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Soulless Soldiers

"It's nothing... just a little... loophole." Da'are ground out, trying not to sound like she was scrambling for an excuse, but nothing came to her. "Look, Joseph, this will not be a problem, I'll watch him more closely. No biggie. Don't tell anyone else. It's good that they haven't noticed; if you don't trust anything else I say, at least trust that. I'll tell you everything if I think there's any chance of things going badly. All right? So leave it..."
 
"I swear to god if you dont tell me whats going on right now ill go and talk with Zack myself and maybe we can discuss it with his demon since your going around hiding things." Joseph got up getting frustrated and headed off in search of Zack not knowing where he would be starting with the kitchen and looking around the rooms from there. "You know I thought I could learn to trust you, but your just like everyone else hiding secrets."
 
Ani saw Zack coming around and stifled her giggles "Zack! Commere a sec! Kodri and i gots an idear!" she said in a rather cute voice, still trying not to giggle. It made her happy that an idea of hers made Kodri approve with a little hint of enthusiasm... "I wanna go to Catholic School, like i did before Hell" she said with a straight face, and looked him dead in the eye, not moving, to prove to him she wasnt joking at all.
 
Da'are reacted badly to say the least. She was enraged by the disrespectful tone he gave her, and how he acted against her wishes so thoroughly. She was his demon, and damn it, she would have her way yet! This was not something for humans to interfere with. Joseph's entire body rippled with spasms and pain. "THIS is no GAME!" She snarled, "He is not aware of it, an' neither will 'is demon be, as well neither should you!! Get yer head on straight! It's dangerous, I said!"

Zack's eyes widened a little. Was she serious...? Yes, she definitely was. Were things like that even allowed? A snicker from Ekvail without commentary told him that it wasn't against any rules per se, but he thought it must be so ludicrous that nobody must have ever tried it before on purpose. "Well.. we do need to act normal... I suppose there's nothing wrong with it. Feel free." He had no idea of how the process worked, really, or that he or Joseph might be required to help a little.
 
Joseph let out a scream of pain reaching into his pocket and pulling out a needle injecting himself quickly. He began to feel no pain as it worked through his system. "I will not obey one who hides things from me, if its dangerous I should know about it, I don't care what its about as long as it has do to with my team mate I deserve to know." Joseph crawled his way to the wall seeing Zack standing in a door way for a moment and headed in that direction leaning against the wall using it as support.
 
She smiled and clapped, not seeing Joseph slide closer "Great! Ok, so i need one of you to pretend to be my big brother or father or uncle or guardian of some sort, so then we can go register... There should be one around here, close by, and all you have to do is sign meh papers, and ill do the talking! Ive been in catholic schools so long i can do this blindfolded, and suspended from the ceiling... Theyll never guess! heheheh!" she gave a slightly evil giggle, smiling. She was confident in herself, which was a bit new, but it was a good thing. She noticed Joseph leaning against the wall and looked at him, raising an eyebrow "Id say that you pissed Da'are off, huh..." she said, chuckling at the slightly glazed look he had
 
Normally, at the point that a host disobeys orders, regardless what they are, and pain does not work as an enforcer, demons are required to send notice immediately to authorities in Hell, and it will be immediately dealt with further. This, unfortunately for Da'are was not an option now, and she struggled to do something else instead. She would keep him quiet whatever it took. In this case, that meant something more drastic. Paralysis, she decided, or he would just wake up all the more determined. Paralysed, he may be unable to move, but she could talk him out of this somehow. Now that Joseph was so close to him, though, she would have to work out something for Ekvail and Kodri to tell Joseph's teammates. Grudgingly wondering why she got stuck with the difficult cases, she set her plan to work.

Zack jumped a little at the scream, spinning to face the direction of the sound. "Ekvail, what-?" He began to ask when Joseph came into view. He looked like he was fighting with his own body at the moment, and Zack had no idea what it meant, but he was worried. Ani spoke up before he finished his question, answering it without him even having to ask.

There was a brief pause before Joseph succumbed to the paralysis, and both Kodri and Ekvail gave their hosts the same story:

"Joseph is disregarding Da'are's demands. His choice to do so may endanger future work if the behaviour continues, and she's currently trying to reinforce the fact that he has no right to his soul anymore, and without that his body is useless as well. He must learn to obey if he is given an order. You would do well to remember that, as well."
 
Joseph basically felt detached from his body "Why you sneaky little....." Joseph had started but didn't even bother to finish "Just because you have control of me doesn't mean i'm going to stop after all its who I am and I still have a sense of free will and that will never be taken from me." Joseph spoke wondering just what would happen to him next.
 
"Probably true..." Da'are muttered to herself, feeling disgruntled, but quickly returning to her state of rage at her circumstances and his stubborn recklessness. "You little shit!" Da'are growled, closing off his soul's innermost power in case he tried to use it against her in some way. "It's so important to you, is it? Fine! Long story short, your friend falls under a special exception to his contract. My guess is he was broken when we got him. That's all! I didn't want that to interfere, so I stepped in! Luckily, I didn't actually have to deal with it; it went away on its own. It's a hassle to deal with, so I'd rather just prevent it than fix it. It could break him further if I screwed up, and would change him regardless if I didn't. Chances are he'd have to be re-trained and everything, so just please, for the good of us all... ignore it, or keep it in check, but don't say a word. "
 
Ani sighed, getting up, not in the least interested that Joseph was getting punished. "Well, ima gunna find a computer and check out near by schools, ill let ya know when i find one, k?" she yelled back as she made her way down the hall and into a room with a computer system of doom
 
How the hell do you expect me to keep something in check that I don't even know about? You think your so god dam powerful and yet you can't even see straight you say this is dangerous so then talk to Rax'kin and get him fix or something but I will not lay down and toss it away like its nothing no matter what you do." Joseph's will power was strong and he wasn't going to change his train of thought anytime soon should she keep acting like this.
 
"More powerful than you, clearly." Da'are pointed out, referring to his unmoving body. She was calmer now, given that she was fighting back and forth with someone who couldn't fight back more than verbally. "As for keeping this in check? I don't expect you to, that's just it. I expect you to stop worrying about something that you at least can't control. And I said it was a hassle, not that it was dangerous... truth is, I don't know that it is or isn't yet." Why was it so hard to convince humans to abandon each others' problems? What good had Zack really done him, and yet he was doing all of the man's fighting for his rights on his part. With a final, disgusted groan, Da'are decided to hit the problem head-on instead of trying to sneak around it. "Look, if he's bad enough, Zack will go to the real Hell. If he isn't too bad, he still won't be staying with us. You'll be given a new teammate. Are you fine with that? Because that is how going to Rax will play out."

Zack frowned. What could they possibly be arguing so strongly about? It bothered him, and he filed it away as an important thing to look over more carefully later, when he perhaps had more clues. For now, he turned from Joseph, wishing him luck with his Wrath demon, and went to find Ani. "So, tiny! Lookin' at something in particular?" He asked, having discovered her on a computer.
 
She was sitting on the floor in the computer room, the computer off, a phone book in her lap. She had a sucker in her mouth fuming. "I couldnt get the damn computer to work so i had to sift through a whole freaking phone book before i realized that wasnt this area, so i had to find that one, and so i looked through that one and finally found one, the Ironic part is the name of the school...." she tore the page out of the phone book and smiled, getting up. "So shall we off then?"

Zack nodded, checking out the adress of the school. It wasnt too far, a nice walk. As they walked, Zack interrupted her huming. "Ani, tell me again why you want to be in a school that threatens your daily lifestyle?" Zack asked as they walked towards the school

She shrugged, pulling the sucker from her mouth "Its something im used to, as well as i think itd be minorly ironic about me actually getting in,.... And if anything happens, then ill txt your cell..." she said, smiling up at him

Zack shrugged. "Your call, I guess." He admitted, walking Ani up to the receptionist. "Excuse me, can we visit the one in charge here?" "Yes, sir, just wait a moment please, and I'll let him know you want a meeting. What might this be about?" "Enrollment." Zack answered with a smile, pushing Ani in front of him to be examined. The woman smiled at her and nodded. "Just a moment, please." Within moments, they were called into an office down the hall.

He looked up from his desk ith a kind smile "Welcme to Saint Andrews, Im Father Tristen... And this is?" he asked looking at Ani. She smiled at him and gave a small curtsey "Anna Andrews, Father" she said in a perfectly polite way, the Father greeting her with a inclination of his head and looked to Zack "And you, my Son?" he asked politely

"Err.. Zack. But I sure as hell am not in any way related to you, buddy." Zack replied, not really understanding religion. He'd never even bothered to learn so much as the story of the garden of eden or the seven deadly sins. "Ani would really like to go here. I'm not sure how all this works, but you can do that, can't you?"

He gave a chuckle "I am a pastor, also known as a Father, and all who come here are Sisters or Sons of our lord... And yes of course, Ani is welcome to join us... We just have to fill out a few forms and such, and go over protocol. Ani, you seem familiar with the system in our schools, were you once in a school of our lord?"
She gave a small nod "Yes Father was once, but circumstances prevented me from retunring for a time, and i wished to return now that i have a family now that can support me long enough to continue my schooling" she said with a small smile, obviously she was very good at this.... she seemed to act polite and yet she managed to seem quite older when she spoke, comanding respect it seemed...

"Ah, I am sorry to hear that, my child... what may i asked happened?" Father asked, and she said simply "I was orphaned, and spent some time in a home for people of my kind, and after was adopted by this man and another, and they agreed to let me come to the school of my choice. Of course this is the shool i wished to attend, it is quite beautiful. I true work of the lord" she said, smiling

"They have a hierarchy here..?" Zack asked Ani very quietly, misunderstanding what the pastor meant by 'lord'.

She chuckled "ill explain at home...' she whispered to him as the man started getting the papers to sign, the end of their chit chat.. the rest of the time was spent signing things.... After they were done she started to say the good byes and thank yous.

"Thank Lu- er.. you?" Zack corrected himself, having by now slipped into the same habit as his demon of referring to the wrong end of the hierarchy. It would sound less suspicious and offensive if he said this now instead of God. "Heheheh. Yeah, we should go now, before I totally screw this up." He conceeded to Ani, whispering once more.

The man smiled and thanked them, ect... She gave another curtsey and left, dragging Zack out, as soon as they were out of the school she started laughing "Omygawd Zack, youve never been to church have you?!" she asked, still laughing as they walked home.

Zack just blinked and stared, as if this was a completely new concept to him. "Church? No. My family were all very firmly of the stable-minded variety. No invisible friends for them."

She laughed harder "well, in church theres the parish, or the gathering of people who worship, then theres the preits, or Father, since women arent allowed to be preists, and then theres God. For us, it would be the equivilant of us as the parish, the demons as our preists, and the big devil guy as our god.... so its a heirarchy of sorts. Any questions thus far?" she asked, smiling

"Yes. Why don't Catholics convert to Satanism? We've got bad-ass powers, anything we want material-wise, and we get to diss our demons to a certain extent. Bet Catholics can't say that much." Zack grinned deviously. Sure, it meant eternal suffering and torment if you failed, but come on. That wasn't about to happen to Zack. Heaven was for pussies.

She chuckled "Well thats the thing about catholics... theyre very non materialistic and only want everyone to worship their god, so they kill thousands of people to convert the rest of them out of fear, and destroy villages with Cursades... Satanism is easy, Catholisism takes Pride, and Wrath, and a bit of Envy as well... Its the only religion i know of that is so hypocritical of itself... they say that murder is bad, yet the slaughter hundreds of thousands for not believing in their god.... its kinda cool to read the history books... they rationalize their killings by saying their God wiled it... I say if you can rationalize doing it, then do it." she smild

"Brilliant." Zack's eyes widened, and he found himself respecting Catholicism the tiniest bit, just for the pure balls of doing something like that.

"Yea, they always were... Satanism is easy because if you dont wanna do it you dont have to really... With Catholisism, your considered a witch if you dont and burnt at the stake or drowned by dunkings and such...."

"Meh. I still prefer to stay right where I am." Zack stretched and nudged Ekvail mentally. "They may be a pain sometimes, but I like having a demon with me, especially if it means I can do this-" He reached up to his mouth in what was becoming an even more habitual motion than it had once been, now that it was so simple. After a quick puff, he put away his imaginary cigarette. "-it's the best perk EVER."

She chuckled "i have to admit yes, Satanism has its immediate perks, but according to the Catholics, th biggest perk they have is when they die. But i have to admit, i enjoy my immediate perks.. makes more sense, but as well as our perks, we get punished. Nowadays, Catholism cannot punish... at least not in this contenent." she smiled at Zack

"Mmmm, whatever. I don't want to die. And they don't allow bad things in Heaven, do they? But I like those things, and with my place now, I can have both." Zack said decisively. "This is much better." They had arrived back home at Josephs place.

She chuckled "I have to agree again with you Zack, though thinking of you as my adopted father is kind of scarey... especially the way you flirt...." she said chuckling again, nudging him as she opened the door and walked in.
 
Joseph gave a little sigh "If that's how thing are going to play out then I would rather them be dealt with, im sure Zack would be alright but i'm not going to keep this from him I can't do that, there's something wrong with him and he needs to know so it can be dealt with. You will eventually use up your powers and will have to sleep so there's no point thinking you can stop me right now."
 
With a sigh and a growl, Da'are gave in. It was going to delay their next mission while they found a more suitable candidate for a teammate, but Joseph was right. She couldn't keep him prisoner forever, either. "Fine. I don't particularly like the kid, anyway. I'll have Rax take him back, but if you pull something like this again, I'm going to demand another host, and Rax won't look upon a trouble maker kindly." The demon warned, giving Joseph back control of his body. Zack was gone at the time, and that meant that Da'are should work on contacting Rax'kin. The demon set to work right away on just that, and within less than an hour, she was given a reply. Rax'kin would be paying a visit as soon as he could get a host for himself.
 
Ani had disappeared for a little while, but an angry screech from the computer room gave away her location "WHY IN HELLFIRES NAME WONT YOU LET ME ON YOU BLOODY PIECE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CRAP! Your mother was a stone aged ticker and your father was a pentium 0.1 Compaq, and you cant even let me on you, you damnable piece of mother board shit. Now i demand you let me on, i dont give two shits of a rats ass about some fucking password! I wanna check my fucking creatures!!" she said, throwing wads of paper at the computer screen as it said Access Denied... she was going for the pencil holder next to the screen, and then after that the chair.... Maybe then shed just take the whole damn thing and drop it out the window.... she wasnt going to be denied by a piece of machinery just because she didnt have a stupid password...
 
Joseph could finally feel himself able to move again and made his way slowly still hugging the wall over to where all the noise was coming from. "I see you were trying to get into my computer I see" Joseph giggle as he made his way behind her typing in the password faster than his usual movements so she wouldn't be able to keep up with it and logged her into the guest account "There now you can do almost anything on it" Joseph said a little smile on his face. "Anyways were going to have some company soon I just hope everything works out alright." Joseph took a seat letting his legs just let go falling on to it feeling his body still in some pain. Joseph looked sadly over at Zack and then to the ceiling knowing basically what would happen assuming some miracle didn't happen.
 
Zack's first instinct was to head for the pool again, and take a swim he could enjoy for longer this time, but instead he opted to do something he'd promised himself he would. He headed upstairs, found an empty room with some space to move around in, and began to train. He knew already that he could make something happen by making the proper motions, but it would make him feel much less awkward... and others far less curious... if he could materialize whatever it was he was trying to use. He had no idea how to go about starting this, and neither, clearly, did Ekvail, but he would start by doing it the regular way, and just do whatever felt natural from there.
 
She sat eagerly at the computer, typing away on forums and such, but at his remark of company her fingers faltered. "Company? Like who? And why? Kodri, you know anything about this?" she asked, spinning in the chair to face Joseph, lookin a little worried...
 
Joseph kept looking at the ceiling at her remark "Well I guess your going to find out when it happens unless Da'are spouted her mouth off but I don't think she did, so in that case I guess we just have to wait." Joseph relaxed back more in the chair wondering just what would happen.
 
"I think I can pretty much guess what's about to happen. Too bad. I really liked him~" Kodri responded. He sounded genuinely bothered by what he knew was going to happen. Probably worried they would end up with another useless or annoying person when he already had one of each to deal with. "Right, well, if the invitation's already sent, I suppose we're stuck with the consequences. You might want to use your remaining time saying what needs to be said between you and Zack." He added the last bit more as a side note than anything. Just to avoid future annoyances from the girl such as her berating him for not having said Zack would probably be leaving sooner.
 
She frowned at that and went to go talk to Zack, but when she found him, he was so engrossed in training she sat on the ground and watch him, until she felt like she had to say something. "Zack... " she couldnt think of anything to say really.... so she went with a simple request, sighing "Can i have a hug?"
 
Zack had been doing little better than once he first started. Before it had always been very clear to him that what he had been suggesting existed wasn't really there, and although he still couldn't see it, he thought he could feel what he was holding just a little now. Ani speaking to him broke him out of his concentration, and the object was gone, as if it had never existed... which, come to think of it, it never had. He looked up at her curiously. The serious expression on her face worried him, and when she asked for a hug, it made him suddenly tense. Shouldn't she have just taken it, since he had never requested to hold her? She hadn't seemed to be very reserved before, either. He was still not sure how her hugging him calculated into whatever was wrong, but- Joseph. Hadn't Da'are and Joseph been fighting earlier over something? Could this have been tied in to that? Whatever this was, it seemed just as important as Joseph fighting with a demon in control of his soul. "Ani... what's wrong?"
 
She looked at him and knew she couldnt tell him, but she really wanted to... "Zack... I dont know exactly whats going on, but... I dont like it. And... I wanted a hug." she said, not sure what to say to the older man... she sighed, looking at her knees. She knew at least they were taking him away, but for what she didnt know...
 
Zack studied Ani. She wasn't fighting this problem, and didn't seem like she believed she could. Definitely something the demons were at fault for. She wanted to be comforted or to be close to Zack, which meant that she was a afraid of being hurt or being separated from him, which meant one of the two of them was in some kind of trouble. Dropping what he was doing, Zack walked slowly over to her and lifted her up into his arms, partially so that she could properly hug him around the neck, and partially because he wanted to hold her and pretend nothing bad would happen to either one so long as they held on. Cheesy at that sounded, he was becoming very protective of the girl, and he really wanted to stop whatever was making her act like this. He had a feeling she wouldn't give him any clues, though, so he would have to go in blind. "Don't worry, Ani. Whatever it is, we'll find a way to fix it." He promised, secretly hoping that what he said was true.
 
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