no clue that Shendu was there, and the fact that even if he did speak, Alex wouldn't be able to hear him.
After a few minutes, the elevator came to a lurching stop, and the man exited out of the phone booth, and into the alleyway, the demon following behind him.
•San Francisco•
The night air, even in his astral form, felt warm to him, with a hint of saltiness to it, which filled the demon with a sense of nostalgia, reminding him of the days long past that he spent ruling over his empire of ancient china, before he was deposed, that is.
Still, he would soon see himself return to power soon enough, as long as those mortal's kept bringing him his talisman's.
Turning his attention away from his thoughts, he managed to catch a glimpse of the mortal entering into the shop he had called home for the past almost two months, but instead of following him, the demon floated up into the night sky, heading deeper into the city.
'Things..they certainly have changed since my time..'
Shendu was taken aback by all that he saw as he floated through the city streets, the bright lights reminding him of the laterns that hung during new years festivities, the demon fighting a bitter taste in his mouth at the fact that it was him who started that tradition in the first place.
If for nothing more than to keep his subjects in line, and to make sure none of them dared to cross him, though given he had been usurped anyhow, it was another bitter taste that he was quick to swallow.
Though, he couldn't help but be almost impressed at what mortals have accomplished over the past nine hundred years, even if they didn't have magic like he himself once had.
Still, this new time..this new world..even with the things alex had explained and read to him thus far, it was still very overwhelming.
Glancing up at the night sky, he was somewhat calmed by the fact that it was still the same even after these nine hundred long years.
"It's so odd that out of everything, it is the stars in the sky that calm me.."
Taking one last look at the sky, Shendu twisted his astral body around and began to float back towards section 13, knowing he would have more chances to observe this world and the mortals that inhabited it.
Besides, as much as he wished to, he couldn't stay out all night, lest the mortals he was 'allied' with get suspicious.
The demon soon saw the familiar yellow bricked and red roofed building, a warm feeling rising up in his astral body, which he quickly dismissed as nothing, and yet he stopped in front of the shop, and just floated in place.
The mortals that called this place home were all likely asleep, and as his thoughts slowly combined into an idea, a smirk began to form on his face.
Shendu phased into the shop through its front door, the crescent moon's light pouring in through the glass front windows, illuminating the dark space within, and allowing the demon to navigate it easier.
He lamented not having the power of heat vision, as it meant he would not have to use the light of the moon to see where he was going, but it would be his again, eventually, as they all would.
Shendu floated his way through the room, taking note of the artifacts this 'Uncle' kept here, noting they were well kept, if a bit mismanaged.
He floated up to the second floor, seeing a row of doors ahead of him, all of them painted the same red color as the tiled roof of the building, deciding to chance it, he phased into a door at random, appearing on the other side of it.
His red eyes rested on the old man, remembering everyone called him Uncle, though for what reason the demon had no clue.
Shendu floated towards the sleeping Uncle, though as he got only a few inches away a barrier of good magic formed around them and it pushed the demon away, which caused him to yell in pain.
'Damned old fool put up a shield of good magic on himself..clever indeed.'
He phased back out into the hallway, going to the next door down, phasing through it as he had before.
The demon's eye's scanned the room, noting the occupant that was snoring in the bed that sat against the wall, recognizing him as Jackie, the one who helped release him from that tomb, only to put him into another, one made of metal.
Though, he did have to be at least a tiny bit thankful for the fact that he did free him from that accursed tomb, allowing Shendu the possibility to exact his revenge against his future subjects.
He decided to try what he had with the old man, however, before he could get near him he recoiled, the same painful zap the felt not moments before hitting him again.
'It appears that the old fool has placed the same spell onto him..and likely onto the child as well.'
He went into his thoughts for a few moments, before another smirk crossed his face.
Maybe Uncle hadn't gotten to him yet.
Exiting the room, he went down the hall, ignoring the door just past the one he just phased through, and turned, phasing through the last door at the end of the hall.
Once inside, he scanned the room, his eye's glowing again as they rested on the one occupant, who was currently snoring lightly in their bed, and that's when Shendu knew where he was.
The demon's eyes rested on the man, his sleeping form laying rather lazily in the bed, his left arm hanging over the side of it, tips of his fingers barely touching the floor.
he noticed the peaceful smile that decorated the mortal's face, so they were at least in a sleep deep enough to dream, as well as it seemed he wasn't having a nightmare, which he could take more advantage of.
He took a breath before he dove into the man's head, phasing into his mind and entering into his dreams.
•In His Dream•
It was like he was in a storm in the middle of the ocean, tossing and turning the demon's astral form as though it was a piece of driftwood, but it soon dumped him onto solid, or at least it felt solid, ground.
Though, Shendu winced and shut his eyes, hissing as he was blinded by the very bright sunlight he suddenly found himself in.
'Gah..why the hell is it so damn bright?!'
The sorcerer slowly opened them, allowing them to adjust slowly, and revealing he was in the middle of a field of wheat, a breeze blowing by that made it sway but not break.
Rather than float through, he floated upwards, and once above them the demon realized that he seemed to be on a farm, seeing a rather old looking red painted barn behind a large home.
The two buildings were in front of what seemed like a forest, given the density of trees behind them, but it was an inconsequential thought for now, as Shendu floated towards the house.
He let his thoughts drift a little as he approached the home, letting himself into the house by phasing through the front door.
The interior wasn't anything to gawk at, simple in it's design with a couch that sat in front of two large windows, a television sat upon the wall in front of the couch, a table sitting in the middle between the two.
In the corner sat a fireplace, currently unlit, and shendu had to guess that it was set up in a way that when lit, it would radiate heat to the whole room.
Along the wall next to the fireplace, Shendu noticed that there were alot of picture frames, and all of them seemed to be of people at various ages and times, noting some of the photos looked much older than others, and some having little timestamps on them.
"Oh hey! I guess it's better for you to come now than when everyone's here, but since your here, want me to show you around?" The man asked.
The demon said nothing, but kept his eyes on the mortal in front of him, as well as kept his face neutral.
'He believes me to be a part of his dream..'
"..if you must, i hope this family of yours won't freak out when they see me." Shendu answered, which made the mortal smile softly, though inwardly, the demon was smirking widely.
Following him, they went outside back into the early afternoon sun, walking around the house and heading towards the barn he had seen earlier.
He watched the man pull open one of the wooden doors with ease, likely due to his semi-athletic build, before the demon floated over to them, following him inside and up a set of stairs, to another door, only smaller and seemingly made of a different kind of wood.
"Welcome to my humble abode." The man said as he opened the door, moving past it, Shendu phasing through Alex's stomach to enter before he moved.
Like the interior of the house, this room wasn't anything to gawk at, and from looking around the room, he could see a few bookshelves against one of the walls, filled with books of all kinds, and along another wall was a dresser with several odd things on top of it, none of which the demon recognized.
Against the wall to his left was another set of bookshelves, but they were empty, as well as a window that showed some kind of field a good distance away outside, shendu recognizing it as the field he found himself in when he first arrived.
"You do not live in that home?" The demon asked as the man sat down on the bed that sat against the back wall.
"No, i moved out when i graduated high school. My dad and grandpa made this loft for me to live in, since I couldn't afford an apartment at the time." He answered.
"When was this?" Shendu asked, coiling onto the human's bed like a snake, which, given what his astral form looked like, felt very fitting.
"Hmm..i think around..summer of '97." The man answered, having gone into thought for a moment or two.
The demon said nothing, instead choosing to let the mortal talk, besides, he had to play along with this.
"Not long after I took the placement test for university and moved to San Francisco, where I met Jackie, since he was my history & archeology professor." Alex said.
Shendu's eye's moved about the room, at least what he could see, till they rested upon something out of place.
It was a wooden picture frame, though the glass appeared to have been smashed some time ago, but it still held together with spider web like cracks running all through it.
The man took notice, standing up and going where the demon was looking, kneeling down and picking up the picture frame, and though Shendu couldn't see it, the man had an almost..regretful look on his face.
"..I thought i got rid of this years ago.."
The demon's eyebrow, if he had any, raised in curiosity. "What is important about that picture frame?"
He noticed the man's body tense up, his hand gripping the picture frame tighter than he had a moment ago, as if his mind was fighting itself, which the demon found slightly amusing.
The man then stood onto his feet, still holding the frame in his fingers, yet was careful about it as he walked back over to the bed, setting the picture frame on the small table sat beside the bed.
Uncoiling and laying himself across the mortal's legs, he could finally see what the frame contained, which was a picture of Alex with another man, though he looked much younger, and with a smile on his face.
The demon could tell something was off about the photo, other than the fact that the cracked glass made it hard to really see the exact details, but he couldn't put his claws onto what exactly it was.
"..it's of me and my..ex boyfriend." Alex said, though he said the last part of his sentence through clenched teeth, indicating to Shendu that he held some contempt towards them.
There was a silence between them that seemed to last for an eternity, in reality however it was only a few minutes, until the man decided to speak up.
"..you've got nothing to say to that?"
Shendu raised his head so he was looking up at the mortal, though their eyes did not meet.
"..What are you expecting me to say?" The demon answered.
Not that he really had a problem with it, as it was more common back in his time than really anyone would believe.
"I don't know..a witty remark, a smartass comment, something the real Shendu would say." Alex said.
The demon almost took that as an insult, but then again, the man had no idea he was the real shendu nor that he was speaking to him, so he brushed it off.
"What exactly happened?" Shendu asked, again, looking up at him as he had before.
Not that the demon really cared, but he could use this opportunity to learn something useful that he could use down the line if necessary.
"..i caught him cheating on me." Alex answered.
Once again, Shendu said nothing, but let his thoughts take over as he took note of the man's tone in his voice as he answered, much like his body language earlier.
'If i had caught any of my concubines doing such a thing..they would've been a pile of charred ash at my feet.'
'Though i must admit, i do respect him for having one, as they can be quite a handful, but..why does he feel so..angry, yet sad about it..? Unless..'
However, before their conversation could continue further, the room around them began to fade away, mist forming as it did so, which indicated Alex was waking up.
"Aww man, guess you won't be getting to meet my family after all.."
"There is always next time." Shendu said, which the man nodded to.
Of course, there would be a next time, as this was certainly an opportunity the demon would take full advantage of, but he had to leave before the man fully awoke, so, with what little magic he had in this form, he took momentary control of the mist, engulfing himself with it, which allowed him to sneak away unseen and back out into the real world.
Once Shendu was out of Alex's mind, noticing the sun only starting to rise through the small window next to the bed, giving him a final glance before he phased out of the roof of the shop, heading back into section 13 and into his body, making his red eye's glow once again.