Role Players Collection
Reclaimation
Alternate Reality
London
On Tour
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Shadow Mage
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Still Children
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The New Kingdom

31 August 2005
Written by Jak
Timeline: Between Missing Mile and Dances of Demons & Angels

London

He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness. The bed beside him empty save for the spare hotel pillow. He turned on his side, pulling the covers to his chin as that all to familiar voice came like a whispered hiss through the static of the radio on the bedside table.
How long ago since he'd had one of these sleepless nights? Laying awake, thinking of dark times past.
Sometime during the night, he found peace enough to sleep. But when he woke to the sound of the alarm blasting beside his ears, he felt more tired than he had the night before. Sluggishly he moved, sitting up in the bed.
Hands searched for the case that held within it his glasses. He knocked the clock to the floor, and by accident spilled a watered down glass of scotch on the white carpet. He bent down to pick up the clock. 8:13 in the morning. A yawn escaped him as he opened the blue glasses case. Long fingers pulled out silver frames. He hooked them around his ears and rose, wet carpet squishing between his toes.
He was standing at the dressing table when there came a soft knock at the door before it opened slowly. "Gomen, oniisan, but Phillipe says he needs you right away."
"Tell him I'm in the shower," he said, raking a hand through hair only recently colored black.
"I tried that already. He won't buy it. Hurry up and get dressed. I'll try to stall him a bit longer."
The door closed, taking the blue haired young man with it. He sat down on the small chair before the mirror, his pale face staring back at him. He felt as if he'd been punched in the gut, the contents of his stomach from the night before wanting to become flying projectiles landing in the porcelin god of the water closet just adjacent to the bedroom.
He held his forhead in his hand, his elbow resting on the table. Black tendrils framed his downturned face as he sighed, clenching his teeth against the pain. At last, he grit his teeth and rose, moving to the suitcase in a chair by the door.
After a few moments more, he was strapping on his boots and out the door, locking it behind him. The blue haired young man was in the hall, arguing with another man in his middle age. His voice had in it a thick French accent, his words laced with the tone of snobbishness that only the French were capable of.
"What's all the hubub, bub?" he said, forcing himself to smile with a cigarette caught between his lips. He lit it while waiting the reply.
It was the usual. He'd overslept. Set them behind scheduel by half a day. The costumes for the promotional hadn't arrived, and the manager was in a panic, his only option being to look to his biggest star for an answer.
Blue painted nails brushed back black locks, tucking them behind the right ear, a half inch spacer in the lobe and a cuff on the cartiledge. He blew a smoke ring in the air, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and stepped into the elevator. "Call me when you grow a pair," he mumbled, pressing the button for the ground floor with his elbow.
The manager, Phillipe, and the young man with blue hair stood watching him as he departed.
He lean back against the rail in the left corner, watching the numbers change on the digital floor counter above the buttons. After beginning a second cigarette, he began to feel better, only a little.
He sighed, a cloud of smoke rising from his lips. For a moment, he thought he saw two eyes in them, staring back like a willowy spectre. Idly, his thumb rubbed the back of the golden band on the ring finger of his left hand. He hadn't noticed what he was doing until the woman in the shaft with him commented on it.
"Yes," he replied to her question of was he married.
She gave him a knowing smile. Did she recognize him from the bilboard outside? From last month's covers of Vanity Fair and Smithsonian? Did it really matter? "She must be a lucky young woman," she said at last with a nod.
"Yeah..." he said softly, then added internally, "But I'll bet he don't see it that way."
He came out of the hotel to find the limozine waiting for him. His brother had probably called ahead. He waved the driver off before turning, starting down the sidewalk. He needed to think. The best way to do that was to loose himself in a crowd. Any crowd, going in any direction. He didn't care really.
After an hour, he felt the urge to stop. With half his last cigarette left, he stepped into a store. The temperature was nice, a few degrees lower than it was outside on the street. "Hello!" came a cheerful voice in the back. "Be right with you!"
He pushed up his glasses, taking a look around. He didn't even bother to look in the windows to see what the store sold before coming in. It was only now he noticed it sold crystal figurines.
He was looking at a unicorn made of rose quartz when the woman who ran the store rushed up to him. "Are you being served?"
"I'm fine, thank you," he said, gently picking up the figurine.
He turned it over and over in his hands, feeling the weight, the texture of the fine cut stone. There was a small crack in the base. He set it down and looked at another.
"Sir, there's no smoking in the store sir," the other woman, the one who had called out in greeting when he'd entered, said.
He glanced over his shoulder at her, and her eyes went wide. "Oh, I'm so sorry sir! I had no idea you were-"
"It's okay," he said monotonously, taking it out of his mouth and puting it out between his fingers. "Do you sell jewelry?" he asked suddenly.
The girl nodded as the older woman was tending another customer. "Right this way Mr. Pike," she said smiling, leading him to a seperate room. Necklaces dangled from the wall, rings on chains hung from the ceiling.
But it was not these free for all pieces that interrested him. His attention was transfixed on the glass case at the far end. He stood, his hands on the glass, looking down at the glittering diamonds. "That one," he said suddenly, pointing down at an elegant golden chain boasting a pendant of a ruby dragon.
"I am sorry sir, but that is not for sale. That is display only. If you like, we will be more than happy to order-"
"No. It's alright," he said, looking over the case once more before smiling. "What about that there, in the center."
"Ah. That is a popular one, but many cannot afford to keep it. It's been returned twelve times already."
"I don't care. I want it."
The girl nodded, taking her keys and opening the case. "Anything else?" she asked. He nodded, pointing to a set of crystal figurines. A pink unicorn and a blue chinese dragon. "Would it be possible to have all this gift wrapped?"
"Normally, no. But, for you Mr. Pike, anything."
He smiled. When he left the store, a bike messenger had been sent with his purchases to the hotel. He'd wanted to take them himself, but with a purchase that large, it was store policy to handle everything, for insurance reasons of course. He'd signed the waiver, and was on his way.
Phillipe called to tell him he'd figured out what to do. A limo was waiting for him at the end of the street, ready to take him to the shoot.
One of the photographers he'd met at the refreshment table had an intriguing pendant. He bought it from the guy for $300 cash... whatever that amounted to in pounds, he could have cared less.
The remainder of the day had been hectic. An interview and lunch with a representative from some gothic magazine. A conversation with a museum curator over the new exhibit to be shown in some place in western Europe. A second photo shoot for Fangoria magazine. And finally a ride-along-tour of London with the local fanclub.
He didn't get back to his room until late. When he finally hit the bed, it was twelve past one.
He now lay awake, his stomach knotted, staring up at the ceiling once more. What was it causing this agonizing pain in his abdomen? His appetite was lost completely before lunch, and he'd only picked at his salad to keep up the illusion that he was actually eating.
His limbs were heavy, his mind clear save for the few thoughts that never left him.
He found himself calling home on his cell around seven, the morning sun just beginning to peek in through the window. He was not caring about the roaming charges. The voice on the other end sounded almost as tired as he did. What time was it over there? Eight hours behind?
He mentally counted off the hours and minutes he guess would be correct. No, more than eight hours... much more. He'd forgotten he was calling to a place on the west coast, not the east. He gave up trying to figure out the time difference.
"Hello?" the voice asked a second time when he did not answer.
"Hey babe," he said, holding the phone to his ear, his elbow in the air. He stared up at the lightening ceiling with a smile. It was so good to hear that voice again.
"Oh, hey. How's everything?"
"Hell, as usual," he said, running a hand through his hair with a yawn. "What are you wearing?"
"What kind of a stupid question is that?"
"One to cheer me up," he said.
"What's wrong now?"
"I'm not feeling well... I can't fuckin sleep, and to top it off, this bed his hard as a rock."
"Yeah, glad you miss me too," the other mumbled.
"Sorry... I just got caught up in the-"
"When are you coming home?" the other asked suddenly.
He didn't answer for a long while, his biological clock chose that time to begin slipping in and out of consciousness. After a moment, he opened his eyes. "Lemme talk to the kid," he said.
The voice on the other end sighed, and he could hear him call out the child's name.
He talked with the child a while, then hung up, at last falling into slumber.
He woke later in the morning, having caught only a few hours sleep before rising to vomit in the water closet. He was on his knees, black hair with burgondy roots streaming down, brushing the toilet seat as firehouse red ran like a waterfall from his open lips.
At last, he wiped his mouth and lifted a shakey hand to the handle dangling from the ceiling on a chain. He yanked it down and collapsed on the floor, his back against the frosted orange glass of the shower door. He gasped for air, his bare chest soaked with sweat. He held his stomach, eyes clenched shut as he moved to lay on the soft deerskin rug spread across the cold marble tiles.
The violent sickness had been brought about by a dream. A simple, not unusual dream. He'd dreamt of that place, tucked back in the middle of nowhere, across the big pond of the Atlantic. He'd dreamed of his lover, curled up on the dirty matress beside him, their bodies fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. The space behind his eyes throbbed as the gruesome images forced their way back into his thoughts.
Misery, agony, fear, death. The man in his dream, the man he loved with all his dark heart, was all of these things. He stank of these things. The stench so powerful that it had turned him into a walking vomit machine. Now, that he was for a time free of the smell, his body set to work in self-purification. Purging itself of the vile fluids that it had taken in. Washing his very soul of the filth that clung to it masked as the harmless emotion of love.
The door opened, and he was again bent over the toilet, his face splattered by the soupy red broth that hit the water below.
"Oh god!" the young man shrieked, ripping a towel from the wall.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his head turning to look at him with weary, sleepless eyes that seemed to say "help me" unintentionally.
Again he was sitting with his arms enfolding his stomach, his back against the glass. The young man knelt beside him, wiping his face with the end of the towel. "Oniisan, I'm taking you to the hospital."
"No," he said, yanking the towel away. He wiped at his mouth, scrubbing until the red of his lips was like a stoplight in the street. "I'll be fine. It's just my ulcer," he said. The other looked doubtful. "I'll be alright. I just ate some spicy noodles before I went to sleep. That's all."
The look on the other's face expressed more than his words. He was clearly still worried, and his eyes said he'd rather take him to the hospital. "You've got a weak constitution. You should know better than to-"
"I know. Help me up. I need a shower," he said.
When he was on his feet, he opened the shower door and turned on the water, standing there and waiting for it to heat up. "Do you want me to call J-"
"No. He's got more important things to worry about." He turned his back to the young man, stripping out of his shorts and stepping into the scolding hot water. "Can you lay out some clothes? I'd like to get the contract mess sorted through before we leave."
"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"
He reached for the bottle of Herbal Essences, lavender scented, and lathered his hair. "I'm sure. Can you have room service send up a bowl of hot potato soup too? I'm feeling a bit hungry." It was a lie, of course. His appetite, he believed, would take much longer to return. But if he hadn't said anything, the other might become more suspicious.
When he'd cleaned up, stepping out of the water closet with a towel draped over his head and another wrapped around his middle, he found his manager sitting in the chair by the door with a tabloid in his hands. "You're doing it again," he said.
"Doing what?" he replied, towel drying his hair before reaching for the tight back shirt on the bed. A black and white picture of Buddy Holly was pulled down to cover his thin abdomen. He dropped the towel and slipped on a pair of shorts before pulling on his jeans.
"You're putting too much stress on yourself. You need to take a break. I can't afford to have you suddenly dissapear in the middle of another tour."
"I told you. That was a family emergency."
"I don't think your son's first school play qualifies as an emergency."
He sighed, their argument taking up the remainder of the hour before they were carted across the city in a limozine. He hated riding in those damned cars. Big and roomy, a refridgerator stocked with booze. A television and Playstation 2 hooked up behind the driver's seat.
He preferred the tight space of the black Diablo, or the rush of wind on his hog back home. Hell, even the rough ride in the back of the 1973 Ford truck with the mismatched doors and puke green hood.
The contract meeting did not take as long as he'd imagined. Sign on the dotted line. Initial here. Sign over your soul in blood here, here, and here at the bottom. He'd read every paper carefully, and even sat down at a typwriter and completely rewritten one himself before he'd even consider signing his life away for another 4 years.
He stopped just before boarding the plane back to America. He called home long enough to talk to his son, tell him he was going to be home the following day.
The entire flight, he sat alone. He'd purposely bought the seat beside him to ensure that no one had the opportunity to destroy his peaceful rest. He held in his hands the necklace and pendant he'd bought off the photographer. He stared down at the dragon, its black diamond eyes seeming to stare straight back at him, down into his soul. Like those two pools of nothingness that awaited his arrival home.
He remembered what the young man had said when he'd accepted the money. It was a family heirloom, supposedly. His grandfather had found it while vacationing in America one summer. He'd bought it from a woman selling roses at a stand by the side of the road. Supposedly, it was cursed, but the young man had said it was probably a hoax, since nothing bad had actually happened to anyone of his family who possessed it.
After leaving the shoot that day, he'd stopped by a jeweler to have it engraved on the back. He read the words now with a faint smile.
"To my moron," the young man with blue hair read aloud.
He quickly covered the pendant and held it to his chest. "Don't read over my shoulder."
"Sorry," he said. "I just wanted to know if you're hungry. The stewardess is gonna be coming by soon."
"Maybe just a small salad," he replied, picking up the black velvet box he'd bought for the gift. He opened it and placed the pendant and chain inside, his fingers tracing over the curved body of the dragon. This sent unpleasant chills down his spine, and he quickly snapped the box closed.
He spent the remainder of the flight drifting between sleep and wakefulness. Soon, he thought, he'd be sleeping in his own bed, with his own pillows. Curled up beside the biggest moron in the world.
He smiled, despite the rising pains in his gut that the thoughts brought back to him. Before landing, a single feeling gnawed at him. Chewing away at the back of his mind. So small, so tiny, that he didn't even notice.
It was only after he had gotten home that he came to know it for what it truly was. Something was going to happen, soon. Something terrible. Something to someone close to his heart. He stood on his front porch, taking in a deep breath as the taxi drove off into the night. He pasted on his best smile, and opened the door. A young boy leaped up into his arms with a laugh.
"Presents!" the boy shouted.
"Tomorrow," he replied. "I'm really tired right now." He set the boy back down on the carpet. He stood straight, his back popping. He looked up to see a man standing with his shoulder pressed against the wall at the hall entrance. His blue hair done in cornrows, his deep black eyes watching closely.
One thought crossed his mind in the few seconds before the man spoke. Somewhere, in his mind, he knew... he knew that feeling... the ripping of his guts and the throbbing behind his eyes... the coppery taste of his own blood as he spewed it forth into the porcelin god... the dream... the dream of misery, agony, fear, and finally death.
He knew now the cause of his pain. But he would not accept it. He convinced himself that he was wrong. He forced himself to ignore the feeling of his body being torn apart by hands he knew so well.
"You've changed your hair," he said.
"Yeah... well... I had a photo shoot to do for this one goth thing and it just seemed like a good idea." He tossed his coat over the back of the brown recliner with another fake smile.

~Fin~

31 January 2004
Revision 15 July 2005
Timeline: Takes place between Demons & Angels chapters 19 and 20 on an alternate timeline in which both Joe and Tempest are alive and Temmothy has adopted one of Joe's children.

Still Children: An Alexia & Astarte Story

"Astarte... they'll know."
"No one will ever know Lex..." he whispered as he pushed her gently to the bed. "Trust me. Dad's in Greece, Joe's with him...Mig's in L.A. with Sei... No one will be home until Sunday..."
"Star, stop it. I don't want to do this..." she said, trying to push him off her.
"C'mon Lex... don't be scared. I'll be gentle..." he whispered in her ear as he cupped her breast beneath her shirt, firm and young. His long digits squeezed her nipple as crimson tiers nipped at her ruby lips. "You said this is what you wanted for your bithday..."
The look in her eyes was so shocked, but mostly scared; fear of what could happen, of the trouble she'd be in if her parents found out...
He pressed his pelvis against hers, rubbing his bulge against her as a hand reached up to slide across his flat abdomen. He wasn't as built up as his father, but he was strong nevertheless, holding her like this on his father's very bed.
He kissed her deeply, exploring her mouth with his tongue until he was satisfied with every nook, every pocket as his hand left her breast to fondle her folds through her dampened jeans. She shuddered under him with joy as he pressed harder against her, his strokes moving faster with each passing second.
Her breaths came with soft pants of praise as she rocked her head from side to side, eyes only half lidded as she parted her legs further to press back against his hand.
He crawled up her thin body, his hand never leaving her wet crotch as he rocked against her. "You want more Lex?"
"Yes," she shuddered.
"You love me?" he asked, pushing harder.
"Yes," she panted in his ear.
"Will you beg?"
"Oh god yes! Yes!" she screamed.
"Beg me to crawl inside you..." he whispered close to her ear as he felt her spasm beneath him. She screamed next to his head in tongues so old she probably didn't know she knew them...
He pulled his hand back and held it to his face, sniffing a moment before lashing out his tongue. "Sweet. Sweeter than I thought..." he said to himself before pushing himself off her, reaching that same hand into his back pocket for his wallet.
She stared up at him, the fear in her eyes replaced by the need for his touch, the lust of his lips on her flesh. He slipped his hands into a hidden pocket and pulled out a small green wrapper, tearing it open with his teeth while using his free hand to unfasten his jeans.
Quickly she got the idea and started fumbling with the buttons of her blouse, then tugging at her capris.
He shimmied out of his clothes and kicked them off to the side, dropping his wallet and the wrapper in the floor seconds before rolling on the condom... he'd practiced this many times over the past month as he planned this night.
She watched him, and when he looked up and her eyes locked on his, he was upon her. His lips brushing every inch of her face, then her neck and shoulder as a hand slid down her side to her thigh, pushing it away and opening her virgin flower up to him.
"It's gonna hurt," she cried suddenly, tears coming down her face.
"Sh.... Lexi... calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. I love you..." he whispered to her softly as he pressed his pelvis against her, his hard penis in it's rubber wrapping sliding against her silky blonde hair.
She continued to cry, but didn't resist his touch, nor did she refuse his lips from her's. His hands kneeded the flesh of her breasts and thigh as he slipped himself past her nether lips as carefully as he could.
"I don't want to hurt you. I won't hurt you. I love you Lexi... if you say stop, I will..."
Slowly he pushed into her and her face contorted quickly from passion to pain as he broke past her heimen. It felt like he was tearing her from the inside and the pain shot instantly up her spine, escaping from her lips in a cry as she shook beneath him.
He stopped, frozen as he was while he waited, suddenly regretting conning his girlfriend into this position... but then her eyes opened, bright almost flourescent blues staring up into his lavender-blue swirls. Ruby lips parted as he bent his face down to brush her tears away with his tongue; the tears tasted salty sweet.
She brought up a hand and sqeezed his forearm with a sigh and the look in her eyes softened. He pulled out to his head and pushed back into her again.
Beneath her, a dark, thick stain on the black silk sheets of the california king slowly grew bigger as he slid her body farther up into the bed.
----
He set the dufflebag just inside the front door as Tem paid the cabby. Black eyes looked around the house he'd expected to find trashed with a weeks worth of dishes and potato chip bags.
A few minutes later the lanky red head came lumbering up the porch with his suitcase and guitar. Joe smiled almost warmly as he took the suitcase from him and set it next to his own bag.
"God, you think you crammed enough junk in there?" he asked, his fingers brushing lightly against his lover's briefly.
"No... I left my shampoo and conditioner at the hotel... remind me to buy some more la-"
Joe held up a hand to cut him off as he sniffed the air, a strange look crossing his face.
"What? Did someone leave the milk out?" Tem asked, shutting the door with his foot before setting his guitar case next to their luggage, starting for the kitchen. Coffee. He was so tired, but didn't want to head for bed yet... first he needed enough caffeene to give him a boost long enough to drive all the way to L.A. to pick up Miguel.
"No... it's not the milk..." he said, following him to the kitchen, watching as he started making the strongest coffee he'd ever seen.
"Okay... so.... what? Do you smell funk from someone's shoes. I mean, we haven't had a decent shower in two days. We've got to be smellin raunchy by now babe," he said, leaning against the counter as the Mr. Coffee went to work.
He shook his head. "No... we smell like someone gave us a flea dip in cologne."
"Then what the hell's got you so worked up all a sudden Joe?"
"Pussy."
"Oh god... I thought we were past this... I am 'not' getting that drunk for you ever again. Not even if you paid me like a hooker."
"You're an idiot... no." He sniffed the air again. "Definately pussy."
Tem clamped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard. "Joe, now is not the time to tell me about the hotel maid. I already know you fucked her brains out... I've filed it away to deal with 'later'... this is not-"
"Damn it Tem! I didn't sleep with that bitch okay! I'm too used to an-" He cut himself off when Tem let go of his shoulder and took out a two coffee mugs, filling them to the brim with the rich dark liquid life, bypassing the sugar.
He breathed in the aroma of fresh brewed beans, ignoring the hint of hazelnut as he greedily sucked it down, the warmth spreading through him like wildfire as his limbs started reanimating slowly.
By the time he set down his mug, Tem was already chugging down his second, coffee dribbling down the sides of his mouth. Joe laughed and wiped at his lips with the back of his hand. "Thirsty much?" he said grinning and pulling the red head close.
"Not now... too tired..."
"That coffee should be kicking in any time now babe," he said, briefly brushing his tongue along those crimson lips, which parted eagerly and sucked it in.
Tem broke the kiss and sighed. "Still too tired... lemme call Mirei and tell her we made it back okay."
"Maybe we should catch some sleep first," his love admitted, picking up his cup to drain it of the last drops of liquid life.
"Good idea... I'd better call Sei and tell him to bring Mig himself... I'll probably fall asleep behind the wheel. Go put up our bags, I'll be back there in a few," he said, pouring himself a third cup before passing into the living room, grabbing the phone off the hook as he passed.
Joe rolled his eyes, knowing how long Tem's calls to Mirei usually lasted (the shortest being an hour and a half at least). He followed and continued on to the door to sling his bag strap up on his shoulder, glancing back at Tem as he pulled his legs inward, curling up with his bare feet hanging out of the recliner.
With a grunt he picked up Tem's suitcase with one hand and the guitar with the other, slowly taking them into and down the hall towards the back bedroom.
Tem's brows furrowed as he heard the discordant sound of his guitar as Joe dropped it, followed by two thuds. "Imoo... hold on. I think Koibito just broke something..." He forced himself up and went down the hall to find Joe standing in the doorway to their room staring in silence.
When he looked past the brooding male, he blinked. "Mir... I'll have to call you back..." he dropped the phone just as the woman on the other line started asking and chattering to find out what was going on.
Joe put out an arm, trying to pull his lover away, but Tem just barrelled past, flying in a rage and snapping the covers off the sleeping pair.
Instantly they woke, the blonde rolling out of the bed into the floor on the other side as the boy scrambled to get up.. but there was no need. His father quickly snatched him by the arm and yanked him hard enough to dislocate his shoulder.
"What in the name of hell do you- what the fuck were you thinking!"
"Tem. Tem babe, calm down."
Angry eyes turned to Joe, who for once seemed to shrink back into himself at the glare. Of all the times over all the years he'd seen him pissed... this was by far the worst, the most dangerous he's ever seen the man. And this is including the the last stand against Voide and Blank...
"You stay out of this!" he growled as Alexia was grabbing up her clothes from the floor, trying to pull them on without falling over.
Tem turned his eyes on her and she shrieked before running for the bathroom, her pink silk panties in hand.
"Dad I can ex-"
"I don't want to hear it!" Tem snapped, swooping down to pick up the boy's jeans, wadding them up and throwing them at him. "Put 'em on before I whip you with them! And pull off that rubber while you're at it!"
Fearful of his father's sudden wrath (the likes of which the boy had never in his life seen... he'd always been sent off to play outside or to play on the computer when his dad and Joe always fought), he pulled it off, but froze when he saw the tear in the side.
"What? Never seen your own spunk before? Put it down and get your damn pants on!"
Instantly he dropped it to the carpet, and Tem swooped down to pick it up and disgustedly throw it in the waste basket beneath the nightstand on Joe's side of the bed.
Astarte yanked his pants up, trying not to get caught in the zipper.
"Do you have any idea wh-" Tem took a deep breath when the door to the bathroom opened. He put a hand to his forhead, the headache he'd walked into the house with now was blinding. "I can't even begin to deal with this now... you," he pointed at Alexia. "Get the phone and call your mother. Tell her to come pick you up."
He looked back at his son as the girl hurried past to get the phone from the hall, Joe leading her away from the room, thankfull to be out of sight from that horrible, deadly gaze.
"You have no idea what- Just go to your room. And lock yourself in, just in case I decide to come wring your filthy neck for this." And instantly he went to the bed, stripping it of the sheets and tossing them to the floor. When he saw the red stain on the matress, he cursed in tongues under his breath as he crossed to the closet, pulling out a set of hunter green sheets.
The boy left the room, quietly picking up his wallet and shirt and the condom wrapper. He stopped at his bedroom door and peered into the livingroom where Alexia sat in tears, the phone in her lap, blonde hair tangled with the previous night's passion, tangled by his greedy hands.
She looked up and her blue eyes caught him, a weak smile coming to her lips. "I love you" he mouthed, and her smile grew only a little bigger before he heared his father's barking voice.
"Room! Now! Don't make me come out there!"
He hung his head and opened his door, going into the room lit only by the streaks of sunlight. He shut and locked the door, sliding to the ground in tears as he hugged his legs to his chest.
----
No one blamed anyone, though Tem now carried a loathing for his own son that brought about so much tension that they rarely saw each other, by choice.
Tem had forced Astarte to work a job after school, giving him no free time to do anything else. On the week ends he came with him to work at the hotel.
Mirei and Tempest had dealt with the situation quite differently, thinking their friend's treatment of Astarte was a bit rough, even by their high standards. They forbade her never to see him again until she was moved out on her own and no longer dependant on them for support. They placed her into a private school for girls, and changed her curfew from 10 PM to 7:30 PM. Enough time to get home from school with just five minutes to spare depending on traffic that day. One of them of course dealt with getting her to and from school.
This was rather effective for a time, until Mirei started noticing a change in her daughter's way of dress (outside that of the school uniform) and what she did still wear was starting to tighten on her.
After a month, she started receiving calls at home from the school nurse, telling her Alexia was sick every day, throwing her breakfast up in the bathroom when she got to school every morning...
At this point, she knew, especially when she noticed Alexia hadn't come to her for a month and a half with a request for more pads. Tempest insisted she get a proffessional opinion.
Alexia, star student and golden child of the Valar family, was pregnant.
As soon as the news was official, Mirei phoned Tem with it. He didn't have anything to say other than "Alright. Have her decide if she wants to carry it to term or not. If you don't want it, I'll sign the papers and make him take care of it."
----
He ran down the hall as fast as he could, Joe on his heels trying to keep up. "Damn Pikes are fast sombitches," he said when he finally caught up with him, doubled over and trying to catch his breath.
"Where is she! Is she okay! How's my son?" Astarte asked frantically, putting no pause between each question as Tempest barred his way.
"Let me through! I want to see her!"
"I can't let you do that," he said, though his personal feelings wanted to tear him apart for the words.
"Let me see my son!" he shouted, trying harder to get past.
Joe, after catching his breath, pulled him back and looked down at him. "You know you can't go in there. Tem-"
"Fuck him! Fuck what he said! No one is going to stop me from seeing them! No one!" he shouted as nurses shot them angry looks.
"Kid, we can't. She doesn't want to see you."
"You liar! Both of you!" he shouted, jumping away from Joe's grip and ducking beneath Tempest's arms as he pushed through the door. He stood in almost shock as Mirei, her back to the door, encouraged her to breathe. To push. Over and over again.
Joe was right behind him rying to grab him from the room. But he pulled just out of his reach and went for the side opposite Mirei, grabbing Alexia's hand as she let out the most god awful screams.
"I'm here now. I'm here Lexi," he said. "Listen to me. Breathe. It's going to be alright."
She turned her sweat covered face to him, warm recognition in her eyes as she tried to smile before the wave of contractions took hold of her again. "Who are you?" one of the nurses snapped at him.
"I'm the father," he barked back as Alexia squeezed his hand.
"Get those men out of here!" the doctor shouted. Joe and Tempest were shoved out and the door shut behind them as Alexia's screams grew.
Astarte looked up to Mirei only a moment to see her smile. "I knew you'd come," she said.
"I love her," he replied. "I'd move heaven and earth for her and my son...." he looked down at his girlfriend, the mother of his son, and started again to encourage her on.
----
She lay half awake in the bed, turning her head to see a bassonet in the corner. "My baby..." she whispered, weakly reaching towards it.
"He's right here Lexi," he said. She turned her head to see him sitting in a chair beside her, a small bundle wrapped in blue resting in his arms.
"Star... I thought... But dad said-"
"I came," he said, leaning over. "Do you want to hold little Tempest?"
"You..."
"You passed out when they asked what name. I didn't know which one you picked, so I blurted out your dad's when he came in the room... we can always change it later if you want."
"No. It's fine..." she said softly, holding her arms out.
"I think he's gotten a little hungry," he said, laying the child in her arms. She looked down at his small chubby face with a smile. He looked up at her with dark violet eyes.
"He looks just like you," she said, looking up when Astarte held out a bottle of formula.
"They told your mom to tell you to bottle feed. Your breasts are too small for..."
She nodded and took the bottle, holding it to the child's eager little mouth. Astarte stood there, looking down at the two with a smile, his body language denoting the pride he felt. "What last name should we give him?" he asked.
"Yours naturally. He is your son after all."
He kissed her cheek and put an arm about her shoulders. "Not just mine. Ours. And nobody's going to take him from us."
"What do you mean?... of course no-"
"You know who I mean Lex... and I won't let him do it. I'll kill him before I let 'that' man anywhere near my son."
"Star..." she said with a weary sigh. He kissed her cheek again and looked down at his son.
"You're right. He does look like me," he said with a smile. "It'll take a while for his eyes to work their way out though."
"I can already see he'll have your eyes too."
----
The nurse had come and taken the bassonet back to the nursery... but she'd had to wait until both Alexia and the child were asleep... otherwise Astarte wouldn't let her anywhere near them. Joe had come by with Miguel to see the baby, and Astarte was not suprised at his own father's absence. It was Joe who sat with him now outside beneath one of the light poles as the elder smoked.
"He'll come around... I almost had him convinced into coming."
"I'm glad you didn't... he would have only made things worse," he said, sipping his large cup of coffee. He hadn't slept at all since he'd gotten to the hospital, jumpy at everything and every move anyone around him but Alexia and the baby made. He was a wreck... and only 14.
"Is it hard?"
"What?"
"Raising a baby. Is it as hard as dad says it is?"
"Damn skippy. God... your little brother was a handful, still is. But nothing compared to you kiddo."
"You only say that because he's you's and I'm not."
"No... I'm saying that because when you were little you were a little terror... because there was hardly anyone around to watch you. We were always gone doing something else instead of taking care of you."
"So? You saying that's why I did 'this'?"
"No Star, I'm not. I'm saying that just like right now, your dad was never around when you needed him. He was always gone off saving the world...again. And by the time he started sticking around, it was too late to change anything. You grew up and he didn't get to be there for it..."
"What exactly are you trying to tell me Joe?"
"Usualy I agree with your dad. Almost always I side with him on anything that comes down the pipe. It's been that way for years, since before your brother was born. But, in the rare instances I am completely against his decisions, especially concerning you kids.
"I'll stand in his way if he does something stupid as long as you show me that you can and are willing to take care of the kid with Alexia. Show me you want that kid and would do anything for it. And both of you have to stay in school long enough to at least graduate. If you can do that, I will do my best to keep Tem in line until he comes around."
The boy burst into tears and threw himself at him so suddenly he almost knocked him off balance. "Oh god I fucked up! I fucked up! I-"
"Sh.... calm down. Buck up kiddo. You gotta be strong. You got people depending on you now," he said, stroking the back of his head gently. Astarte turned his face up to him.
"Thank you Joe. You have no idea what this means to me, to us."
"Yeah, I think I do..." he pushed the kid away ant flicked his cigarette butt to the sidewalk. "I gotta get goin kid. You gonna stick around the night or go to school tomorrow?"
"I'm gonna stick around the night. Mirei'll be here in the mornin to take us home when they discharge her and Tempest."
"Oh, that's what you named him. I thought he was going to be named-"
"Named what?"
"Well Mirei told me Lex wanted to name him after you."
"Well... he doesn't have a middle name yet... we just today decided he'll have my last name. It'll cut down on the confusion when Lex and I-"
"Okay, you've really thought ahead... but I gotta skat. You know Tem. A mother hen to the end." He gave him a final hug with a grin. "Give my regards to Lex for me."
He nodded and watched him until he was to his car in the parking lot. When the man dissapeared behind tinted windows, he heaved a great sigh and looked up at the building before shuffling his feet to go back inside.
----
"I'll get it!" Miguel called, racing his elder brother to the door. He opened it wide and accidentally smacked him in the head. "Lexi! Tempy!" Miguel cried, crouching down as the child ran into his arms. He picked up the boy, three times as young as himself with a laugh.
"Wow! You've gotten bigger little man!"
The boy laughed, especially when Astarte came out from behind the door rubbing his head. "Warn me before you do that."
"Sure, no prob," Miguel said, then hoisted the boy on his hip and pointed at his brother. "Look at the funny clown Tempy. Ain't he funny?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! No!" the boy shouted with a happy grin while clapping his hands.
"Okay Miguel. Give him here," he said. The boy instantly reached his arms out to his father as Astarte took him.
"Go tell Joe Lex and Tempy's here."
Miguel nodded, and after a long moment of peek-a-boo with his nephew, he took off out back.
"Are you sure we-"
"Of course," he said, leaning close to give her a kiss on hte lips. "Thanks for coming... this means oodles to me."
She smiled, hoisting the diaper bag up on her shoulder and going timidly inside just as Joe came bounding in from the deck. He embraced her happily and mussed her hair a with a grin. "Where's the little guy!"
"Joe joe joe joe joe joe!" the child cried and reached out for the man. Astarte handed him off and let the old man sit and play with him, then took the bag from Alexia. "Here... you don't gotta lug that thing around. I got plenty of his stuff lying around."
"Lying around? Heh, that's just like you... ever the organized one," she scoffed.
"Hey! I try. At least I got my Psychology notebook in order for the notebook check next week."
"True," she said, poking him in the side happily. "It's good to see you," she said, giving him a kiss on his crimson lips. He pulled her close, deepening it as Joe sat there, covering their son's eyes.
"Ahem... small child in the room..."
The two broke apart with a grin, Alexia looking down at her shoes and Astarte just smiling away. "Sorry... we forgot," he said laughing, then glancing over to the deck door.
"He gonna be okay with this?" he asked. No one needed to ask what 'this' meant... they all knew not to refer to 'the incident' around Tem... who had tried his damnedest to blot it from his mind altogether, not able to deal with another mental breakdown.
"Don't worry about it. I think I finally have him seeing differently. At least, when I started talking about it he didn't throw anything at me this time."
"That's progress for you."
"Yeah. It's a good sign when you don't have a 12th century Ming vase crashing on the wall next to your head." he got up with the kid in his arms, handing him back to Alexia. "Just show him how responsible you are and I don't think he'll make an ass of himself until after you guys leave."
"Well... I guess that's a good thing..." Alexia said, stroking her son's golden blonde hair. He grinned at her. "Besides... when he sees this beautiful little face for the first time, he 'can't' still be mad."
Joe nodded and grinned. "I'll go prepare the warzone for you guys... is your mom coming?"
"Yeah. She was still looking for her keys when I left. But she should be here with dad soon."
"Good," he said. "We're going to need them both if things go sour." He started for the deck, grabbing an oven mit off the table when he passed.
The teen parents looked at one another before taking in a deep breath, their hands locked together. "Well... here goes nothing," Alexia said. Her lover nodded and started with her to the deck, shielding his eyes when he stepped out into the bright sun.
He let go her hand and looked around for his father. He found him in the far corner on a stool, his glasses on and his laptop open on the rail, his back to the house as he pound away at the keys.
He glanced over to Joe at the grill with Vash, who'd left Missing Mile for the week since his wife was in Austrailia with their daughter. Joe gave the red-headed teen a small nod before diving back into conversation with his brother.
"Dad?"
"What?" he asked, not angry, not content. Just plain and bland, as if he didn't care one way or another what the boy wanted.
"There's someone I want you to meet."
"I thought I made myself clear Astarte," he droned. "No friends brought to the house."
He sighed, glancing back at Alexia in the doorway. He waved for her to come over to him. Hessitantly she went, holding fast to her son. His father held his arms out and took the child from her and put his finger over his lips.
"Dad, this is Tempest," he said.
Tem whirled around on his stool, mouth open to say something with an angry look in his eye, but when he saw the child he softened a little and closed his trap.
"Daddy!" the boy cried, trying to reach out for his grandfather.
"No Tempy. That's granpa," Astarte said, pointing at Tem. "Daddy," he pointed to himself. The child grinned brightly.
"Abuelo! Abuelo!" he shouted happily, wiggling in his father's arms.
"He said-"
"Yeah. His favorite show is Dora the Explorer and Dragon Ball dubbed into Spanish."
Tem sighed and looked embarassed, turning only briefly to close his laptop and take it off the rail, handing it to Alexia. "Can I...?"
Astarte nodded and passed the boy off as Alexia stiffened at his side with a look of horror on her face. "Star!" she hissed in her lover's ear as Tem looked down at his grandson.
"Just hold on Lex. Watch what he does..." he whispered back.
The child was laughing and wiggling in his arms, and suddenly, he smiled and laughed with him. "Hey Joe!" he called.
"What? The chicken's about to burn."
"That box under my side of the bed-"
"Yeah? What about it? Vash gimme that plate."
"Well, go-" he started when suddenly the kid took his glasses and put them on his own face and yanked a handful of his hair.
"Oh! Right! 'That' box!" He passed the tongs and plate to Vash who quickly started taking the chicken breasts off the rack.
Joe dissapeared inside as Tem took his glasses back and sat on the floor on his knees and playing with the kid.
Alexia burst into tears the second Joe returned with a box, stuffed animals and toys literally falling falling over the edges. He dropped the box beside Tem and handed the weeping girl his hankerchief. She blew her nose and handed it back. He pushed her hand away in disgust as Tem produced from the box... a stuffed rabbit, sewn back together with a rather crude, childlike stitching and patches of random cloth that varried in shades of black and blue.
"Tammy-chan!" she exclaimed as the man gave it to her son. She looked at Tem oddly, but he was oblivious to her cobalt stare as little Tempest gave him a hug.
Everyone (except Vash who was finishing up the lunch/dinner thing at the bar and grill, and Joe who had this look of relief on his face) were in varried looks of shock and had hardly noticed the engine of a 1999 Ford F-150 pulling up in the front of the house. Also what they failed to notice was Alexia's parents stumbling through the house with many gift bags and elegantly wrapped (Mirei's doing) boxes.
"Hello! I know you're home! I saw Oniisan's Harley parked out front!"
But nobody answered. No one heard her until when she came out to the deck and fainted at the sight of Tem with the child. Her husband just standing there looking down at her blinking while trying not to drop the 20 gift bags of varrying sizes that she'd made him carry from the truck.
All but Tem looked over to see what happened as Tempest shrugged and carried the bags to a table where other gifts were piled and set them on the floor.
"Alexia... get your mother a glass of cool water would you?" he said, turning to retrieve the boxes she'd dropped when she passed out.
Wiping at her eyes with her sleeve, she went inside for the water.
"Granpa!" the little one shouted and ran over to Tempest, clinging to his leg.
"Get this chibi-Star off me..." he grumbled, trying to shake the kid off his leg.
Astarte went over and picked him up. "Now Tempy... you know granpa Tempest doesn't like that. Go play with abuelo," he said, setting him back down and giving him a small pat on the bum to get him going back in that direction.
Alexia came back with the water and handed it to her father... who immediately poured it on his wife's face. "Time to wake up Mirei," he said with a smirk.
Alexia, knowing that when her mother eventually got back on her feet would make move to tackle her father and tickle him until he apologized (this sort of thing happened at least twice a week...) took her place at a table, crossing her legs and smoothing out her skirt.
"No! That doesn't go up your nose!" Tem shouted as he took one of the toys away... which caused the boy to suddenly start wailing. "Think you spoiled him enough?" he asked, looking at the parents.
"We only spoiled him the same way we were," Alexia said. Tem gave her an annoyed look, which made the child laugh and giggle... but that was partially because Miguel was standing behind Tem, mimicking every move he made as well as giving a funny face each time.
Astarte, giving his younger brother the look of death which mean he'd better knock it off or he'd be in a world of trouble if their dad caught him, scooted his son out of the way and gave his father a hug, something he hadn't been able to do for three long years.
"Happy birthday dad," he said as Tem's grip got tighter and the shoulder of his shirt started to dampen with his father's tears.
He finally let go and picked up a box from one of the tables. "Presents?"
Slowly, Tem took it and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, inspecting the tag, but still unable to read it since his vision was all blurry and his eyes were almost as red as his hair.
"It's from me, Lex, and Tempy," Astarte said, pulling out a chair next to her and picking up their son, trying to hold the hyperactive little squirt in his lap. "Now, you better not lose this or we'll kill you, and I mean it. Lexi will throttle you the first time we hear it's been missplaced."
Joe shook his head and went to helping Vash set out various plates and containers of food on the bar, basically making it into a mini buffet with the poker table at the end with various bottles of coke and 2 bottles of liquor... not a smart idea that last, but for some strange reason the brotherly duo didn't think that Miguel, the troublemaking kid, wouldn't try to sneak some. And if they did... then they obviously didn't care.
Mirei looked up from the tickle torture of her husband at the first sound of paper literally shredding.
A second round of tears were illicited from Tem as he stared down at the front cover of a small album with the words "Baby's First Album" written in fancy golden cursive lettering.
"Ya know... if he's like this now... how will we top next year?" Alexia whispered.
Astarte gave a wicked smile with a twinkle in his eye. "Oh... don't worry about it. I've got it already taken care of..."
Little did anyone know his thoughts were wandering (no big suprise) to the well being of a small box tucked away in his sock drawer where a diamond ring waited patiently for the year to pass.
----
End.

15 July 2005
Timeline: Completely outside of the RPC universe. Actually, the only thing this story and the series have in common are the characters.

On Tour

"Arigatou Tokyo! O-yasumi nasai!" he shouted, pumping his half gloved fist in the air. With a smile to the screaming crowd he kicked over the mic stand. He continued to shout, basking in the adoration of the audience. It was like this at the end of every show, no matter what the country...

Mirei ran up to the front of the stage and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him away. He shrugged her off and went back, throwing his arms into the air and planting his feet far apart. He looked like a big, human X as he screamed in joy to the people.

Mirei signaled for the rest of the band, who came and dragged him backstage. They finally let his struggling form go when they were in the dressing room.

"God! We ROCKED!" he exclaimed, tossing back sweat drenched locks.

"I never want to play Japan again..." Cross muttered.

"Oh come on. It's not like you had to learn the language, just the lyrics. Besides... at least this way you have enough money to pay for all those kids futures," Mirei said as there was a knock at the door.

Cross looked over at him. "Open that door and we'll kill you."

"But! But-"

"I won't rescue you from the yaoi-crazed fan girls again... I almost got my arm chewed off in Osaka last week," Joe said, finally letting go of his arm. "Besides, you'd better change into something easier to run in. It's a long jog from here to the bus."

"Fine fine..."

"Media hog," Seijin muttered, snapping closed his violin case. Mirei escaped to the bathroom for a quick shower, her arms loaded with clothes. Tem threw himself onto the couch with an exhausted sigh. "I'm so tired."

"You should be you monkey freak! Dancing all over that big ass stage in nothing but black pleather! I'm suprised you didn't die of heat stroke out there!" Cross exclaimed, peeling off his sweat soaked shirt and tossing it to the floor with a loud, wet sounding smack.

"Damn... you pour five gallons of water on your head bro?" Joe asked, staring down at the shirt as the press and fangirls continued banging on the door.

"No... unlike some people who just stand there, look pretty, and play guitar I actually get some exercise."

"Heh, he get's plenty of exercise... just not when anyone's looking," Tem snickered. The look on his face obviously clueing any that might see it into the fact he was obviously not there at the moment... for he had once again slipped into his hentai state of mind.

Joe kicked him in the leg with his steel toed boot... the steel toe on the outside rather than on the in. "Shut up or I'll cripple your sorry ass," he snapped.

"Hey guys!" came a voice. It was Tempest whom Tem had hired (against Tempest's better judgement of course) to replace his old manager Phillipe.

"Are the press gone?!?!" Tem, Joe, and Cross all called in unison.

"Yeah! Damien and Allessandra got rid of them."

"Then what do you want?" Mirei called as she opened the bathroom door, steam enveloping her as if she were standing before a fog machine. She was dressed now in a tight baby tee, a soft pink, and a pair of form fitting sand blasted jeans of blue-black denim... both pieces of which left little to the imagination. She was quickly drying her golden locks with a towel.

There was a moment of hessitation from her husband beyond the door. "There's a couple of kids here with backstage passes."

"How many?" Tem asked, pulling off his fingerless gloves.

"A few," Tempest replied.

"Send the chilluns in!" Mirei exclaimed. In this split second... Cross was frantically pulling on his pants over his spongebob boxers.

The door swung open as instantly two screaming Japanese girls clung to each of Joe's arms, a thrid and fourth to Tem, and a fifth to Cross. Oh... and Mirei wasn't left out! three girls and three guys instantly crowded around her, jabbering on in Japanese. She smiled and accepted their books and pictures and signed her name to them, leaving the six of them in shocked euphoria as they clung to their pens and their books and pictures.... one of the guys even had a Mirei doll she initialed the shirt of.

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" Cross suddenly screeched in English, trying to tear from his groupie's vice grip.

Tem craned his neck, a little wigged out himself by the fact there were two girls trying to grope their way into his tight black pleather pants. Joe just stood there and laughed, squeezing one of the girl's butt... which in turn caused Tem to glare death at him before finally breaking away to see what Cross was fussing about.

Mirei, having pulled her husband into the room to use as a shield against the groupies from hell, was laughing her ass off at everyone... even Tempest as he tried to beat back the fan boys with his steel clipboard...

And this was how things went after 'every' show...

"Get it off! It's trying to rape me! I'm married damn it! I HAVE CHILDREN!" he screamed, still in English, as he ripped away from the rabid fan's grip. He hid behind Tem, who in turn used him as a shield against his own devilish duo... meanwhile Joe was 'still' copping a feel on his two groupies.

Cross's crazed fan smiled and held up a book to a blank page with a pen. Tem casually took it and signed his name, passing it around to his brother...who had taken to slipping into a corner behind a rack with Tem and Mirei's clothes on it... hiding like the smart man he was...

Then suddenly the three girls that had first swarmed Mirei squeeled in delight and swarmed like newbs to an RP chatroom to the corner. Seijin screamed and threw the book into the air. Mirei caught it after it sailed across the room, narrowly missing her husband's head. She signed her name and passed it to Joe, who reluctantly signed his with a little mark that only he and Tem knew was his 'other' name in his own evil language. Then finally, Cross's crazed fan's book came to him. He held it up as if it might bite before scrawling his name on the paper and handing it back to the kid.

"ARIGATOU CROSSU-SAMA!" the kid cried with tears of joy and huge heart eyes before throwing Tem at the wall and clinging to Cross once more.

"G-E-T I-T O-F-F!!!" he screamed.

Tempest had managed to beat the three boys and 5 of the seven girls out with his clipboard.... the remaining only being the one leeching off Cross and the two that clung to each of Joe's arms.... both received the glare of death from Tem... plus an 'accidental' sharp elbow into the side, particularly one that had managed to steal a kiss from the brute... Tem'd caught her in the lower back, right on the spine.

"Jealous much oniisan?" Mirei asked with a giggle as Cross was dragged from the room.

"Oh Cross! I forgot to tell you! Remember that 'Win a date with your fave male member of Dead World' contest?"

"YES!!!" he screamed down the hall. Tempest poked his head out the door.

"Well guess what pal! That kid was the winner!" he said with a smile, which got the reply of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'LL KILL YOU TEMPEST!!!" from Cross shortly before Tem grabbed the two girls roughly by the back of their shirts.

"Sorry, but time is up," he said, his voice cold and wicked, of course in Japanese so they could understand him.

They looked at him in shock as he glared at them in the hall. "He's mine," he snapped before slamming the door in their faces.

"What the hell was that!" Joe shouted angrily.

"Don't tell me you don't know what that was about!" Tem shouted back.

"Here we go again... where did I put my pain killers..." Mirei said, combing through her hair with her fingers.

"I made sure there was an extra bottle in your bag dear," Tempest replied. "Don't forget to bring me some... this is going to be a long ride to Okayama..."

Seijin picked up his violin case and grabbed up his bag. Apparently he'd changed while he was hiding back there. "I don't need this shit," he mumbled, pushing past his brother, his brother's lover, his brother's best friend, his brother's best friend's husband, and then finally after opening the door, the two shocked fan girls that were still staring at the door after he closed it back... both dazed and confused.

Before they made it to the tour bus two hours later, Tem had a sprained wrist, two cracked knuckles, a black eye, and a busted lip. Joe had a fractured elbow, a black eye, a busted lip, a bloody nose, a bruised kneecap, and screaming in agony balls from when Tem had finally had enough and kicked him with his spike heeled platform boot. Tem would have walked away with the same pain in his pants if not for one thing... he was wearing a piece, which originally was because his pants were so tight that if he didn't then the whole world would see the outline of his...ahem... joy stick.

---

Mirei was sitting in the living room of the penthouse suite Tempest had gotten for the band. She was toying on her keyboard with some lyrics joe had given her, trying to make them work with the music Tem had written. Tem was in his room, Joe pounding on the door demanding to be let in. Her husband was sitting on the balcony practicing his tai-chi to help get rid of the stress of being this band of misfit's manager. Seijin was 'out' meaning he'd gone drinking again and would probably come back totally pissed (meaning drunk obviously) and with some gay hooker on his arm.

Then... Cross slunk into the room, quietly and not looking at anyone. He had intended to go on to his private room, but Mirei was quick to catch him sneaking past. "So... how did that 'date' go?"

He didn't say anything, just stood there with his coat folded over his arm, then continued on to his room, locking the door behind him. Soon she heard the shower running.

"Damn it Tem I'm sorry!" Joe shouted as he continued to bang on the door. "C'mon babe! Lemme in!"

"Bugger off!" was the harsh reply.

Mirei sighed, reaching into her purse on the couch for her bottle of pain killers.... and found it empty... she gritted her teeth and tried to focus on her work.

A little while later, Joe had given up and come out to where Mirei was sitting and started to play Soul Caliber 2. Cross soon came out and sat quietly away from everyone, still not looking up from his hands in his lap. Tempest too came in and seated himself beside his wife, who squeezed his hand like a stress balloon of sand.

And yet Tem still did not come out. All heard him in his and Joe's room practicing some new songs with Joe's guitar.

Cross opened his mouth to say something, but just then the private elevator to their suite opened and Seijin burst out, bottle in hand and not one but TWO gay hookers on his arms.

The trio stopped short and looked around. "What's with all the long faces eh?" he asked, his intoxication making his brittish accent much more evident.

"Tem locked himself in his room again," Mirei said.

Sei whispered something to the hookers and pointed towards his room. They eagerly went in and shut the door. "Not again... bloody idjit. What was it this time?"

"The same old shit," Tempest said, trying to focus on Joe and the game he was playing.

"Bloody 'ell..." He gave a great sigh before sitting in Joe's lap.

"What the?"

"Making this a family affair Joe?" Cross said with a small smile, the first they'd seen him wear since he came back.

"Shut up Cross... and get off my lap Sei..." Joe growled.

"Wait... I got a plan. Trust me. It'll work... just start making moaning sounds and keep your head infront of mine. No kisses though... i'll bite your lips off."

"Like I'd ever kiss you you little freak..."

"Just do it. Trust me, it'll work." Sei said, wrapping a loose arm around Joe and positioning himself in an awkward, but suggestive position on the man's lap... yet at an angle where he could jump up and run when the moment came.

"Oh god yes! Right there!" Seijin shouted. Mirei covered her mouth to keep from laughing. Cross looked back at his lap quietly. Tempest just stared at the TV and hoped this whole thing would just go away... just go away like a bad dream...

"Yeah... yeah! Bugger me like you bugger my brother!" Sei shouted suddenly. After a second, Joe got the idea and smiled.

"You want that you little britt whore? Yeah... take it out bitch!" he shouted, adding in a few moans.

This went on for five minutes more before Tem ran out, Joe's guitar raised high in the air. Seijin jumped up and bolted for his room, slamming and locking the door behind him in the sanctuary of his mini-Japanese whore house.

Tem stood there, guitar poised above his head as Joe backed up against the wall.

"Oniisan, you can put that down now."

"DIRTY LITTLE BITCH I'LL KILL YOU!" he shouted and started to make his way towards Sei's room.

Cross jumped from the chair and tackled him as Mirei dove for the guitar. Joe grabbed his feet and tried to drag him and Cross both back away from the door which Tem was using his very nails against the carpet to claw to.

"TEMMOTHY PIKE!" Tempest shouted, hitting him on the head with his ever handy clipboard. "This is your intervention."

"My what?"

"I thought I was just going to strap him to the chair and boink him into forgiveness," Joe said with a straight face.

"Stupid bisexual bigamist bitch!" Tem shouted, trying to claw away from them again.

Mirei set the guitar down and sat on the small of his back. Cross and Joe let him go and Tempest backed off a few feet. "Oniisan, this is no way for a grown man to act. If you want to act like a five year old child, a foul mouthed one at that, then I'll treat you like one."

"Get off me Mirei," he growled.

"No. You want to be a jealous little baby, fine. I'll treat you the same way I treat my own kids..." she glanced up at Tempest. "Do the honors hun."

Cross and Joe sat back indian style and watched as, unwillingly Tempest pulled down the back of Tem's pants. "Now get Bob."

Tempest had a sudden look of pity on his face as, with his head down, he went into his and Mirei's room. When he returned he had a ping-pong paddle in his hand... with holes drilled in it.

"Are you-"

"Just give it here!" Mirei snapped. Then, without hessitation she started literally beating Tem's ass with the paddle. He screamed, she hit him harder. He struggled, she hit him faster. Red blisters from the holes started to rise on his flesh. After a while she stopped, tapping the palm of her hand with the flat end of the paddle.

"Now are you going to behave like an adult or do you want to continue acting like a child?"

Both Cross and Tempest stared at her in a cross between horror and amazement. Joe just sat there, shifting his position every so often and everyone knew why. Ahem... ANYWAY...

"Yes! Just quit spanking me damn it!"

She smacked him again.

"What the hell-"

BAM

"God damn it!"

SMACK THWACK

"PUT THE GOD DAMN PADDLE DOWN!"

WHACK WHACK WHACK THWAP

Tempest ran up behind her as Tem let another string of words fly. He grabbed the paddle from her hand as she came up for another blow. "I think he's had enough dear."

She stared at him a long moment, then sighed and nodded. "Yes, but everyone knows I had no choice."

Cross and Joe both eagerly nodded, daring not disagree with the woman now that they knew what would be in store for them.

She pulled Tem's pants back up over his swollen bum and stood up, grabbing her keyboard. "Are you going to behave and stop acting like a spoiled brat?"

Tem nodded, not looking at her as he lay there on his belly.

"And are you going to listen to what Joe has to say?"

Again he nodded. She sighed, grabbing up her purse and putting her wireframe glasses on. "I'm off to bed." she muttered, going to her room and closing the door.

"Well that was interesting." Cross said.

"Speaking of which... how did your date go?" Joe said with a smile.

"I'm going back to my room. I would like everyone to erase what happened from their minds. i would like everyone to forget about it as I go into deep memory regression..." he got up and started for his room.

"Awh! Come on bro! It couldn't have been that bad!" Tempest called.

He stopped at his door and didn't turn around. "Lets just say Tem, Joe, and Sei would have loved to have been in my shoes... I'll never be clean again." He went in and shut the door behind him. They all heard the click of the lock.

"Well that explains why he's so depressed." Tempest said.

"I'll never sit again." Tem wailed.

Mirei poked her head out the door. "Quiet out here! I'm trying to sleep you stupid little whores!.. except you hun. You're not a whore, well, you're my whore."

Tem burried his face in his arm. Joe picked him up and dragged him to their room, laying him in bed on his belly. Tempest shook his head and marked yet another note on his clipboard.

"How did I ever get into this mess." he muttered, reaching over with his foot to turn off the PS2 that Joe was playing.

---

Noon, lunch time. Everyone was starving when they pulled into Okayama. A small town, but they had a minor benefit to play before heading to New Zealand.

Tem and Joe spent the time talking and cudling in the back of the bus while watching the first Lord of the Rings movie. They were obviously just fine and dandy again. Cross was on the phone with Kakurine, finding out that the twins broke their legs tree climbing and two of the triplets got stung by jelly fish while Gem had been babysitting them while she went to work.

Mirei was curled up on one of the bunks with her game boy. and her husband was sitting up front with the driver. Seijin was on the other bus with the stage crew... not that anyone really minded... they all knew that he was the stage crew slut. And despite the obvious animosity between them, Tem actually cared about his brother's well being.

Tempest now came out with cell phone in hand. "OKAY! WE'RE STOPPING FOR LUNCH! WHO WANT'S WHAT!" he shouted across the bus so that even Joe and Tem could hear him over whatever they were doing now.

"Good old American KFC!" Cross called before returning to his phone. "No baby, Tempest just wanted to know what we wanted to eat... no... I'm so fuckin sick of sushi. That's all these fuckin asians eat out here!"

"I'll try, but if i can't then-"

"Then we better hire a damn chef cuz I want some damn deep fried chicken with a side of mashed potatos, a few biscuits, and a damn coke in a cup instead of a fuckin can!"

Mirei snickered. "I'll have the usual."

"Lembas bread and Ent Draught!" Tem called with a giggle.

"You know that doesn't exist." Joe said, poking him in bum.

"Oh... tender," he replied, smacking at his hand. "No touch. Not till the pain that a certain SOMEONE inflicted upon me last night goes away!"

"Hey! It was a necessary evil!" Mirei called, poking her head out from the little curtain that separated her bunk from the rest of the world.

"Fine fine! I'll have a large tub of macaroni and cheese! And plenty of sake!" Tem called with another giggle. "Ooooo Orlando Bloom... I would do ANYTHING to meet him... Sexy Legolas..." he said, ignoring Joe's displeased look as he zoned out to the movie.

"Uh... steak! Medium rare with a baked potato, some steamed veggies, a fried ice cream, and more sake than the idiot!" Joe called before he too zoned out to the movie. "Liv Tyler... sexy elf woman..."

"Evil elf bitch," Tem muttered under his breath.

"Say, I have a wicked idea..." He went over to a little storage compartment where he kept some of his stage costumes and pulled out a long blonde wig and a shaggy brown-black one. "I'll be Legolas, and you can be Aragorn..."

"But I thought your ass hurt."

"Well do I look like I give a flying fuck?" he said, shutting the door to the back of the bus.

Tempest stood there shaking his head, marking their orders down on the paper of the clipboard. He heaved a great sigh before going back to the driver cabin and sitting down, passing the sheet over to the poor man who had to figure out where the hell in this town to get their food.

 

---

Crimson lips seemed to make love to the microphone. Literally! It was like he may as well have been giving the thing a bj! Dark blue fishnet shirt, no sleeves, and small ties at the side.

Behind him on the guitar, it seemed Joe's hips were humpin the guitar. Had to admit... those two really had... what's the right word for it... passion? Love? None of those sound right. But they'll have to do. That's what they had for their music.

Mirei tossed her hair wildly as Cross, shirtless and gleaming with sweat, twirled his drumsticks in the air.

Sei and Tem stood back to back as they played a quick duet before diving back into the words of their newest release "Scarlet Snowfall."

"Razor blade gleam! Slippery when wet! Slice your fingers in a dozen places and write "I was here" in the snow!" Tem wailed, grabbing the mic stand and bending over it, one denim clad leg on each side of the steel pole. "Call 911 and watch you bleed! Pack you in ice like a dead man's dream! Red seeping through the white! It's turned into a scarlet snow tonight!" He thrashed his head a moment before standing upright, Seijin going mad on the violin it seemed as Tem grabbed his guitar.

He danced and he sang all over the stage, going from Joe to Mirei, to the edge of the stage. He almost jumped right into the crowd, but the cord of his guitar to his amp cut him short.

Then, the song was over. He pumped his fist in the air with a joyous howl before leaving the stage with the others.

"What? No inflated ego this time?" Joe remarked. Tem just grabbed a bottle of water from someone passing by, who obviously protested, and he pored it over his head. He shook his hair like a wet dog with a grin.

"That was great! My throat hurts though... I could sure use some cocoa right about now."

"You heard him," Mirei snapped at someone. "Get this man some cocoa!"

They nodded and scurried off as they all made their way back to their dressing room.

Mirei curled up in a chair, Tem got a cool shower before Cross could beat him to the punch, and Joe was on the couch with his practice guitar and headphones on.

Sei was... well... nobody really knew where he was. They saw him backstage, he came to get his violin, then left again and hadn't been back.

Tempest eased through the door just as Tem came out in his skivies, a modest pair of boxers with lots of the Wal-mart smilies on them. He even had his glasses on, a rare sight.

"Guys, I got some bad news, and some good news..." Tempest said.

"Warner Brothers called me, and they were forced to postpone the rest of your tour."

"What!!!" Tem, Joe, Mirei, and Cross all exclaimed at once in varrying degrees of shock. Then, Cross spoke up. "What the hell for!"

"It seems there was a schedueling mistake. They put you in the same venues at the same time as Gackt.... and you know what that means..."

"Means they can go to hell is what! It's all about cash! That's what it always is. Where's my phone, I'm wiring cash from my swiss account," Tem blurted out, leaving the towel for his hair draped over his shoulder.

"No no! I still have good news!" Tempest said once Tem had finally found his phone.

"You just saved a bunch of money on car insurance by switching to Geico?" Cross said flatly.

"The company's giving you an all expense paid vacation anywhere you want to go. The only catch is you have to show up to at least one publicity stunt, where ever it is.... and they have to know by tomorrow morning our time. Which means it'll be night time in the states."

"The Shire!" Tem squaled happily.

Joe rolled his eyes, threw a pillow at the man, and slipped back on his headphones. "I have always wanted to see-" Mirei started.

"We're going to Lord of the Rings Land like we were going to before! I really really really have to go!" Tem said, giddy like a school girl.

"Fine fine! If you'll just shut up!" Cross growled before slipping into the shower.

Mirei heaved a great sigh. "Fine..."

Joe just smiled, nodded, and had no clue what the hell was now going on.

---

They stepped into the terminal. It was fall up in the north, and here it was just beginning to be spring. "Oh man, this is gonna be awsome!" Tem said, clinging to Joe's arm. All of them were wearing sunglasses, the old "incognito" attempt. Mirei smiled, at a passerby as she adjusted the strap of her bag.

"All our luggage should be at the hotel already except for the carry-ons... and only Mirei had anything with her," Tempest said.

"Look how short these people are," Tem said, ignoring everything else. He looked so funny in his oversized FSU sweatshirt and denim shorts that were tight on his rump, but came down to his knees in length.

Joe just shrugged, watched as a busty woman walked past in the opposite direction as himself, then yawned. Seijin and Cross kind of hung back, the only ones without people to spend the vacation with.

Mirei chewed her gum, blew a bubble, and glanced around. "This place is... roomy...." she said.

Tempest went ahead of them suddenly, talking with a man dressed in all black holding a sign readng "TV." What an odd thing to have on a sign? But then again, they had all seen far stranger.

"Okay guys! Come on, the limo's waiting."

"We actually get a limo!" Seijin chattered excitedly, almost as bad as his brother. He pushed ahead of them all and grabbed the man by the hand. "Take me to big car now!"

Cross blinked, Mirei laughed, and Tem scolded. Tempest was embarassed. And Joe just had no clue, for he had been watching Tem with one eye and pretty girls walking around with the other.

Tem was first, after his brother of course, into the limo. Immediately he had pounced on the PS2 inside. "Dude! Lookit!" he exclaimed when everyone else was inside. Joe sighed, put on some headphones he found in the armrest and shut his eyes.

Seijin was up by the window where he could peer through at the driver. Tempest sat on the very back seat, Tem sitting on the floor of the limo at his feet, Mirei to his left and Joe to his right.

Cross had opted to bypass everyone else and sit up front with the driver if only to escape the insanity for a short time.

---

They were at the hotel, and all but Tempest crashed in their suite. What part of New Zealand were they in? Why, just put Tem to a window and say "Look there Mr. Frodo, elves."

Try it, you'll see. He can pinpoint the exact location a scene in Lord of the Rings was filmed (well, only the first two since that's all that had come out so far), the lines said, who said them, which movie it came from, how long it lasted, where in the books it happened, who was there, and yes even what time of day it really was when the scene was shot. And lets not forget how many takes it took to get the scenes right...

Obsessive much?

Tempest ran around, getting things ready for them, schedueling mudbaths, massages, and anything else they might need. Eventually, Tem wandered out in a pair of plaid boxers, mismatched toe socks (one was red and orange stripes, the other was black and blue) and bed hair.

"Food," he grumbled, scratching his crotch through his boxers before stumbling sleepily to a table with six chairs around it. For a man so obsessed with poise and perfection to the detail... he obviously wasn't a morning person... a noon person... an afternoon person... or an anytime person for that matter.

Eventually, Joe stumbled out while Tem was inhaling bowl after bowl of banana ice cream (it's what he always ate for breakfast while on the road for some ungodly reason).

He plopped down at the table at the exact moment Cross emerged from his room and smiling, sat at the table, fully dressed and perky? Yes. Cross was perky... bizzare...

"Mornin to you!" he exclaimed.

Tem looked up from his fifth bowl and muttered/grumbled something no one, not even Joe could understand, before looking back at his bowl again and shoveling the light yellow ice cream into his mouth.

Joe fell face forward on the mahogony table with a loud crack, and seemed not to move.

Cross blinked, tossed his hair?... and looked at Tempest. "So! Anyone up for some paddle ball?"

Tempest, thrown off by Cross's uncharacteristic chipperness merely nodded in shock before Cross grabbed him from the table.

Once Tempest was gone from the suite, there was a loud, womanish scream before the door of Seijin's room was thrown off the hinges.

"Slut's up," Joe mumbled. Tem just growled something and pushed his empty bowl forward, at last his hunger satisfied.

Seijin came running out, still screaming. He came to a sliding stop at the table and looked around. "Who did this to me!" he shouted. Tem winced, and Joe lifted his head. There was a big red mark on his forhead. He started to say something unintelligable before Mirei burst out from her own rooms and looked around frantically. "Where is he! I'll kill him!"

She was dressed quite awkward. A very loose fitting shirt and a pants, obviously Tempest's, beneath a bath robe. Her hair was a mess and she kept pushing it out of her face. "I swear to god I'll kill the motherfucker that-" she was cut short, noticing Tem, Joe, and Seijin all staring at her.

"What!"

"That's my body!!!" Seijin suddenly screeched, launching himself at Mirei. The two wrestled on the floor as Joe and Tem gave each other a look, shrugged, and went to their room and back to bed, each one just crashing side by side.

They didn't even twitch.

---

As it turned out, and after Seijin... er... Mirei beat the snot out of Cross without damaging her own body too bad, it was discovered that Seijin had done something to switch himself with Cross. But Cross, not wanting to end up in that pervert's body, had intended to hijack Joe's, but found Joe "indisposed"... Tem likewise. So he had tried for Tempest. However, when he made his move, Mirei had gotten in the way on a trek to the bathroom.

And by the time he realized what had happened... he heard Mirei in Seijin's body screaming... and everyone knows what happened after that.

The only question was how... well, that and...

"What the hell are we gonna do! We have three hours until that charity thing and-"

Tem's shrill screech of joy broke off Cross's complaining. "What the fuck is your problem!" Cross snapped.

Tem held up a full page advertisement in the local paper. "I wanna be a movie extra!!!"

"Gimme that," Joe grumbled as he snatched the paper away. He read it over quickly. "Hell no. Anything but that!"

"Oh come on! It'll be fun! You... me... thousands of other people... blood and war all around us. It'll be romantic!" ^_^

"No. Never in a thousand years."

"You do know I can wait that long don't you baby," he said, false sweetness in his voice.

Joe crumpled up the paper and threw it at his head. "No."

"Oh come on! I wanna be an extra! Maybe we could liberate us some awsome weapons! Come on! I thought you wanted to meet Liv Tyler! This is your chance! Come on! Please!!!"

It was then that it dawned on Mirei and Cross as to what Tem was begging for... and they both shuddered as Joe at last gave in... just to shut the man up...

---

Tempest sighed. "Okay... let me get this straight... I've spent the last three hours playing strip paddle ball with Seijin?"

Joe nodded. Mirei crossed her arms over Seijin's scrawny chest. "You were what?" she said, eyes narrowed.

"...It was a dare. You know I can't resist a dare..."

"Well you'd better start learning to!" she snapped.

"Can you do me a favor hunny and stand next to your body?... This is rather confusing."

She glared at him, even as Tem came back with Seijin, pulling him by the ear. It would have been all the funnier to see if it had been Cross in his own body.

"What did you find out?" Cross asked eagerly.

"That it can't be undone for 24 hours... or more," he said.

"WHAT!" Mirei and Cross both exclaimed.

Seijin used Tem as a shield while Joe and Tempest held Mirei and Cross back, thr two having tried to lunge at him. "What the hell!" Tempest shouted.

"You better not be doing any funny stuff with my body... so help me god if I find out-" Joe clamped a hand over his mouth.

"As amusing as this is," Joe said, "We have to get this straightened out... and soon. I think Cross is starting to enjoy Mirei's body a little too much if you catch my drift."

Minutes later they were on a stage, presenting a huge check to some orphanage that did some fund raiser... and after lengthy discussion in the moments after they left the stage, they sighed and decided to stick together the rest of the day...

Which meant they ALL went with Tem and Joe to go be extras in the 'Return of the King' scene re-shoots...

---

"Do these tights make my butt look big?" Tem asked as he turned his head to look in the mirror. "Ugh... why couldn't I have been an Orc... At least they get those cool swords with the thing at the end." He reached up to adjust his blond wig.

"Hey, at least you get to look good. Me and Cross have to be toothless townspeople," Tempest complained.

"Look! It's Legolas!" Seijin shouted as the faceplate of his Orc helmet fell shut unexpecedly.dd>"Where?" Tem and Mirei (still trapped in Seijin's body and also an elf) exclaimed, looking around.

The Orc that was Joe pulled Tem back by his mithril covered arm. "Down boy. You ain't goin nowhere..."

By the time they made try to grab Mirei, she had already rushed to where the mega-star was sipping at a bottle of water. While they were trying to figure out how to get her away from him, Tem had escped and snuck off... whereupon they found him again when they went to get Mirei.

"Sorry... my little brother is a big fan of your's," he was saying as he was prying her off him with the aid of a few other elven extras. "He usually doesn't do this sort of thing." He pulled one more time.

She let go of Orlando Bloom... taking his wig and running off with it. A few of the production crew gave chase as Joe pulled Tem away... only after he had managed to rip a piece of the man's tunic off.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god..." and Tem just kept rambling on like that for about an hour until it was time to shoot one of the re-takes on the Pelanor Fields when Joe and Seijin were called into the host of orcs and Tempest found Mirei (who was hiding behind a make-up trailer petting the wig and going "oh my god" much like Tem.)

They spent three days finishing up scenes on the Pelanor Fields.

After those were through, Seijin and Joe shed their orc armor and were cast as random men in the masses who were to bow to Aragorn and the hobbits.

Mirei and Tem were both random elves in the processession of Elrond as he was to give Arwen to the King. As they passed, Liv Tyler yelped and looked around. Joe pointed to Seijin, who was pointing to Tempest, who was pointing to some other guy.

This happened about three or four times until Tempest was told to go to the back of the crowd. Between takes, Mirei snickered and Tem would give an icy glare to Joe.

They finished the day with another scene on the Pelanor fields where Joe tripped and fell into one of the horses of the Rohirrim, knocking over the chick who was playing Eyowen, causing Domminic's midget stunt double to snicker and laugh on the ground.

Needless to say, Joe then traded places with one of the guys who gets shot by one of Legolas's arrows.

Then, it was a wrap. It was all over...

And the six of them snuck off with their costumes before they could get caught.

"Okay kiddies... it's time to get this mess over with. Come on before Cross starts mauling Tempest," Mirei said, casting Cross a stern look.

Tem and Joe retreated to the balcony... in wigs?... Those two were always up to something strange... Tempest sighed and shook his head, picking up his clipboard and writing something out.

Maybe if he could somehow go to sleep all this mess would go away and he could be spanking Mirei, the REAL Mirei...

Tem then poked his head inside and laughed at him. "You need to keep your thoughts to yourself Mr. Manager..."

Tempest turned bright red, hid his face, and went to bed as Tem shut the door and took his glass of champagne from Joe... who was chugging the bottle like water. "So, what do ya wanna do now?" he asked, leaving his glass on the rail and smiling as he put his arms around him from behind and started poking his face.

"That hot elf chick..."

"Don't make me get Mirei's ping pong paddle young man," he replied.

"Oh no.. I'm so scared. Let's go like, get drunk or somethin."

"But you just-"

"I meant outside. Away from people with higher IQs than you."

"...But Cross-"

"I meant Mirei you idiot," he said, pulling away. "Besides... I have a score to settle with that stupid hobbit."

"Which one, there were four hobbits you moron."

"The tall one."

"There is no tall one. That's why they're called hobbits you crackhead."

"I knew that..."

Needless to say, they were kicked out of New Zealand before the end of the week. Once they were out of the country, the unfortunate souls that had switched bodies (well... unfortunate except Seijin) were switched back... once Seijin presented them with a vile of very foul and very icky tasting goo. Cross's vile still had a newt's eye floating in it... whole.

---

The New Zealand trip had actually brought them closer together. The remainder of the Asian leg of the tour was uneventful, that is, if you didn't include the tattoo Mirei had drunkenly decided to put on her right butt cheek that read "I Like Tempest Flavored Cheetos" in dark green cursive letters. Of course, once she sobered up, it was already too late to do anything about it... considering the tattoo artist had already sold the juicy news about it to the press.

One Russian newspaper quoted her as saying "Well, I do like Cheetos, but never at the same time." Again, that was a bad choice of words on her part.

To help console her about the incident, Tem also received a tattoo on his left butt cheek that read "I Like Cheetos Too." However, this was not seen as funny, or of any help to anyone.

So, Tempest, being the good, sweet, loving husband he was, also got one that read "I Am Not A Cheeto."

In unrelated events, the company that makes Cheetos saw a sudden massive rise in distribution, as well as many requests for "Tempest Flavor" Cheetos.

However, the tattoo debaucle was not seen as a life altering event, unless your names are Mirei and Tempest.

Then... England happened...

"I thought you knew your way around here!" Joe shouted, smacking Seijin in the back of the head with a rolled up magazine.

"Just because I'm Brittish doesn't mean I-"

Tem smacked him from the back seat with a rolled up newspaper. "You missed the turn you jackass! Tempest's going to kill us!"

"But I-"

"We could just call him on the phone and calmly tell him what's happened. I'm sure he'll understa-"

Tem turned on Cross and smacked him too. "Are you some kind of retarded space alien! We can't call him! He'll scream at us... or worse... he'll have Mirei use Bob..."

"He's got a point. I can't risk getting my manly ass spanked by a girl," Joe said.

Seijin pulled the car over, turned off the engine, and climbed out.

He sat on the hood while the three inside were screaming at one another.

"...Did you guys notice something?"

"Yeah. You hit like a girl." Joe.

"Well, what do you expect from a gay-" Cross shut up when Tem hit him with a flashlight he found under the seat of the rental car.

"No.... I mean... why are there sheep out there?"

"Because we're fuckin lost," Joe muttered, turning back around in the front passenger seat. "Oh, and we've got an ass on the car."

Seijin turned around and looked at them through the glass. They stared back at him. "Are you girls done yet? Or do I need to give you a little more time?"

"That son of a... did he just call me a..."

Tem grabbed his arm. "Now's not the time. We're lost. He's the only one with a valid driver's license."

"Well, you two would still have your's if you hadn't run over the Ethiopian kid."

Joe growled, and turned back around to glare at Cross. "Let's get this straight. I thought he was just a twig on the road. I never saw him. And if you say otherwise, I'll give those pictures of you and that contest winner to your wife."

"You wouldn't."

"Go ahead punk, push my buttons."

Tem snickered. The two looked at him. He turned his head to look back. "What?"

"What are you laughing at? You didn't see the kid either, so don't-"

Tem burst into a fit of laughter and pointed out the window. Outside, in the pasture, were five sheep, all in a circle, humping eachother's butts.

"That's just sick..." Cross said, opening his door to vomit.

Joe covered Tem's eyes. "That's not a scene for children."

Seijin sighed, rubbed his temples, and counted slowly back from 100.

When he was on number 3, the morons in the car were ready to go.

Despite their efforts, they were still terribly lost, and would be forever haunted by the circle of horny sheep, simply because Tem had taken many many pictures with his camera phone.

Somewhere... far away... in a calm, peaceful hotel room, Mirei had been enjoying a nice hot bath. Tempest, who had been a little worried since the boys hadn't shown up yet, and it was getting dark outside, was just about to bite into a nice roast beef sandwich. However, lost his appetite when he looked at the picture Tem had sent to him.

---

"I hate England. I hate Europe. I hate the whole fuckin eastern hemisphere!" Tem shouted as they passed through the door of a quiet, peaceful, small town hotel in the middle of what Cross had decided to call the "never ending fields of sheep".

They were wet. They were cold. And didn't have any of their luggage because it was Joe's bright idea to go on a nice Sunday drive through the countryside as a spur of the moment romantic thing, something he was never really good at to begin with. And why did Cross come along? Because he had wanted them to drop him off at the local market where he could get some chicken... but he never got there because Seijin, who had been paid by Joe to drive them since he did have the only valid driver's license besides Mirei and Tempest, didn't know where the fuck he was going.

And to make matters worse... the amound Joe had paid Seijin was just enough to cover the fee for one room with one bed... which unfortunately, four people had to share.

And Tem's outburst when they came inside from the rain that decided to ruin the idea of sleeping in the car... which was miles down the road and out of gas, had instantly turned all the people sitting by the nice cozy fire in the common room against them.

When they were up on the second floor in their tiny room with one bed, Tem and Joe had stripped to their boxers and hung their wet clothes up on the shower curtain rod in the extremely small bathroom they had to share. Seijin was stripped and in bed before anyone could claim it. Tem and Joe were curled up on the small and ugly colored love seat by the window.

And Cross, feeling like an idiot, had gone back downstairs and asked the woman behind the counter if it was possible for him to have just one cot rolled up to their room. Of course, with his string of bad luck, there wasn't. He then asked if anyone would be willing to lend him some clothes for the night, explaining that he was uncomfortable sleeping in his skivies while sharing a room with two gay guys and a bisexual.

He ended up spending the night in the room of a Swiss couple that gave pity on his predicament. He slept on their loveseat after borrowing their blow dryer in an attempt to dry his clothes.

Meanwhile, in London, Mirei and Tempest were enjoying a nice quiet night alone. Sipping brandy and teaching two other couples how to play Texas Hold'em in the lounge.

---

Tem was the first to wake and go "Where's Cross?" only after he took a piss.

After waking Joe, the two went down stairs to discover... No Cross... well, not at first.

When they did find him, he was tied up on the floor, in the middle of a satanic ritual. A blonde haired blue eyed woman stood stark naked over him, holding a knife and a live chicken by it's feet.

"Looks like he finally got his chicken," Tem said. "Serves you right, carnivore."

"Uh... I think we should sorta help him out here," Joe said.

"I'm hungry. Let's eat."

"But he's tied up and gagged."

"Which means he's not going anywhere. We'll get him after breakfast."

"I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Since when did you learn to think."

"Touche."

The two went into the dining area, leaving their bound and gagged friend behind.

As they ate, they tried not to pay attention to the chanting and strobe lights in the next room.

When they had finished, and returned, Cross was now hanging from the ceiling, his hands tied above his head and dangling from a meat hook, which of course, was hooking only the ropes. And again, the ritual had stopped.

"Oh! Calling up a wind demon! I've always wanted to see this!"

"Uh... babe... we should really rescue him. After all... do you really think it would be a good idea to leave his dozen kids without a dad?"

The naked woman looked at her human sacrifice, then to her satanic breathren. "The big man presents a good point. After all, the children are the future."

"And it's been scientifically proven that children who lack a strong male influence in their lives grow up to be sex offenders and murderers," said another.

"So it's agreed then. We take out the kids first, then continue this later." She looked at Cross again. "How does next Monday sound?"

"That day's not good for me. I've got a dentist appointment," said one of the robbed men.

"Okay... Tuesday."

"That's not good for me either. I've got a double decapitation that morning, and a routine sodomy that afternoon."

She sighed, rolled her eyes.

Tem blinked, Joe laughed.

And Cross almost wet his pants... Almost.

Seijin on the other hand, had appeared out of nowhere in his boxers. "Did I hear someone say sodomy? Count me in! I make a great slave. Can I be strung up by my ankles and-"

"Okay... that's enough," Tem said, dragging him out of the room.

That left Joe, the satanists, and Cross, who looked so terribly scared. "Okay... since he's my friend, I'm going to need to see the paperwork."

Cross's muffled shouts came shortly after. All the satanists looked at one another, then the naked leader spoke up. "What paperwork?"

"Well, you can't just go and carve someone up for a ritual without the proper permits. I mean, how long have you people been doing this?"

"Actually..." one said.

"I told you we should have had the permits drawn up before we disemboweled your lawyer!" shouted another.

"Hey, it was a heat of the moment thing. I can't help it if Satan tells me he's on a deadline."

Joe, having thoroughly distracted the satanists, got Cross down and carried him like a football up to their room where he untied him.

Cross ran to the bathroom and took a nice long pee, more glad that he didn't wet his pants than he was about not being killed.

Back in London, Tempest was again trying to eat, this time, it was a nice warm bowl of tomato soup. However, he dropped his camera phone into it when he saw the latest picture sent from Tem. This one was only Cross, strung up on a meat hook, with eyes so wide one might use them as teacup saucers.

---

"I have some good news, and I have some bad news..."

Joe looked up from his phone, where he had been playing the phone version of the snowboarding game from FF7. Cross looked up from where he was huddled in the corner, rocking back and forth, trying to repress another memory.

"Well... good news is, Tempest won't kill us."

"And the bad news?"

" Turns out, he dropped his phone in his soup, and had to use Mirei's. Well, since we didn't show last night, we missed our flight and can't get another one till next week... or maybe the week after."

"What!" Cross shouted, jumping up from the corner. "I can't spend another minute in this-"

"And!" Tem shouted over him. "He would send us money, but he doesn't know where we are, so... we're on our own."

"No money, no plane out of here, people wanting to cut my penis off for a satanic fertility ritual, and now...." Cross sat back down, rocking back and forth, going back to repressing the memory of his entire stay in England.

Tem blinked, then, looked around. "Uh... has anyone seen Sei?"

"Yeah. Left a while ago with one of the guys in the black robes."

"Jesus fucking christ..." Tem mumbled, rubbing his temples and sitting on the loveseat.

"Hey... think we can pimp him out for some cash?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Well, he does it for free anyway. Just a thought."

"I'll talk to the manager later, see if there's a way she'll let us stay without paying."

"You could try the rock star thing. Tell her you'll pay later."

"Tried it. We're so screwed."

"Oh? Nobody's heard of us here?"

"No. She says Kiss stayed here in the 80's and still hasn't paid her back yet."

"Yep... we're so screwed. Hey, new high score!"

"Really? Lemme see!"

And the two played the game on Joe's phone. And Cross just stared into space. This was going to be a long week...

---

In London, Tempest handed Mirei back her phone. "He bought it."

"Hun... are you sure about this? I mean, you could at least have their phones tracked and send them money."

"Eh. Why bother. It's nice with them gone. Besides, this can be our second honeymoon."

"...You mean first," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You said you'd take me somewhere after Damien was born, but did you? No. You just up and died on me... you did the same thing after you came back and Alexia was born."

"Woo! I win again!" one of the men at the table shouted.

Mirei rolled her eyes and handed over her wrist watch. Tempest gave him his clipboard, without the paper.

"Ya know... I was just thinking about something..."

"What now? You're not going to complain again are you?"

Mirei gave him a cold look. "No... I was just going to say how much the boys might enjoy this place. Once you get past the fact it's a nudist resort, it's actually quite nice."

---

Eventually, the boys did meet up with Mirei and Tempest again... after a month and a half. None of the four would even speak of what they did during that time, and Mirei and Tempest didn't think they wanted to know the story behind all the strange pictures Tem had kept sending them. They resumed their tour, going to South America first, with refreshed spirits.

But, the happiness did not last for long.

Seijin, who was ever the whore, managed to get into a Brazillian porn video. Tem and Joe found new ways to beat the shit out of each other. Mirei's ping pong paddle was conviniently "lost" by Tempest on a riverboat cruise down the Amazon. Mirei herself, again another drunk decision, had a tattoo placed on her left buttock that read "If you can read this, then you're staring at my ass." Tem then followed suit with one on the right buttock that read "If you're reading this, then you're on my ass." And Joe got one on his stomach that read "Suck Here" with an arrow pointing down. Not the best thing to do when you've got a very jealous red haired man in spike heeled boots making sure nobody sees it but himself. Cross found new ways to repress his memories, and added the following to his list of places he never wanted to go again: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, all of Asia except Russia (with a side note that reads "Russia make vodka. Vodka = happy Cross), and South America.

And Tempest? Once they had returned to the United States, he was institutionalized. Why? Because he felt it would be the only safe place he could go. That, and he felt the loss of his beloved clipboard too great to bear.



~End.

18 May 2004
Timeline: This was the original follow-up story to the Role Players Collection. However, the project was scrapped due to lack of interest as well as writer's block. This story may be tied into Reclaimation at a later date, as I have lifted a few ideas from this for it.

The Shadow Mage: Fate of the Shinigami

[Declaration of the Defiler]

I've walked for centuries through the world, watching as it passed me by. I've taken human shape from time to time to relieve the boredom in my ancient bones.
I was there when the humans first came to be. I was the driving force in the fall of the Great Dragons. It was I who gave life to the Vampyre. It was I who turned the hearts of all creatures wicked and spawned the vile races of demons.
I tempted Eve to take the fruit, and it was also I who tempted Jesus in the desert. I fell from the heavens with a wound in my heart as the Creator tried to destroy me.
The different creatures that now run around my savage garden are weak, but infesting my sacred temples with prayers to their gods of forgiveness and joy in numbers. And in their hardships, their cries of pain and sorrow quicken me.
Every culture knows of me, and dare not speak my true name. Some call me Diablo, others say Lucifer. Satan, the Devil, the Morning Star, El Muerto, Le Mort. All these they substitute in it's place.

All hearts must do battle inside themselves against me, for my evil reaches all like poison in their veins. The weaver of nightmares, the conjuror of hell...
I am the Shadou. And my time has come to take back my kingdom from those who took it from me...

***

[Night Trap Island - Off the southern coast of California]
He stood on the balcony rail, red eyes hidden behind the Ray Bans he wore. His white trench coat caught the wind, and flapped off to the right as it blew. Long silver hair too shifted. Black leather pants, form fitting and leaving little to the imagination. He held a cigarette between his lips, the ash falling to the streets below.
None saw him, how could they? Only those with the Sight could sense his presence, and this he cared little for.
Crimson lips turned up into a smile as he flicked the butt of the cancer stick away. His head turned as he watched a motor cycle pass below; long blue hair flowing out from the back of a helmet.
He moved, large wings coming up behind him as he swooped down, unsheathing the sword hidden at his side.
His wings, enormous by even a dinosaur standard, beat the air with such force one would think him a helicopter if they could feel him.
To the untrained eye, one might think it just a blast of the sea breeze that occasionally whipped across the island.
As he swooped down, his sword raised as he made for the kill, he smashed into one of the buildings at his left, falling to the ground.
People panicked, and it was obvious his presence was now obvious even to the least powerful among the human fodder infesting the world.
He rose to his feet, his sword held tightly in both hands as he looked up in the direction the energy blast had come from.
There, his eyes locked onto the figure, black trench coat made in the same as that of the long dead hero Vash the Stampede. The figure looked down at him from the rooftop, one hand on the hip and the other dangling at the side.
Short hair, spiked 6" above the head was scarlet, but the face hidden behind a mask of white porcelain; eye holes painted around with dark blue and lips jet black.
The figure did not move, only stood with eyes watching as if waiting.
It was obvious to even the silver haired that those on the street could see even him, and yet the man did not care. It was as if he 'wanted' to be seen.
"Leave this place if you value your life."
"I will come as I will and leave when I please. Stop meddling in my affairs boy," he snapped back, the entire exchange purely on a telepathic level.
"Then you leave me no choice," he replied, flicking his wrist.
Even from the distance, the winged one could see what his hand now held, slowly extending out until he grasped the hilt.
"Death has no place here with the living."
"And neither do shadows of the dead," he replied, then sprung with such speed that all onlookers could see the pair as nothing but a blur...

---

[Los Angeles City-State]
// "Mirei..." He looked to her with a soft smile, his brown eyes seeming to look around before staring right at her. "Mirei..." He reached out a hand to her, then slowly faded away as she stretched her's to meet him.
He began to fade, and when her hand met his she held nothing but air. "Tempest!"
"Mirei... don't leave me..." //
She sat up, grabbing her head in a groan of pain as she clenched her eyes tightly, her chest heaving as she struggled to breathe. A hand on her shoulder eased her back onto the pillows.
"Calm down Maria, you've been under heavy cryo-stasis for the past three months," said a man as she slowly opened her eyes.
"Wh...where am I..."

            "North LA Medical. You were in an accident three months ago. What's the name of the World President?"

            "President.... uh.... Bush."

            He shook his head, and turned to another man, this one in a white coat and a clipboard of charts in the crook of his arm. "The reports said there was no brain damage of any kind. This might be a result of the stasis," he said. "She may be experiencing astral displacement. It has happened on occasion. I-"

            The other glanced back at her, his cat eyes narrowing. "I don't care about the technicalities doctor. Just see to it she's fighting fit before you release her."

            "In my opinion I don't think she'll be able to go back in the ring for another 3 months."

            "Did I ask for your opinion doctor? I said she had better be fighting fit, preferably before this week is up."

            "Tempest," she said weakly, turning her head to look at the two men. "Where's Tempest? He was here..."

            The man who had stood over her upon her awakening shook his head again before walking out of the room.

            "No one's come except Mr. Lawrence," said the doctor, stepping close to the bed. "Miss Vultros, go back to sleep and rest." He checked a machine hooked up to her arm, and tapped a button. Instantly she felt the cool rush of something flowing into her arm as her eyes slid closed again...

                        ---

[Night Trap Island - Striding Cloud Tavern]

 

            "Son of a bitch!" he shouted as the man poured a bottle of liquor on his arm. Blonde hair fell into his eyes as he wrapped a cloth around the wound.

            "You can't keep doing this to yourself bro," he said.

            The man winced as the pain shot through his arm, yet he made not a sound as he turned his head to look at the slowly reddening scrap of cloth.

            "Slaying demons is one thing, but taking on a hell lord is another."

            "I've done it before. I can-"

            "You can get yourself killed is what you can do. Remember what happened the last time when you took on Shade?"

            "Don't remind me..."

            "You don't have to do this alone Tem. I'll-"

            "It's too dangerous. Stick to decapitating badu kid, and leave the big boys to me."

            "You talk tough," said the blonde as he recapped the bottle of whisky after taking a swig. "But when it comes down to it, you're just like me and everyone else."

            "Don't push your luck Vancha," he said, sliding down from the table and pulling on a spare shirt, leaving it unbuttoned and his tanned flesh exposed.

            His pants slid down to his hips, his flat stomach in full view of his partner. He didn't bother to tug them up as he put on his glasses. "Besides, don't you-" he started, but was cut short when the bell of the door chimed. He glanced over his shoulder a moment. "Well finish this later. You got customers."

            "Yeah..." he replied, tossing him a necklace.

            He caught it in the air and slipped it on over his head, the pendant falling to his hairless chest, the dragon on it staring out with its black diamond eyes.

            The blonde slipped behind the counter as the customers, a few of the regulars, sat down for some drinks.

            He swiped up his mask and took it with him to the back room, stuffing it into a chest under a futon back there before hanging his now one sleeved trench coat on a nail in the wall.

            For a moment he stared at the painted walls, then in frustration he went back out to the common room to join his partner behind the bar.

            "Yo Tim," said one of the men at the counter, sipping from a bottle of the classic brand 705. "We still on for tonight?" he said with a wink.

            "Whatever..." he grumbled, taking up a bottle and serving one of the others.

            That was the trouble of working in a gay bar... every damn man that came through the door thought that they were god's gift to mankind... literally.

                        ---

[Los Angeles - Elfhame Heights Apartment Complex]

 

            His shift was over at 3 AM and he was glad for it. If one more damn prick grabbed his ass he'd have knocked him clear across the room using his full strength no matter who the hell it was.

            When he walked into his apartment, he slumped down in a chair on the balcony, watching the cars below whiz by with their plasma jets on full.

            "Rough night?" he asked, setting a beer on the plastic table beside him before taking up in the other chair.

            Brown eyes watched him closely from behind a veil of shaggy brown hair. The red head took his cold bottle and twisted off the cap, taking a swig without looking at the other. "You could say that," he replied nonchalantly.

            The other nodded. "I'm getting nowhere on the Underground. I'm thinking of checking the Mainstream next. No one's heard anything about her since the region finals last April."

            "You'd be wise to stop looking. If you haven’t found her by now, I doubt you're going to at all," he replied.

            "She's here, I know it."

            "Then all I can say is you're not looking hard enough. If she said she was coming for me, then you think she would have found me by now..."

            "Say you're right, but I can't stop now. I think I'm getting warmer."

            "Yeah... warm as the arctic," he replied with a grin. "Keep looking then if you want. But don't come whining to me if you reach a dead end. I got bigger things to deal with."

            "Look Tem... I know you think he's out there, but you can't keep following around all the blue haired little kids around like a guardian angel all the time. You-"

            "I fought Him today Tempest, and He got away, just like the last time. If I can just find Joe, then maybe we'll have a chance at-"

            "Keep dreaming man. It's over. He's probably cosmic dust by now anyway."

            "I could say the same about Mirei, but you never listen."

            He turned his eyes away, watching the cars like the red head had done when he'd come out on the balcony. "They say ghosts are often bound to certain places or people... If you haven't found him anywhere around here... maybe he's..."

            "I'm not going back to that ghost town Tempest. I don't care if Jesus himself went to Mile and decided everyone there can go party with him in heaven."

            "You won't know until you go back there. If what you said happened there, then that's most likely where you'll find him if he's not hanging around here."

            "...Whatever..." he mumbled, draining his bottle in one fell swig. "Tell ya what. If you find Mirei and restore her memories enough for her to not think you and me are just some sick perverts trying to kidnap an innocent girl, we'll go to Missing Mile."

            "Is that a challenge?" he asked with a raised brow as the other stood up.

            "Take it however you want bro. I'm goin to bed. Gotta work a double shift tomorrow over at the Striding Cloud."

                        |||

            He was sitting on the deck of the old beach house, a bottle of wine in his hand as the children played down on the beach. he felt arms slip around his waist from behind and lips pressed against his neck. "Hey Tem," he said softly as he slipped a hand up his chest, the other taking the bottle from his hand.

            Then, the other led him inside and through the house.

            It was like he was in a daze as the world shifted and grew darker. He was pulled to the bed and laid down, his clothes suddenly gone as if they weren't there before.

            A body lay on top of him, lips caressing his skin as he shuddered, his hand coming up to feel a handful of that long silky hair. The mattress beneath him felt filthy, and the room stank of old beer and dead roses.

            Goosebumps rose on his flesh as he felt the fleshy tongue explore his privates then his back arched up as he felt the first thrust of the man on top of him.

            His breaths came quick and short as lips fell to claim his mouth, their breaths flowing in and out of one another as he felt his wrists start to pour all that was in him.

            The passionate thrusts turned painful and quick as he felt the cold rush fill his bowels. His eyes blinded and the needle sharp teeth on his shoulder, taking chunks of flesh from it as the man turned beast continued to piston in and out of him before finally tearing him apart in a scream of agony...

                        |||

            He shot up like a bolt of lightening had stuck him, sweat covering his body as he looked at the clock by his bed. 10:00 AM.

            His heart beat furiously in his chest as he felt around on the nightstand for his plastic bottle he'd left there when he'd gone to bed, but never opened.

            "Shit..." he muttered, brushing his hair from his eyes. He'd taken a shower before going to bed, and had intended on taking one of his dream suppressants but apparently had forgotten to.

            He heard the sounds of someone in the kitchen as he rose from the bed. He got dressed quickly, pulling on a t-shirt and a pair of dirty jeans from earlier in the week.

            "Guess it's time to do the laundry again..." he muttered as he popped a tablet into his mouth and swallowed it dry before going out from the room.

            He found his old friend making a sandwich in his plaid boxers and drinking a cup of coffee. "Vancha called, wanted to know where you were off to this time," he said, putting the top piece of wheat bread on before sliding the sandwich to a plate, then picked it and a second one up and set them on the kitchen table.

            "I told him you were paying bills on your way in. You're only an hour late," he said, sitting down with his coffee.

            "Yeah... thanks man," he said, running a hand through his hair and pouring himself a cup of coffee in the biggest mug in their tiny apartment. "Was he pissed?"

            "Not really. Just worried about you. Didn't say it, but I could tell from his voice," he said, watching him sit down at the table and pulling the sandwich closer. "You don't look too good... you have another-"

            "Yeah..." he said, taking a sip of his coffee. "Speaking of bills... how much we talkin this month?"

            "Doesn't look good. What happened to all that cash you set aside for your descendants?"

            "Dumbasses spent it all within 2 generations remember... Besides, I gave Astarte and Alexia full control of all my accounts In my will..."

            "Oh yeah... well, if we go easy on the food, eat every other day then we'll have enough to cover the rent since we won't have to buy groceries... but we'll be cutting it close with everything else, and there isn't much in the winnings lately to cover everything. How about your end?"

            "With all the damn tips you'd think I'd be a millionaire by now. Bastards won't give me nuthin if I don't turn a Trick. And since business all around has been slower than a damn sloth the last few months looks like I won't be bringin in shit for a paycheck this week either. So..."

            "We can do without the phone for a while if it comes down to it. I don't mind the half mile walk to the payphone."

            He shook his head and picked at his sandwich. "Don't worry... I'll figure somethin out before I get home, whenever that'll be."

            "Don't. I'll borrow some cash from one of the guys down at the arena and pay him back next time I win."

            "Which could be months before you even get in another match. I'll have enough to make up the difference when I get back okay," he said, shoving the plate away. "Put that in the fridge. We can save it for tomorrow or somethin, I'm not hungry."

            He got up from his chair, dreading the day before it could even properly start.

                        ---

            She had spent the last two days in the bed, morphine pumping steadily into her arm as she lay, an invalid. People kept asking her questions, and only a few she could answer. Like her name, her age, her birthday, what her favorite color was, and other stuff like that. When it came to a question like who was the president, what year was it, what day it was... she had not a clue.

            Her doctor said it must have been because what had happened to her was so traumatic her own mind blocked it out completely, and a few other things by accident. But he had also said it was perfectly normal...

            Now she was sitting up and looking at a psychiatrist as she explained what had happened to her to warrant 3 months asleep and in a big tube in the hospital ICU.

            "Your hover bike was hit by a semi. It's a miracle it didn't kill you on impact. It's even more surprising that you didn't die when you hit the pavement. That was over 100 feet you fell."

            She nodded as if she understood what she meant, but clearly had her mind on other things.

            "Your partial memory loss is quite routine in patients who've gone through similar circumstances and survived. Aside from that you're a perfectly healthy young woman with quite an enthralling story for your children one day. There isn't much I can do for you besides the standard 'if you have trouble coping, then come to my office' or 'if you remember anything, then please inform your local police force handling your case'."

            "So they'll let me out soon?" she asked.

            The woman nodded and made a note on her notepad. "I do believe so." And that was all she said before getting up and leaving. No 'goodbye'. No 'it was nice talking with you Miss Vultros' or anything.

            She looked to the window with a sigh, watching as a bird flew past. She thought she saw something silver from the corner of her eye, but when she looked, it was gone.

            As she lay back down against the pillows, she could not shake the feeling of being watched...

                        ---

[The Striding Cloud]

 

            He'd changed before going into work that day, discarding his comfortable t-shirt and jeans for a tight purple silk shirt and form fitting leather pants. They were a shade or two darker than his once more spiked hair. Eyes rimmed with black kohl and lips painted deep purple with lipstick and lip liner, he served drinks artfully beside his partner.

            Vancha kept a careful eye on him, knowing what was up but not saying a word. He had pulled the man aside at one point, telling him his worry and asking if he needed help with the bills. But he would have none of it, saying "You don't have the cash to spare," followed by "And you know I wouldn't take it anyway."

            So, he endured the ass grabs and perverse stares the entire night, slipping off every so often not long after a customer had left the bar.

            He'd always come back with a fresh squirt of cologne and a tired smile before resuming his place behind the bar, or taking trays of drinks to tables out on the floor.

            It was nearing the end of his second shift, still a few hours away from closing, when he decided to get a little overtime in just to get a few extra bucks in on his next paycheck.

            After a while, he just collapsed on the futon in the back room with a bottle of vodka in his hand. He was tired, he hurt, and in desperate need of something to eat, but he didn't dare even nibble on a cracker. If he had, he knew he'd be bent over behind the building vomiting it back up anyway.

            "Life sucks, but you die, and then get to do it all over again..." he muttered, staring at one of the walls where he had painted faces from a previous life that now through a drunken and sex induced haze seemed near forgotten.

            "Just turn a few more tricks Tem and you'll have enough to keep Tempest and yourself off the street for another month at least..." he said, draining the rest of the bottle that was only 1/3 full to begin with.

            With a groan, he got up and stumbled back out to the bar, looking around at the few dwindling customers that seemed to him to never go home.

            "Just go home bro," Vancha said when he served up a bottle of straight vodka to a man at the counter. "You look terrible."

            "I always look terrible," he said, leaning on the counter with his back to the room.

            "I asked for 705..." grumbled a man behind him.

            "We ain't got that brand here. Try Whispering Wind across town," he replied as he turned around.

            For a moment his heart stopped and his stomach lurched, threatening to purge itself of the various types of man seed it had consumed mixed with liquor from the night. He managed to control his gag reflexes enough to calm himself as he looked into those cold black eyes.

            The man grimaced and picked up the bottle, putting it to his lips. He drained it in what seemed one massive gulp before leaving two 100 dollar bills on the counter and getting up.

            Vancha quickly swiped them up before the man could turn around and realize his mistake and palmed them into the register, making change and setting the rest aside to give to his partner later.

            The red head blinked at his retreating form, bewildered by the menacing stare he'd received, as well as speechless when the man took off his ball cap.

            "Death..." he whispered to himself as he watched him go out the door.

            His mind seemed to take photographs of the man the whole time since he laid eyes on him first. When the man was gone, he seemed to shake himself back to life again.

            " 'Beat me till I'm black and I'm blue...' " he said to himself, picking up a tray of drink orders for a few of the tables still taken by customers.

            "What's that?"

            "Nothin. Just talkin to myself again," he replied as he went back out on the floor.

                        ---

            Tempest was waiting for him when he got home, more exhausted than he had been the night before. His roommate claimed to have been watching a really good movie, but it was an obvious lie as there were nothing but infomercials on and the pair didn't even have cable, let alone satellite.

            Tem had emptied his pockets and a plastic back with change on the cardboard box that served as their coffee table with a torn blanket thrown over the top of it to hide the Japanese version of 'this side up'. The money also included the change from the black eyed man's single bottle of vodka.

            Vancha had made him take it, saying it was the man's tip, and he wouldn't take it back no matter what the other said.

            Tempest had gone to get the rest of their cash and counted it all up, separating what little was left out for groceries and what few luxuries they might could afford to have.

            "You're going to catch something one of these days doing that shit," he muttered.

            "Yeah, well at least we won't have to worry about bein kicked out again till next time the rent's due. I don't tell you how to fight, so you don't tell me how to work got that," he grumbled.

            "Doesn't mean I have to condone it either Tem. It's too dangerous for you to be pullin-" But he stopped when he noticed the man had fallen asleep.

            He put all the money in a plastic bag and took it back to his room to use to pay the bills the next day. After a few minutes, he slipped into his friend's smaller room across the hall, retrieving a pill from the bottle and taking a day old glass of water too him.

            He woke him long enough to make him take his medication, then went back to his room, stopping briefly to give the man a worried look before going to bed.

                        |||

            "Why don't you get a real job?" the woman asked, moving her chess piece a space. "He's right you know, you’re wearing yourself out like this."

            He sighed, looking briefly in her dazzling blues before moving his piece and propping his chin in his hand and trying to concentrate on the game. "Because I don't want to end up like I did before."

            "Like what?" she asked, tossing her golden locks over her bare shoulder with a bright smile before moving another piece.

            "A babbling invalid..."

            "But the technology now is much more advanced. It's just a simple in and out procedure, with very little to do to your actual brain at all."

            He took a long moment before he moved his bishop across the board. "I'm not having another chip put in there. It's like a computer. People can hack in any time they choose if they know the right passwords and how to crack them."

            "So? Can't you just work behind a counter somewhere other than that bar?"

            He shook his head as she moved her piece. "No... you can't even do that unless you're in the System... and I'd prefer to be untraceable."

            "But Tem, did you ever stop to think maybe that's the only way you can-"

            "What am I doing talking to you... you're nothing like the real Imooto..." he sighed and put her into checkmate, just like he always did in his dreams... like he almost always did in his own time. "You're just telling me what I want to hear."

            She smiled, but slowly it turned to a frown. "I'm only trying to help you see your options. That's why you conjured me isn't it?"

            "Not to be plain and agreeable... if I wanted that I'd go donate my body to the System and that would be the end of it..."

            "Then..." she said as she pressed a button to the side. The game reset itself for another game. "Aren't you even curious to see what there might be to find in Missing Mile?"

            "That's better. Nag me, nag me until I have the urge to smack you for being right but won't." At this she smiled.

            "Is that more like the Mirei you knew?"

            He sighed and gave a halfhearted grin. "It's enough," he said, moving his first piece. "It's enough..."

                        |||

[Night Trap]

 

            She could not explain the impulse to drive. She was amazed she even wanted to get near a car again after the horrors they had told her while bedridden. But nevertheless, there was no other way to get anywhere she wanted to go.

            She'd managed to hold Tyler Lawrence, who she was told was her manager (of which she remembered nothing, but gave into the fact that this was probably caused by her spotty amnesia), off for a while at least with the excuse that she needed to reorient herself before she went back in the arena.

            The impulse to go out to that cesspool Night Trap? Who knew besides the angels that were apparently smiling down on her. But, she went, if only to help ease the gnawing in the back of her mind.

            She'd dressed in a nice, decent looking shirt that seemed to dwarf her. It hung off her body in such a way it gave her a rather androgynous look. Her denim jeans were loose as well, but held up with an old leather belt she had found hanging over the back of a chair in her apartment.

            Long blonde hair was pulled back into a perfect braid, and since she didn't feel up to it, she wore no makeup besides the lip balm she'd gotten from her stay in the hospital.

            She stopped at a bar, the sign outside near the street reading "The Striding Cloud" on it with a picture of a scantily clad devil boy sitting on a cloud with a pitchfork in hand and a halo hanging between his teeth as if he were chewing on it. She had smiled at this, thinking it was rather cleverly drawn.

            She'd walked in, and surveyed the crowd as she went up to the bar with the intention of asking for directions. Something in her noted the fact of the all male clientele the place drew, but this she put on a back burner of her mind as she called the attention of the young man behind the counter.

            "Can I help you?" he asked with a smile as he continued shaking up a margarita.

            "Yeah. I was hoping you could give me directions... I think I might have taken a wrong turn somewhere."

            "Where ya headin?" he asked, pouring the drink and setting it on a tray before mixing another drink and doing the same.

            "Uhm... it was right here..." she said, looking through her pockets a moment. She felt uneasy eyes on her, and tried her best to ignore them. "Here..." she finally found the piece of paper she'd hastily written the address on and handed it to him.

            He looked over it carefully. "That's the Pike-Sanders Estate down on Belmont. You're probably lookin for the Dragon Arms Hotel down on Ringo, and if that's the case then you're on the wrong end of the island kid."

            She blinked a moment, thinking to herself that maybe she'd written down the wrong address from the online directory. It was possible, she'd done it before, so this didn't seem out of place from her usual mistakes.

            A young man came up at her side and took the tray of drinks in both hands. "Table 9 needs a refill of old BoVo," he said.

            "Yeah... just a sec. Dragons is down on Ringo right?"

            "Nah. It's down on Belmont remember? The old one burned down and they moved it next to the Museum Estate."

            "Oh yeah!" said the bartender, his bright green eyes flashing as he grabbed a bottle from the shelf and set it on the tray as well. It was marked in a fading spidery handwriting that read "BOVO 2003".

            She watched as the other man took the tray away to a table, setting down a few drinks and narrowly avoiding an old drunkard's gropes before moving onto another table. "Yeah, leaving here to take a left and follow this road till you reach Clearview, then down there till ya see a sign that says 'Kink with a Wink' and a nude girl on it, then turn left. That's Belmont, and follow it to the end of the road. Can't miss it."

            She sighed and nodded as he handed the paper back, and instead of leaving she sat down on a stool for a drink.

            "Hey there pretty thang," she heard a man say from close by when the tray carrier returned and slipped behind the bar with a grumble.

            "If he puts one more hand on me I swear I'll break his fucking arms and beat him with them..." he muttered as he helped the blonde serve drinks at the counter.

            "Just chill bro. Not like you'll ever see the bastard again. Damn tourists floodin in like this drive me nuts," said the blonde as he was allowed a few minutes to breathe. "Could be worse," he said, putting a bottle of beer to his own lips before noticing she was still there. "You wa-"

            "Just vodka, don't care what brand or how good, and I want the bottle," she said flatly.

            He shrugged and put a fresh bottle before her. Again she felt eyes on her, this time from the other man behind the counter. This, she could not ignore seeing as he was practically right in front of her. She looked up at him with a small, polite smile, which faded when she saw the worn out look on his face.

            His red spiked hair was a little droopy. Not enough gel or hairspray to keep it up maybe? She didn't really care. She was more interested in his face more than anything else about him. Her eyes followed the lines of his high cheekbones, sunken slightly, and his full, rouged lips nearly the same shade as his bright red hair. His eyes, a little between almond and round were fixed on her a moment. She was amazed at the colors she found there, black pupil surrounded by a swirl of lavender and blue. Contacts?

            She felt a hand grab her ass from behind. Instantly she turned around with a fierce growl reserved for the fighting arena before narrowing her eyes at the man. "Touch me again and I'll rip your cock off," she snapped angrily.

            He blinked at her and muttered something under his breath about how he liked the feisty ones before going back to his table companions and laughing.

            "Asshole," she grumbled before turning back around and taking a sip from her bottle. She raised a brow at the smiling red head curiously.

            "What?"

            "Nothing. Just that getting his cock ripped off is something I'd pay to see," he said with a laugh before one of the far tables held up an empty pitcher.

            Instantly the blonde filled another and set it on the tray. "Good luck," he said to the other.

            "Yeah..." he replied, going around to the front of the counter with tray in hand. "I'm going to need it today."

            She shook her head. "And here I thought I wouldn't have to worry about being grabbed in a gay bar... fucking perverts..." she mumbled just loud enough for everyone around her to hear.

            Instantly she felt eyes on her, then they were gone again, ensuring that she would receive no more of the penetrating stares of perverted men mentally undressing her in their filthy heads.

            The blonde couldn't help but give a full bellied laugh. "Now that's something I don't hear everyday!" he had to set down the drink he was mixing to keep from dropping it on the floor. "Women seeking safety here... used ta not be that way 'round these parts. Not since the Pikes lost the deed to the place at least."

            Again that name, the second time she'd ever heard it, and in the same hour as the first, caused her to unintentionally withdraw into her thoughts. The gnawing at her mind grew larger as she tried to suppress it.

            "What's on ya mind kid?"

            "Nothing... but... the Pikes? Were they some kind of rich family around here? You said the Pike-Sanders Estate a little while ago."

            "They were the richest family 'round here. Used to own the whole island till the patriarchs died. When I say they owned the island, I mean the actual property. The businesses on it they didn't run or anything. 'Cept this here bar, the Dragon's Arms, a few private beaches, and that big ass estate down on Belmont. That was about..." he took am moment and finished mixing a few drinks. " 'Bout 200 years ago or so I reckon. But I'm not one to be telling. Mt bro Tim's the local expert if there ever was one. Knows this place like the back of his hand.

            "The head of the family died somethin terrible and left almost everything to his lover... what was his name?"

            "Joseph," the red head said as he set down the tray on the counter again. "And remind me later when my shift is up to kill the jerks at table 9..."

            "Yeah, that was his name. Joseph Sanders. But they say that place is unlucky."

            "Why's that?" she asked, taking another sip from her bottle.

            "Because that guy was hit by a car six months later and died. Everyone since who's tried to live there's been either going bankrupt or died, all accidental or natural deaths though so don't get your hopes up to see any tormented ghosts if you see the museum out that way," said Tim as he sat down. "I'm takin a break. My feet are killin me and my whole damn body hurts."

            The blonde gave him a look, which he returned with one of his own. She sat there watching the pair, not wanting to even try to probe into their unspoken conversation.

            The silent nagging at her grew, and she pulled out her check card. "Here. I'd best be gettin along now. I got things to do," she said.

            The blonde nodded and broke away to run her card through the archaic machine. He came back with a bright smile. "Maria Vultros. I saw you three months ago at the regionals. What happened?"

            "I'd rather not talk about it," she said, putting her card away with the paper in her pocket.

            She got up to go, taking the bottle with her when she felt a tug at her arm. She turned to look at the red head with another polite smile. "Hey, if you ever quit street fighting, maybe you could be our bouncer? You scared the hell outta that one old fag. Don't think he'll be tryin to grab around for a while, but you never know."

            She nodded, and her smile grew larger, more genuine. "I'll think about it," she said, taking a final swig of her drink.

            When she passed by the table with the one who'd grabbed her ass, she shot him a look as if to dare him to try it again. He seemed to shrink back in his chair, and his cohorts laughed at him for it.

            When the door closed on her, the red head turned to Vancha with an impossibly large grin. And the other knew what he meant... he'd gotten that same smile only once before, and that was when he'd heard that the man's old friend Tempest had come back to town...

                        ---

            She stood looking at the paper, then up at the looming hotel above before going inside. There at the front desk, she asked for a room on the second floor with a view of the beach. The woman obliged and she had her card key in her hand within 15 minutes.

            And after that she stood on her balcony looking out at the ocean with a soft smile as the nagging ebbed. Ever since she woke up in that sterile room, she had the urge to see the ocean. She'd gone while on the mainland to Long Beach, but it wasn't the same. She felt the need to go further, beyond the safety of the mainland city states. The need to feel the water at land's farthest point.

            And now here she was. She turned her back to the beach swarmed with smiling faces of children and what few families dared come out to this sex obsessed island.

            She took a shower, and shortly after collapsed on the bed from exhaustion, as well as to sleep off the bottle of vodka she had finished in the car on the way over..

                        ---

[Elfhame Apartment Complex - Appt 821]

 

            It was Tempest's turn to come home to his waiting roommate. It was nearing 6 AM, and he'd had not one, but 5 matches during the day before. The last of which kept going on to the wee hours in the morning.

            He smacked his winnings on the kitchen table with a smug smile. "Looks like we have enough to at least pay the rent next month!" he shouted. "And combine that with my next three matches for this month and your paychecks alone and we'll have enough to pay the other bills and get some burgers!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

            "I saw her," he said, looking up from his book. It was written in Greek, one of the only 3 books he owned, all of which were not in English nor any commonly spoken tongue of the recent age.

            "Saw who?"

            "MV..." he said. "I think our luck's finally turning around bro. I was workin like usual," he said, catching a narrowed eye glare from the other. "And no, I wasn't turning any Tricks today. Haven't done that since rent was due this month. But I was workin and she just came right in, askin for directions."

            "You are talking about Maria Vultros right?"

            "Yeah... why?"

            "....That's odd.... Her manager said she was off in DC getting some mods done to her brain chip done and that's why she hasn't been seen in 3 months. Said she would be coming back next week in time for the first round of the next regionals."

            He shook his head. "I'm tellin you man, she came in askin for directions to the Dragon's Arms out on Night Trap."

            He blinked, then pulled out the only other chair at the table and sat down. "Well... even top ranking fighters need vacations right?" he said.

            "Dude.... you'll get your chance soon man. I offered her a bouncer job over at the Cloud. Looks like she's gonna bite too."

            "That's great! Then maybe I can-"

            "There's one more thing Tempest," he said, looking the other dead in the eye.

            His response was slow. "What?..."

            "You were right. I don't know how but you're a god damn genius. She's a dead ringer for..."

            He nodded with a soft smile. "You know what that means then right Tem?"

            "Hey, she's not like us though man. When Vancha asked where she's been for the last 3 months, she clammed up and left in no time. I think somethin's happened that's scared the hell outta her so bad she's runnin from it. And she was askin questions about my estate."

            "That doesn't mean anything, I mean..."

            "Dude, you're not gettin me here. If she's who we think she is, then she don't remember a damn thing, and if she is then she sure as hell ain't tellin a peep. You an' me, when it was time to know the truth, we just woke up one mornin and knew. But I don't think it's gonna be that easy for her.

            "We gotta work real careful about this."

            He nodded. "So you're saying don't break out the good wine just yet right?"

            "Yeah... I got some free time today, and I ain't gotta go in tomorrow," he said, rising from the table.

            "You're not gonna go hunting are you?"

            "What do you think? Someone's gotta kill those motherfuckers before they eat all the normal people alive..."

            "I'm not doing clean up this time. I'm coming with you," Tempest said, rising from the table. "Last time I let you out by yourself you didn't even bother to bless the defiled ground..."

            "Hey, it was a coven. I don't think there would be any point in blessing a place if it's been used by the forced of evil for the last half billion years okay," he snapped going over to the cardboard box in the middle of their living room and jerking off the blanket.

            "Hey! Watch it! You're getting ashes everywhere!" Tempest shouted, brushing the old cigarette ashes (they were Tem's of course because he was a non-smoker) and joining his side as he opened the box.

            He grabbed the cloak handed to him and the clothes. "I don't see why we have to do this every time. It's not like anyone would care as long as they don't die."

            Tem stood upright, his clothes draped over his arm and a porcelain mask held up to his face, the eyelets rimmed in bright pink and the lips a somber green. "Because it's fun! And if you want to keep living here then you have to compromise. Besides," he said, taking the mask away from his face with a happy smile. "You know from experience I could actually make things much worse than playing dress up," then his face turned serious. "Got me Tempest."

            He just rolled his eyes and went back to the bathroom. It was the same discussion they had every time they did this...

            When he came out again, he found Tem standing ready to go in the living room. "We're going out down south first, then we'll sweep up from Long Beach to Night Trap," he said.

            Tempest didn't even need to see his face to know he was smiling. He adjusted his chain mail shirt (made from a very strong, yet lightweight material from a recycled space shuttle) before snapping his belt into place. "I just can't get these damned newfangled things."

            "It's called a belt Tempest and you have it on wrong. Here, just let me-"

            He jumped back into a defensive stance. "Do you want me to break your fingers Temmothy! Those hands better stay far away from my boys you hear me!"

            He held up his hands in a rather animeish style as if he were trying to deny something, or embarrassed, or just well, trying not to get in trouble, all while shaking his head. "Of course! No touching! I remember!"

            "....I still don't trust you... not after what happened the last time..." he grumbled, but pulled on his Vampire Hunter D-like hat anyway. "Now where'd you stash my bow?"

            "...Hall closet..." Tem replied, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited. This was one of the reasons why he preferred to prowl around on his own. Just get ready to go and then dash out the door. No muss, no fuss. But no....Tempest ALWAYS was the last one to get ready, even though he had the simpler costume. At least he didn't have to worry about all the buckles and clasps and snaps that had to be buckled and clasped and snapped. And don't even let him start in on the magical end of things...

            "Are you ready yet Miss Tempest?..." he said sarcastically.

            "Eat me," Tempest replied as he went for the front door.

            "Ahem... Exit is this way," Tem said as he went for the balcony.

            "Oh yeah... right," Tempest said, realizing his mistake and following.

            Tem was already up and over the rail by the time he got there.

            What a pair they made... two goofy dressed men in Halloween costumes that went out of style in the early 21st century dropping from the sky like wannabe superheroes...

            The only catch was though, they really were superheroes, just not the stereotypical ones from the comic books...

                        ---

[The Striding Cloud]

 

            He was uneasy the rest of the day since his partner had left the bar. Solely for the fact that the man who'd overpaid by over 100% that one night at the beginning of the month had come back for the first time since, and sat at a table near the center of the room alone. He ordered no drink, he paid no attention to anyone who looked his way. He just sat there with his arms folded over his chest, leaning back in his chair, and as if in thoughts so deep he most likely wouldn't notice if the end of the world came and went in one fell swoop.

            And if that were to happen, he'd probably still be sitting there, minding his own business.

            But Vancha knew from experience, no one minded their own business. Not really... and those who did were people you most certainly hoped didn't exist.

            But, he just tried his best to ignore the uneasiness in his stomach that had risen since the man arrived and tried to focus on his work.

            He shouldn't have let Tem off early today. Business was booming and he could barely make the drinks and take them to the tables at the same time.

            The hours passed, and the sudden wave of customers (mostly tourists to the island) had gone for at least a small period of time, giving the poor guy a rest before he'd be swamped again.

            And finally, the man moved. It was so sudden and unexpected when he just appeared at the bar, the poor bartender dropped his beer in fright, panting as his heart slowed and his adrenaline started to ebb.

            "C..can I help you?"

            "I'm looking for a job," he said flatly. "I heard there was an opening for a bouncer."

            "Uh... we just filled that sometime before the lunch hour rush started getting pretty heavy," he said, picking up bits of glass from the floor and wiping up the spilled beer.

            "So? I don't see anyone out there bouncing," he said, looking over the counter.

            "Yeah... well... she didn't have to start right away. She had things to do before she could-"

            "A woman?" he said, this time with a note of curiosity in his voice. "So... there's no other jobs you can give me? I've been real hard up for cash lately and I-"

            And at the sound of "hard up for cash" he looked up. The poor guy had a soft spot for people with bad luck. That's actually how he'd ended up hiring his brother. The guy came back to town for the first time in at least 8 or 9 years and needed a job, any job, to pay the rent on his crappy apartment in LA... where he still was, living paycheck to paycheck and then some.

            "Well... I do need another bartender... I never get a day off, and my bro only gets one once every 3 or 4 weeks so... can you sling bottles and carry a tray without falling over?" he said with a happy grin.

            "Yeah," he replied.

            Vancha nodded. "Then get back here, I need a real break for once. Oh... and if any of these creeps give you any trouble, just brush 'em off and keep going. I can't afford having the Vice Squad out here again. We barely collect enough money to pay our own bills out here."

            He got up, and again his movements were so quick the other could scarcely follow them. "One more thing... how much does it pay?"

            "Actually... depends on how much money we make this week."

            "Whatever... as long as it pays the bills," he said, grabbing a bottle from the shelf as someone started to ask for a refill. Vancha decided it was either pure luck or the man knew his drinks when he filled the glass, given the fact he'd just pulled a random bottle from the shelf and didn't even know what the hell he was drinking in the first place.

                        ---

[The Dragon's Arms Hotel]

 

            He pulled the arrow bolt from the dead beast, slipping it back into his quiver with the others. His partner pulled his sword from the forehead of another, and it gave a loud slurping noise. "Well... what's your count up to this month?"

            "28," Tem replied.

            "Ha! I got 30!" was his reply.

            "No fair, you have distance weapons."

            "You? Talking about being fair? That one who's shadow strangled him doesn't even count as a kill. It's a murder-suicide."

            "Are you telling me how to do my job Tempest?"

            "Are you telling me how to do mine Temmothy?" he replied. "DUCK!" he snapped.

            Instantly he crouched down as an arrow whizzed over his head and into the eye of a surviving demon beast. "31," Tempest said triumphantly.

            "...Whatever... let's get this over with...." Tem said as he rose to his full height. The pair stood side by side, their eyes closed and their hands pressed together like Buddhist temple monks in prayer. They chanted quickly, and with each syllable another carcass burst into either black or blue flame before finally disappearing altogether.

            "Blessed be," they said together before returning to their normal bickering selves. Had they not been so self absorbed as they walked together past playing children and laughing couples on the beach, they would have noticed that someone saw through their magical shields of invisibility, and had watched the display in horror from her second story balcony.

            "....Oh my god...." she said, bringing her hand to her mouth to stifle a scream that might come as the 'dynamic duo' disappeared from view. She turned and went back inside, grabbing what few possessions she had brought with her and made to leave, but then she felt a hot breath on her neck as she reached for the doorknob.

            "You're a tasty one," it snarled. "Oh yes... you reek of innocence..."

            She shivered as it sniffed her as if it were an animal sniffing for food. But when it's claws came around to grab at her chest from behind, she knew it was not food that it wanted.

            "I'll see to it you never mock me again little girl..." it sneered as it dragged it's slobbering tongue along her neck to her shoulder juncture. It's sharp teeth gently raking against her skin.

            She was thrown forward as she heard the crash of glass. Instinctively she balled herself up in front of the door with her hands over her head as she heard the furniture break around her.

            "Son of a bitch!" the one in the red trench coat shouted as he shook his bleeding hand. "That motherfucker just bit me!"

            His companion kicked it across the face hard enough to make it jerk, then again as if bitchslapping it with his foot.

            The force of the blow knocked it back against the wall where it slid down to the bed in a mess of black blood smelling of motor oil and decay.

            "And that makes 32," he said, flicking the front brim of his hat with a cheesy grin as his partner was sucking at the place in his hand, spitting out a blue-green substance before doing it again. He did this three or four times before finally wrapping it up in a strip of blanket from the bed.

            "Ma'am, are you okay?" Tempest asked as he crouched at her side. She still did not move, only whimpered.

            What had gotten into her! She was a street fighter! One of the best! Why, she had nearly killed her opponents with her legendary Phoenix Kick in the arenas, and that wasn't even a finisher! But now she curls up at the least little thing?... That was something not even she had expected, and her mind currently screamed at her for.

            She could never have been so weak before... before the Incident.

            "Ma'am?" he asked again. "Hello... Miss Maria? Are you alright? That thing didn't hurt you any did it?"

            Finally she uncurled herself and looked up at him, bright blues blinking slowly as she took in the sight of his face.

            "Hello... earth to lady on the floor in a fetal position.... he asked you a question ma'am. You'd be smart to answer."

            "Shut up jackass. This isn't the time for you stupid humor," he snapped before turning back to the woman in the floor.

            He could not help but feel sorry for her. Tem was right when he said she wasn't like them... but she did see them right then, and the monster, so at least she had the Sight if nothing else. "We're not going to hurt you. Do you understand?"

            She shook her head yes, her eyes wide as she continued to stare at him.

            "Good. His name is Tem, and my name is Tempest. Now, can you think of any reason why that thing would-"

            "Tempest!" she shouted, suddenly clinging to him. It was the face from her dreams. The she saw almost ever night since the initial wake in the hospital. The Brown Eyed one who'd comforted her and given her hope when she was down. "Tempest!"

            He looked over at Tem a moment as if he might could explain, but the man just then came out of the bathroom with all the complimentary toilet paper, soaps, shampoos, and anything else he could carry. He'd probably have taken the pillows too had they not been soiled by the monster sitting on them.

            As much as he wanted to let her keep clinging to him, he forced her off. "Listen to me now. Can you think of anyone who would want you dead? Or any reason why that monster would attack you?"

            "He...he... he said I mocked him. But.. I've never seen-" and then she burst into tears, holding her face in her hands. Tem passed over one of the towels he'd stuffed inside his coat.

            Tempest shook his head at him. This was not the time and the place to scold him for stealing the most inane things in the entire suit when there was a perfectly good microwave sitting in the kitchenette they could take home and finally have a decent way to cook their food instead of that half assed stove they had.

            "It's okay now Maria. Everything will be alright. We'll take you somewhere safe where nothing can get you okay."

            She wiped her face with the towel and nodded slowly.

                        ---

[Striding Cloud]

 

            He would have gotten up off the futon, gone back out to the bar and gone back to work... had two of his least favorite people in the world not dumped the girl from earlier that day on him with the expression "We'll explain later," before dashing off again.

            He shook his head and had put the girl down on the futon, his actual bed since he lived in the bar itself. Hey, no need to pay rent somewhere else since the going all over the world were too steep. And he would be damned if he ended up like his bro having to do the unimaginable just to get by from month to month.

            So now, there he was, having had to close down the bar and lose one night's business. But, the record rush earlier that day would cover it, barely...

            He sat on a stool at the counter, the new bartender cleaning up behind it, and waited. He didn't have to wait too long; the pair came in with their usual game faces on when it came down to something serious.

            "You can go home now," he said to the black eyed bartender, who stood there shaking his head.

            "And leave that scared girl defenseless with nothing but you three scrawny boys hangin around? And hell will freeze over," he quipped.

            Tempest raised a brow and looked at Vancha. "Good help is hard to find... and to get rid of..." he said, collapsing in a chair at the closest table to the bar.

            Tem shook his head. "No good..." he whispered in Vancha's ear. "We can't have him hangin around like this, it's too risky."

            "I can't get him to leave," was the even lower whispered reply.

            Tempest sighed and rubbed his temples. "I guess we'll have to make due with what we got. Doesn't matter much anyway. Tem's stupid super hero gig is getting on my nerves... not that I mind it. I got a cool hat out of the deal."

            "Just remember who bought you that hat bro."

            "Oh? And I don't even want to think how you got the money for it slut."

            "Pussy."

            "Butt poacher."

            "Inkei atama!" Tem snapped back.

            Tempest just leaned back in his chair with a grin as the other two puzzled faces turned to him to see what he would say next to the words they had no clue what they meant.

            "You wish," he said finally, giving him a mocking kiss to the air. "But really, we got some serious shit goin down here man. Of of the-"

            "You know what came and wanted to play with a rag doll if you catch my drift," Tem said, finally sitting down at the bar. "And as long as you're here, make yourself useful and get me a beer would ya."

            "Get it yourself," he replied coldly.

            "C'mon JB, give him a break. He's had a worse day than any of us... hell. A worse week if you wanna get technical about it," Vancha said.

            He narrowed his eyes, as did the red head as they seemed to study one another for any weakness. The brute bartender JB seemed to find nothing but, however Tem had found only 2 or 3, and those were in the hard to reach spots.

            "Okay," Tem said at last. "You're going to hear things that you have to keep secret. If I even suspect you've broken your word, I'll hunt you down and fuck you up worse than Jack the Ripper."

            "He'll do it too. I've seen him," Vancha said. Tempest remained silent.

            "Jack the who what now?" he asked.

            Tem finally gave up. "God... you'd think the people in this century would know more about history than we did. I mean, there IS more now then there was then right Tempy?"

            "How many times do I have to tell you NOT TO CALL ME THAT!" Tempest snapped as an arrow whizzed by the young man's head, then past the bartender's, then into a bottle on the wall, going straight through without shattering it and embedding itself in the wood behind it.

            "Okay. Here's what went down. We were makin a sweep down on the south side LA and then caught up with a small coven over at long beach, but then we found out that most of them were over on Night Trap and prowlin around. We killed 'em all, but one got away. Found it in that girl's hotel room tryin to mess her up, and I don't mean in the "I’m gonna eat you" way either."

            "I see..." Vancha said.

            "Yeah. What makes this really interesting though is she has the Sight. She saw the whole fight from start to finish over behind the Dragon's Arms. We at least got that much outta her on the way over here."

            Vancha nodded. Even if he was nothing more than a human, he knew what it was like to see the beasts for what they truly were, and to see other Nightmare Monsters as well. He pitied her in a way different than the way he pitied his brother and his friend, different than how he felt bad for JB, or anyone else with money problems he'd dealt with in the past.

            His heart reached out to her like no one else’s could, in understanding and relief that he'd found someone else who saw the world the way he did.

            "I'll fix my room upstairs for her, and I'll take the futon in back for whatever long she'll stay here," he said finally, slipping off to a hidden stairway... hidden to most normal people, but not those who had the Sight.

            The entire bar was filled with little things like that, to keep the place from falling apart mostly, but also to keep customers who ended up being the next Trick from coming too often for the nice bed that might could be used for the plundering.

            They were so used to seeing the empty space in the wall themselves, they didn't even notice that JB didn't even bat an eye at what should have seemed to him like Vancha walking right into the wall.

            "Jesus Christ... I don't think I can take much more of this," Tem finally said, looking much more weary than he had in his brother's presence. He tended to do that for people who didn't spend more time with him than Tempest. Always keep a smile on and they'll worry less about it. That was his philosophy in this dank world where the Laws were God.

            "You're pushing to hard man. When you're not working here, you're hunting, and when you're not hunting or workin you're havin them damn nightmares. And don't tell me you're not havin them almost every night. I know you're not taking your pills like you're supposed to."

            "Don't lecture me man. I'm in no mood."

            Yeah... whatever. I'm gonna wait around here tonight, keep an eye on her."

            "Good idea. I gotta sleep and recharge the good old batteries." He got up and made his way to the door, but stopped when Tempest grabbed his hand. Turning, he smiled back at him. "What now?"

            "Don't forget to take one tonight okay. You need the rest and a clear head for tomorrow."

            He nodded and pulled his hand back. "Don't worry your pretty head Tempy. I'll do what I'm sposed to," he said with a playful wink.

            Tempest growled. "Freak!"

            "Pervert!"

            "Hentai!"

            "Thanks for noticing!" Tem called before he was out the door.

            Tempest sighed, alone now for all intended purposes, he rose from the table. "Lemme know if Van or Tem comes back," he said, passing by JB to the back room.

            He found her curled up in the center of the room, staring at one of the walls; her arms hugging her legs with her knees against her chest. She rocked back and forth humming a soft tune he immediately recognized.

            A soft smile came on his face as he stood in the doorway. "Feeling better?"

            She immediately froze, her humming stopping instantly as she snapped her head around to look at him.

            He stepped into the room and closed the door smiling. "You know, my friend painted these pictures when this place was built a long time ago. They kind of tell a story I think he said once."

            He sat down on the futon, keeping his hands in full view of her so she wouldn't worry about what he might be doing with them to harm her possibly. "That one there," he said, pointing to one with the large figures of machines once called Gundams. "That's from a great war in space that most people on Earth didn't know about because they didn't See it."

            "See?"

            He nodded. "It was hidden, even the colonies orbiting the earth were invisible to the untrained eye unless they had what we call the Sight."

            She seemed to not slowly as if she understood, but the expression on her face clearly showed she did not.

            He pointed to the wall directly in front of him, where the faces of the three men looked back at him with grim smiles and mischievous eyes. "That was him and his friends. They used to always go around and blow things up for the fun of it when they were bored. You never saw one without at least one other, and rarely one alone. They all used to hang out right here when they weren't workin their latest job."

            She turned her head to look at the wall he was talking about, then froze once more. He knew she was trying to fit the picture into her mind with something or someone else from the expression of hard thought on her face. But he drew her attention away from this and to the one behind him.

            "This was another friend of his," he said as she turned her head to look. She ignored everything he was saying, or rather it sounded distant as she focused on the painting of the wall.

            Her eyes widened, then softened as she stared into a mirror or sorts. that was her face, her eyes looking out with such ferocity from behind a windblown shower of gold and a smile of kindness. The point blank stare, the large mosaic wings outstretched at her back from the white robes that both dwarfed and revealed her hourglass frame with such skill, with such extreme attention to detail.

            "Who is she?" she asked finally.

            "Her name was Mirei," he replied, his voice having dropped an octave as he held back his unintentional sorrow. "Do you believe in angels Miss Maria?"

            She didn't respond, only turned back to the fourth wall where she had been staring. Losing herself in the painted meadow, a golden path trailing through it leading back to a black and white castle in the distance.

            After a while of watching her, he rose to his feet, going to the door. When he was about to leave, he heard her sweet voice whisper. "...I do now..."

            He shut the door on her with a heavy heart.

                        ---

[LA City State - Western District]

 

            After leaving the bar, he slipped back into his hunting garb and returned to the streets of LA. He prowled well into the night, feeling a little guilty for lying to his friend, but he could not shake the feeling that there was a bigger picture out there he just couldn't see.

            And Tem would have none of that... he hated being left in the dark when most people considered him a know-it-all.

            Currently night had just fallen, and he was perched on top of a street sign. What the street's name had been, he didn't know, nor did he care. He rarely came out this far during the night alone, if at all.

            But he waited patiently as he watched the people below pass under him unawares.

            "Cattle, th' lot o' them."

            He looked up, two-toned swirls looking out beyond the porcelain mask to stare deep into emerald green across the way on the next sign. There was at least 200 feet between them, yet he could see the figure clear as day.

            Tall, around his own height give or take a few inches, with dirty blonde hair neatly combed despite the wind that picked up. He was dressed in a business suit, the colors obscured by the night, blending perhaps like shadows during a black-out.

            He stood with his feet together, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked disdainfully down at the human fodder that passed blindly through the world.

            Tem stood to his full height, his trench coat catching the wind and blowing it back from his waist. His feet apart by about a foot, maybe a foot and a half, with his toes pointed outward. A hand at his side with the other resting on his hip.

            "So you finally come... Voide," Tem said through the telepathic waves that bound all magical creatures in this realm.

            "How could I decline Death without making myself look a coward?"

            "I'm not here for a fight," Tem replied, shifting his stance, his guard dropping but not completely. "I need information."

            There was a long silence, and in this time, the figure called Voide had moved closer by half, now standing calmly in the same way on top of a telephone pole. "What do you need that I have? You know there is a price..."

            "I know... It was you who send the coven after her today," he said, more of a statement than a question.

            "It was," he replied nonchalantly. "But I have no intention of harm to the girl."

            "Then why send the Badu to capture her if you want her in once piece."

            "I have my reasons boy, just as you have yours." He moved, but only a little. His hand outstretched. "Now then, are we through?"

            "We are," Tem replied, closing his eyes and bowing his head. "...Do it quick..."

            Again the other moved, to stand beside him. He placed a slender hand on his chest as it started to glow a faint red-black, his own hand an off green.

            He smiled darkly as the other grit his teeth, the sudden rush in his mind of pain he'd rather have left alone. But when you make a deal with the devil, none walked away unscarred.

            After a long moment, he opened his eyes, the pulsing behind his eyes as he realized he was once more alone. His body now felt utterly drained, and his heart burdened with such sorrow it would make even Satan himself weep in shame...

                        ---

[Striding Cloud]

 

            It had been two months since they had met Maria, and since JB started working the bar. And the business was slowing to a turtle's pace once more. Tempest spent every free moment he could at the bar with Maria, showing her things about their world and teaching her the basics of magic and the Sight which enabled her to see what the common man could not.

            The money he and Tem had saved so far was still not enough for the rent and the other bills, and the Underground street fights had slowed even more than the tavern's business. There was only one fight scheduled for the month, and it wasn't even in Tempest's division.

            The attacks of the Badu had gotten worse, but there was no sight of the Winged One, nor the Shadow Mage Voide. The self proclaimed dynamic duo had their work cut out for them.

            Tem returned from the floor with a sigh, setting the tray on the counter with a look to his brother that spoke volumes before disappearing from the room.

            JB had taken his break outside, smoking a bent out of shape cigarette. He stood next to a window, watching as the gray-blue smoke swirled up into the sky by the feeble light from inside. His eyes were trained to the darkness in very little time.

            He heard a door open and a gruff voice talk in some foreign tongue before someone climbed out of the cab, doubling over with hands on knees as clear liquid burst from their mouth.

            "Can't keep it in!" that gruff voice snapped in clear English as a foot came out to kick the other in the back. "Idiot!"

            He stumbled forward, almost falling to his belly into the iridescent liquid on the pavement. Wadded paper was thrown into his back before the door slammed shut, and he scrambled to pick it up as the car roared to life, lifting up off the ground.

            The glow of the plasma cores at the bottom of the car mixed with the red tail lights on the figure's slim form as he stood like a wraith in the parking lot, wiping his lips with the back of his arm as he sullenly started buttoning back up his shirt.

            He looked up in the direction of the bar a moment, his eyes readjusting to the light as he made his way over to JB, ignoring his obvious anger mixed with curious rage.

            The man hadn't believed Vancha and Tempest when they'd told him why the red head kept disappearing during the night, but now he had no doubts as he caught the man by the arm.

            "You okay?" he asked, masking his rising anger.

            He shrugged him off. "It's just business," he said flatly, adjusting the waist of his red leather pants. "Don't worry about it."

            But even as the other disappeared inside, laughing and smiling as if nothing had happened, he could not help but worry and hate. A combination that should never go hand in hand.

            Throughout the night, he kept a watchful eye on anyone who tried to grab at the man, or kept him at their table longer than normal. Vancha noticed this, and tried his best to ease the tension every time Tem disappeared out into the parking lot, or the bathroom, even if he was alone.

            When the crowd was lessened to the point of just a few dawdling customers, he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. But it wasn't him who felt it too, Maria had worn a worried expression the entire night.

            "Thanks man," Vancha said after a while. "I don't think I'll need any help closing down tonight."

            "I think I'll stick around a while longer," JB replied, throwing a bar towel over his shoulder. The blonde's look was somewhat comical; rolling his eyes, throwing his arms up in the air as if defeated followed by a sigh. "Okay... jeez... if I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to be a bodyguard or somethin."

            He ignored the comment as Tem reappeared, smiling and chipper, yet so obviously tired and worn. He slumped onto a stool, sitting awkwardly at first then sighing and settling down. "Fuckin demons..." he grumbled under his breath before looking over to Tempest in the corner.

            The two traded looks a moment before the latter shook his head and rose to go over to the bar, taking a seat beside him. "I'll see if I can-"

            "Don't bother. I'll go down to Dragon's and scare up something to make the difference," Tem said, rubbing his temples.

            Maria put a hand on his shoulder. "There's a time and a place for pride, and this isn't one of them. Let us help," she said.

            And for the first time since he was a child in this topsy turvey world, he looked down as if almost ashamed. "Alright," he said.

            Tempest was taken aback in surprise, and Vancha shook his head and went down to serve the gent at the end of the bar. JB narrowed his eyes as he heard the bell at the door ring when it was opened. Maria smiled in that same kind way she always did and slowly pulled her hand back.

            JB glanced at Tempest, who followed his subtle indications to a gentleman who'd just sat at the table behind them. The brute bartender pulled the towel off his shoulder and laid it on the bar before going around to the front with a small notepad Vancha had given him his first night on the job for taking drink orders.

            "I'm gonna go lay down," Tem said finally as he pulled himself away, but he froze instantly when he saw the man JB had gone to get an order from.

            "Bro, you okay?" Tempest asked, and slowly Tem raised a finger to point. He followed his finger to also look on the man he had just briefly glanced on.

            "JB! Get back!" he barked, but it was too late as the man was blasted back suddenly into the wall. Luckily it was the same wall that concealed the stairs to the second floor, and he didn't crash outside to the pavement.

            Vancha jumped the bar and forced Maria into the back room, sealing them inside by a chant which turned the door into a piece of the wall.

            Tempest and Tem took a defensive stance, the red head flicking his wrist back as a black knife slid into his palm. Slender fingers wrapped 'round it and held tightly as Tempest chanted at his side.

            "Boys boys... I'm not here to fight. I'm here to send a message," the man said, rising to his feet. Long raven-black hair was tossed over his shoulder as green-yellow cat eyes narrowed on them.

            "How did you get past the Protections!" Tem snapped.

            "Your magic Temmothy, is weak when you're tired, and flexible in various ways."

            "That's not an answer," Tempest snapped as the spell he had been chanting went into place. The entire bar room was sealed instantly, including the stairwell where JB had been watching. One moment he saw the trio there, the next he saw nothing but steel wall.

            "The Defiler has sent me to issue a challenge to you, Shadow Mage. You are to go to the Devil's Playground on Violin Road by the end of the month."

            "What makes you think I'll come," Tem demanded as Tempest went to chanting once more, his eyes open and locked on the demon mage before him.

            "Everything has a price Shadow Mage. It is time for us to collect the bill," he said calmly, then his hair flew back and without moving even a finger he flung the two against the ceiling with a smile.

            Tempest's chanting continued through clenched teeth as he felt as if his body were being flattened against the rough wood.

            Suddenly there was a golden beam burning through the steel that had encased the room, and in the hole that was blasted where the door to the back room should have been, she stood.

            Her hair flying wildly as if caught in a torrent and her hand's clasped together as if in prayer. Eyes closed as she radiated with pure energy. The two fell from the ceiling, crashing onto tables and chairs before slamming into the floor.

            The demon mage was taken by surprise as she leapt into the air screaming "Phoenix Kick!" and slamming her knee into his jaw, then spinning and her foot, seeming to catch flame in mid spin, crashed into his chest.

            He was smashed back against the wall as she charged him, fists raised as she began pummeling him like an agent in some old Matrix movie Tem had seen in a past age.

            "Angel Rage!" she shouted angrily as she pulled back her fist. It was surrounded by a red, then golden, then white flame before she smashed it into his face, effectively sending him through the steel and into the dark of night.

            She stood there, the light from the bar and the energy coming off her casting light into the darkness as he scrambled to his feet, his once beautiful face now marred beyond repair as he snarled at her.

            "What are you!" he barked, holding a hand to his face. "What have you done to me!"

            "If you don't want more, get the fuck out!" she snapped back, taking stance. "Or I'll have some more fun hear me punk!"

            Tem pulled himself to his feet long enough to see her from behind as the steel barrier faded back to the normal wooden walls of the bar, yet they seemed old and brittle with age.

            Tempest groaned and managed to get to his knees as he heard her yelling at the demon mage before finally turning around with a sigh and stumbling to grab onto a table.

            JB jumped out from his hiding place as soon as the steel disappeared, eyes wide in disbelief and questioning.

            "What the hell was that!" he shouted.

            "That," Tempest said with a ragged breath, "that was Blank."

            "Blank?"

            "A demon mage that works for Voide... but why is he... I thought we had a truce," Tempest said, looking to Tem as if for an answer, but the man had passed out in the floor again, and at first glance one couldn't see the blood on his legs until it dripped off the red leather and into the old hardwood floor.

                        ---

            The night Blank had paid them a visit was the end of the Striding Cloud. The place now looked like its true self, run down and ill kept with bloodstains all over the floor and patches here and there where once repairs had been made.

            There were no doors on the place, given that Maria had blasted the front one off when she kicked out the demon. JB had taken Tem to the back room and laid him on the futon, bandaged him up the best he could with the help of the woman while Tempest blessed the dead, half eaten body of their dearest, kindest friend Vancha.

            She sighed as she looked up from the sleeping face, shaking her head. "I've done all I can. It's up to him now whether he comes out of it or not."

            Tempest laid a hand on her shoulder. "You did your best. There's nothing else we can do but wait."

            JB sat on a crate at the end of the futon where Tem's feet were, glowering there as if anyone or anything, even the smallest of bugs, came near the sleeping mage, he'd smash it into nothing but dust.

            "Your Sight is stronger than mine," she said, looking up at Tempest who seemed to be in deep thought. "What did he mean by 'the price'?"

            He shook his head. "I don't know. As far as I knew, we had a truce with Voide and his boys, a flimsy one, but it held up well. What I want to know is why now? And why Missing Mile..."

            "It's because he knows it's his weak point," JB said finally.

            The two turned to look at him, as black eyes were red rimmed as if the big man had been crying, yet his cheeks were dry as bone.

            Tempest felt a knot in his gut tighten as he watched the blue haired man rise from his seat. "We'll only get answers when he wakes up, and it better be soon... he's got an appointment to keep at the end of the month."

                        ---

[Elfhame Apartment Complex - Appt 821]

 

            They had gone to Tem and Tempest's place, thinking it would be a hell of a lot better than the crap shack of the Striding Cloud, which effectively the sign outside read now it's original "Joe's Bar and Pool"... but the pool had been filled in to make more parking lot.

            Tempest sighed, bent over the table with a mess of bills that had to be paid before they left for Missing Mile so that they'd at least have a place to come back to.

            The only way to assure enough cash for the bills alone was to pawn half the furniture so they could pay for the first time ever a month in advance.

            But... what had to be done, would be done. He never knew how much Tem's dirty income had become the main reason they still had a roof over their heads, not matter how shitty it was until it wasn't coming in anymore.

            Maria had used everything she had left in her accounts, which wasn't much, to help fill the gap.

            And Maria... she hadn't been able to duplicate the power she had wielded that night. The fact that she had done anything at all frightened her, but when she saw the beasts tearing in through the wood walls and literally eating Vancha alive, she exploded...

            But her body wasn't the only part of her that suddenly flooded with power. Her mind was still a whirlwind of questions and unspoken answers. Her dreams from the hospital now made sense to her, and the reason why she could see the demon beasts Tem and Tempest had called the Badu. Slowly she came to terms with herself, her real self that had laid dormant for so many years of her life, yet allowed her to tap into in the arena.

            "You okay?" JB asked when he came out from Tem's room where he literally had been standing guard over the man and tending to him as if he were a paid hospital attendant, only without the bitchy attitude to match.

            "Yeah... I think we'll be able to squeeze by, as long as we don't buy anything while we're over there. Or going there... or anywhere," Tempest said, rubbing his eyes and taking a sip of three day old coffee. "I'm not real good with numbers though, so lets hope I over calculated."

            JB nodded and passed to the balcony where Maria sat in Tempest's favorite chair, watching the cars go by below beneath the noon sun. "He moved a finger, in case you wanted to know," he said, taking the seat across from her.

            She could not look at him without another name coming to mind, which drudged up memories so painful she'd rather be smashed in the head with a frying pan than let them play over and over again in her mind.

            "That's good..." she said softly.

            "Have you told him anything yet? Tempest I mean."

            She shook her head. "It's too much. I keep imagining him lying cold and dead in the floor of the bar..." she said.

            He leaned forward, red rimmed black looking deep into glazed over blue. He put a hand on her's with a sigh. "It's hard to deal with it all, trust me... but you're going to have to tell him everything you can eventually."

            "Everything..." she repeated.

            He nodded. "Yeah... and after that it's up to you if you want to stay the way you are now Maria, or become who you're supposed to be."

            "I don't understand," she said with an involuntary whimper.

            He shook his head and leaned back. "I didn't think you would. But you will soon. If you keep stringing him along they way you are without an explanation, he's going to snap, and from what I've seen so far, that's not a smart thing to do..."

            She furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"

            He sighed, wishing he had a bottle of vodka in his hand to take the edge off... but he'd fallen on hard times and couldn't even afford a bottle of the cheap store brands. "I've been tracking those two for almost a few years. It'll be two on the Monday next," he said, turning his head so that she saw only his profile.

            She studied him carefully before her eyes went wide. "you're the man from the picture..." she whispered. Despite the slight difference in the shape of the nose (the man in the wall painting had a few lumps on the bridge where it had obviously been broken a few times and hadn't healed quite right) and the sharper jaw line, he was a near perfect duplicate.

            He nodded, focusing his eyes on a sign in the distance reading "Call 1-800-CALL-ATT".

            "Why all the secrecy?" she asked.

            "It wasn't my time yet. I lost track of them for a while, then got a tip off that there was a bar with a waiter that would do anything for a few extra bucks." He sighed. That was one part of the story the old demon had told him that he wished in all his heart was not true, and even when the guys told him what he did when he disappeared, he still refused to believe it, until he saw...

            "It was a long shot since I'd already scoped out this area to the point there was nothing left and no rocks to turn over anymore. When I got there the first time, I knew the guy was right on the dollar. That's why I'm outta cash now. Sometimes threats and strength ain't enough to get the info you need... money makes the world go round."

            "Your name is Joe isn't it?" she asked suddenly. He nodded, eyes darting to look back inside a moment.

            "That's what people call me anyway... but keep it JB for a little while more okay. At least until you figure yourself out. I don't wanna spring any more on those two more than I have to, otherwise like I said, Tempest will snap. And Tem... well if he was awake... he'd find some crazy way to blow everything up at once and shout 'boom' like a five year old. But don't tell anyone I said that," he said with a laugh, and she could see it was sincere.

            She nodded, turning her attention back to the cars as he rose from his chair and went back inside. Their voices were muffled to her on the other side of the sliding glass door.

            "So that's what it was then... it drew me in... no... he sucked me in..." she said, looking at the worried Tempest inside. "And all I have to go by is what he said in some stupid delusional dream." She sighed and pulled her legs up to herself as thoughts spun chaotically through her brain while resting her chin on her knees.

                        |||

            "What the hell is that little git doin here! I thought you said yer kids were sleepin'!" the old bastard shouted when he saw the boy in the doorway.

            He'd woken to the sounds of his mother's screams, and thinking she had been hurt, he got up to see. He had stopped by his little brother's crib to quiet him down before anyone could hear.

            He'd grabbed his stuffed bunny off the floor and handed it to the little green eyed boy before slipping out to see what was going on.

            And now, he stood frightened, frozen as he watched the man beat his mother into submission. She screamed and her face twisted up in pain as he pulled her back against him and slammed into her from behind.

            "Stop hurting mommy!" he shouted angrily, throwing one of his house slipper at the man. "Stop hurting mommy!" he screamed again.

            Quickly he realized his mistake when the man started yelling about how she said her kids were sposed to be sleeping in the other room. He was frozen where he stood, and wanted to run away when the old man grabbed him up, but was so scared out of his wits, he couldn't move.

            "Please! Please! don't do anything. Timothy, please, go back to bed and go to sleep!"

            "Shut up!" the old man had snapped when he slammed the door with his free hand, locking it. "Th' boy wants 'ta see what's goin' on. C'mon boy, tell her!"

            He kicked the man in the shin and ran to his mother. "Leave mommy alone!" he screamed, anger crackling in his lavender blue eyes.

            "I'll do what I want! She's mine tonight little boy!" he snapped back, grabbing the woman and shoving the boy against the wall.

            He watched in horror as the man shoved her face into his lap. She tried to shove him away, but the old man held her in a vice grip, his knuckles turning white as his fingers dug into her skin.

            "LET GO OF MOMMY!" he screamed as he ran at the man, throwing his little 7 year old fist into the man's face. He let go of her suddenly and fell back as if he'd been struck by a full grown man. He threw the woman against the wall. Her head hit the wood with a smack, and when her body crumpled to the floor, there was a line of blood leading up to a crack in the drywall.

            "MOMMY!" the boy screamed as he ran to his mother's unmoving form, nude and still warm with her lavender eyes open but unblinking. "Mommy?" he said through a veil of tears, shaking her. "Mommy wake up! Mommy!"

            His little brother's cries could be heard from the next room. He'd woken up again.

            The old man threw him on the bed, and the boy struggled as he tried to flip him to his belly. "Stop yer squirmin git!" he shouted, smacking the boy across the face with all the force he had. With the boy stunned, he managed to flip him over and rip down the bottoms of his pajamas and his second-hand cowboy underwear his mom had bought for his birthday from the Goodwill store the year before.

            He squirmed around again, frightened for his life, and wanted to scream, but the man had put his hand over his mouth and no matter how much he bit into it the man wouldn't let go.

            Then his mind shattered as his muffled screams came out, his tears coming heavier when the man had rammed into him from behind...

            When the old man was spent, he licked his lips, then spat on the boy's crumpled, defiled body as he got up off him. He opened his eyes only once, his vision bleary with no more tears left to cry.

            He watched the man pick up his clothes from the floor. Behind his eyes was the pounding pain of his mind trying to reform itself around the trauma, trying to tell him it was all his fault for walking in and trying to save his mommy.

            Then the old man turned to him with a feral smile, and the boy saw the man was not old and wrinkled as he thought. His hair was silver, but he was way younger, more like one of the bagging boys he saw at the grocery when his mommy and him and his brother went for food every month. He saw the man for what he truly was, a vicious Demon Mage...

                        |||

            He woke up screaming, first from the pain that shot through his body, then from the dream of horror he had just woken from. Instantly Tempest and JB were at his door and Maria soon after. He burst into tears as the dream came back to him in waves; he held his head in his hands with his eyes closed tight against the world. He was mumbling, more like rambling on in language that sounded as gibberish to them and even to him.

            Maria put her loving arms around him, but he shoved her off with a howl. "Don't touch me!" he screamed before throwing the covers off him and hobbling to the closet, the farthest point away from all.

            "Don't come near me!" he screamed again when Maria tried to get close. His eyes had clouded over, and nothing but deep violet could be seen in them as slowly his body seemed to crackle with electricity.

            The power of the apartment dimmed, then flickered as his hair blew wildly about his head. Tempest had jerked Maria back before energy could snap her. JB had put himself between the pair and the mad shadow mage.

            "Tem, calm down," he said sternly. "Just calm down, we don't want to hurt you," he said, edging closer. Tempest had a look of alarm on his face as Tem flicked back his wrist and instantly it was no the knife he usually conjured into being when in a quick fight, but the sword he used on the Badu.

            "JB! Don't get any closer!"

            "I know what I'm doin!" he shouted back as he came to a stop while the other raised his sword. "Tem, look at me," he said as his short blue hair caught the invisible wind that the red-head's had. "I'm not going to hurt you, but you need to calm down before somebody gets hurt."

            "Take one more step," he said through a massive telepathic wave, "and I will slice your head demon!"

            Maria tried to run to JB, but Tempest held her back frantically. "He's still caught in his dream!" she shouted. "Look at his aura!"

            And Tempest did, struggling to see it at first, but finally he saw the faint black glow coming off him, a sign that the person who gave it off was still dreaming.

            "JB! Be careful! He's not even awake!"

            "This sort of thing happen before?" he replied.

            "No! Never! If only Vancha were here! He could-" but his words were stopped short as Maria shoved him out of the way of a blast that should have scorched the wall, but didn't.

            The same magic that had been in place to protect the bar, and to make it look habitable, had been in place at the apartment, giving the two a more livable environment instead of the falling apart piss hole the place really was.

            "Yo! If you don't knock it off I'll be the one to rip that pretty head of yours off you got me!" JB shouted as a blue light pulsed out from his right hand and the fingernails on his fingers grew outward and hard, pointed and sharper than razors could ever hope to be.

            "Demon..." Tem sneered. "I'll make you pay for what you did to me and my mother!" he screamed as he jumped. JB brought up his hand just in time to block the sword from his throat, but Tem spun by using him as leverage and knocked his free hand into the side of his head.

            He landed in a crouched position with his sword tightly clasped in his hand.

            "Hold him off! I'll try to contain him!" Tempest shouted.

            "What do you think I'm trying to do jackass!" JB snapped back as he blocked a second onslaught, this time receiving a knee to the gut before that same knee crashed into his head.

            Maria joined in Tempest's chanting a line late, repeating every word he spoke until their voices were one rhythm, one hum. A cage of blue and golden energy suddenly came up around their friend, and each time he touched it the bars would sizzle bright red as it would give him a shock.

            Tempest had to grab onto the door for support as the effort nearly drained him. "I don't know.... how long it'll hold..." he said.

            JB quickly tied his shirt sleeve on his hand as his nails retracted and became once more normal.

            The magic of the apartment flicked a bit, then settled once more as Tem's sword disappeared up into the flesh of his arm. He sat as if in meditation in the center of the cage, his eyes closed as he took deep breaths.

            "Fuckin little..." JB started, then cut himself off. It wasn't his fault.

            Maria picked a plastic bottle off the nightstand and looked at it, reading the name. Tempest glanced up and shook his head. "He's been asleep so long, the reserves he built up in his system must have been used up..."

            "What are these?" she asked, handing the bottle to JB.

            Tempest took a long moment before answering, setting himself on the bed and looking down at his friend in the cage on the floor. "They're dream suppressants... they keep him from going nuts like this."

            "Why?" JB asked, tossing the bottle to the bed.

            Tempest shrugged. "He never wanted to talk about it. I asked Vancha, and he just shrugged, saying the guy's been takin them as long as he could remember. He always said Tem was by himself, then took off one day and didn't show up again till before I met up with him." He looked down at his hands, then over at his friend who still sat there as if meditating.

            Hours went by, and Maria had fallen asleep in one of the chairs in the living room. Tempests was still around, but barely functional. If he went to sleep, there was no telling if the cage would be able to stand should Tem start ranting again.

            And JB, he sat on the bed having a staring contest with the caged man. The two stared until Tem's eyes changed color from violet to their normal lavender-blue.

            "I'm sorry," he said suddenly. "I didn't hurt you did I?"

            JB shook his head. "Not enough to matter," he said, rising from his place on the bed. "Better go get Tempest to take the thing down."

            "Don't bother," Tem said with a cool smile. "I could have taken it down easily from right where I am... Tempest's magics are strong, I'll give him that, and with Maria helping him, it made it much more durable, but her influence waned some time ago. See." As if to demonstrate, he touched the cage with his finger, and this time it did not turn bright red as if to burn him.

            "Tricky bastard," he said as he sat back down, his arms crossed over his chest. "So tell me, what was all that about?"

            "Nothing... I just... I thought you were something else," he said with a shrug, his voice falling in pitch. "I thought you were Him."

            "Who?" he asked, leaning forward with his arms still crossed.

            "The Defiler," he said softly, rising to his feet. JB also sat up, watching him carefully as he touched a hand to the cage bars and chanted something almost so softly he could not be heard.

            The cage vanished in a putt of orange smoke and he limped, though the limp itself was hardly noticeable, to sit on the bed again.

            He felt around for where they had left his pills and picked up the bottle, taking three of them to make up for the lost time. He swallowed them dry before setting the near empty bottle on the nightstand beside his bed. He glanced at the clock, then curled up on the bed behind JB, not with the intention of going back to sleep, but just to rest.

            JB turned around, or rather, shifted so that he could twist his torso to look at him, leaning a little over the bed. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.

            "What's all this interest in me all of a sudden? First you purposely overpay for your drink at the bar, then you just happen to show up and get a job where I work... and when I'm not working you're always askin about me. Vancha told me every time I-"

            "I'm just worried. Can't a guy be worried about his friends without getting the third degree?! You're lucky I'm still here you bastard! Most people would take off after they've had a sword to their throat!"

            He scrunched his nose and gave him a mean look before turning over in the bed. "Just go away... Tell Tempest to come back here when he has a free moment. We need to talk..."

            JB got up, still looking down at him. He had to stop himself from reaching down and brushing his hair from his face. He finally turned, reluctantly, and left him be. He cracked the door and passed on out into the kitchen where Tempest was again sitting, now just staring down into another cup of old coffee.

            "Tem said go on back when you can," he said before going out to the balcony.

                        ---

[Broken Arrow - Southern Outskirts of the Tulsa City State - Oklahoma]

 

            The last few days had been somber. But, it turned out to be for the better. Tem had settled down, righted himself, and was smiling again at least. Tempest had recharged his magical batteries and Maria was her normal innocent self again. The only one left glowering was JB, and that was just as well since such a mood was perfect for him on his better days.

            They had gone back to the island, gotten Maria's car from where it still sat amazingly, in the parking lot of the hotel... and it was a stick shift hover car... which meant only Tem and she knew how to drive the damned thing.

            And conveniently, the damn thing was broken down. Tempest and Maria sat on the side of the road as JB and Tem worked on the car.

            "How long is this going to take guys?" Maria said finally.

            "Well it would have been fixed a while ago if dumbass here didn't keep handing me the monkey wrench every time I need a flat head!" Tem shouted.

            "Hey! We only have three tools! Just use your imagination and go with it!" JB replied.

            Tempest rolled his eyes and stuck out his thumb, hoping by some wild chance someone would stop who had a decent tool set or a phone so they could call a tow truck.

            None stopped, and they were forced to finally give up and get their junk from the car. Tem had his stuff slung up in an army issue bag he'd bought at a surplus store. Maria had a suit case with a belt strapped to the handle so she could carry it over her shoulder with one of the flat sides against her back.

            JB carried a beat up old hiking bag he'd found in the back of Tempest's closet left over from the time he and Tem had gone hunting in the Rockies before splitting up their separate ways for a while. And Tempest carried an old leather book bag with his bow and quiver of arrows tied to it, the quiver having a cap on it to keep the arrows from falling out.

            They hiked down the highway until they saw a building in the distance. "Doragon Douketsu," Tem read aloud when they were close enough to read the sign.

            "The Dragon's Cave. Sounds appropriate," Tempest said, hoisting the strap of his leather bag over his shoulder as they walked on.

            "What do you mean 'sounds appropriate'?" JB asked.

            Tem laughed and shook his head. "You didn't know? Tempest's a Holy Draco Mage," he said. "See, there's all kinds of Mages. There's dark Draco, there's demon, there's shadow, there's fire, there's ice, there's wind, there's earth. And that's just the advanced mages. There's an entire culture of lesser ones like tree and-"

            "Okay! Enough already!" Maria shouted in annoyance.

            "Fine... but don't come crying to me if an elven mage kicks your ass in a thumb wrestling match," Tem replied with a grin.

            Ever since leaving LA, and Night Trap altogether he'd seemed to be a lot happier. In truth, he was, despite the bitter loss of his younger brother.

            He didn't have to worry about how he and Tempest were going to pay the bills, or if he was going to contract the ever rare and thought to be extinct STDs. Or even if he'd wake up the next day with all his organs intact.

            They hadn't seen a badu, or any other type of demon since leaving the major western city states behind them. He was more carefree out on the open plains, and Tempest was glad of it.

            He hadn't seen the man this happy since they accidentally almost shot each other when tracking a herd of badu across the former Texas-Mexican border by themselves. When he'd almost hit Tem with an arrow, and the man turned to lash out at what he thought was a demon beast with his whip (Tem's weapon of choice at the time) but instead found it was an old friend thought long lost forever.

            That was four years prior, when the pair were still in their mid teens. Now they were both barely legal and had already broken every law the world government had simply by being alive.

            But if they had a rap sheet, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that Tem's would fill an entire file cabinet, or maybe even a whole room if they went back far enough.

            The quartet had stepped up the door, then moved out of the way as a woman tossed a fat man out of it. She nodded and wiped her hands clean of him, a tuft of raven touched with silver falling into her aquamarine eyes. "I see you comin round here again and you'll have more than me to deal with little man!" She spat on him as he scrambled to get up, pointing at her in fear.

            "She's the devil she is!" he shouted, then turned tail and ran.

            She gave the four travelers a quick look over before going back inside. JB gave Tempest a look, who turned to Tem, who then turned to Maria, who was laughing at the scared man so hard she had to hold onto her side.

            Tem finally shook his head and started up to the door with the others. He felt something shove him back as Maria and Tempest passed right in.

            "What the hell!" JB exclaimed as he tried to go inside once more.

            Tem squinted to look at the door where Maria and Tempest waited with puzzled looks. "Yo Tempy, you see this?" he asked, going up to the door but not trying to go inside. He put his finger up and pushed it against the invisible field.

            Where his fingertip touched, it turned fluorescent green before shoving it back. "It's some kind of holy-"

            "Demons and devils can't get in 'less they have the right password," the woman behind the counter said. "Or they have the permission of the priest who made the seal."

            "What? I ain't no demon lady!" JB shouted. Tem sighed and sat on the edge of the porch.

            "Just bring me some water or somethin and I'll be fine guys," he said when JB finally stopped trying to get in and sat down beside him and took off his bag, setting it in the dirt and digging through it. Finally he found a flask and passed it over.

            "Here, this ought to hold you over for a while. It's my only one, but you can have it if you want."

            Tem smiled and after wiping his sweaty brow with his arm, he did. Unscrewing the cap, he took a good long swig and passed it back. "Yeah, that's hits the spot," he said, reaching his arms up in the air and stretching. His back popped before he settled down again.

                        ---

            They stayed at the bar, Tem and JB outside while Maria and Tempest were inside, all night. Tem had curled up on the porch using his bag as a pillow, and JB had propped himself up on one of the porch posts, his flask of vodka still in his hand as he slept soundly.

            Maria glanced out the window at their companions then looked back at Tempest. "Maybe we should go out there, keep them company."

            "I wouldn't if I were you," said the woman bartender. "There's things far worse than their demon kind out there. If you were to step out that door, you'd be snatched up by one of 'em and never seen again. You'd be smart to wait till dawn."

            "Can't you just let them in? They won't hurt anyone. The big one's harmless, really," Tempest protested.

            She shook her head and took a long swig from the bottle. "Not unless Kura says they can come in, and that ain't gonna happen any time real soon."

            "Why not!" Maria demanded, rising angrily from her chair at the table. "They're our friends, and wouldn't hurt a fly unless it attacked them first!"

            "Because Kurayami is the only one who can alter the seal and he won't be back from old Canada for another few days! Now if you don't wanna be tossed out on your ear, quiet down."

            Maria sat back down, and worriedly watched her friends through the window. Tempest had settled into a state of meditation during the exchange, and appeared to be asleep.

            But his eyes snapped open when he heard the first screams.

            Outside, Tem and JB were on their feet, bleary eyed from sleep and confused. The Demons came in force upon the Doragon Douketsu tavern. Tem chanted up a divider between the porch and the oncoming horde, but it was no use, they tore right through it. Maria had moved from the window to stand in their way with Tempest casting a repel circle about himself and his female companion. He'd tried to do one on the beautiful tendress, but it failed.

            They burst through the doors and into the bar with searing pain and howls of agony, then it was obvious the first wave were the sacrifices. When Tempest glanced out the door, he saw that despite his friends' lack of protection, the demons ignored them as if they were merely specters watching the scene.

            Tem's spells did nothing to them as he tried to throw them back, then JB tried physical means, his hands going right through them as if he were a ghost.

            But it wasn't him who was the ghost... it was the demons.

            The second wave began, and there were soldiered humans with them. The tendress had pulled a sword, and was fighting off the beasts that attacked her yet left the travelers unharmed.

            "Anger of the Dragon!" she screamed as from her arm four black snakes, nay, dragons lashed out from her right arm and surrounded the monsters, blasting through them and their wicked hearted human cohorts. But the blast was too much for her, as they grew wild and out of control, and killed her in their wake.

            Tempest stood wide-eyed in the center of the room as the tavern slowly changed, mutating. The walls darkening with age and the scorches of fire. Tables cracked, then collapsed as labels on bottles faded and yellowed.

            "She died 12 years ago."

            He turned around when Maria gasped with a hand to her mouth.

            In the doorway he stood, faded denim jeans and a leather jacket with an impossibly large fur collar that hid half his face from view. The other half veiled by blue-black hair, though beyond that were the gleam of two penetrating navy orbs. "It will be 13 this coming autumn," he said, stepping through the door and inside.

            JB tried to follow, but again was held back by the barrier despite the building's sudden shift.

            "Who are you!" Maria demanded suddenly.

            "Take what you will, I'll not be needing it," he said, the grip on the wooden sheath of his kitana loosening as he stepped past them to the bar. Dust stirred at his feet, uncovering the remains of the beasts that had attacked just over a decade before. "Leave after dawn and no earlier. The Badu are not pleasant creatures to run into on the Plains."

            "What do you know of the Badu?" Tempest asked as a chill went down his spine when the man walked by.

            "I know what I need to know, and that is enough," he replied, taking an old bottle of whisky from the shelf and uncorking it.

            Tempest glanced back to Tem who shrugged. JB stood with his arms crossed over his chest. "Can you let them in then? Just for the night."

            "Dark Mages are not welcome in this place," he replied, seating himself in a chair and toying with a pendant on a chain. " 'Twould be best if the beasts got them."

            "You've got to be kidding me! C'mon Tempest. If we get started now, we can probably make it to the next-"

            The man tossed the pendant and chain to Tempest and spoke, cutting right in the middle of the red head's sentence. "There isn't another building until you pass the Mississippi, and even then there's nothing until you reach the Jacksonville City State," he said calmly.

            Tempest turned the pendant over in his hand, then froze. He'd seen it before, around the neck of a lost comrade, his mentor... "Where did you get this?"

            "It was all that was left of my wife when I came back from Old Canada," he said. "I'd been tracking that bastard Blank for months... Even from the Tundra he set an attack in motion against us..." He took a long swig of his bottle before setting it back on the table. "I've been watching you for quite some time Tempest... ever since the trek over the Rockies."

            "Why?"

            "Dying words of an old man," he replied before looking up. Maria gasped in horror before burying her face in Tempest's shoulder. He put a protective arm around her as he turned away from the gruesome sight of the man's deformed face.

            His lidless eyes stared out at them, his lipless mouth grinned at them like only a skull could. But it was not a smile he intended, for the lack of skin, or rather, most skin, was not to be helped. A sunken cheek below his right eye bore the mark of the Old Devil from the time before the Christian Satan Lucifer.

            His smooth forehead white as the whites of his eyes so that it seemed those navy orbs peered out from not the eye sockets at all, but where eyebrows should have been.

            "Do I frighten you lad?"

            Tempest did not reply.

            "Oh, I am quite alive... my hatred and my word to Rian make sure of that."

            "What are you?" Tem whispered. He turned his head, and thankfully his hair fell back to cover his grotesque face once more.

            "I am the Reikoku," he said calmly.

            Tem blinked, a handsome face coming to mind followed by a slew of pain, though not his own... "I've heard of you," he said finally. "I didn't think you were real..."

            He nodded, picking up his bottle again. "I'm as real as the Defiler, that's for certain," he replied, taking a swig before allowing his fingers to play on the lip of the bottle. "But then again, you already knew that, didn't you young Shadow Mage?"

            Tem grew awkwardly silent as he contemplated the situation, if only to get his mind off the man inside.

            Tempest furrowed his brows, knowing there was something there he was missing, but let it alone. He'd learned over the years that some things were better left untouched...

                        ---

[Outskirts of Nashville City State, Tennessee]

 

            "Well, can't say he was wrong. Damn, if I move another mile I think I'm gonna die," Tem complained, stopping to rub his feet through his boots.

            "Just shut up and keep goin, we're not too much farther from a hot bath and a warm bed," Maria said, pulling him along. Her bottle pouch slapping against her thigh. Both she and Tem had turned their pants into cut-offs, not being able to stand the heat anymore, and Tem had gone one step further by using his shirt as a bandanna on his head to block the sun.

            Tempest had forced them to leave most of their belongings behind, taking only what they needed and nothing more... Although Tem was not to be without his red trench coat! He'd saved up for a year for it, and he wasn't about to just abandon it on the side of the road for god knows who to pick up and keep. After five miles of arguing, he won by bringing up the fact that Tempest still had that oversized Vampire Hunter D hat with him.

            Maria had taken some of their excess clothes and sewn them together, then cut them up and sewn up again in the shapes of bottles with clasps to open and close them. This was to keep a bottle of something, anything liquid to drink on the way. And should it go empty, it was easy to discard the bottle and use the pouch for something else.

            JB had ripped the sleeves off his shirt, and like Tempest had left his pants alone, but for much more different reasons. He put his hand up to shield the sun from his eyes, and spotted the looming dome of the city state ahead. "Just another day or so," he told the others before trudging on.

            After a while, Maria stopped.

            "What now?" Tempest said, exasperated.

            "I..." she started, but then Tem blurted in. "I gotta take a leak!" and then he dashed off to the curb and whipped it out.

            "Ah..."

            "Sick!" JB shouted.

            "Dude, Put it back!" Tempest snapped.

            Maria blinked in shock at his immodesty before blushing and turning her face away.

            "What? When a man's gotta go, he's gotta go!" Tem chuckled.

            "At least give us a little more warning before hand Temmothy," Tempest grumbled, fanning himself with his hat.

            JB shook his head, then turned to Maria. However, she had disappeared. "Where'd she?"

            Tem pointed with his free hand to his right where all could see the very top of her head. "Make sure you don't wipe with poison ivy!" he called with a giggle.

            "Oh brother...." JB said, shaking his head with a hand on his face, then turned to glance at Tempest. "Not you too!" he exclaimed when he saw him... and noticed he was a good 25 feet away from the red head with his back turned... meaning he was across the road from everyone else.

            "Hey! Like he said! When ya gotta go ya just gotta go!" Tempest called back with a wave of his free hand.

            Maria came back with a sigh and adjusted her shorts. And Tem was still going. "Are we trying to refill the ocean there?"

            He shrugged.

            "Now we know where all the water went," JB remarked, stepping up beside him. "May as well join the crowd," he said.

            Finally! Tem zipped up his shorts and pulled out a small bottle of clear liquid reading "Dove Hand Sanitizer" and squirted a dollop in his hand before passing it to Maria and smearing the stuff all over his hands.

            She then passed it on to Tempest, who did the same as they before finally passing it to JB.

            "Where the hell were you keeping this? I know those pockets aren't that big..." Maria said, giving him the stink eye.

            "Hey, if there's one thing I've learned over the years, never go on a road trip without it... no matter how expensive it is," he said, closing the cap and stuffing it back tightly into the pocket of his shorts. "So, shall we?"

            The others nodded and grabbed their few belongings as they started off down the road again.

            After a while, JB burst out laughing, which scared the others and forced them to walk a good 8 feet behind him.

                        ---

[Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille - Nashville]

 

            He pushed open the door with a sigh, his tired feet threatening to trip up beneath him. Maria sighed as she wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her arm. Tempest took off his hat and fanned himself with it, quite sure that the ceiling fans of the place blew nothing but hot air down on them.

            The place was busy as JB hustled them to one of the few free booths in the place. "We got any cash?" Tem asked with a sigh as he leaned his head on Tempest's shoulder.

            The brunette would have said something, but was too tired to argue, so he left him alone. "I think we might have enough for one milkshake at the golden arches and half an apple pie."

            "Damn.... I don't wanna move...." Tem grumbled as he closed his eyes, his ragged shirt stuffed into the empty bottle pouch slung over his shoulder.

            "What can I get you fine folks?" chirped a girl cheerfully as she took out a notepad.

            "Uh.... how much can this get us?" Tempest asked as he emptied the contents of his pocket on the table.

            She sorted through the change, setting aside a button, a safety pin and an empty Tic-Tac box. "One burger with nothing on it but ketchup or mustard."

            "Nothing to drink?" Maria asked as the old cracked leather of the booth stuck to her thighs and back.

            "Well, water's free."

            "Free!" the four exclaimed in unison, their eyes wide in disbelief.

            "So... that'll be all?" she asked.

            "Yeah. And can you bring us a knife too?" Tem asked, closing his eyes again.

            She nodded and turned around, a furry tail swishing back and forth behind her as she moved on to the next table.

            "Free water... who in their right mind would waste perfectly good-"

            "Look, it's better than sippin watered down beer right?" JB said. Tempest and Maria both nodded in agreement, and Tem just grumbled under his breath somewhere between waking and dreaming.

            They sat there, letting the air from the ceiling fans slowly cool them off as they waited for the girl to return. When she did, Tem had snapped to attention and seized the knife. He no sooner had it cut into fourths than they inhaled it.

            "When was the last time you folks ate?" the girl asked with a thick southern accent, her eyes wide in amazement.

            JB was merrily licking the ketchup from his fingers, Maria was licking the plate in an unlady like fashion and Tempest was guzzling down his entire glass of ice water.

            "I reckon 'bout two 'er three weeks sounds 'bout right don't ya think bro?" Tem said, his accent more lazy with southern drawl than the girl's.

            Tempest set his empty glass down and nodded, his mouth full of ice that he was swallowing whole. "Yeah. Sounds right."

            Maria blinked before setting the plate back down, slightly embarrassed at what she'd done and hoping nobody had seen.

            "I ain't s'posed to do this... but you folks look like ya needin a good fillin of ya guts. If I talk to my boss in the kitchen, maybe he'll see to it ya'll get fed and have a bed right proper for tonight at least."

            Tem opened his mouth, and Tempest clamped a hand over it instinctively, knowing the man would graciously decline her offer on a matter of self pride. "Would you do that for us?"

            "Sho thang. 'Sides, he sounds like one o' them good ol' country boys from out Carolina ways," she said with a smile, her eyes flicking to Tem a moment. "An if'in I don't extend some of our southern hospitality, ain't no tellin what a good ol' boy can get himself into 'round here ya feel me," she said.

                        ---

[LaMonte Motel - Nashville]

 

            JB looked around at the room, small though it was he didn't mind. There were two twin beds and a couch, all three of which seemed in worse shape than the dynamic duo's apartment across the country. He tossed his pouch to one of the beds before crashing beside it. The pillows stank of old...something... he didn't want to think about it.

            Tem stumbled in after Tempest and supported by Maria who laid him on the couch with a groan.

            "Country boy?" Tempest asked, standing over him with a hand on his waist.

            "I used ta live over'n the Carolinas for a while," he muttered with his face against the arm of the dusty couch.

            "That explains it..." Maria said as she sat on the vacant bed, the springs shifting beneath her noisily.

            "Well, if we hear squeaks in the night, at least we know someone's making light of things," JB mumbled as he rolled over, kicking off his shoes. One of them hit Tem in the back, which caused him to groan a moment before rolling over to his side.

            Tempest shut the door and gave the blue haired one a stern look before rubbing his stubbly chin. What he wouldn't do for a good toss away razor right about then...

            First, they rested. The entire night seemed dead as they lay unmoving in their beds (or in Tem's case couch). Then, the next day they started their planning.

            "So... what are we gonna do when we get there?"

            "Assuming we get there with a day or two to spare, we'll have to scare up a place to stay... Tem, that's your department."

            "Why me?" he whined at Tempest.

            "...As much as I hate to say this... but we'll by relying on your... 'business sense' to get us at least a cheap cardboard box for a while."

            He groaned, but this was hardly noticed as Tempest turned away from JB's sudden death glare. Maria broke in to try and make the peace. "Okay, but then what? I mean, what are we going to do when we have to fight? We don't know anything about these guys aside from the fact they're really powerful and can take a good kick to the head."

            Tempest nodded. "You got that right. There's not much more we know about them either... and the fact that we haven't come across any stray beasts on the tip over here has me bugged. Maybe they-" he said, but broke off when Tem stood and went to stand at the window, his hands on the sill and his eyes trained to the world outside.

            His lavender-blue gaze watched children below, working the crowd as hookers plied their trade. He touched a hand to the face faintly reflected back at him. He hardly recognized himself at all, so thin, so tired and dark with the baking of the hot summer sun and the long walk across the miles.

            "He's close," he said to himself, not intending anyone to hear.

            Tempest sighed and returned to the situation at hand. "They've got to be drawing the Badu in, perhaps for an ambush attack for when we reach town, or maybe they plan on using an army of the things against us," he said.

            "What do you think?" Maria asked Tem at the window.

            He turned his head as if snapping out of a daze, "Yeah... we've gotta be ready for anything."

            "Hey, where'd your accent go?" JB asked, completely off topic and out of the blue.

            "It only shows up when I'm really tired... and don't make me use it either. It's annoying as hell."

            "Hey, I was just askin," he replied as the other turned to the small pack he'd kept his coat in. He tore it open and slipped it over his arms before looking at Tempest.

            The two seemed to share an unspoken bond that Maria often found herself jealous of. Then Tempest rose to his feet, grabbing his hat from the bedpost where he'd left it. He shrugged JB's hand off his shoulder when the duo went for the door.

            "Where the hell-"

            "Unfinished business," Tem replied so coldly it gave him the chills. Tempest's eyes had seemed to glaze over as the two turned to leave the room behind them.

            As soon as they hit the street, they were gone, following their Sight in the direction of the downtown area.

            Maria stood at the window, watching for them. "Sometimes..."

            "You worry about them. You're not alone," he said, pulling her away from the window to the couch. "They can take care of themselves..."

            "You want to go with them, to keep an eye on him don't you?" she asked, pulling her legs up to herself like she so often did on the balcony at Elfhame Heights.

            He slowly nodded. "He's reckless, always have been. The fool never thinks ahead before he acts, if he thinks at all," he said, leaning on one of the arms of the couch, a hand at his chin with his elbow propping him up. The stubble that had finally started to grow on his face was almost black, but she knew if it were longer it'd obviously be blue.

            "Why do you care so much about him? I put together lines and names and phrases.... but pictures are still so fuzzy to me. It's hard to-"

            "Because I love him," he said flatly, unashamed. "It's hard sometimes, to keep lying to him like this, but I just want to protect him. The last time, I wasn't there for him, and now here we are again." He glanced at her with a sorrowful look in those soulful black orbs. "The Reikoku has his path to redemption, and I have mine."

            She looked away from him. "I wish it were that easy for... I don't know what to do. When I decide on what to tell him, something happens and I-... I have to rework everything. I can't stand it anymore Joe, I just can't!"

            He leaned over and took her in his arms as she cried. He held her snug in those strong arms, like he would a child rather than the lover he once sought her, nay, Mirei, as. "Everything will be okay," he said. "You'll figure yourself out before we get there..." he said, then mentally added "and so will I."

                        ---

            Tem came to a stop, nearly skidding off the train station platform. He escaped toppling over only because Tempest decided to reach out and yank on his coat. When Tem was balanced again, he raised an accusing finger at the deformed beast that held the child by it's throat off the ground.

            "Unhand that little girl or I'll shove my ultimate weapon up your ass!"

            Tempest blinked, giving Tem a stunned stare. "Dude..."

            "What?" he asked, still pointing at the beast.

            "Coming from you... that's more than just one threat...."

            "Knock it off bro," Tem snapped, nay, commanded, then turned his attention to the monster. "You've got till I count to five..."

            It growled at him before taking off, with the child in hand.

            "Fuck it! C'mon!" Tempest shouted as he broke into a run, his bow in hand and his quiver beating against his back.

            As the pair separated, Tem taking to the street as Tempest to the rooftops, Tem flicked back his wrists and tried to aim as carefully as he could for the demon's knees.

            Even with support from above, the beast broke out into the street, and it was obvious it wasn't using the Sight to it's advantage. So, they didn't bother using it either. Better to get the people out of the way if they see a madman chasing a monster while swinging a sword around.

            Finally, they had it cornered at a dead end... or so they thought... before they could act, it tore into the child's flesh with it's claws and tore out it's still beating heart... six chambered...

            "It can't be..." Tem whispered, then lashed out in a sudden rage at the beast with his sword.

            "What?!" Tempest shouted from above, releasing arrow after arrow like a machine. "Tem! Watch your back!" he shouted as he shot a bolt into one of three oncoming monsters.

            Tem spun around, bringing the tip of his sword across the first beast's belly and ignoring the hot rush on his legs of it's innards as he charged the others wildly. His skin sizzled and burned where the black oil blood oozed down his bare legs as he jumped into the air, crashing his sword down once more upon one of their skulls. The hilt broke bone as it split the monster's overly proportioned head open.

            Tempest had come back down to street level chanting. In his brown eyes coursed white streaks of electricity as he flung arrows in abandon. "ELF SHOT!" he screamed at the top of his lungs suddenly as Tem back handspringed off one beast and crashed onto another. The single arrow split into many and they all connected back to him with a blue power, like tails of a snake to the hand that had held the arrow against the bow.

            "Shadow's FALL!" Tem screamed, as the shadows of the beasts themselves pulled their skeletons out from their very feet, skinning them somewhat alive.

            When the red head came back down, he grasped onto his partner's shoulder to keep from collapsing to the pavement, his legs slightly weak, but this passed quickly.

            The pair blessed the ground, sending even the ashes of the beasts to their hellish graves.

            And that's when Tem saw it, and wailed in a voice so hurt, so stricken with sorrow, that he could not bear to look upon it.

            "What in the name of god...." Tempest said as Tem hid his face in his shoulder from the horror.

            The wall, 30 feet high from ground to sky, was covered in bodies of children, small infants to prepubescent teens... Gaping holes where their undeveloped genitals should have been and a cross stitched into their flesh where their hearts should have been. Red and blonde, all of them. Little red headed boys and little blonde girls. The entire display a massive crucifixion of innocence... literally.

            Tem broke away from his friend's grasp and vomited what little his stomach contained onto the pavement before falling to his knees.

            " 'Let flights of devil angels take you to your grave' " Tempest read aloud, touching the wall where the crimson words were still fresh. He sniffed his fingers, rubbing them together under his nose. "Blood... it's still fresh... a little warm..." he said, his hand on his jeans.

            Tem rose, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his red trench coat, his back turned to the display. "Burn them," he said softly. "And bless their little heads..."

            Had Tempest been able to see his face, he'd have seen the tears streaming silently from his eyes as he leapt up to the roof tops and was gone.

            The Holy Mage stood, his hat pulled down to hide his face as he chanted, the never ceasing worry in his gut that his dearest companion was hiding something, something far worse than the fate that awaited them in Missing Mile...

                        ---

            He'd left Tempest to destroy the evidence hours ago, and now the night had found him perched on a cross steeple of an old abandoned church. His coat draped down back behind him as he crouched, his knees apart and his arms resting between them as his dark eyes watched the streets.

            He reached out with all the Sight he could muster, and cloaked himself to even Tempest's watchful eye, though he could easily have found the red head if he so chose. It was a matter of skill, like hacking a computer. All it took was time, and the right password.

            "Devil Angels..." he whispered...

            He'd grown up on the streets mostly, and everyone knew the story of the Devil Angels... They were a religious cult started in the mid 22nd century, and continued in secrecy even to the present. Their favorite sacrifices were small children, particularly young blond boys. That's why for the longest time after he left Vancha and home at age 12, he kept an eye out for them when he wandered out of the mainstream.

            For years he was convinced it was one of those that had come to his mother's bed that night... but that was until he had found the old Shadow Mage Varuneh who taught him to harness his power and about the other, darker magics.

            Oh, Tem was no mere Shadow Mage at all. In fact, that slim body was in reality a machine bred for death. His hatred, his need for vengence for what had been done to him and his mother was enough to drive him into the ranks of those rare Demon Mages that roamed the world.

            He sat back in deep thought as he scanned the streets below, then felt eyes on his back. Instantly he spun, swinging his fist hard, but it was caught and held tightly. "Is that a threat? Or are you just happy to see me?" he said with a grin before letting go.

            "How did you find me?" he asked as the man took the liberty of standing on the vacant arm of the cross.

            "It wasn't hard," he said, crossing his arms over his chest as he was wot to do most times and looked down at him. A soft breeze blew, blowing both coat and hair back from him as the other watched in near fascination. "You've always been drawn to cathedrals and churches."

            "You don't know anything," he replied, rising to his full height of 6 feet. He stuffed his hand in the pocket of his coat, the other dangling at his side. "Take Maria and go back to LA. You can use my apartment until you get a place for yourself."

            "Like hell. I come this far, I ain't goin back now," he replied.

            Tem looked up at him through red rimmed eyes. "This isn't your fight JB."

            Then, the other reached out and took his hand in his own with a deep breath. "You're right, it's ours. Yours, mine, Tempest's, and Maria's. Whatever's going on with you, let me help," he said.

            Tem jerked his hand away. "I don't want your sympathy. You can't possibly understand the enormity of what you've allowed yourself to be dragged into. This isn't the old fashioned good against evil story book JB. This is real life, where people aren't exactly what everyone's made them out to be.

            "Tempest and I have to do this on our own."

            "It's because what he did to you isn't it?" he asked suddenly.

            Tem froze instantly, suddenly aware of each and every breath he took.

            "You're going to kill anything that gets in your way... you won't stop until you get him..."

            "How do you know about that?" he asked quietly.

            "Ever since the night we had to cage you, I've been doing some digging of my own Tem. '752 Violin Road, Patricia Delaney Sikes, unmarried with two children. Names of Timmothy and Vancha, each produced of different fathers. 29 year old prostitute found dead, beaten to death in her own home three days prior. Found by the landlord when he came by to collect the three months overdue rent.

            " '7 year old Timmothy was found clinging to victim's body in shock. Medical reports stated sexual abuse on both parties. 1 Year old Vancha suffered nothing more than a dirty diaper and malnutrition, and was released a week prior the elder brother into child services.' "

            Tem stood, his eyes focused on the ground below, his mind carefully calculating how far it was from steeple to the sidewalk, and at just what angle he should fall at to die on impact. "Why?" he said quietly, his voice lower than a whisper to his own ears as the tears dripped down his cheeks and to the ground below. "Why did you have to-"

            "To make you listen. To make you understand. We'll make him pay for it, but we'll do it together, not alone where he can pick us off one by one until there's nothing left."

            It was then Tem turned, and threw himself against him, sobbing uncontrollably into his chest as the other held him close, almost possessively. He reached up a hand to smooth the other's hair back.

            When Tem lifted his head, the other brushed his thumb over his cheek. "I won't let anyone hurt you, not anymore. Not in any way Tem, I promise you," he said.

            Staring up at him like that, Tem could not help but inwardly smile as the truth settled in. There was no need to speak it out loud, there was no need for making words... "I'll hold you to that Joe," he said softly before standing on his tip toes to reach his lips with his own.

                        ---

            They had left the motel in a hurry, the demon beasts chasing them the eastern gates of the dome of concrete and steel. Their feet pounded wet pavement as they skirted corners and jumped the mini hurtles of cars or people in their way. Thankfully, they were hidden with a cloaking spell JB, or Joe rather, had cast on them. It was like using the Sight to conceal their presence, but it made them not only invisible, but also intangible to those who might become the unintentional bystander.

            Tempest's hat had come off once, and he would be damned if he'd leave it behind. It was his one true luxury left in the crazy world they lived in, and he was not about to lose it now.

            "Come on! This way!" Maria shouted as she led them on. Next followed Tempest, with the other two bringing up the rear. They managed to pass under the gates just before they closed down for the evening.

            Joe was breathing hard, doubled over with his hands on his knees as he looked sideways at the gate. "That' the closest we've ever come.... what the hell did you do to piss them off girl?"

            "I didn't do anything. I just asked if anyone had the time!" she replied, forcing her own breathing under control.

            Tempest and Tem were standing there looking over them, appearing as if they'd just come from a brisk walk. "Are you guys ready yet?" Tem asked, tying his old shirt around his head once more. They were soaking wet, but would soon be bone dry again under the heat of the bright searing sun in the sky. The rain had been dome controlled only, even though the land outside needed the big drinks more.

            Tempest pulled his hat down over his eyes, ripping his shirtsleeves off and wrapping them around his wrists to keep them cool, and when they were dry to use as bandages or something else they might need should the time come.

            Tem smacked his blue haired cohort on the back hard with a grin. "Well then, shall we be off or are we just gonna sit out here all day till the vultures come to peck out remains?" he laughed, starting off down the road with his little home stitched pack containing the sole article of clothing he carried everywhere, that damned trench coat.

            Joe stood upright and wiped his brow. They'd been in such a hurry they left two of the four bottle pouches. The only reason they had anything at all was because the two elder mages (elder in the sense that they'd been mages for a much longer period of time before now) had been quick on their feet and always kept their bags close.

            Maria tugged on her shorts and walked at Tempest's side, who had let Tem take the lead this time, against the brute's best wishes of course.

            "Oh man! Wait till you guys see Raleigh! Man that place is the prettiest City State I've ever seen! And then there's this little pocket out between Raleigh and Mile called Columbus! That's where me and Vancha were sent to live for a while. They have the best Jewish deli this side of the Ol' Mississippi!" Tem exclaimed as he skipped ahead of them. It seemed the closer they got to their destination, the happier he became. As a matter of fact, they had caught him humming and singing a few bars of some old songs about the country, but it was by no means the country music one would instantly think of when hearing the name Garth Brooks and the like. This was deep south folk songs he was singing, known only to area natives they were so folk-ish.

            "An' 'n dem trees he wen' a huntin' fo' dem 'racket birds!" he sang at the top of his lungs.

            Joe had formed a splitting headache about 20 miles up the road when the fool had stopped singing Devil Went Down to Georgia and sailed right into a bar of some obscure childhood song he only half remembered.

            "Will he ever stop?!" Maria shouted, but it was still hard to hear her on account of the red head's massive lung power.

            "Maybe when he turns blue in the face!?" Tempest shouted back.

            "Not soon enough!" Joe replied as he ran up to the front and knocked the man in the back of the head hard enough to stun him, but not enough to do much harm.

            "What'd you do that for!" he barked, rubbing his head.

            "The way you keep carrying on like that it's a surprise we haven't been torn to shreds by now you dolt!"

            "Hey, you don't have to hit me!" he shouted back before resuming his walking.

            After a while, Tempest stopped, sniffing the air. "Yo guys, hold up," he said, straying from the road. Tem stopped his singing again just before Joe released his hand for a good smack across the cheek. Maria stood on the side of the road, trying to peer into the brush beyond the old rusted guardrail.

            "What gives bro!" Tem finally called, passing his bag to Maria before jumping the rail and going after. He skidded to a stop just in time to keep from sliding into the mess. "What in the name of-" but he never finished that sentence as he felt a hand touch his leg.

            He jumped up into Tempest's surprised arms, who after a quick look and his heartbeat slowed, dropped him rather comically to the ground.

            The face, or rather what was left of it in the bloodied mess, was still moving, flaps of skin opening and closing as the cadaver tried to breath without lungs in it's chest. How it remained alive was an enigma. After a moment, Tempest pulled a twig from the ground and started poking at it.

            Boneless limbs flopped around, and Tem very womanishly squealed and backed up in a sort of crab walking imitation. "Kill it! Kill it!" he shrieked.

            Soon Maria and Joe had joined them, the latter grabbing the redhead up off the ground by his arm roughly. "Pussy," he muttered before crouching down next to the flopping... thing...

            "What happened?" Maria asked.

            Tempest shrugged, quite enjoying hearing Tem shriek every time it flopped in his direction when poked with the stick. Joe shook his head and grabbed the stick with his hand, breaking it in two before tossing it back into the brush. "I dunno, but I don't think we'd wanna find out either."

            "Let's go back up to the road..." Tem said slowly, already backing up the direction they'd come. But when he turned, there was nothing but trees. All trace of the road was gone. "What the fuckin hell!" he shouted in both surprise and anger.

            "Seems to me like something doesn't want us to get back up there," Joe said, rising to his full height.

            "You think," Tempest remarked sarcastically as Maria passed Tem back his bag. He slung it over his shoulder with a sad look on his face and going to stand beside Joe, but keeping sure the man was between him and the cadaver.

            "So, which way do we go now George?" he asked stupidly.

            Tempest burst into side splitting laughter, doubling over with tears streaming down his eyes every time he looked at his partner, blinking innocently up at the blue haired brute who looked back at him just as stupidly.

            "Huh?" Maria asked with her brows furrowed, not quite understanding what was going on.

            After regaining control of himself, Tempest looked to the sky above, catching sight of the sun and pointing. "I think we should go that way," he said. "Just as good as any other I guess."

            Tem's grin grew wider as he and Tempest started walking, with Tem going "Are we there yet George?" every five minutes, causing the brunette's laughter both return and escalate.

                        ---

            Night fell, and they still had not found sight nor heard anything of the highway. Tired and hungry, the four sat down around a small fire Maria had built (giving thanks to her former Girl Scout training) with some twigs and sticks she'd found nearby.

            Joe and Tempest had rolled some old logs through the woods back for them to sit on, and Tem had gone in search of anything to eat.

            Eventually he returned with his bottle pouch filled with berries and a dead..something....  already skinned. This he threw into Joe's lap with a wide grin. "Here's dinner," he said.

            Joe looked down at the poor animal, then to the fur the red head sat down and started scraping with a knife. "I don't think I even want to know how..." he said.

            Tempest shook his head and grabbed the animal, shoving an arrow through it and setting it in the fire. "You get used to not asking questions after a while," he said, then looked to Tem. "What's this one gonna be?" he asked casually.

            "Dunno. A food purse probably. Just in case we have any left overs or somethin," he said, wiping his knife on his shorts before grabbing a stick from the small store of firewood and rolling the fur around it.

            "Since when did you become a contestant on Survivor?" Joe asked with a raised brow.

            Tem returned his question with an annoyed look before rising to his feet and stealing into the woods again.

            Joe made to go after him, but Tempest quickly grabbed his pant leg. "Don't bother... he'll be back when the food's ready, or he wants to go to sleep, whichever comes first."

            Maria looked up from the fire, hugging her knees again as she listened to the light conversation of the two men. Once in a while, her eyes would stray skyward to the looming moon overhead. She felt an eerie peace fall over her as the pale face of the celestial rock looked back down upon her.

                        ---

            He leapt from tree to tree, and taking to the ground only briefly as he stalked his mark. His sword was drawn, and thirsty for blood just as he was thirsty for a good kill. It happened to him sometimes, when he needed to blow off steam or simply find an outlet for his bottled aggression.

            The large feline, a panther, was always one step ahead of him. It leapt out from the trees and into the clearing, and so did it's red headed pursuer.

            When he landed on the ground, his knee in the dirt and his foot crushing the grass, he looked up slowly then felt his heart stop.

            The house, falling apart and in shambles stood there, the old rose briars could be seen in the back yard; the remnants of the old trailer that had been there before seemed to glow it's rusted shell in the moonlight.

            Lavender-blues looked upon the old brown and yellow house, the paint peeling off and the windows lit up yet yellowed with tobacco tar. Before he could stop himself, he was climbing the steps. He reached for the door, when suddenly it opened and a man stomped out, his shaggy red hair and beard hiding those fierce blue-lavender eyes from view as a woman ran behind him wielding a frying pan.

            "An don' ya ever sho' yer face 'gain 'round here ya bastad!" she shrieked as he heard a child wailing.

            The woman passed right by without even seeing him, chasing the man out into the yard.

            Tem turned, watching as a black car pulled up and the red headed man climbed in.

            "DADDY!" wailed the child within the house.

            The woman shrieked obscenities at the man as she went to the driver's side window.

            He briefly saw a shock of blue-black hair before a lit cigarette was thrown out on her. She went wild trying to brush it off, then screamed again and tried to climb in the window at the driver.

            Finally she was thrown out from the car and the window rolled up. "Fuckin' homo! I hope yer cock rots n' falls clean off ya two-timin' bastad!" she shrieked, picking up rocks to throw at the retreating car.

            Tem turned his back on the scene, going inside the house. It was dark, and he could still hear the child's sniffling as suddenly the woman was there with her arms wrapped around him. "It's okay baby doll, it's gon' be okay," she cooed as he watched her rock the child back and forth.

            Slowly the colors became sharper as his eyes adjusted to the queer darkness. A shock of violent red stroked by a thin veiny hand. "Sh.... it's gon' be okay. Momma's here baby n' I ain't gon' let nuttin' happen to ya."

            "But... but daddy... he said," the child started.

            "Don't you listen none to what he told ya. He ain't nuthin but a bad man ya hear me," she replied. "Timmy baby, I want ya to forget ever'thin' he ever told ya."

            Tem blinked, and felt his cheek damp. He rubbed his fingers together before taking steps back from the scene. His mind was sent for a spin as he was thrust suddenly into the dim lit room of his mother's horrid life.

            "Now yer gonna do everythin I said an not make a sound," the old man crooned as the woman bent over the nightstand, pressing her nose to the surface and a finger to a nostril. She sucked up the white powder with the eagerness that only a junkie can muster. "An yer gon' be real good littl'e angel ain't ya?"

            She sat up, holding her head with a light giggle before crawling over to him and positioning herself in the old man's lap. "That's what I'm here for baby," she cooed in the same comforting voice she gave the child who called out for his daddy.

            "That's a good girl," the old man said as he reached a hand between her legs.

            Tem couldn't bear to watch as she screamed in ecstasy, then agony.

            He could feel hands all over him even as he hear the first squeak of the door hinges, the first shout of the boy. He curled up in a ball with his hands over his head as he felt the fingers play deep in his chest and close around his heart, jerking this way and that. "NO!" he screamed as the man climbed atop the boy on the bed.

            He rose to his feet and turned screaming, tears streaming down his cheeks as he flung himself at the man who'd ruined him, who'd deflowered him against his will.

            "I'll fucking kill you you son of a bitch!" he screamed as he passed right through him, but he was not to be deterred. Pure energy flew off him in waves, each one larger than the next until his body felt like it were going to tear itself apart.

            He threw his head back in an animalistic howl as he launched himself at the winged man with the long silver hair. This time, he made contact, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there.

            Those cruel lips smiled and blew him a kiss before throwing him off like a rag doll.

            "You've seen through my trick..." he said, wiping the blood from his lips as the ravenous Temmothy stood with his hands themselves turned to sharpened pikes. "I'm surprised really..." he said, the long hair falling out and replaced by a rich blonde. The eyes widened slightly and rounded out to a vibrant emerald green.

            "You," Tem said through clenched teeth.

            "Yes... me," he replied, looking at his nails nonchalantly, moving to the side when the other threw himself at him wildly.

            "Your aim is a little off today old chap. Mind if I fix that for you?" he said, eyes flashing as he shifted position, his gleaming sword raised as the other morphed his hands back to their normal shapes, with two glittering black swords in each.

            The Shadow Mage's eyes were filmed over, violet insanity hiding the calming blue lavender...

                        ---

            "What was that?" Maria snapped, cocking her head to the side.

            Tempest shrugged. "He probably found a nest," he replied, turning over the animal on makeshift spit. "Nothing to worry about."

            Joe looked at him as if the man were stupid. "...You dunderhead. You honestly think-"

            "Sh...." Maria broke in, her hand raised. "Listen..."

            "To what?" Joe asked, looking up, but where Maria was supposed to be, he saw nothing but forest. "Okay... this isn't funny guys, where'd you go!" he shouted, annoyed. He rose to his feet and looked around, kicking over Tem's bag. The orange prescription bottle fell out, rolling close to the fire. He bent down to pick it up, then stopped, noticing that it was empty.

            His forehead creased as he stood upright again, looking around him. "Tempest?" he called, his voice echoing back at him. "Maria!" he called and again his voice echoed back. Then the fire burned low and he saw a figure crouching in the shadows.

            "Who's there!" he demanded, raising his guard.

            His only response was a laugh. "I'm no one," the man replied, stepping far enough from the darkness to define his shape, and nothing more. For a moment he thought he could see cold blue eyes glaring back at him.

            "Show yourself!"

            Again the figure laughed, and stepped closer. At his side something grew, longer until it nearly reached the ground. Then just as slowly at his other side, was the same.

            Instinctively, Joe's nails extended into the sharpened points he'd used to defend himself against Tem the night they caged him. There was just enough light thrown on the figure to show it's well defined jaw and crimson smile.

            "You walk paths where you're not wanted Ice Mage," he said.

            The figure moved, and there was a flash of blue and red before his back was slammed against a tree. Eyes flashed hungrily in not blue chill but a deep black void pierced only by swirls of lavender. "Yeah, well I never was one given for invitations!" Joe growled as he threw the figure off him.

            Or so he thought.

            Anticipating such an action, the man had jumped back, long black nails pointed off to the sides; he stood as if crucified, his head hung and his hair draped over half his face. His hair, Joe could now see, was mostly blue, streaked with red in places. It was long, down to the man's waist in length.

            "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death," he intoned as this time Joe took the offensive. His mistake was realized only after the man leapt spinning into the air, his body like a tornado of knives as he brought the blue haired brute up with him.

            Joe fell back down to the ground with a grunt, his tattered clothing falling in rags and his arms and chest sliced deep.

            "I take a look at my life, and realize there's not much left."

            Joe stood, wiping his cheek and raising his claws. "Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the Dangerous Minds soundtrack either," he said before charging once more at the figure.

            Crimson lips smiled devilishly as he moved, seeming to fade into the shadows before attacking again from behind. A forked tongue rimmed his ear before he hissed. "Now now, that's no way to treat family Joe... no way to treat them at all."

            The seemingly small figure held onto him tight before spinning. He released him, smashing him into the trunk of a tree with mad laughter.

            Again Joe got to his feet, his left arm rendered useless by that last attack and hanging limply at his side. "I know this style..." he said to himself as he watched the thin, lean form return to a stance of little, if any guard at all. "The reckless movements, the on purpose openings... that's Tem's shadow technique!"

            "That's right," he replied. "And I've a few more tricks up my sleeve... father..." he said, taking Joe's moment of surprise as the perfect opportunity.

                        ---

            "Joe?!" Maria called as she looked around. One moment he was there with them at the fire, the next, he was gone. Tempest had instantly gone and grabbed her hand, chanting in his foreign tongue.

            "Joe! Tem!" she tried again. Suddenly she was thrown off her feet, Tempest landing on top of her as the black wave shook the forest.

            "Oh shit..." Tempest whispered, his eyes focused on one direction. She looked up at his face as he suddenly went emotionless. Suddenly Tempest covered her head with his arms and her body with his as another blast hit them.

            "It's a spatial shift!" he shouted over the chaotic winds.

            "A what!"

            "A spatial shift! It's when a dark mage uses their magic against another dark mage! It causes the Chaos Effect!"

            "The what!" she shouted. "I can't hear you!"

            He bent his face low so that their noses were nearly touching. "The Chaos Effect," he said. He spoke slowly, and loud, enunciating every syllable so that she could perhaps read his lips. "It's what they call it when two forces draw from the same power source! It's like a pendulum, one becomes more powerful than the other until finally they both implode!"

            Her eyes went wide as she lifted her head far enough to press her lips to his ear. "We have to do something!"

            "All we can do is pray... pray that we don't get killed in the middle..." he said, his lips brushing her soft skin as he tried his best to shield her from the whip snapping wind that lashed at his back angrily.

                        ---

            He threw the red head back with a grin. "I told you there was a price to pay," he said, driving his knee deep into the other's ribs. "Did you really think it would be so easy to just take my precious time away from me Temmothy?" he sneered.

            "Don't you remember Voide?" he coughed, then looked deep into the emerald hues with a smile. "I am built of pain." He pressed his wrists against the opposing mage's sides and drove two thick spikes deep into his bowels. The Shadow Demon howled in agony before her dug his fingers deep into the shadow mage's flesh.

            "Are you so quick to die that you would sacrifice yourself for your cause," he growled, his face so close to the other's they could each smell the stink on their breath.

            "Are you so quick to kill that you forget who feeds you the pain you need to survive this world?" Tem replied as he shoved the demon off him.

            He fell to the floor, much like his mother's crumpled body had done over a decade before.

            The demon stood holding his side as blood smeared blonde clung to his red face. He pulled his hand away, gasping for breath as he saw the blood thickly coating his palm. He felt the hot drizzle of the stuff as it ran down his arm and his legs, down his cheek from his head and his neck from his scalp.

            The other was not in much better shape. A slice down his face from forehead to chin, an eye closed as blood crusted around the lid. Blood streaming down his bare chest as it heaved in an effort of breath. Four finger holes in his side and a thumb on his back, an identical set of wounds on his right arm.

            His lips stained scarlet with blood, he spat red phlegm to the discolored carpet. "Send a message to the Defiler for me," he said, surprising the blonde demon. "It will take more than a mere flashback to stop me. I'm coming for him, and I won't stop until I HAVE HIS HEAD!" The last words he screamed as he launched himself off the wall at the man, taking him to the ground and using sheer brute force on him.

            "If I can't kill you with magic, then I'll kill you like a motherfuckin caveman!" he screamed wildly as his fists blurred, his knuckles raw as he beat the demon beneath him until there was nothing but a shattered skull and his knuckles raw.

            Suddenly blonde hair turned orange and came away from the fractured bones of the skinless skull that had been crushed into dust.

            Chunks of bone protruded from his hands as he continued the assault, his fists soon coming in contact with blood soaked carpet in a disgusting squashing sound.

                        ---

            "Is that the best you can do Joe? Or are you tired? I can go easy on you if you like," he said with a smirk.

            "You ain't seen nuthin yet punk," he replied as he used the tree to push himself back at him. Three of his five right handed nails had snapped in two, and the remaining now aimed straight for the man's throat.

            The other was not without his aftershocks. The blades of his right hand had been completely shattered, and he was now reduced to using switchblades he'd drawn from his boots. His left leg twisted in a way it was never meant to go before, now caused him to limp. This gave Joe the advantage of speed, whereas his balance was still a little off.

            The man raised his blades as Joe came at him, the two knives digging deep into his useless left arm as he had guessed they would. He used the force of the other's attack to launch himself into a spin, impaling his last two nail-blades into his gut and tearing them out through the side, effectively slicing his innards in a 180 degree semi-circle.

            He screamed as Joe positioned himself on his feet, his back to the man who now curled up upon himself in agony, broken claws clutching at his side.

            "You can't leave me like this!" he screamed. "Finish me!"

            Joe bowed his head a moment, then lifted it again. "A weak man kills out of pleasure," he said. "But a strong man kills out of mercy... I am not yet that man. This fight is finished."

            "No! I won't let it! It is not over!" he screamed as he struggled to his feet, hobbling after Joe's retreating form.

            He stopped only once more, and looked up at the pale moon. "I used to think that power was all I needed to survive... But with great power comes great responsibility."

            "What do you mean!" the other demanded.

            He shrugged. "I don't really know myself. I heard that from a movie when I was young," he said. And as he walked farther into the forest, the figure faded in a wretched scream as if afraid of it's own death. Perhaps, even imaginary demons fear what they don't understand...

                        ---

            "You can let it go now Timmy. It's over."

            He looked up at the smiling face that had once danced on that of the desecrated corpse beneath him when it had life so long ago.

            She stood, bathed in light and dressed in the softest of pale blue silks. "I never meant for you to get hurt... you know that."

            "Why did you do those things? Why did you-"

            "I did it for you, and for your brother... when your father left with that bastard Johnny Brewer from Raleigh, I didn't know what else to do... I had to put clothes on your back and food in your mouth and keep a roof over your head." She looked down in shame. "It was all I could do not to throw a toaster in the tub with me when you was out playin."

            He stood silent a moment before raising a hand with the intention of wiping her tears away from lavender eyes, but when he touched her, he felt nothing but the chill of air.

            "Every time I looked at you, I saw him, and it made me mad. It made me want to do things I never should have. But you was all that kept me goin, then your brother came, and I had all the more reason to work the streets. It was good money, and it made sure the rent was paid and that you boys didn't starve completely."

            He wanted to embrace her, to tell her he understood now why she did it, why she turned a Trick no matter what the cost. Why she turned to coke when she needed something to blot out the pain and the shame.

            "Vancha told me what you been doin before he was died... he told me everything about you workin the bar and walkin the streets for bill money... and he told me 'bout your friends too," she said, looking up at him. "They're good people. They won't treat you like I did..." She put a hand to his cheek, and he felt the chill of her touch to the bone.

            "Mother," he said as he nuzzled her spectral hand. "I know what you're saying, but I can't let it go. Not now."

            "Why?.. When you let it go, I can rest. I don't want no more blood spilled on account of me."

            He was silent. "It's not for you..." he said.

            "Then what for?" she asked, thumbing his chin gently. "What you throwin yourself at the fire for boy?"

            When he spoke, his voice was filled in each letter and more with the pain he hadn't felt since the winged demon mage had stole his innocence. "It's fo' what he di' ta me ma'," he said quietly as his deep southern drawl came out.

            Her eyes widened as she wrapped translucent arms around her son one final time. "Then this is farewell, for now at least," she said, burying her face into his bright red hair before pulling away.

            She reached up to try and wipe a tear from his eye, but failed in the attempt. "You know... you've grown into a fine young man. I can see why he likes you."

            "Who?" he asked as she began to fade.

            She spoke, or rather, her mouth moved but the words were silent.

            And then, he was utterly alone, staring down at the carpet where the brittle remains of his mother lay askew, the skull beaten to dust and his hands dripping blood from the places where bone-splinters still protruded from his knuckles...

            He felt a tap on his shoulder, and spun around swinging his fist. He stopped, wrist deep in the perky chest of a woman. "Wha..."

            "Hiya!" she said, her voice bubbly and her smile bright. "You're looking well Tem-sama!"

            "Susannah?" He blinked, staring at her as she explained to him why she was there, and what he must do next...

                        ---

            He'd stopped, slamming his shoulder into a tree trunk in hopes of relocating his arm with a yelp.

            "Careful," he chimed. "God forbid you scare the forest animals away."

            He turned around so quickly his mind felt as if it were swimming. "What the hell!"

            "It's good to see you again too Joe," the tall blonde chimed once more. He wore that old goofy grin and those sparkling eyes behind round lenses, the arms of his frames zig zagging before going straight again to rest on his ears. His pure white skin was all that betrayed him in appearing alive. "What are you doing in my neck of the woods?" he asked, leaning forward with his hands behind his back like an inquisitive child.

            He blinked, then limped a circle around him before rubbing his blue bearded chin. "What the hell..."

            Vash the Stampede laughed and acted as if to slap him across the face, his hand going in one side and out the other. "Well... you're certainly not dead, that's for sure," he said.

            "Where am I?"

            He shrugged and lifted into the air, floating a few inches above the leaf covered ground. "See... that's just the thing. I dunno. One minute I'm moping around the old lot where my trailer used to be, the next I got sucked into this HUGE black hole and BAM! Here you are!" He laughed and tried to hug him, but instead went right through to the other side.

            "Would you stop doing that!" Joe snapped.

            Vash rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine... not like you can feel it anyway. Did you know your insides look so weird when they're on the inside of you? Like they're all squished together in a tiny little box and-"

            "God, even dead you're a fuckin moron."

            "Hey! I haven't talked to anyone in over 200 years! Gimme a break will you!"

            "200? Has it really been that long?"

            He nodded, a sprig of yellow falling into his eye. "Yeah. Too bad Tem ain't here. We could have one hell of a party then. Me just poppin in somewhere to say hi and you guys comin in when everyone's scared out of their wits and BAM! Blow the place to smithereens!" He did a back flip in the air before settling once more to his place a few inches above the ground. "So, how you been?"

            "Dead a while, then reincarnated. You?"

            "Just dead," he replied, then stiffened, if ghosts can do such a thing.

            "What's the matter?"

            He cocked his head to the side as if listening, then his face wrinkled into a scowl. "Someone's coming," he whispered softly before receding into the trees.

            Joe rolled his eyes and turned around, wanting to leave the ghost be and search for his living companions.

            "...No. Why do you have to bring this up now of all times!"

            "Well why not? You never did tell me if you really loved me!" the woman shrieked.

            Joe stopped, watching the two figures approach. One cast in shadow and the other giving off a bright radiance. "I mean it Temmothy! All those times you said you loved me did you mean it!"

            "Of course not," he groaned. "I only said it because you looked like- Oh hi Joe!"

            Suddenly he was knocked off balance, the wind knocked out of him as the scrawny red head jumped at him with arms wide open and embracing.

            "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Joe mumbled as Vash reappeared.

            "Hey Tem! Did you lose weight?"

            The red head blinked, then looked at Joe a moment before laughing. "Oh god Vash have you got your work cut out for you!"

            "Ahem! I believe you were going to say something," the woman snapped.

            "Yeah... about that.... I think you might have gotten too attached. It's my fault really," Tem replied, looking down as he let go of Joe. He shrugged, shifting copper colored thighs as he stepped away. "If I hadn't have made you change so much, then you wouldn't have gotten the wrong idea."

            "Oh really," she said with a glare at Joe which said nothing short of she hoped he'd die really soon and painfully. "I hate you," she said to him.

            "Somebody tell me what the fuck is going on here..."

            Tem drew in a deep breath, then explained to him the entire ordeal.

                        ---

            "Tem!" she called.

            "Joe?" Tempest shouted seconds after.

            They gave up their search for the moment when they chanced upon a clearing. But it wasn't just any clearing; for there in the center of a ring of stones, there sat the remains of the Doragon Douketsu. "How did it- but we-..." Maria started.

            Tempest put up a hand to shush her, narrowing his eyes as by the moonlight he spied a shape in the door, menacing navy eyes flashed before it was gone.

            "Reikoku..." he whispered as he watched a red blur suddenly crash through the roof of the building.

            "Pitiful creature," snarled a man as he touched ground on the porch of the tavern.

            Silver glistened in the pale moonlight as he strode forward. A blast of black energy, taking the form of an enormous dragon, hit him in full force, then was split apart on either side of him with a wave of a hand.

            "The great Hiei," he said loudly, mock obvious in his voice. "You are nothing boy!" he snapped. Instantly three more figures joined his side. Two of which Tempest immediately recognized, the last only a faint familiarity.

            "Bring it wood pusher!" snapped the proud voice of the 4'5" fire demon as he shot out at them, joined by the fur collared Reikoku.

            "Twin Blade!" they screamed together and blasted the four in the back with a dual energy strike.

            Three of them faltered, before turning, the fourth, the leader remained still. His long hair settling back as he seemed an immobile statue.

            "Tyler!" Maria shouted suddenly. "That's Tyler! My manager!"

            Tempest's brows came together in concentration as he tried to penetrate the scene with the Sight. When Maria made to join the battle, he held her back. "It is only a shadow of what has been. We cannot interfere," he said, his own words stinging his heart as he watched his mentor be used as target practice for the two he knew to be Shadow Demons.

            When it all looked grim, suddenly there was a blast of black ice turned back on the dark haired demon before the figure leapt into the air, doing a spinning back flip to land before the great fire demon's broken body.

            "What are you doing Miguel!" snapped their leader as the Reikoku climbed to his feet and raised his sword on the man.

            He did not answer, only blocked the sword with amazing speed that even Tempest could not keep track of, and flung the man back.

            "Miguel!" snapped the silver haired one as he finally turned around, though did not draw his weapon... yet. "I asked you a simple question!"

            The one called Miguel finally snapped out of whatever trance he was in, and turned back to them. "He knows nothing, leave him be."

            The blonde demon Maria had called Tyler sneered. "Do you know the trouble that one's given me, let alone Blank here, over the last few thousand years!"

            "Of course he doesn't," spat the dark haired Blank in disgust. "Halfbreed."

            "Want to say that again punk?" Miguel snapped as a breeze moved his hair from his face.

            Tempest watched in a mixture of shock and horror as crimson lips curled into a demonic smile as a slender hand reached down to grab the broken fire demon by his black and white hair. "There is no need for this senseless death if we can use it against-"

            Then suddenly the Reikoku was up again, and before any could move to stop him, he drove his kitana deep into the man's side, twisting the blade before ripping it out again. His lips moving in silent prayer.

            Miguel howled in pain and suddenly exploded with power, his black eyes swirling with lavender as the red streaks slowly, like blood, creepped down his hair from his skull. Both Voide and Blank joined the side of the silver haired one as they watched the display with mild interest.

            Hands became razor claws of black steel, inevitably driving into the back and front of the legendary Hiei, Rian's, head. He turned then, dropping the body as he and the Reikoku locked into battle alone.

            Then like a sudden wake from a dream, it was gone, replaced by the navy stare of the corpse-like priest they had met on the near barren prairie. "That was only five years ago this night when Rian Aijou was murdered... they couldn't get in, so they drove him out. They left me for dead at dawn, sending a round of Pindara to finish the job for them."

            "What did they want?" Maria asked as she and Tempest cautiously approached the tavern.

            "They wanted you. Why and what for, I cannot say... but I know in the end, you would have begged for death," he replied, stepping from the door to let them pass.

            The place looked as bad, if not worse than when they'd seen it last. He moved around to behind the bar, setting two bottles noiselessly on the counter for them. "All I know is if they brought their top assassin with them, they were g