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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

"I think that's a good idea." He told her, regarding her suggestion. It was either at their home or near her shop, but given that it was in the middle of a city, it wasn't exactly the best final resting place for their dear friends. "We still have so much to do but I think we've both earned a chance to rest, for a little while, at least. We both need it, I think. Without Ignas, I don't think my body is healing properly."

Ignas. Again, he was missing and Isen felt, in a way, like he wasn't whole. It was different than the times Adelaide would spell him away because it was always temporary and Isen still felt connected to him. This was a complete absence of the voice in his head that had lasted more than a couple of hours or for one night and it was beginning to become concerning to him. Isen had wanted to get rid of Ignas so badly, and he still did, but right now, they needed him more than ever and he was completely missing.

"Go back to sleep for now." He instructed her, curling her closer to his side, his lips leaving a press against the top of her head as he sighed, quietly. The road ahead of them which was supposed to be clear now only seemed filled with more obstacles that they would need to conquer but he knew they would, in time. Right now, all he wanted to do was hold her until she felt better and so, that was what he would do.
 
The next two days were hell.

Isabella refused to let her leave the bed at all for the first day, save for when she needed to use the bathroom. Food was brought to her in bed, clothes were changed right on the spot, and the vampire even helped brush out her long hair and braid it again! She learned that the group of witches that had saved her and Isen were relatives of her father, siblings and a cousin she'd never known about. Despite Isen making it perfectly clear that he didn't like or trust the witches, Adelaide had yet to see any ill intent from them, but was two days really enough to get to know them? They hadn't known Samara very long, after all.

The second day she'd been allowed to get up and move around on her own, but both her and Isabella had insisted on Isen staying in the bed and recovering. Ignas' voice had yet to return, a fact that continued to worry the pair as Isen's body healed absurdly slow in comparison to past times. Takami, on the other hand, seemed to be getting particularly close to Isabella, a notion the vampire dismissed simply as business, although the way she'd looked away had made Adelaide think perhaps there was something more to it. Did vampires get crushes? Whatever was going on, it was easy to notice that Takami was a lot nicer to Isabella than he was to anyone else inside the shop.

"I have to run an errand." Adelaide had just finished eating lunch on the second day when she made the announcement to Isen, daring him to argue with her by look alone. She was still insisting that he stay in bed and rest up until they could figure out how to get Ignas back and active enough for him to heal properly, and was brushing off any argument he tried to make against the treatment.

"I'll be back before dinner, it's not an all day one and I'm feeling a lot better." A teleportation and restoration spell or two wasn't going to kill her, but Isen had been extremely protective of her since the incident with the general and Maximilian. "It's just for a little better, I can't stay in here cooped up forever, and I want to see how things are on the outside." Isabella had her people cooperating with the witches that had taken up temporary residence in the other parts of the shop, Lorelei having been carted off earlier in the morning to await whatever punishment they saw fit for her.
 
"An errand?" He asked, perking up at the mention of finally getting out of bed and away from the shop for once. As much as he appreciated Isabella's attentive care, she was beginning to become a little overbearing and he was ready for thing to get back to normal...or, at least, as normal as they could be with Ignas still missing. "Where are we going?" Isen practically invited himself only to get a feeling that she had been intending to go alone. Completely alone? Not even with Isabella or one of the witches?

He had been healing at a very slow rate but he wasn't fragile and the idea of letting her go out into the city alone knowing that Maximilian and the DSTF could still be around wasn't something he was going to be on board with regardless of her explanation.

"I can't stay in here for another day either, I'm going to lose my mind. I'm fine too, honestly, it's been long enough." Isen reasoned, speaking as though he believed it to be true but how would he know? He couldn't feel any pain his body was still experiencing from what he had been through, he could have been in shambles for all he knew and he would still be trying to convince her to allow him to tag along. "...you're not going to budge on this, are you?" He asked, relenting with a sigh. "You know, it gets awfully boring for me when you're not around. It's not like I can sleep or anything and Samara doesn't even have a TV." His only past time during their hotel stays was channel surfing and trying to get himself reacquainted with human life, but even that wasn't an option! How was it that he was in the presence of an endless amount of witches and magical beings an yet, he had never been so bored?

And since when did he even feel bored to begin with? Was he missing Ignas that much?
 
"Ask Isabella to show you the internet, I know there's a computer sitting around here somewhere. Despite Samara being all powerful and magical, she did still have a computer." It felt strange, and wrong to refer to the witch in the past tense, but she had been forcing herself to acknowledge that their friend was gone, lest she become delusional.

"And there's a TV in the other room! Did you honestly forget already?" Adelaide was still fussing over him as she reached the doorway to the bedroom, glancing down the hall and catching Isabella's eye briefly.

"You can't come with me this time, Isen, I'm sorry. I promise I'll make it as quick as I can, and it's going to be worth it." It had better be, anyway, she was nervous enough about the plan to begin with. If this didn't go over well once she'd succeeded and returned to show off her prize, she wasn't sure what she was going to do with herself. She'd gotten him one small gift for Christmas, but it didn't even begin to compare to the lengths he'd gone to for her gift, Samara's help or not.
 
"...there is?" Isen asked, confused. Had he really just sat around for two days doing absolutely nothing when there was one in the other room? Isabella wasn't exactly letting him free roam but still, now he just felt dumb. "I know what the internet is, I'm not that old." He grumbled, though how to use it and knowing what it was were two totally different things.

Either way, she made it clear that she would be going alone and he gave up on pushing the subject. "Promise me you'll be safe. And if you come across any trouble, you'll teleport back here to find us?" He knew she wasn't stupid, she would do that anyways, but he was too protective of her not to say it. He rose to his feet to reach her, wanting to see her off with a hug, at the very least. He had gotten more affectionate now that it was out in the open that he could feel her touch when they made contact, slowly but surely finding that part of himself that had been burnt away by Ignas.

When she was gone, he was going to steal away that TV, but she didn't need to know about his eventual heavy lifting, and neither did Isabella, for that matter! He could already hear her getting angry at him for it if she were to catch him.
 
"Back in the bed, mister!" She hadn't even gotten to leave the room and he was already on his feet, an action that had her rushing back to the bed to nudge him down gently with a frown. "You could have just asked for a hug; you need to lay there and rest. You're not healing properly without Ignas' obnoxious ass around, and you can't feel your injuries to know if you're overdoing it!" Honestly, she worried that even her leaving long enough to attend to her errand was going to be safe, vampires and witches be damned!

"If I run into any trouble, I'll come back here to find you all, yes. I promise. As long as you stay out of trouble and take it easy while I'm gone, I know you'll be eyeballing that door as soon as I'm gone." She gave him a knowing look that softened after a moment before she leaned down, brushing her lips over his before stepping back and making her way toward the door.

"I'll be back in a bit." Adelaide disappeared from the room and checked in with the others briefly before she left, standing in the alley outside of the shop as she concentrated on where she wanted to go. It had been quite some time since she'd been to the city, it had been one of the first places she'd looked, if she remembered correctly, and the image of it was distant enough that it took her far longer than she would have preferred to actually get there.

...Now she just had to find the damn thing.
 
Isen groaned in annoyance. They were treating him like a child and he was beginning to hate it. At least she kissed him before she left, softening the frustration and leaving him sighing instead as she exited the shop entirely to run her supposed errand.

"This is stupid." He grumbled to himself, taking a look around his room to make sure that he was truly alone now that Adelaide had left. He needed that TV. Isabella didn't appear to be around right now, and he couldn't hear anybody nearby...one short trip to another room and back wouldn't be the end of the world, right? Sure, Adelaide had just told him, mere minutes before, to stay in bed and take it easy but he could take it easy all he wanted once he had brought it in and sat it up for his entertainment.

Isen forced himself up and out from underneath the covers, feeling little resistance from his body as he moved, which seemed to be a good sign. In the room over, he saw the television and tugged it away from it's perch, forgetting to unplug it, causing it to waver in his arms. He steadied himself, removed the cord and began to walk it back to the place with his bed, the cord dangling and rattling across the floor tiles with each step that he took. He was so close, there was no way this could go wrong now.
 
"You're determined to piss off that vampire friend of yours, aren't you?" Nikolai sighed as he stepped into the hall, catching the sight of a half-naked man carrying a television. Well, at least they'd made sure to put pants on him after cleaning him up the first day, or that would have been a very unpleasant sight. "You could have just asked for help. I don't want to listen to her screech any more than she already has, and I certainly don't want to listen to my niece fuss over you any more than she already has. Give me that," The witch caught up to him and lifted the cord from the floor before easing the television away from him, shaking his head in disbelief the entire way back into the bedroom.

"You've got five people here that can use magic, and you wanted to be stubborn and go pick the television up yourself?" Situating it on top of the dresser and moving around to plug it in, he straightened out and fixed Isen with a disapproving look. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?"
 
Isen heard somebody coming and was caught deer-in-the-headlights, holding the television half-undressed with the cord draped between his legs. He expected Isabella and braced for a tongue lashing but found Nikolai instead; he almost wished it would have been the vampire instead.

Nikolai yanked the television out of Isen's arms and gave him a speech of his own, causing Isen to groan and roll his eyes. "It's just a television. I don't understand why everybody is treating me like I'm fragile." He grumbled in return, following Nikolai out in to the other room and watching him set the TV in place. "Quit? I've barely done anything to begin with. For two whole days, I've been stuck here with you all acting like I'm made of glass." It was like they had all forgotten what he was capable of...or maybe this was because they cared?

Isen made his way back to his apparently permanent residence atop his bed, sitting against the mattress, clearly frustrated both verbally and physically with the situation he was in. He wasn't used to any of this. He had never been taken care of before, he didn't know what that meant. He didn't think he had limits, he was used to doing what he wanted, when he wanted, and this was in total argument with everything he had come to know about who he was. "She won't let me leave. Isabella won't let me breathe on my own. You're getting mad at me for carrying a TV from one room to the next? I get that you're trying to look out for me but you've barely been here for a couple of days, give me a break."

Isen really did not like this man but maybe it was more so the whole situation. Being stuck here, the weight of what he went through and knowing how worried he made Adelaide, Ignas disappearing...there were so many things at play and it seemed as though he was taking out all of his frustration on Nikolai, using him as a focus point to deal with his annoyance.
 
"I'm not mad." Nikolai gave him a strange look. "I'm just telling you that you should have asked for help. It's not my concern if you're annoyed with how the women are treating you. I'm not even going to attempt to control the vampire, and I really can't blame Adelaide for being protective of you after everything that happened." He gave Isen an exasperated look and shook his head.

"She lost her whole family, apparently some other people along the way, and then the two of you almost got killed by a demon. She just kept asking for you the whole time until we were back here, so clearly she cares a great deal about you. You don't have to like the way they're treating you, but you're going to have to deal with it." He shrugged. "Women are fuckin' nuts, man."

------------------------------------------------

"This doesn't look right." Adelaide's brow furrowed as she walked through the town, staring at the houses and trying to match them to the memory she had from before. Had they all looked like this before? Trying to separate the images from Isen's memory and her previous visit to the town was hard, the place had been so vastly different on the night of Meribell's death than it was now. Houses had been rebuilt, which was what she had seen when she'd first ventured there seeking out rumors of the Reaper.

"There it is!" The one house that hadn't been touched, seemingly abandoned for the last decade and lying in ruins. It must have been lying there since it had burned down, destroyed by year after year of the changing seasons, and likely raided at one point or another. Then again, people treated it like it was cursed, whispering rumors about the previous occupants and keeping their distance even now.

"Weren't you just here a few weeks ago?" A voice caught her attention and she paused, still some distance from the remnants of Isen's home as she turned to face the older woman. "It is you. You're not going to that cursed house, are you?"

"Yeah, I am. It's not cursed." Adelaide laughed and shook her head at the woman. "I just need to see if something is still there."

"There's nothing left but a broken home there, sweetheart. You should stay away from there."

"I can handle myself, but I appreciate the sentiment."

This town would never be a home for Isen again, that much was evident. The house was cursed for him, housing the one memory that pained him the most in life. If she could find just one thing good from it, just one little thing that she needed to restore and take back with her, then it would all be worth tracking through the disgusting mess the lot had become.

"This is going to suck." She'd recovered enough for some minor use of magic, but using her ring to lift and move things out of the way was going to be limited use, which meant getting dirty digging through everything in search of that one thing that she wanted. Just lift and move, lift and move, lift and... What was that? She'd been moving things for some time when she finally spotted what looked like a furry arm, or what had once been one.

"Got you, you little bastard!"
 
Isen was going to need some time to come around on Nikolai, or any of this, but he did get a laugh out of the witch's comment. "Yeah, I suppose they are." He commented, shaking his head, suppressing his smirk. "But I don't know if I'd be where I am right now without Adelaide...or Samara." Isen's smirk no longer needed to be suppressed because simply mentioning who they had lost wiped any amusement from his face or the tone of his voice. This was her shop, these were her people, it was down right cruel that she wasn't here to be a part of whatever this was becoming.

"Thank you for your help with the television." It was as nice as Isen was going to get towards Nikolai for now. Maybe it was his loneliness speaking but, it was nice in a way to have somebody to talk to instead of the silence he was used to while 'resting'.

"Hiyori, I've come to speak with you." Came the voice of Takami, who was walking in to the room as well, joining Isen and Nikolai. Suddenly, Isen wished it were quiet again. Takami stopped himself upon seeing Nikolai inside. "Ah, I apologize. I wasn't aware that you had company."

"It's fine. He was just leaving." Was he? Isen had no idea, but if that was a hint, Nikolai surely would have taken it. Either that, or he intended to stick around for whatever it was Takami needed to speak to him about. "What did you want to talk about?"

Takami looked between Isen and Nikolai, trying to decide whether he wanted to say it in front of the witch. It seemed something to be something that made him embarrassed and Isen had never seen Takami in such a state. "It is about the vampire.."
 
"...This is it, isn't it?" Muttering to herself as she pulled a very old, very maimed stuffed animal out from under some debris, Adelaide crouched down and examined it more closely. It looked like some sort of a teddy bear, but time and the outside had not been kind. What had surely been a worn and loved animal was now half destroyed, stuffing missing and the fabric stiff and caked with mud and all sorts of other things she didn't want to know the source of.

"Ah, hell. This is going to take some work." Restoration spell, right. She could handle doing one of those on something so small, even the amount of damage done to it couldn't tire her out too much. "Damn it, Samara, I could use you right now."

"A dead witch isn't going to do you any good, little hybrid." The voice came out of nowhere and made Adelaide jump up, instantly on alert as she spun around to face the source of it. The street had been mostly deserted when she'd gotten close to Isen's childhood home to begin with, but now that she was actually there, it seemed as though her surroundings had turned into a ghost town.

"Who the hell are you?" More like what the hell, considering the woman had horns coming out of her head, and some very sharp teeth showing as she grinned at Adelaide. Vampires didn't have horns, and the amount of magic radiating from this mystery woman was astonishing.

"Oh, you reek of another demon." The woman wrinkled her nose and waved a hand in front of her face in an exaggerated manner. "Let's have a chat, my sweet girl."
 
"Isabella?" Isen asked, fairly certain that was who Takami meant but wanting to make certain first. He was expecting Nikolai to leave but he seemed intent on sticking around, so the conversation would have to continue with a third party listening.

"Yes, that is the one. Are there other vampires here that I do not know about?"

Isen sighed. "No, just the one. But what about her?"

"...she is very...restrictive."

"What?"

"She does not allow me to do the things that I wish to do. She says that I should rest but I do not have time to spend resting."

"She's been doing that to me and Adelaide as well. She just seems concerned."

"No. It is different than how she treats the two of you. It feels personal, like she is trying to make me miserable."

Isen practically laughed. "No, she's not. You're dying, remember? You've probably triggered the same instinct in her that we have. She wants to protect you."

"Protect...me? Why? Like you said, I am dying. In a few weeks, I won't be here, she should not get attached."

"You think she's attached?" Or was he attached?

"Yes, she is. She has been spending a lot of time with me and I am getting annoyed."

Isen laughed for real this time, unable to hold it back.

"It is not funny. Stop laughing at me." He argued, embarrassed.

"I'm not laughing at you. It's just...you're just as oblivious as me." And he didn't have Samara around to nudge him in the right direction. Poor guy, slowly dying and hopelessly aloof when it came to matters of the heart. "She likes you, you idiot."

"Yes, I am aware. I tolerate her as well, we are allies."

"...not like that. Was I this bad? There's no way that I was this bad..."
 
If the horns on the woman's head didn't spell out that she was a demon, the slightly pink tone to her skin that seemed to be getting darker did. Had it been pink just a moment ago? Had her ears been so big just a moment ago? Adelaide stared at her suspiciously, clutching the worn bear in one hand as she took a step back and prepared for a possible attack.

"Oh, calm down little girl. If I was going to hurt you, I would have already done it." The demon rolled her eyes at Adelaide and placed a hand on her hip, a tail coming from behind her back to flicker around irritably.

"Why do you look like some demon stripper?" The words left Adelaide's mouth before she could stop herself, her eyes fixated on the strange, very skimpy clothes the demon seemed to wear. That was interesting, was this what demons really looked like? The demon gave her a surprised look before glancing down at herself, lifting one boot clad leg before she began to laugh.

"You have exactly the attitude I imagined you to have, excellent. Now, what are you trying to do with that little... Thing in your hand? Let's get it done with so you and I can talk about destroying some particular members in that bothersome DSTF organization..."

"I'm not letting you touch this. I'm going to restore it to how it was, and I won't have you messing that up."

"Then take some of my power," The woman rolled her eyes and extended a clawed hand that Adelaide stared at warily. What kind of a trick was this? Clearly the demon was impatient to speak with her about the DSTF so it seemed unlikely she would try to harm her... But this was a demon, after all. "Come on, just take it. I'm not here to hurt you, child, just fix that disgusting thing so we may speak. Goodness, you really do reek of another demon."

Adelaide stared at her silently for another moment before she reached out and grasped the woman's hand, shivering at the feel of the claws scraping lightly over her own hand. Did Ignas have claws before he was inside the sword? Did Malakai, before he was in the scepter? There were so many questions she had, but for now she concentrated on pulling the very foreign magic from the demon and filtering it into the restoration spell for the bear.

"There, I believe you've accomplished your goal. Now, about the DSTF, there's a man there that has a demon I'm very interested in..."
 
After spending some time trying to explain the difference to Takami, Isen found himself growing tired of the constant company and requested that they both leave so that he could get some rest. For once, being restricted to his bed played in his favor because they couldn't really say no to that or they'd risk drawing the ire of Isabella again, something neither Takami nor Nikolai seemed to want to do.

In truth, Isen felt fine, he just wanted to watch some television and enjoy the silence again. Takami wasn't believing what Isen was trying to tell him about how it appeared as though Isabella might have had a crush on him, so he dropped the subject, and the conversation entirely, in favor of flicking through the channels to find something to pass the time before Adelaide came back.

It had only been an hour or two at most but he was already beginning to worry that she hadn't come back. Being separated from her was not something he had been used to, they had practically spent nearly every moment over the last two weeks together and it showed with how he didn't seem to know what to do with himself. He wasn't social enough to want to mingle with the other witches, but he also had no idea where it was she had gone so he wouldn't have been able to follow her even if he could.

He got a short visit from Isabella, checking on him, where he had asked her about Takami but received no concrete evidence. Noting that, he figured he'd try again later and settled in for the rest of the afternoon, watching and waiting, anxiously, for Adelaide to return.
 
"You're not gonna follow me back, are you?" Adelaide looked at the demon suspiciously. They'd had a very interesting conversation for the last while that had gotten her some potentially useful information, but now it was time to go back to the shop. She'd already been gone for at least a couple of hours, and worst of all she was getting hungry again. "I can just call your name when I'm ready to talk more or make a move?"

"Of course, of course. I look forward to wreaking havoc with you, little mage. You and your beast have been all the talk lately, leaving chaos and bodies in your wake." Adelaide rolled her eyes and held onto the restored bear tightly, eyeing the demon with a certain level of both suspicion and interest. Their conversation had led to quite a few interesting thoughts and questions, and the demon being so willing to meet with her again simply by the call of her name was... Intriguing. It was the complete opposite of Ignas, who she apparently must have reeked like, considering the constant comments and faces the woman had made throughout their time together.

"Until then."

By the time Adelaide stumbled back into the shop it was definitely getting close to dinner time, and she held the bear behind her back and out of sight before stepping into the bedroom. Isen was still in there, with the addition of the television, a fact that had her looking between it and him with a level of concern. Had he seriously gone out and drug it in there, or had he actually asked for help from one of the others?

"I, uh, got something I thought you might want back." She approached the bed cautiously before holding out the bear to him, shuffling awkwardly in place and biting her lip nervously. "I fixed it up so it was like back then."
 
By the time Adelaide had come home, Isen had scrolled through pretty much every channel and program possible. He had settled on a cooking network, watching them make some dish that was far too complicated for him but it gave him fond memories of his attempt to cook for her and the night that had came from that gesture. He had intended to maybe figure out something else he could make that wouldn't cause a panic, but this was just demoralizing him.

He heard her approaching before she even got into the room and he was already at the edge of the bed, eager to finally see her again. She walked in but did so awkwardly, like she was trying to hide something from him. Isen's immediate thought was that something had happened to her while she was gone that had caused her to take so long to return home. Had she gotten hurt? Or maybe something worse?

She had gotten something for him? But Christmas had passed, they had no reason to give presents any longer. He wasn't expecting anything but even that low bar was shattered by what she had delivered to him.

It took a moment for it to register but when it did, his eyes widened and he looked as though he had seen a ghost. Meribell's bear? He hadn't seen it in over ten years, it had been with her the day that Ignas came to their home...Adelaide had seen it when she relived his past. "Is this...is this what you left to find?" His hands reached out, taking it, almost like he didn't believe it was real. It had been perfectly mended, restored back to the way it had been before. "Adelaide..." He didn't know what to say or how to express what it meant to have this memento back in his life. Clutching it tightly in one hand, the other reached out towards her, trying to bring her closer to him so that he could thank her in the only way he could think of; by hugging her, holding her for as long as she would allow. "How did you even...?"
 
"Uh, yeah, that's where I went." She released the bear carefully as he took hold of it, still looking nervously at him as he seemed to recognize and process just what she had handed him. She hadn't intended for the trip to take so long or to worry him, but she definitely hadn't anticipated running into a demon, let alone having an in-depth conversation with one. That news could wait until later now that he was reaching for her, and after a brief moment of hesitation she allowed him to pull her closer until she stood between his legs. At least he hadn't actually gotten out of the bed and risked hurting himself, so that was a good sign, she could live with that.

"I recognized the area from your memory, it was one of the first places I went when I first came looking for you. It was a bit hard because it looks so different now compared to your memory, they rebuilt most of it, but your home was abandoned and considered haunted... So I had to dig around through the ruins to find it, and then restore it, but I managed." With the help of a demon, but still...
 
She had gone through all of that effort just to get him Meribell's teddy bear back? What he done to deserve such kindness? He reached his arms out to continue on with his original desire to hug her, pulling her in to him and embracing her as tightly as he could. He didn't say anything for a few moments, he didn't really need to nor were his words going to make any sense when he did. He just felt her against him, offered up his warmth and hoped that he could somehow make her understand how much this meant to him.

"You didn't need to go through all of that effort...but I'm very glad that you did. This means more to me than I know how to express."

As he was holding her, Takami had wandered into the room, looking to bother Isen some more about Isabella, only to realize he had walked in on an intimate moment. "Isen, the vampire has done it again. We need t-oh." He stopped up, awkwardly, taking a step backwards. "It can wait."

Isen laughed against Adelaide's shoulder. "I think Isabella has a crush."

"She does not, stop spreading lies. We are not children, we are grown, adult warriors."
 
"I'm glad you like it." Adelaide relaxed and allowed him to hold her, her arms loosely circling his neck just in time for Takami to wander into the room. Her face turned pink as he stuttered over his words and she cleared her throat, unable to stop herself from smiling when Isen began to laugh against her.

"Oh, is that so?"

"I do so love a good set of warriors, too." Adelaide whipped herself back from Isen at the sound of a newly familiar voice, cursing profusely and looking around the room until she spotted a particularly pink face and set of horns.

"Danica, what the fuck? You said you weren't going to follow me back!" The demon's tail swayed lazily behind her back as she giggled, covering her mouth daintily with one hand as she shrugged.

"I couldn't help it! I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and I just had to know what demon you stunk of. I didn't expect it to be him, but I find it absolutely fascinating that the old bastard is still stuck in a sword. Oh, I bet he just hates not having a body!" Adelaide looked at Danica in a mixture of confusion and concern, realizing that it was starting to seem like she knew who Ignas was, absent as the bastard was.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt your lover boy.. Oh, and this one has a catalyst as well?" She turned her attention to Takami and gazed at him with wide eyes, clasping her hands in front of her chest dramatically. "No demon there, but the smell of that magic is absolutely delicious. You've certainly surrounded yourself with some useful things, little mage."
 
Isen hadn't even heard this new figure approach. It was like she had arrived in an instant but he hadn't even sensed any signs of a teleportation. As he looked at her, he could immediately tell that this wasn't somebody they should have wanted to be in contact with but how did she even come here? And worse yet, it seemed like she knew Adelaide? She was scantily dressed, her skin a different hue, horns and a tail. She looked like something out of a movie, unnatural and yet, with enough resemblance to a human that she could probably pass for one with a little bit of effort.

Isen's first response was to scan the room to see how far away he was from Onigoshi, just in case, while his second was to try and hold on to Adelaide tighter, but she had removed herself from his side in an instant leaving both her, and his weapon, just out of his reach.

"Adelaide, who is this and why does she know who you are?"

Even Takami seemed unnerved, his hand drifting down towards his nearly depleted Catalyst, a weapon that this being seemed to be able to recognize. She spoke of the difference between the two and, more concerning still, she spoke as if she knew Ignas.

The more he listened to her talk and watched the way she moved, Isen was beginning to get a sinking feeling in his stomach that told him what this individual was before he had heard it out loud. This was a demon, like Ignas, like the one inside Maximilian's Catalyst, Isen knew it but didn't want to admit it to himself. There weren't supposed to be any of them free anymore, they were all meant to be trapped the way Ignas was, how was this even possible? And what did she want with them?

She claimed not to be a threat, but Isen had heard that before.

"Why are you here?" He asked his third question in a row, frustrated with the lack of answers he was getting only to receive one from the absentee voice inside of his head, finally deciding to return from whatever hiatus he had placed himself under, though he wasn't answering any questions and instead directly speaking to her.

"Danica." Ignas spoke her name with vile. "Get out of here, demon."
 
"Uh... About that." Adelaide looked away with a sheepish expression, scratching the back of her head as Danica moved around inspecting the room with interest. She seemed particularly interested in Takami's sword for just a moment, and as he moved to protect it she rolled her eyes and stepped back.

"Ignas, dear! There you are." Danica crooned softly as she spotted Onigoshi, crossing the room to snap it up and run her clawed fingertips down the handle. "Oh, you poor thing, still trapped inside the blade and forced to use a human to do your bidding. I would never be stupid enough to get caught and put into a catalyst, but you and Malakai? Oh, the both of you just had to get yourselves put into weapons and stuck with humans. I hear your human doesn't let you murder freely, though, and it sounds like Malakai's loves a good bloodbath. I hear he tried to drain the mage and your host, after all." She sighed happily and spun around in a circle before she dropped the sword abruptly on the bed, moving around the room with an absolutely delighted expression.

"Uh... Danica lent me some of her power when I was trying to fix the bear, and apparently she wants the DSTF taken down just as badly as we do,"

"Uh uh uh, dear, I want Maximilian and that lovely demon he's hoarding out of the picture, and I'm willing to cut through whoever I need to in order to do that! You lot are just so full of life, and magic," She glanced at Takami and pursed her lips, "Well, mostly, but in time you will do just fine."
 
"Do not touch me, heathen." Ignas hissed as she approached the sword that he was held within. "I'd sooner be trapped in here for a life time than spend a moment being touched by a wretch like you. Don't mention his name here, I do not wish to speak of him."

Of who? The demon in Maximilian's Catalyst? This was all so much and none of it was making any sense.

What exactly was even going on here? Ignas had been silent, missing for multiple days and suddenly, he seems so willing to speak again? This woman. No, this demon, had struck a chord in him just by showing herself and even moreso by touching the Catalyst. She was able to lift it freely, as though it weighed nothing and as if the dark magic inside of it had no effect whatsoever on her.

"Adelaide, what did you do...?" A weary Isen asked her, only for Ignas to answer instead.

"She's doomed us all, that's what she's done. You should know better than anyone else that you don't make deals with demons, especially not demons like her."

Takami cast his eyes downward as she made a comment towards his current state and Isen had basically had enough of this demon prancing around the room like she owned the place. He was even a little annoyed with Adelaide for even bringing her here in the first place! How could she be so foolish to think she could trust a demon? Had she not learned a thing from all this time with Ignas?

"Listen, uh, Danica...was it? We may have the same enemy and goal in mind but I already have a demon for an ally, I do not need two." Isen shot a look at Adelaide from the corner of his eye, though his gaze drifted downward to the teddy bear still in his hand and softened a little. She had used the demon's magic to repair it? Was all of this because she just wanted to make him happy? What had they just gotten themselves in to?

"That means get lost, imp".
 
"I didn't make a deal with her, technically. We just agreed we had the same end goal." She shrugged, avoiding Isen's eyes when she realized that he seemed very unhappy with her over this. She hadn't expected the demon to up and change her mind and follow her back, after all!

"Oh, that's just precious, calling me an imp. We both know I'm much too attractive for that." Danica laughed again. "You're just jealous that I still have my lovely body and you're confined to a sword. Don't tell me you wouldn't love to get your claws on Malakai and rip him to shreds just as much as I would?" She seemed amused by the way that Ignas reacted to the other demon's name, slinking around the room to drape herself over Adelaide and tap at the ring on the mage's finger.

"I'll be more than happy to help wipe out that ridiculous organization once and for all, they're just a bother anyway. I much prefer a world with some chaos in it, and them killing off the creatures of the world makes it more difficult to have the kind of chaos I enjoy." She pulled herself off of Adelaide and grinned again. "I want Malakai, and I'll be happy to help until then and leave you lot be after."
 
"Rip him to shreds? I've already gotten my revenge." Ignas replied, alluding to something Isen was unaware of. "Or at least I thought I did. The last place I expected to find him again was with the leader of the DSTF."

Isen was uncomfortable with the way this demon was moving around the room so freely, practically hanging off of Adelaide like she were a pole to hold on to. "Get away from her." He warned the unwelcomed visitor, his eyes glaring daggers straight through a being far more powerful than he was.

"Give it a rest, Isen. She won't listen, she never listens to anybody unless it's to get what she wants."

"I have to agree with Isen. I do not think we should partner up with another demon." Takami added. At least he was thinking straight!

"If you want the demon so bad, go and take him. If you're so powerful, you don't need us. What's stopping you from doing this on your own?"

The fact that she even needed them to begin with was a troubling one because it made Isen think of what Danica wanted in return. Was she really so altruistic of a demon that she would offer her help for free? Even if their goals aligned, he expected there to be a price to be paid, or some ulterior motive or angle that she was playing towards that she was conveniently keeping hidden from them.
 
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