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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

Ignas has gotten revenge on Malakai? For what? And how had he gotten revenge on the demon who was also trapped in a catalyst? Adelaide looked between the sword and Danica with obvious confusion, picking up on the hostility in Isen's voice as he warned the demon away from her.

"I never said anything about teaming up with you, you'll just be a bag of bones soon anyway. I can smell the death on you from over here." She cackled, ignoring Adelaide's look of exasperation and annoyance directed her way. "Oh, don't be like that. I'll even do something for you to show my good intentions." The demon turned her attention back to Isen, sauntering across the room to stop just inches from him.

"What if I took you two to find something that you could put that mouthy bastard in so that you could be normal again? She promised to separate you, didn't she? Well, you're going to need a very strong catalyst for that, and I'd be more than happy to help look for one in exchange for your help."
 
Just what hadn't Adelaide told Danica about them? She knew he wanted to be separated from Ignas and, judging from how they seemed to treat each other, she was probably all too happy and willing to leverage that against them if for nothing else than to get under Ignas' skin. "We don't need your help." Isen told her, sternly, though at this point, he was just being stubborn without properly assessing the situation.

Had she been able to get them something so capable, it would make both of their lives far easier in the future and it would be another step closer to freeing him from his passenger.

"Aw, you think I'm strong? That's sweet of you. Get out." Ignas told her, mockingly before switching on a dime to something more serious.

Isen turned to Adelaide, now. They needed to talk about this and it was very clear in the way he looked at her that he was not impressed that she brought another demon into their lives. "Do you seriously trust her?"
 
"Don't look at me like that, I didn't bring her back, she stalked me. Of course I don't trust her, but at least she's honest about what she wants. Besides, if she was going to kill me, don't you think she would have done it by now rather than just acting like a teenager."

"Now you're catching on! I'll give you two lovebirds tonight to talk about it and come back tomorrow. Good to see you again, Ignas, dear. Or see what's left of you, anyway." Danica giggle and crinkled her fingers in a goodbye wave, blowing a kiss in Isen's direction before she disappeared from the room. Adelaide sighed wearily and shook her head, digging into her bag for a change of clothes before disappearing into the bathroom long enough to change and then returning.

"Didn't even answer the damn question before she left. Fucking demons, I swear." She took a seat on the edge of the bed and groaned, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her hands before cracking her neck. "Don't be mad at me. We could use any help we can find. We literally have a DSTF traitor working with us now, why is a demon any worse?"
 
"I hate that wretch. Of all the demons, why'd it have to be her that she dragged home?" Ignas scowled with disgust. Isen seemed to mirror a similar sentiment though he wasn't as vocal to Adelaide about it as Ignas had been.

She disappeared for a few moments to change, giving them both a chance to separate from the issue at hand, but for Isen, it just meant he would be alone listening to the voice inside of his head, a voice Adelaide would still be able to hear even in a different room.

"She is not to be trusted, nor should you work with her. At all. Do you understand me, Isen?"

"It's not like I want to."

"But you will, won't you? Because she wants to?"

"..."

"You're really going to follow a demon into who-knows-where in search of who-knows-what? And you're seriously still planning on separating from me, even after seeing what Maximilian and Malakai were capable of? You need me, not her. Me."

Isen sighed, looking towards the door as it opened and Adelaide walked back out into the room, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"We don't know what she's capable. Would you invite a second Ignas along for the ride if given the choice?"

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not."

"Takami was working with them to save his life. You don't think that Danica has a similar motive? She wants something from us."

"Of course she does! She's never done anything selfless in her wretched life, she isn't about to turn over a new leaf now!"

"What's up between the two of you, anyways? And Malakai? Not to mention the fact that you disappeared for two whole days and came back the moment you felt threatened by another demon being in the room."

"My history with those two is of little importance. What matters is that you send her back to whatever hole of hell she crawled out of and that we don't work with her. You both understand me?"
 
"If it meant we could achieve our goal faster, I probably would invite a second Ignas along." Although her sanity would likely suffer as a result of it. Danica was a free demon, she wasn't bound to a catalyst despite everything that had happened. That meant she was powerful, and that she was stealthy, something they were desperately in need of.

"Didn't you say the orbs had changed and they were defending against something else, something that was a demon?" That meant Danica was dangerous enough that the DSTF were afraid of her. "They're afraid of her. That's all the more reason to work with her, at least for the moment. We could be another step ahead of those bastards with her helping us. You're just afraid of being separated from Isen sooner rather than later, and you know she can actually follow through on finding a catalyst... Can't she?"
 
"If she's powerful enough for them to want to put measures in effect to stop, doesn't that mean we probably should stay away from her too?" They did, after all, program the drones originally to stop Adelaide and Isen. She was seeing it from a completely different angle than Ignas and Isen were too. "I know her better than you do, I know what she's capable of and what she has done. I'm telling you, if she's willing to help this bad, there's something in it for her and I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for delivering the devil their due."

"Maybe if you explained what happened, we'd actually be able to understand you." Isen grumbled.

"You're not going to listen to me anyways. If it's what she wants, it's what you want, isn't it? You don't have a brain of your own anymore, right? And you definitely don't need me."

Ignas sounded like he was hurt, like it was finally starting to become real to him that this separation was going to happen, whether he wanted it to or not, and that Isen didn't need to rely on him anymore. He would never admit it, even as Adelaide taunted him about it, but it seemed to be true.

"...do what you want. Make deals with as many demons as you need. You're not my problem anymore, Isen."
 
"I don't like the fact that you're hiding whatever happened between you two," Adelaide sighed and shook her head. "I don't know if she's an old girlfriend, or an old rival, or what, but I'm not dealing with arguing with the both of you tonight. We still need to bury Samara and Priscilla before we do any of this, so I think tomorrow morning we should get on that. Right now, I'm ordering dinner because I'm fucking starving, and dealing with two demons was exhausting." Once she had her phone in hand and was typing away on the device, she glanced back at Isen and pursed her lips.

"You're not really mad at me for considering our options, are you? Wouldn't you rather have tabs on the problematic demon than have her skulking around without us knowing anything? If we can use her to help end this, then I'm willing to do it." She shrugged. "I don't expect loyalty from her, and I don't think she expects any from us either."
 
Ignas went quiet after practically denouncing Isen. It was obvious to him how upset the demon was about the separation still being planned and not being able to do anything to stop it or convince them otherwise. Having Danica involved only seemed to exasperate the entire situation, and now, he felt as though Isen didn't need him at all when he very clearly did need Ignas and his power in order to finally deal with the DSTF. Was it selfish of him to use Ignas that way? Forcing him to give up his strength and, in exchange, driving him out of the host he needed to survive? He was a demon. He ruined Isen's life...so, why was he suddenly feeling remorse? Another side effect of Adelaide bringing forward his human side, perhaps?

"I'd rather not have to deal with another problematic demon at all. How did this even happen anyways?" He asked, wanting more information now on how this unlikely partnership came to be. It had happened while she was gone, so he had no idea what had led her to think that it would be a good idea, or even how the two of them met to begin with.

The teddy bear she had restored remained in his lap and he looked down at it. His finger and thumb wrapped around one of it's tiny arms, wagging it up and down idly as he sighed. "I'll go with you when the two of you go searching for whatever it is she's trying to find, but I'm going for your safety. I don't think any of it is a good idea...but, I promised I'd stick with you through all of this, so I'm not going to let you deal with that demon alone."
 
"She came out of nowhere when I was at your old house." Adelaide rolled onto her side, tossing the phone onto the pillow and looking at Isen. "I'd just found the bear and was talking to myself and she just... Appeared and started talking. Offered me some of her power so I could restore it faster because she wanted to talk to me. I guess word of us and everything we've done has really spread around, even to demons." In fact, the way Danica had spoken to her before had insinuated there were other demons free of catalysts. Just how many demons were roaming around the world freely?

"What's the worst that could happen? We've been through it all, we should at least see what might come out of it." That, and she was incredibly curious about what Ignas was hiding from them, but she kept that commentary to herself for another time when he was absent. "She won't kill us if she needs us, and at worst case we have another catalyst to help along the way."
 
"How many more of them are there?" Isen asked Adelaide, bluntly. "Demons who are free, like her. I thought they were all locked away." That's what Ignas made it sound like as well. Either he didn't know that Danica was free or he did and he was just trying to make himself sound better for having gotten trapped by making it seem like everybody else did as well. "I don't want her to lead us into more of her friends."

It was a valid concern. If one demon as strong as Malakai could defeat them so easily, even while trapped inside of a catalyst, there was no telling what kind of trouble they could find themselves into if there were more like Danica, or even if she decided to turn her power against them.

It was a question he knew she didn't have an answer for and he was just voicing his concerns out loud to try and get them out of his head. Still, he toyed with the stuffed animal in his lap, as though doing so brought him some sort of comfort from those thoughts, focusing him on something other than how uneasy this entire thing made him feel.

"You should get something to eat and then get some rest. Tomorrow, we can arrange the burial and then, we can see what Danica has in mind." Isen told her, gently shaking his head. "I'm not mad at you." He clarified, suddenly, wanting to clear the air. "I don't like it, but I'm not mad. We're partners...just, promise me something." He paused for a moment, glancing over towards the bookshelf of tomes that Samara used to use. "...promise me that we'll make precautions before we work with her. There has to be some sort of spell in here that can be used against a freed demon..." Or one capable of sealing them away too. That catalyst they found, though intended for Ignas, might be their only way out of this situation should things go sour with Danica.
 
"I don't know how many, I'm sure we'll find out eventually." She was way ahead of him when it came to food, anxiously waiting for it to arrive so she could eat and relax for the night.

"What's that?" She followed his gaze to the bookshelf, groaning under her breath but nodding nonetheless. "Yes, yes, I will look through all the big dusty books tomorrow to make sure we're protected. Nikolai can help me, I'm sure he's better at the witchy stuff than I am. I didn't even know until lately that I had witch blood in me, or that there was a big enough difference between witches and mages. The entire thing is still so confusing." She was not looking forward to reading through a multitude of dusty and probably foreign books, but now that they no longer had Samara to rely on for information, they were running out of options.

It was a sad reminder that was thankfully interrupted by the arrival of food not much later than that, and Adelaide worked through the meal with her usual ravenous hunger before investigating a couple of the books and then deciding that was enough for the night. Nikolai, on the other hand, took some of them with him when he left, promising to read over them and return in the morning after everyone had been able to get some sleep.

Isabella, well, she wasn't quite sure if the vampire had ever even left, or if she'd spent half the night bothering poor Takami about one thing or another. All Adelaide knew was that the vampire was there in the morning with coffee, handing out cups as Nikolai set out several boxes of takeout for them to dig into.

"Where's everyone else? Still dealing with Lorelei?" He gave Adelaide an exasperated look and shrugged.

"We may need her to help us with these books, as much as it pains me to admit it. For now, let's eat."
 
Pleased with her agreeing to look up a solution for them should things go sideways, Isen dropped the subject in favor of trying to enjoy what he could of the night. She had fallen asleep after eating herself tired, something that he was becoming used to, and he spent most of the night watching over her and scrolling through reruns on the television. In the morning, she sat out, unsurprisingly, to eat again and to start her research while he found himself tasked with something incredibly frustrating; more time stuck in bed.

When they were finally ready to go with Danica, he would be able to actually leave for the first time since the attack during the summit, but that meant Isabella was hell-bent on making sure he rested up for the remainder of the day before that happened. Isen was actually thankful for Takami in a way, he was taking most of Isabella's worry lately, giving him a reprieve though he was far from forgotten by the over protective, and sometimes over bearing, vampire who had fit herself into a caretaker role for them rather willingly and easily.

By this point, Isen was itching for any reason to leave his bed and to try and get back to something normal. Ignas remained silent in his head since the night prior but, given his prolonged absence before his outburst, Isen had come to terms with being left in the dark by his demon passenger. He still needed Ignas, but as long as he was there when that time came, Isen didn't mind the silence, though it left an awkward feeling inside of him due to how things had ended the last time they spoke. There was no easy solution to their problem; he needed to get away from Ignas, and there was no forgetting the pain that Ignas had caused him, but Isen still felt a little bad now that the demon had accepted the fact that he would be abandoned, especially after spending so much time and effort trying to find Isen and keep him alive in the first place.

But he couldn't live his life like this. He couldn't live their life with him, Adelaide didn't deserve that. Their life. The more he thought about it, the more human it made him feel. Was this what all humans had wanted? What he wanted, back before things fell apart? A quiet life in a peaceful place, a nice house shared with somebody that he cared about and a life devoid of struggle, death or pain? It would have been an unattainable goal to him just a month ago but now, it felt more within his reach than it ever had. They just needed to get through this one final push towards seeing their deal to it's end and then, they could begin again. If only there weren't a trio of demons standing in their way first.
 
"Takami, eat! Stop looking around with that sour expression and eat. I didn't order extra bacon for you to just stare at it. Men like bacon, right?" Isabella looked to Adelaide for confirmation, looking rather pleased with herself when the mage nodded.

"Normal men do, anyway. I'll eat it if he doesn't finish I don't care." It wasn't like Takami was coming with then, so if he wanted to waste his food, more for her. It was too bad that Ignas was giving them the silent treatment, or she would have been tempted to ask him to allow Isen to try bacon. Had he never had it before, or just not since before Ignas had taken him as a host? There were so many things neither of them knew or remembered, and once she finally freed him from the demon, there was so much to teach him.

"Oh god, that means I'll have to go back to cooking." She groaned under her breath, earning a confused look from Isabella that she waved away as Nikolai came over and dropped a book directly in front of her.

"Plenty of spells in here about repelling enemies, but some of these even I can't read. We'll have to bring the old bitch back to help us out." He sounded anything but happy about the decision, a thought that Adelaide echoed with a disgruntled look. "You're really keeping the beast in bed still? Even the half dead one is allowed to walk around, even if the vampire is hassling him constantly."

"Stop calling him that, he's not dying! I'm the only one here you all can call dead, so knock it off." Isabella snapped at Nikolai and then looked to Adelaide, who wisely chose to stay out of the bickering in favor of flipping through the pages of one of the tomes.

"Yeah, I guess we should get Lorelei, if you think she'll cooperate. I haven't talked to her since I killed her husband."

"I would suggest getting your boyfriend up if we plan to bring Lorelei here, or I don't think any of us would be able to stop him from doing it anyway. He worries for you."

"Can I at least finish my food?" She groaned and stood up, pushing the book away and half chewing on a piece of bacon someone had thrown on her plate. "Fine, fine, I guess being in bed for a couple days is good enough now that Ignas is back..." She sighed and disappeared from the room, going to the bedroom and peeking her head in still chewing on the bacon.

"They're going to bring Lorelei here to help read some of the books before we see Danica. So I guess we should get ready to go do the burial first. I know you hate being stuck in here, anyway."
 
The last thing Isen was expecting was for Adelaide to tell him that she would be working together with her grandmother, but yet, that was exactly what she did when she popped her head around the corner of the door frame. He had heard her coming, but he expected it to be notification that they were ready to go do the burial, not that they were going to be involving her grandmother. Had deciphering the books really been that difficult? He wouldn't have known where to start or how to read a single word, so he couldn't judge either way.

"They're going to trust her enough to work with her?"

That didn't seem like a wise idea...but there was a room full of powerful witches there to deal with her if she tried to pull anything, so perhaps it wasn't as farfetched in reality as it sounded in his head. "I don't want you to be around her without me, okay?" He asked, standing up and off of the edge of the bed. Doing the burial first seemed like a sound choice and he was eager just to get out of the room at this point. By now, his body had all but healed itself of the wounds and exhaustion that had settled into his bones and he was as nimble as ever, just waiting for a chance to finally be let out of the proverbial cage that Isabella had been keeping him trapped in.

Though eager, it was tempered by the realization of what they were about to face; this would be saying goodbye, properly, to their friend. He hadn't seen her body since it had happened, he wasn't sure how he was going to react to seeing her laid to rest but he needed to be there. It wouldn't have been right for him not to be, plus, Adelaide would probably need him for support as well.

He began to walk towards the door, joining her in the kitchen as their meal came to it's end. He half expected Isabella to yell at him for having left the room, so he stuck close to Adelaide, ready to use her as a shield from the vamp's ire.
 
"None of us trust her," She shook her head and frowned, "but we don't really have a lot of choices. Without Samara..." She trailed off and shook her head as he reached her side, brushing her hand against his before they rejoined the others in the kitchen. It almost felt wrong to be using Samara's home, her shop, everything that was her life without her being there with him, but there was little choice. There were still Dissonants in the city that needed help, and with Isabella helping out and spreading the word they were able to cater to them easier, but it did require staying there and working out of the deceased witch's home.

"Are you going to bury the witch and bird?" Ember's voice caught Adelaide by surprise as the kitten brushed against her leg, and after a moment of hesitation she leaned down to scoop her familiar up and nod. Ember had been relatively quiet in the days since Samara's death. Between all the people coming in and out constantly, and the fact that Ignas had gone quiet and Priscilla was now gone, it seemed the animal wasn't sure what to do.

"Yeah, you can come with us if you want." Her only answer was the cat rubbing against her cheek, which she took as a yes, before turning her attention to the others in the room. Isabella was eyeballing Isen but made no effort to chastise him, clearly satisfied that he was healed enough to be on his feet. Her mothering had seemed to have been directed more at Takami over the last while, something that had not escaped either Isen or Adelaide's notice, and even Nikolai had questioned it briefly before deciding that he wanted no part in it.

"I'm coming too." She nodded at Isabella and then glanced at Nikolai, it was still so hard to believe this was her uncle, and then reached over to grab for Isen's hand.

"Alright, figure out who all we're taking and anything you want to bury with them. I took the liberty to move the bodies already, the spell preserved them well enough, but you'll have to do the rest." Adelaide nodded at her uncle and took a deep breath, squeezing Isen's hand and looking up at him.

"You ready?"
 
Isen allowed her to take his hand, leading him towards the exit of Samara's shop. "Yeah, ready as I'll ever be." He told her, with a not-so-certain nod of his head. From what he could tell, they were planning on putting their friend, and her familiar, to rest at the premises of their home rather than try to find some place to bury them near the shop, given it's location in an alley in the middle of the city.

Cresthaven itself had seen better days too. While bed-ridden with nothing much else to do, Isen had heard on the news that they were trying to rebuild the damages done by the drone attack. Maximilian had stepped forward, revealing himself as the head of the DSTF to do damage control, taking up the mantle left behind by Lorelei and Orion's absence. He claimed it to be a fatal glitch in their system and that he had all of the drones take each other out of commission once the first shot was fired, trying to spin what he, Adelaide and Takami had done as an act of good will from the DSTF. This seemed to have swayed some folks, but not everyone was so easily convinced, nor did they wholeheartedly believe in the "protection" they thought that they were receiving.

The Dissonants they had gathered to protect from the drones were trying to resume city life but Isen wouldn't blame any of them if most had decided to up and leave Cresthaven altogether out of fear; it was probably for the best, after all. The less Dissonants here, the less that could be hurt by whatever grand scheme Maximilian and the heads of the DSTF came up with next. It was a never ending cycle, but he couldn't help but feel like they had actually done some good here, even if none of the credit would ever be given where it was due.

The price, however, of what they had to give to achieve it still weighed heavy on Isen, moreso now that they were prepared to face it head on with the funeral procedure. He sighed, squeezing Adelaide's hand in return.

"Demon, are you here?" He asked, within his head, seeing if Ignas would be present to pay whatever respects he could possibly muster, but silence came in return. Isen must have really upset him.
 
"I don't think Ignas cares much about this, Isen." Adelaide sighed as everyone gathered near the door in preparation, Ember tucked against Adelaide's side and Isen's hand in her free one. Takami seemed to be lingering close to Isabella again, something that Adelaide passed off as needing to be close together for the teleportation spell to take effect correctly. It didn't require the vampire to grab the sick man's hand so quickly, though, everyone else was comfortable enough grabbing onto sleeve's or simply making sure their bodies were touching so that they were all connected.

"Let's go and get this taken care of." Nikolai sighed and placed his hand on Adelaide's shoulder, glancing over the small group of misfits that had banded together over the last couple of weeks. It was only his third day having known any of them except for Adelaide, and even his niece he hadn't seen in so long he didn't know much about her. Everything was a whirlwind, friends made and lost in such a short time, and there never seemed to be a pause before something else was happening.

"You witches and your teleportation always trip me out. It's so different from just moving really fast like I normally do." Isabella made a face after they'd arrived at Adelaide's childhood home, steadying herself on the closest person before taking a deep breath.

"Not everyone can use the same tricks you can, vampire." Nikolai's tone was dry as he removed his hand from his niece's shoulder and stepped back, allowing everyone a moment to regain their composure as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and exhaled slowly. The teleportation had taken them directly to the back yard of the house where a thin layer of snow still covered the ground, just enough to be cold without making the ground too frozen to dig up the old-fashioned way.

"Let's get to work, then." Adelaide set down Ember and let go of Isen's hand, averting her eyes from the preserved bodies laid carefully on an old blanket some distance away. "Isabella, will you get some of Priscilla's feathers for us to keep, please?" The vampire nodded and made her way towards the two bodies as Adelaide glanced back at Isen, pausing when she reached one of the shovels leaned against the house and then gripped it tightly.

"Isen?"
 
When Isen reappeared within the recreation of Adelaide's home, he was caught off guard by just how overwhelming of a sensation it was. It wasn't because of the teleportation, but rather what had happened here the last time they had visited. A night that was meant to be happy had taken a turn for the worst when he was forced to relive things he had hoped to bury and part of that was coming back to him now just from seeing the interior. The living room of her home had been made to look like the living room of his on the night they had first met Ignas, the entire thing was both surreal and overwhelming while eliciting an uncomfortable sense of deja vu.

It kept him quiet for a few moments as everybody else who came across adjusted to the warp and set out on their duties. Adelaide asking his name drew him back to the present and temporarily out of his head, offering him something concrete to dig into, literally, in order to keep his mind off of what had happened here. It was like the feeling was amplified by his grief over just why they were here to begin with, but to steady himself and keep thoughts from wandering, he dug the point of the shovel into the dirt and began to dig.

"I can take care of this, if you want." He told her, not wanting her to have to exert herself. She had been through as much physically as he had over the last couple of days, after all, though perhaps it was something she felt she needed to do as part of the healing process. She could have used her magic but she wanted to do this herself and he wouldn't stop her despite his half hearted suggestion.
 
"I know you can. I don't mind doing my part."

"As stubborn as your mother." Nikolai snorted softly from behind them as Adelaide worked a few feet away from Isen, digging up the dirt and dumping the contents of the shovel a ways to her right.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Isabella had preoccupied herself with Adelaide's request for some of Priscilla's feathers, handling the deceased animal with a gentleness most people would never associate with a Dissonant. She pulled the feathers out in slow, smooth movements, gathering a small handful of them and holding them delicately in her hands before veering back over to stand at Takami's side.

"I'll get Priscilla." Once they'd dug a sufficient sized hole in near silence, Adelaide set down her shovel and wiped her hands on her coat with a weary sigh. "You can put Samara in first, and then we'll put Priscilla in her arms." It seemed fitting that the witch would be buried with her familiar in her arms, and her mother's necklace around her neck once more.

The surrounding area was silent save for a light breeze as Adelaide waited patiently for Isen to fetch the witch, her eyes trained on every move until their friend was being lowered gently into the ground. A gentleness that he hadn't known possible just two weeks before when Adelaide had found him, or even in the first few days they'd known each other. Watching Isen grow to care for people only to lose them had been painful for the mage to watch while she also mourned, and only when Samara was properly in the ground and she had placed Priscilla in her arms, did she reach out to take Isen's hand gently.
 
The unfortunate responsibility of retrieving the body of the friend they had lost had fallen onto Isen's shoulders after the digging had finished. Every step he took while carrying Samara made his stomach lurch with a feeling of uncomfortable pain. He couldn't look at her, he was afraid of what might happen to him if he did. She was at peace, now, her mother's necklace hanging from her neck, but all he felt when she was in his arms was regret and guilt...a survivor's guilt that never seemed to leave him. Why was he always the one who made it out alive? He knew the surface level answer was the demon bound to him, but that wasn't enough for him to accept. Meribell, Samara, every single person he had slain while he was the Reaper...the only constant remainder was that he was still alive to mourn them all.

It didn't seem fair.

And yet, now, he was trying to reason with himself that he now had a reason to keep on living? To pass up a chance at being free from his curse and finally paying up for the wrongs he had done? What gave him the right?

But the way his eyes fell onto Adelaide's, as he walked, and the comfort it brought knowing she was there for him was the reason for every bit of hopeful absolution that twisted in his head whenever he thought about what life after Ignas would be like. She was his home. A home he didn't deserve, but home nonetheless.

He made sure every step was careful, calculated, so as not to accidentally drop her as he lowered her down into the ground. It was only after she had been settled into the dirt that he finally let himself take a look at Samara's face; her eyes closed, her features at rest in a way they could only be once life had been lost. He was holding steady, strong, against the emotional surge he was feeling, cursing now more than ever that he had started to find more of that part of himself. His hand clutched tightly around Adelaide's when she returned from laying Priscilla to rest as well, the orange-hued feathers having yet to lose any of their new-found luster despite the transformation and subsequent death of the bird having happened three days prior. Isen didn't know what happened to a familiar in death but presumed it wouldn't be the same end as losing a childhood cat or dog, or flushing a gold fish down the drain.

"None of this is right." He told her, underneath his breath, speaking loud enough so that just Adelaide could hear. "She shouldn't be here. This shouldn't have happened..." He was past denial, but there was still a part of him refusing to accept the hand they had been dealt. Killing the general, while cathartic on it's own, wasn't the relief he expected. Samara had gotten the last laugh in the end with her revenge, but did any of that really matter if she wasn't there to celebrate it in the end? Would something similar happen to Adelaide in reaching her ultimate goal of vengeance as well? "...an immortal life, with all of the power and magic of a demon, and yet I'm astoundingly incapable of using any of that to protect the people that I care about. This couldn't have been the future that she saw for us...I don't want to believe that."
 
"I know." Adelaide didn't hesitate to agree with him, looking around the yard between their freshly buried friends and the three other people. Nikolai was the least affected of all, having never met Samara while she was still alive, but Isabella was staring down at the ground with a tense expression and her hands curled into tight fists at her sides. The vampire had flourished in just a matter of days, from the shy and nervous creature that had first entered Samara's shop for help, to the somewhat bossy and mother figure she had taken on when caring for the rest of them after the witch's death.

Mothered by a vampire, not something I thought would ever happen in a million years...

"You've kept me safe, and Takami." She squeezed his hand reassuringly and leaned her head against his shoulder, ignoring the brief look from her uncle before he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Oh, stuff it." There was a brief, barely subdued laugh from Isabella before she cleared her throat as well, busying herself with stroking one of the feathers she currently held in her hands.

"We'll make sure they pay for everything they did, Samara. Say hello to your mother for us." She stood there in silence for a brief moment, unwilling to let go of Isen's hand as her free one began to weave magic and pull the discarded lumps of dirt back into the hole they'd just buried their friends into. "Even if I have to damn near sell my soul to keep the world safe from those bastards, we'll do it."
 
The most troubling part of the entire ordeal for Isen was how he believed that she meant what she had said when she told him she would sell her soul to get rid of the DSTF. He couldn't help but think of Danica, that demon who seemed as though she would be in their lives moving forward for a while. The ring on her finger, the fire in her heart when she spoke of getting her revenge...Isen knew that every thing she said was what she wholeheartedly felt and that was concerning. While he had been trying to rekindle the human part of himself after having unwillingly lost it, it was almost as though she was going down the same path in reverse. He needed to make sure she didn't lose herself to this cause. He didn't really feel as though he had saved her, or anybody really, but the one thing he could promise himself now, right in that moment, was that he would find a way to stop her from becoming what he was.

Even if it meant killing that damn demon himself if she tried anything.

His hand squeezed hers and he watched the soil and dirt fill in the hole they had dug out, officially laying their friend, and her familiar, to rest outside of their home. It didn't feel much like letting go, something he so badly needed to do but couldn't bring himself to actually follow through on, but it did feel like the closing of a chapter, regardless. Samara had been a constant source of guidance for them, as annoying as she could be sometimes. Without her, they were basically on their own now to figure out what came next...or they needed to trust Nikolai and the other witches.

Maybe he needed to try harder. Instead of being close-minded, it would be more beneficial to actually try and figure out whether or not he could coexist with Nikolai rather than simply hating him for what he was. He had rescued them, kept them safe while they were both injured and even helped them with the burial. Isen would try.

For Nikolai. Not Danica.

But first, there was another bridge he needed to mend.

His hand tugged on hers one last time before letting go. "I'll be back. Give me a couple of minutes." Isen told her, sighing as he walked away from where they were and around the corner of her house, just out of sight. He needed to speak to Ignas but he wanted to do so alone. He didn't really mind if Adelaide still heard him, he wasn't sure how far away he needed to go and wasn't about to run off into the trees again, but he needed to try and fix things with Ignas first. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed him. He wasn't going to be able to keep anybody safe or accomplish anything at all without him...which meant separation would need to wait.

"Demon, I want to speak with you." He spoke, within his head, but there was no answer. "Demon. I know you're there." Still, nothing.

"Ignas." Isen spoke out loud, this time, as if that would change something. "Stop being a child, we need to talk."

"...you don't need anything other than my power, Isen. Stop pretending."

"You're right." Isen responded, honestly. "I do need your strength."

"And you'll have it until you get your girlfriend to pull me out of the sword. I just hope you're ready for life as a frail human again without me."

"You're taking this far too personally. What do you expect me to do? To feel? You're inside of my head, in my body, you've made me do so many horrible things. My sister, all of those people we've killed..."

"Everything I made you do was for our own good."

This was clearly a mistake.

"For our own good? For mine? How was killing Meribell for my own good? You've always been so cryptic, you never tell me the truth unless it benefits you. Maybe if you actually decided to let me into your head the way you're inside of mine, we might have actually had a chance at getting along with each other!"

"You think of me like I'm a monster, Isen. Like I'm some sort of disease inside your body, like I haven't been saving your ass for ten years...and you have been saving mine. I am bound to you in a way I cannot be bound to anybody else. You think handing me over to the Ora will save his life? It won't. You're the only vessel that I could bond with, without you I'd just be a piece of metal."

"But why me? Why did it have to be me? That's what I don't understand. You've taken everything from me, Ignas, and you think that by giving me the power to live an endless life, you're making it even? If we don't understand each other, we'll never be allies. We've accomplished so much over the last two weeks, we've made so much progress, but imagine what we could have done if we were on the same page."

"Our power would be stronger if we were in sync, yes, why do you think I tried so hard to break you?"

"By manipulating me? By keeping me from feeling emotions? From hunger, from touch, from pain, from everything that made me human?"

"...maybe it is time...time for you to learn why it had to be you and why I did what I had to...there are far worse demons out there than I am, Isen. You've already met him. If you think sharing a body with me is bad, you have no idea the sort of fate that was in store for you and your sister without me."
 
"Uh, okay?" Adelaide gave him a confused look but made no effort to stop him, simply watching as he walked away for whatever task he had in mind. When he disappeared around the house, she turned to see Isabella giving her an inquisitive look, but she merely shrugged in response. As long as he wasn't straight up running away from the place and leaving her there with the others, she would give him some privacy to attend to it.

Her curiosity was soon answered as she realized he was attempting to make peace with Ignas, but from the mixed pieces she was able to put together, it didn't seem to be going well. Even the awkward silence and her straining to hear it made it slightly difficult to pull out the entirety of the conversation, but when she heard mention of Meribell, all of her attention went in that direction.

"You guys can go on back to the shop, make sure there's no one waiting for any help or anything, or if you want to get Lorelei," She nodded to Nikolai who gave her a look that spoke volumes, "I'll meet you back when we're done, okay." What was Ignas saying now? Something about Isen and Meribell's fate?
 
"What do you know?" Isen asked Ignas, an impatience in his voice as he felt he was finally on the cusp of learning the truth.

"You and your sister were doomed long before I ever came along." Ignas scoffed in response, speaking with certainty.

"Doomed, how? We were living alone, peacefully, in a small town where everybody knew everybody. We had no enemies, we never had any problems with anybody...it was difficult trying to raise her on my own but we were happy."

"You were marked. By him."

"...what?"

"Malakai. The both of you. And many more people in that town of yours."

"I don't understand what that mean. We were marked?"

"He was searching for the perfect vessel. He had marked people all over the country as potential hosts, it was only a matter of time before he found you both. You were capable of forming a bond with me, he would have taken you for yourself."

"...so you took me instead?"

"Of course I did. And if you were capable, it would stand to reason that your sister..."

"Ignas. Are you telling me you had her killed so that she wouldn't become a host for another demon?"

"That is exactly what I did."

"But you didn't know for sure? What if it was only me?"

"Then Malakai would have killed her anyways. You've seen what he can do and you don't know him the way that I do. You were on borrowed time from the moment he became aware you existed, Isen."

"We could have protected her!" Isen yelled out, loud enough that anybody could hear him. He didn't know that Adelaide had sent everyone back but he didn't really care at this point. The anger and confusion he felt was getting the better of his judgment.

"We weren't protecting anybody. He's stronger than I am. He's stronger than you, he's stronger than the witch and any of her new friends. We can't beat him. Not then, not now, not ever. Don't you think I want to? I'd love nothing more than to kill that asshole myself but it isn't going to happen and you need to convince Adelaide too or...there's nothing I can do to protect either of you."

"So we just give up? And then what? We watch what happened at Cresthaven happen again and again until there's nobody left to stand up and fight back against the DSTF?"

"Then you return here, with her. You live your perfect little life out until the end of it's days while I rot away in an alley somewhere away from you and the world moves on. We're not heroes, Isen. Don't let Samara delude you into thinking there's some grand plan for us. The moment Malakai showed up under that man's control, we lost any chance we ever had of winning this fight. If you're planning on waiting until it's all over to get rid of me, you may as well save us all the wasted time. Just do it now and get it over with."
 
"Ignas. Are you telling me you had her killed so that she wouldn't become a host for another demon?"

"That is exactly what I did."

Adelaide froze in place and blinked, trying to process the words she's just overheard between Isen and the demon. Ignas had done what? Just the fact that Ignas seemed frightened of Malakai, thought that there was no way they could ever beat the other demon, was concerning. This was on another level entirely though, and she took a deep breath that ended with a shaky exhale. This was bad, this was going to end very badly one way or another, she just wasn't sure how exactly it would end in chaos.

"Then we get him out of Maximilian's control." Adelaide gave an annoyed sigh as she came around and into view, crossing her arms over her chest and sniffling quietly. "He's still put in a catalyst, we just need him away from that bastard. Besides, if Danica truly knows where to get catalysts strong enough to hold someone like you... Maybe she could help us put Malakai into another catalyst that Maximilian can't control." She shrugged.

"Or maybe you and Danica work together, you both hate him anyway. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? Work together, nuke the son of a bitch, and go back to life how it was already going.. With you away from Isen." If she hadn't wanted to kill Ignas before, now she wanted to even more. Demon logic was so dark and sadistic, they couldn't possibly understand human emotion, could they?
 
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